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help - macbook won't boot

twoodcc

twoodcc

macrumors P6
Original poster
Feb 3, 2005
15,307
26
Right side of wrong
so my girlfriend's macbook (1st gen - 1.83 ghz CD) will not boot. when you turn it on, you get the apple logo and the sound, and then a kernel panic! (You must hold the power button and restart your computer)

and it does the same thing booting from the leopard cd. so any idea what this could be?
 
Could it be bad RAM? I'd try removing any extra modules to see if anything changes. If that doesn't work you may want to use target disk mode and see if there's a panic log on your gf's Mac.
 
Raid said:
Could it be bad RAM? I'd try removing any extra modules to see if anything changes. If that doesn't work you may want to use target disk mode and see if there's a panic log on your gf's Mac.
Click to expand...

thanks. i guess it is possible about the RAM, though she's been using this ram for awhile.

I just turned it on, with the cd in there, and help down command+P+R, and now it's sitting at the apple logo with the little circle thing
 
Well if a good 'ol PRAM ZAP does the trick, all the better! ;) If it's anything like my Tibook give it 5minutes or so at the logo screen. After my BIOS battery died it took that long for the boot process to sort out things.

It's bizarre that some random change in the PRAM would mess up the boot process, did your gf's Mac have a power failure during a recent shut-down or startup?
 
Raid said:
Well if a good 'ol PRAM ZAP does the trick, all the better! ;) If it's anything like my Tibook give it 5minutes or so at the logo screen. After my BIOS battery died it took that long for the boot process to sort out things.

It's bizarre that some random change in the PRAM would mess up the boot process, did your gf's Mac have a power failure during a recent shut-down or startup?
Click to expand...

well, i don't know of any power failures, but it doesn't mean that there were none.

well, it's still sitting at the apple logo with the spinning circle. i think it's been over 5 minutes though. i'll wait a little longer i guess, but i don't think it's going to work
 
Even if it didn't boot off that first PRAM zap, and waiting for a bit, give it another boot before trying anything else. Sometimes (usually after updates) my Mac spins for a long time on the initial startup screen, and if I'm too impatient to wait I turn it off and boot it up again... usually that works.
 
Raid said:
Even if it didn't boot off that first PRAM zap, and waiting for a bit, give it another boot before trying anything else. Sometimes (usually after updates) my Mac spins for a long time on the initial startup screen, and if I'm too impatient to wait I turn it off and boot it up again... usually that works.
Click to expand...

well, now i don't get the kernel panic, but it just sits at the apple logo with spinning circle now
 
well, here's a pic of what happens when i boot and hold down "C" :

img_0210.jpg
 
<looks at KP above> :eek:

Ok, this is new to me it doesn't give you a process to check (probably because the panic is from quite early on), have you pulled the RAM and given it a try? I don't know if that would help, but it still could.
 
Raid said:
<looks at KP above> :eek:

Ok, this is new to me it doesn't give you a process to check (probably because the panic is from quite early on), have you pulled the RAM and given it a try? I don't know if that would help, but it still could.
Click to expand...

yeah i've never seen a KP like that either.

i haven't pulled the ram yet. it has 2GB of 3rd party ram in it now, and the apple ram is at my parent's house right now.
 
twoodcc said:
i haven't pulled the ram yet. it has 2GB of 3rd party ram in it now, and the apple ram is at my parent's house right now.
Click to expand...
Before going and removing RAM, have you tried running FSCK? If there's a disk error it might help diagnose and fix the problem. Also you don't need the original Apple RAM yet, just pull one RAM stick out and see if it runs. If it still doesn't run swap out the one stick for the other. I still have no idea if it will work or not though... Damn that computer is being stubborn!
 
Raid said:
Before going and removing RAM, have you tried running FSCK? If there's a disk error it might help diagnose and fix the problem. Also you don't need the original Apple RAM yet, just pull one RAM stick out and see if it runs. If it still doesn't run swap out the one stick for the other. I still have no idea if it will work or not though... Damn that computer is being stubborn!
Click to expand...

i have not tried FSCK yet. in fact, i've never done that. could you point me in the right direction?

thanks
 
Sorry I haven't been able to keep up with the thread, I've been all over the place today but I'm glad to see you got fsck working. If I read that last pic correctly it was repairing the disk, but then fsck caused a KP? Damn that's weird. Sorry I'm not sure what to do.
 
Raid said:
Sorry I haven't been able to keep up with the thread, I've been all over the place today but I'm glad to see you got fsck working. If I read that last pic correctly it was repairing the disk, but then fsck caused a KP? Damn that's weird. Sorry I'm not sure what to do.
Click to expand...

yes, you read it correctly (sorry for the bad pic). i ran fsck again, and it said that the disk was OK. so i restarted, and bam! KP again. i don't think i can do much else to this machine, besides put back in it the apple ram and take it to the apple store
 
i would like to say that i have solved this issue! it was the 3rd party RAM that i installed (OWC) that was the problem.

thanks for the help
 
Good to know! When I saw this thread pop up again I was hoping you had fixed it! :)
 
twoodcc said:
i would like to say that i have solved this issue! it was the 3rd party RAM that i installed (OWC) that was the problem.

thanks for the help
Click to expand...

i'm sorry to be a bother but i'm a n00b at all of this but the same problem happened to my mac, and i was wondering if you could explain how you fixed it?!
 
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