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Disk 1 of Tiger install hangs on blue screen - any ideas????

ascender

ascender

macrumors 603
Original poster
Dec 8, 2005
5,062
2,934
Hi,

I'm trying to reinstall OS X Tiger on a 15" Powerbook but am running in to problems. I know the disks are fine as I used them to rebuild an iBook earlier tonight.

Upon booting from CD 1, it makes a few reads and then I get to a blue screen. It stays there for a minute, but then the DVD drive spins down and nothing happens.

Has anyone seen this before or have any ideas what I can try to fix it please? Google hasn't been much help.

Thanks,


Mike.
 
ascender said:
I know the disks are fine as I used them to rebuild an iBook earlier tonight.
Click to expand...

I don't want to automatically jump to the conclusion that is usually the culprit in these threads, so I will just ask... what kind of discs are they? Are they system install/restore discs or are they retail box Tiger discs?
 
Hi,

No, I've been caught out with this before! They're retail Tiger disks. Just doing the usual Disk Utility check and things at the moment.
 
LOL, okay. ;) Then I can save typing that speech out. :D

Erm...hmm... if you are getting as far as the blue screen, then it is trying to boot off the disc and locking up for some reason. It should not technically even need the HD at all to get as far as the installation prompt of the install DVD.

I would concentrate your efforts therefore on things to do with the system rather than the HD -- zapping PRAM, NVRAM, PMU, etc.
 
Is this possible even after a cold boot though and using the C key to force it to boot off them disk?

Edited to say: Have reset PMU and still no joy. Very frustrating!
 
From looking around on other forums, I've removed all the startup items & the HDD checks out OK. I've also re-tested the disks on another Mac and they still work fine.
 
ascender said:
From looking around on other forums, I've removed all the startup items & the HDD checks out OK. I've also re-tested the disks on another Mac and they still work fine.
Click to expand...

is your firmware up to date?
 
Yip, firmware is up to date and its currently running Tiger so that's why I'm a bit baffled.
 
ascender said:
Yip, firmware is up to date and its currently running Tiger so that's why I'm a bit baffled.
Click to expand...

weird...
is this a combo drive or a super drive you've got, and is it functioning normally otherwise?

of course it's functioning normally otherwise...nothing is ever that easy to diagnose, is it ;)
 
lol, exactly!

Its a 1.67GHz model, so its a DVD burning superdrive. Seems to be working perfectly in every way, it just won't let me rebuild it. Aarrghhhhhh!
 
Sweetfeld28 said:
you could try and duplicate the disk on to an external drive if you have one, then run the installer off of that.
Click to expand...

Never thought of that, so its possible to run the installer from an external firewire HDD for example?
 
OK, I've tried installing it via an iBook running in Firewire Target Mode and still get exactly the same error. So I'm guessing that rules out a problem with the DVD drive on the Powerbook.

Any more ideas?!?!?

This is starting to become like a therapy session for me. Thanks for listening :)
 
Just wondered.... is there a utility I could use to completely format the HDD and then try to boot from the CD to install it? Would that not rule out software as a cause and let me take it back to Apple to look at???
 
ascender said:
OK, I've tried installing it via an iBook running in Firewire Target Mode and still get exactly the same error. So I'm guessing that rules out a problem with the DVD drive on the Powerbook.

Any more ideas?!?!?

This is starting to become like a therapy session for me. Thanks for listening :)
Click to expand...

This link might be of some use to you...
 
Have you tried using the disks to install Tiger on another computer? Could it be that there's an error on the DVD itself?

EDIT: duh, sorry, I missed out your iBook comment above!
 
beatsme said:
This link might be of some use to you...
Click to expand...

Just had a look through, but not quite sure how its related in case I'm missing something as there's no problems with this Powerbook crashing and I'm guessing they'd have modified the internals since then.

But its been a long day, so I could well be missing something very obvious!

Oops, just noticed the bit about booting issues. Time to dig out the screwdriver!
 
If you have another Mac handy, you could try and do a Restore from Disk Utility via Target Disk Mode.

Mainly all you would have to do is use Disk Utility, to first select your drive that has a "good" version of OS X [your Source]. Then hit the Restore Tab at the top. Then drag your Source image into the Source area, and then your Destination [image] into its area. Finally, you can select the Erase Destination check box, if you want it to be deleted first; or you can just hit Restore to start the process.


* Now, i haven't tried this myself before, but i think this should work? I hope this works for you because, i think i am running out of ideas. :)
 
Well, thanks for all the help, its much appreciated. The problem isn't fixed, but I sure as hell learned some useful tips for the future!

I'm going to drop the laptop off to an Apple Service Centre as the wireless card has now intermittently stopped working too. Just drops the connection and can't even ping the local router, so I'm starting to think there's a hardware fault which is starting to get worse.

Thanks again, hopefully my new iMac will be trouble free when it arrives. I'm typing this on my trusty iBook which is 3 years old and still working without any problems at all :)
 
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