Mac mini Kernel panic - help with solutions? Need this computer back!

[mrmuse64]

Hi, I'm a student at University and I've been using my Mac Mini (PPC) for all my work and stuff. Anyway about a week ago I was on the internet and out of nowhere the "you need to restart your computer hold the power button..." thing came up so I did what it said only to be confronted with a Kernel error which was something along the lines of this...

"Unable to find driver for this platform "Powermac 10,2"."

"Darwin Kernel version 8.11.0"

"Panic: We are hanging here"

I realise this is a problem many may have encountered but I just don't know how to solve it. I've tried most of the stuff I've read on forums but nothing seems to work... any help would be greatly appreciated since I can't afford to buy a new computer AND lose all my files.

(By the way I have the original OSX disks but I don't seem to be able to boot from them even if I hold "C". It just goes to the panic.

Harry

 

[relimw]

You didn't happen to be deleting files around the time it panic'd on you, were you?
It sorta sounds like you may have deleted some system files.

Dunno why it won't boot from the install disks though, I suppose you could try a target disk mode to get your files off of it.

 

[mrmuse64]

You didn't happen to be deleting files around the time it panic'd on you, were you?
It sorta sounds like you may have deleted some system files.

Dunno why it won't boot from the install disks though, I suppose you could try a target disk mode to get your files off of it.

not that I can remember.. was on the internet, msn and word but I think thats it.


whats target disk mode?

 

[relimw]

See this article for target disk mode. You might also try starting in single-user mode (hold S) and then type 'fsck' (no quotes) at the prompt, and see if that does anything for you, when it finishes, type 'exit'.

 

[mrmuse64]

ok the disk thing I can't do right now

single user mode didn't happen - just came up with the panic again

safe mode doesn't work either

>.<

appreciate the help though!

 

[relimw]

Hmm, does your keyboard even work?

Do you have anything plugged into your mac other than monitor, power, keyboard and mouse?

 

[Sun Baked]

If it won't boot from the CD, I'd say either the drive is corrupted (file system/catalog errors) or it is dead.

Usually a dead drive will boot from the CD, since it has to look at the HD in order to crash.

---

Since it is a PPC, a way around the crashing is to pull the HD, put it back together and boot from the DVD, select it as the boot drive ... then put the problem drive back in.

Because of the OpenFirmware boot -- computer boots from a file off the boot drive, before the key sequences are used -- as long as the computer can see that drive, and it is the selected boot drive (it'll crash).

Sometimes it is easier to replace the drive while you are in there and put the other drive into a cheap USB case for repair.

 

[mrmuse64]

my keyboard does work yes lol I know becase i tried one which said

hold down command - option - O - F

type "reset-nvram"
then "reset-all"

but it didn't work either.

Other stuff plugged in... just monitor and LAN cable

 

[mrmuse64]

Since it is a PPC, a way around the crashing is to pull the HD, put it back together and boot from the DVD, select it as the boot drive ... then put the problem drive back in.

Sometimes it is easier to replace the drive while you are in there and put the other drive into a cheap USB case for repair.

I would take it apart but I'm scared of breaking something else lol

the only other HD I have is an external USB one but I don't suppose thats of much use?

Sorry to be such an idiot with all this but if you could explain it a bit more... ^.^


how do I change my boot drive?

 

[Sun Baked]

I would take it apart but I'm scared of breaking something else lol

the only other HD I have is an external USB one but I don't suppose thats of much use?

Sorry to be such an idiot with all this but if you could explain it a bit more... ^.^


how do I change my boot drive?

System preferences/Startup Disk/ Select boot drive.

The computer keeps track of the boot drive, as long as the corrupt one is selected, it'll look there at that drive every single time before a key is pressed.

Can't even boot from a DVD ... usually the only way around this is to remove the drive -- this'll allow the boot process to proceed normally.

On the Restore DVD/Mac OS X Install DVD I think there is a place on the menu bar that'll select a new boot drive -- I think even the DVD can be chosen.

As soon as another boot drive is chosen, you can plug the problem drive back in and not crash the machine.

 

[mrmuse64]

damn -_-

all of my screwdrivers are too big to remove the cd drive that covers everything.