G4 MDD Sometimes Doesnt Finish Booting

[Retrosonic]

Guys, i hope someone can help me with this.

Recently, I completely rebuild a G4 MDD. Installed OSX. The machine runs GREAT, I'm very happy with it.

There is only ONE problem:

When I boot up the machine, maybe 4 times out of 10, the screen goes to the white, then to the blue, but it never finishes booting into the main screen
with all the icons. When this happens, I unplug, boot again, and THEN it works all the way to the main screen.

What could be causing this and is there a way to fix it? Other than this, the machine is awesome and runs great.

Please offer ANY suggestions you may have, I would be most appreciative.

Retro

 

[max¥¥]

try going into disk utility and do a permissions repair

 

[Hrududu]

try going into disk utility and do a permissions repair

Hows repairing permissions supposed to fix a booting problem?

 

[max¥¥]

Hows repairing permissions supposed to fix a booting problem?

just said that as a couple of weeks ago my ibook would not boot past the gray screen every other boot and i did a permission repair and it sorted the problem

 

[Argon21]

PRAM battery. Replace it.

 

[Retrosonic]

Update:

Thanks, but Its not the PRAM battery...i replaced it a few weeks ago when I rebuilt the machine.


Well, I ran "repair disk permissions" and it found like 8 things "different". So I ran repair, hoping that was the problem. when it finished, I rebooted, and it came up. But on the second boot, it got stuck again on the blue screen.

So, I went BACK to repair permissions again, and again it found like 8 things "different"...What gives?

I'm grateful for the help guys. Does anyone have any other ideas?

thanks,
Retro

 

[Retrosonic]

Any Ideas?

Does anyone have any ideas?

thanks!

 

[666sheep]

If your problem occurs randomly, i'd suspect HDD. Boot from OS Install disc and Verify HDD (not permissions) with Disk Utility. You can also use Disk Warrior, if you got a copy (or one of your friends has) to examine your HDD. It's more powerful tool, but not freeware.

Other what you can do is to test RAM. Try to run with minimal amount of RAM and see if problem will persist. If will be OK, add next stick. You can also test your RAM with testing software like Memtest (there is old freeware version somewhere on MR). This can be done in PC too, if you have one compatible with DDR memory.

 

[drewdle]

Is this machine running Leopard?

Apple issued a software update for 10.5.4 and above addressing graphical glitches and hangs in G4 machines. Get it here: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL121

Could be completely unrelated, but just one more thing to check. I noticed that my iMac exhibited strange video behavior under Leopard, seemingly at random, including this exact scenario. Under Tiger I had no issue, although my iMac was never officially supported for Leopard).

 

[Retrosonic]

Update Aug 11

Update:

I went into disk utility and ran verify and repair of the HD and permissions.
Good deal!!

NOW, instead of occasionally hanging, it occasionally just "takes awhile" to get from the blue screen to the Main screen, but it does get there!!

So, I could live with that.

Drewdle: thanks for that link, I downloaded it, tried to run it, but it says that my Hard Disk "doesnt meet the requirements" to run the patch!!! No idea why, it doesnt tell me any more. Could it be the format? HD is running
OSX 10.5.8 MAC OS Extended (Journaled)

2nd update:

Just booted again now, taking a while to get to the main screen , but it does get there.

So, this "delay" seems like a boot issue of some kind. I'd bet there is a fix for this somewhere!!