G4 suddenly refusing to boot in X!

That's all the things I would have done. Final result: call Apple.

 

Have you tried fixing OS X permissions? I only ask because I had the same problem a few weeks ago, and fixing permissions sorted it. What I had (stupidly) done was to make the ownership permissions of the hard drive to my user, not the system! So if the system wasn't granted access to the hard drive....nice blue screen!

Hope this helps

 

Your right, it sounds promissing.

Why not boot from the OS X CD and repair from there? That's what I had to do.

If you do find a way to do it from the command line, make sure the system has read/write permission for the boot drive.

Hope this makes sense!

 

Okay while this might not do it...

I want to share a problem that I had with a '1st gen AGP G4 450Mhz box'

- Machine was running fine 'forever' hadn't shut down the box in like a year (reboots for updates but that was about it).

- Went to install a larger HD so I shut the machine down.

- Removed the old HD (tape backup 1st)

- Installed the new HD

- Boot from 10.2 CD and format installed the OS

- Rebooted from HD and all hell broke loose... The Mac stated to boot but then I just got a 'grey screen' with a working cursor.... Never got a login screen.

Tried everything!! to get the machine to boot zap the pram, re-reformat install X, reset the open firmware etc etc etc.... I even removed the new drive and replaced it with the old one (untouched) and the sucker still didn't boot!

Well... it turned out to be the ATI VIDEO CARD!!!!

After my 3rd re-reformat-install of the OS and it still didn't work, (I don't know why) but I pulled the video card and then reseated it...

Turned the unit back on and BANG the sucker finished its boot cycle! I would have NEVER EVER guessed a re-seated video card would have fixed it but it did... Heck the CD booting didn't have a problem so why would a HD booting? To this day I dunno why but it worked..

Hope this helps... (and if not you then some poor soul who has the same problem I did)

Dave

 

That's actually what I was going to suggest-make sure that your RAM and video cards are still seated properly. Take them out, and put them all back in again. I have never fully understood how those chips, being in a stationary desktop, could just come out of their sockets, but they sometimes do. Worth a try anyway.

Regards,
Gus

 

mine wont boot this morning either

I shut down last night,, And got up this morning and am getting the same things you are.. I am wondering if safari is causing this?.. Uhhg! I am bummed! I am running norton now. I have done everything that the original poster did except run NOrton.. it has been workign fine till today..

 

When you get a startup problem, it is always advisable to think of any settings you might have altered before the last shutdown/restart.

My advice is to think back to what you last did on the machine. Did you alter some permissions? Did you alter something in the startup items or preferences?

I'm not sure that re seating a graphics card really sorted anyones startup problems. More like the action of totally disconnecting the mac from the power supply reset whatever had developed a problem. Remember that power still runs through part of your mac when it is shut down, but still plugged in to the mains. A total power off sometimes cures many strange electronic problems!

TiWarrior

 

An extreme solution

1) If you can get into 9, as you say, back up your data to another drive (buy one if you need to, as you can see, you will need an extra drive from time to time)

2) Boot off your X-cd. go to disk utility and format your hard drive.

3) reinstall your os.

good luck

 

Just another possibility....if you have more than 1 RAM module, try taking out the extras. It is possible that a module may have gone faulty.

Also, press command & V at re boot. This will display the Unix messages and might give you a clue as to where the problem occurs.

 

yep. but you didnt have aqua either

really, osx is how old??? 2-3yrs (not sure)

os9s base is how old??? 10+yrs (not quite sure)

really i have had only one prob. i forced a reboot under os9 whilst playing starcraft and i got stuffed. archive and install from jag. all solved.

good luck.

 

Just curious... How often do you guys use "Classic" (in X, not booting into 9), and how is it set up?

I have had reaccuring issues similar to the ones mentioned here and they seem to follow this patern:

I can have as many partitions on my computer with as many combinations of X and 9 and everything works fine. I can boot into a 9 folder on any partition (ive played around with half a dozen partitions or so) and likewise with X. However, If I boot using a 9 folder that is also being used as the startup volume for "classic" things become VERY UNSTABLE. If I have to do a force restart, force quit, or sometimes just a plain restart.... WHOO BLUE SCREEN!- Or I will get stuck at startup with my computer frantically searching for a valid boot volume (if it gets that far.... it rarely does and if it does, option startup cant find one either).

Even with 2 partitions, one with x and one with 9 everything is fine booting into either until I run "classic" off that 9 and then boot into it.

(Reformat... Reinstall... Pout in the bathroom for a couple hours)

I currently have 2 partitions: one with X and a very basic 9 system folder that I use for classic, and one with my 9 folder that I use to boot from (which has all my extensions and goodies and whatnot). This may sound insane to those of you who would never have 9 and X on the same partition but it works perfectly on mine (perhaps 3 partitions?.....).

I donno.... Maybe this is related, maybe not. Thought I should share though since it sounds somewhat similar. If not don't yell at me for wasting space, I did mean well by it.

 

Hey if youre up for it....

boot into 9, force restart, and tell me if it works . im curious....

actually dont. Force restarting in 9 is scary

 

I have a copy of OS X on another drive, just to fix my main copy! This might seem over the top, but it has helped me many times.

Happy to hear you are up and running again Yamadataro.

TiWarrior

 

Copy protected fonts!!!

Ahhhhhh.... Tre bien!

 

safe boot

Remember to try Safe Boot mode too, that might help you save your files.

Shut down the Mac, turn it back on, wait till just after the startup tone, and then hold down the shift key. When the grey screen with the Apple logo comes up, let go of the shift key, and X will boot in Safe Boot mode.

Safe Boot will only boot certain kernel extensions, etc.

This might help you in the future though, to save certain files/settings you need and stuff.

enoch