I’ve got big problems with my powerbook. The only way I can interact with it is in single user mode and unfortunately I’m not familiar with the commands there. What happened so far is very complicated but please bear with me as several things may be relevant.
I installed a 500gb firewire drive onto my powerbook and copied over a backup of my applications folder (40gb). Then I eventually made a copy of ‘disk’ on the fw drive (75gb) so I deleted the apps folder from the fw drive and the computer locked up on emptying trash. I held the power button down and on startup got the following restart message “you need to restart your computer. Hold down the power button for several seconds or press the restart button”. It then repeats the message in 3 other languages. I now know this to be a kernel panic.
So I disconnected the fw drive. On reboot the same restart message came up. I went to reinstall os x from cd (via option key) but got same message. Restarted and ran hardware test from the cd which passed, restarted and the os booted up fine! Incase it was software/os related, I backed up and reinstalled os x. then rebooted twice during os x install everything is fine. <then spend 4 hours installing apps and tweaking system >.
2 days later, I connected the fw drive and got the kernel panic again, disconnected fw drive, restarted, same kernel msg, ran hardware test and the trackpad wasn’t moving properly, it was sticking really badly. Managed to move mouse to run hardware test and trackpad failed. Rebooted, same kernel panic msg, hardware test now locks at logic board, 12 seconds (where trackpad first failed). So I can no longer get into the os and I have no way of reinstalling the os from cd on startup.
Things I have tried. I cant screen dump so I’ll type what I think is relevant. Things resulting in grey apple screen, then kernel panic:
Normal bootup
Bootup from install cd
shift boot (safe mode)
C (boot from cd)
Cmd V on startup tells me “Darwin Kernel Version 8.10.0: Wed May 23 16.60.59 PDT 2007; root:xnu-792.21.3-1/RELEASE_PPC panic: We are hanging here...
Also unresolved kernel trap (cpu 0)
Kernel loadable modules in backtrace (with dependencies) <list of com.apple files>
Latest stack backtrace for cpu: 0
I’ve tried:
Cmd opt O F, Cmd opt P R - to reset PRAM and NVRAM, firmware.
Went into single user mode - Ran fsck -f and filestructure ok, went to repair permissions in disk utility tool but got the error “cant create temp image”.
There are about 20 options within disk utility to repair volume, erase disk etc. I’m not familiar with this environment but can I safely reformat my disk from here so it will boot from os x cd?
So…. I cant install the os at the moment which seemed to resolve the kernel panic until I plugged in the fw drive again. Could the copy of “disk” on the fw drive have conflicted with system files on the powerbook disk? Could it be a firewire driver problem? Is this related to internal hardware as the trackpad failed in hardware test and I’m also getting kernel panic on startup, before the os loads presumably? Can I disable the trackpad from single user mode incase that’s causing it? I’ve got 512 RAM which I’ve been pushing lately (averaging 7mb free) could my memory have fried? Is there anything I can do to format the disk from a prompt and reinstall the OS?
If anyone can suggest anything I’d be really grateful. I am lost for what to do and have looked at about a 100 web pages so far with no resolution. Thanks guys.
dren.
I installed a 500gb firewire drive onto my powerbook and copied over a backup of my applications folder (40gb). Then I eventually made a copy of ‘disk’ on the fw drive (75gb) so I deleted the apps folder from the fw drive and the computer locked up on emptying trash. I held the power button down and on startup got the following restart message “you need to restart your computer. Hold down the power button for several seconds or press the restart button”. It then repeats the message in 3 other languages. I now know this to be a kernel panic.
So I disconnected the fw drive. On reboot the same restart message came up. I went to reinstall os x from cd (via option key) but got same message. Restarted and ran hardware test from the cd which passed, restarted and the os booted up fine! Incase it was software/os related, I backed up and reinstalled os x. then rebooted twice during os x install everything is fine. <then spend 4 hours installing apps and tweaking system >.
2 days later, I connected the fw drive and got the kernel panic again, disconnected fw drive, restarted, same kernel msg, ran hardware test and the trackpad wasn’t moving properly, it was sticking really badly. Managed to move mouse to run hardware test and trackpad failed. Rebooted, same kernel panic msg, hardware test now locks at logic board, 12 seconds (where trackpad first failed). So I can no longer get into the os and I have no way of reinstalling the os from cd on startup.
Things I have tried. I cant screen dump so I’ll type what I think is relevant. Things resulting in grey apple screen, then kernel panic:
Normal bootup
Bootup from install cd
shift boot (safe mode)
C (boot from cd)
Cmd V on startup tells me “Darwin Kernel Version 8.10.0: Wed May 23 16.60.59 PDT 2007; root:xnu-792.21.3-1/RELEASE_PPC panic: We are hanging here...
Also unresolved kernel trap (cpu 0)
Kernel loadable modules in backtrace (with dependencies) <list of com.apple files>
Latest stack backtrace for cpu: 0
I’ve tried:
Cmd opt O F, Cmd opt P R - to reset PRAM and NVRAM, firmware.
Went into single user mode - Ran fsck -f and filestructure ok, went to repair permissions in disk utility tool but got the error “cant create temp image”.
There are about 20 options within disk utility to repair volume, erase disk etc. I’m not familiar with this environment but can I safely reformat my disk from here so it will boot from os x cd?
So…. I cant install the os at the moment which seemed to resolve the kernel panic until I plugged in the fw drive again. Could the copy of “disk” on the fw drive have conflicted with system files on the powerbook disk? Could it be a firewire driver problem? Is this related to internal hardware as the trackpad failed in hardware test and I’m also getting kernel panic on startup, before the os loads presumably? Can I disable the trackpad from single user mode incase that’s causing it? I’ve got 512 RAM which I’ve been pushing lately (averaging 7mb free) could my memory have fried? Is there anything I can do to format the disk from a prompt and reinstall the OS?
If anyone can suggest anything I’d be really grateful. I am lost for what to do and have looked at about a 100 web pages so far with no resolution. Thanks guys.
dren.
