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HELP- Grey apple screen showing with NO loader (spinner)

H

hookahco

macrumors regular
Original poster
Usually when I boot up my PowerMac G4, it goes to the grey screen with the apple in the middle and a grey spinning loader under it. Now it just goes to the screen. The apple is still there, but no loader. I've tried putting new RAM in but that didnt help.. I thought that the loader would eventually come up but then I left it on that screen for a whole day and it still made no progress.
My AppleCare expired over one year ago and since I am pretty good with computers, I think I may be able to fix this problem on my own... with the help of my experienced MacRumorers (if thats a word...) over here.

Get a new computer you say? Not till they come out with my quad intel 🙂
ANY help is highly appriciated. Oh and by the way.. As long as my beloved Mac is broken.. I HAVE TO USE WINDOWS! So PLEASE.. help!
This mindless OS has just made me want to get my OS X install CDs and kiss the s*** outta them.
 
Boot up in safe mode (Hold the S button down when you turn it on)

That should get you into the machine , then do a disc permission repair (App's > utilties > disk utility)

I had this happen on my gf's g4 a couple of times and thats how I fixed it 🙂
 
Safe Mode? Are you sure you don't mean 'Single User mode'?

I think that is command-S on startup, and in there you can do a fsck command.

Never heard of a Safe mode for macs, but feel free to prove me wrong.
 
jamesmcd said:
Safe Mode? Are you sure you don't mean 'Single User mode'?

I think that is command-S on startup, and in there you can do a fsck command.

Never heard of a Safe mode for macs, but feel free to prove me wrong.
Click to expand...


Safe mode exists

Start up in Safe Mode

Under Mac OS X 10.2 and later, you can enter Safe mode by pressing the Shift key during startup until "Safe Boot" appears in the progress window. Like starting up in Mac OS 9 with extensions and control panels disabled, Safe mode allows you to eliminate many potential sources of problems, thereby narrowing in on the cause of any trouble you suspect is related to items loading at startup.

Starting up in Safe Mode:

* Performs a directory check of the hard drive identical to clicking Repair Disk in the First Aid pane of Disk Utility.
* Ignores kernel extensions cache (/System/Library/Extensions.kextcache).
* Loads only required kernel extensions (/System/Library/Extensions).
* Runs only Apple-installed startup items (/Library/StartupItems and /System/Library/StartupItems).
* Loads only those fonts in /System/Library/Fonts (Mac OS X 10.4 only).
* Trashes all font caches stored in /Library/Caches/com.apple.ATS/user ID number (Mac OS X 10.4 only).
* Disables Login Items (Mac OS X 10.4 only).

Because Safe mode checks (and repairs, if needed) the directory of the Mac's startup volume, startup can take considerably longer than normal, especially if you have a large hard drive. Let the startup process run its course, lest you compound a bad situation by restarting during the lengthy disk repair.

Once the Finder appears in Safe mode, restart normally and see if your problem is gone. If so, the disk directory repair did the trick. If not, restart in Safe mode again and see if the problem is gone. If so, then the problem lies with files that aren't loaded in Safe mode, such as kernel extensions caches, non-Apple startup items, etc. Use trial and error to find the troublemaker.

When you're running in Safe mode, you can use your Mac normally, with the caveat that some things will not work. For example, you can't use an AirPort card, some audio input or output devices, or USB modems because the resources required by these devices are temporarily unavailable.
Click to expand...

I made a mistake on the key its shift sorry 🙂
 
Well I'll be...

Thanks for pointing that out, it actually sounds pretty useful when someone doesn't have a Disk and Fsck doesn't really help.

Merci beaucoup.
 
well at least now the spiner is showing.. but its spinning aimlessley and it wont start up (its been about an hour.)
any thoughts?
(thanks to all that helped with safe mode)
 
I might be one step behind everyone, but did you actually end up trying fsck?

Also, make sure everything's unplugged the computer. Can you boot up from the OSX disks? 🙂
 
This happened to me when my HD died in my Powermac. Try booting off the OS X CD, and see if Disk Utility sees your drive.
 
Does it boot off your OS X install media when you hold down 'c' key on startup? if so run disk utility and see if it still detects the harddrive, and possibly repair permissions.
 
Maxwell Smart said:
Does it boot off your OS X install media when you hold down 'c' key on startup? if so run disk utility and see if it still detects the harddrive, and possibly repair permissions.
Click to expand...
i dont have my os x install media.. i think this might be one for the shop.
it finally made it to the login screen but its displaying my desktop pic and the cursor.. nothing else

Edt: I think the HDD is officially DEAD. Just bought Panther install disks and waiting to install them on a new HDD.
 
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