Classic MacOS - Freezes Before Desktop

[AF_APPLETALK]

Hello all -

I have been working on repairing a Performa 6116CD. I did some serious cleaning work and have also gotten it to power up. I haven't been able to get it to successfully boot though.

The computer will turn on
Happy Mac
Starts loading MacOS 8.6
Gets all the way through, but seems to hang before the desktop mounts.

It's been A WHILE since I worked on Classic MacOS. Do any of you remember what this means/how to get around this? I'm SO CLOSE to having this thing back on its feet.

The oldest retail MacOS Install disc I have is 9.2.1, which is too new for this 601 proc. I have a PowerMacintosh G3 installer disc w/ 8.6 on it, but not sure if that would actually work.

 

[AF_APPLETALK]

Update - it boots from the PM G3 8.6 CD! The HD is good/I can browse around it.

I tried renaming the existing system folder and copying the system folder from the disk, but it seems like the computer is still looking at the old system folder...

 

[Wild Hare]

Update - it boots from the PM G3 8.6 CD! The HD is good/I can browse around it.

I tried renaming the existing system folder and copying the system folder from the disk, but it seems like the computer is still looking at the old system folder...

Try a Safe Boot... holding down the Shift key at startup. OR... Command + Shift + escape keys when the screen freezes as shown in your pic to force-quit something / anything that might be stopping the full boot process.

 

[AF_APPLETALK]

Tried the shift earlier to disable extensions, but no luck. The force-quit idea is good though, will try and report back!

 

[eyoungren]

This behavior would indicate to me that you have a corrupt desktop file. Probably need to rebuild the desktop.

To do that, once the last extension loads, hold down CMD+OPTN and keep holding it until a dialogue box pops up asking if you want to rebuild the desktop. Click OK and let it do its thing.

If you're holding those keys and waiting for a long time then either the moment passed or something else is wrong.