Macbook Pro constantly restarting

[mkgm1]

I have a 2.4 GHz Santa Rosa MBP with OS X 10.5.2, which all of a sudden refuses to boot into Leopard (I'm currently typing this in XP via Boot Camp).

It starts up with that grey screen, then displays that rotating thingy which it normally does (not v descriptive, I know), but then it just reboots itself and repeats the whole process.

Any advice? I really don't want to reformat and reinstall Leopard, because it's currently exam season and I have some notes on my OS X partition which I need...

 

[Consultant]

I have a 2.4 GHz Santa Rosa MBP with OS X 10.5.2, which all of a sudden refuses to boot into Leopard (I'm currently typing this in XP via Boot Camp).

It starts up with that grey screen, then displays that rotating thingy which it normally does (not v descriptive, I know), but then it just reboots itself and repeats the whole process.

Any advice? I really don't want to reformat and reinstall Leopard, because it's currently exam season and I have some notes on my OS X partition which I need...

It's under warranty for at least a few more days or longer depending on when you bought it, make appointment with Genius Bar.

 

[merl1n]

I have a 2.4 GHz Santa Rosa MBP with OS X 10.5.2, which all of a sudden refuses to boot into Leopard (I'm currently typing this in XP via Boot Camp).

It starts up with that grey screen, then displays that rotating thingy which it normally does (not v descriptive, I know), but then it just reboots itself and repeats the whole process.

Any advice? I really don't want to reformat and reinstall Leopard, because it's currently exam season and I have some notes on my OS X partition which I need...

Since you were able to boot XP, I think physically your drive is ok.

Do this...

Hold down the option key at boot time and keep holding until you get to the blue screen (boot loader). See if your MacOS volume appears. If so select it and continue the boot. If it is successful, go to System Preferences -> Startup Disk and select your MacOS volume as the boot volume.

If this does not work go on to the next step...

Load your original DVD (that came with the mac) and boot from that. When you get to the first screen, select English and then stop.

Go to the Utilities Menu and select Disk Utility. In Disk Utility, select your MacOS volume and click First Aid. Run a Verify on the disk (volume). If you see errors, run the Repair.

If the repair can't repair the volume then go on to the next step...

Shutdown or restart your Mac and at the bong hold down the command-s keys (Booting Single User). At the prompt type these commands (in bold) and hit the return key:

/sbin/fsck -fy

If you see errors, run the command again (up to 6 times) until you get a clean pass with no errors.

Then type:
reboot

If that doesn't fix the problem, your MacOS volume is hosed and your only recourse is to erase it and reinstall.

 

[PkennethV]

It's a loooong shot, but has anyone else been using your computer lately?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2BjiGIgKlA