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Mini won't boot past logo

J

jmichael

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 1, 2005
8
0
Hi all, I've got a ~5 year-old intel Mac mini that failed to reboot after a simple Font update. No matter what I try, it begins the boot process just enough to get to the logo and spinning wheel, but stops there.

I've tried target disk mode, boot from install DVD, single-user mode, verbose mode, flash PRAM, and every other keyboard combination I can find and nothing has any effect. They literally change nothing about the way it boots. It's as if the keyboard and DVD drive are being ignored (I'm using a wired USB apple keyboard).

What do you think, is my mini hosed?
 
flopticalcube said:
Reset your SMC ( see sig for details).
Click to expand...

When you said this, I realized the mini had been unplugged for nearly an hour so I plugged it back in and gave it a try, but no go. Still hanging on the spinning-wheel logo screen. Thanks for the suggestion, though. SMC is the only one I kinda glanced past.
 
flopticalcube said:
You should also hold the power button down for 10 secs while unplugged.
Click to expand...

Ok I tried that, twice, but to no affect. It's really baffling, because I wasn't experiencing any problems with the system at all. Nothing to indicate impending hardware failure. And I've never experienced a problem that prevented me from booting into single-user or invoking verbose or target-disk modes.
 
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1492

1. Shut down your Mac if it is on.
2. Press the power button to start the computer.
3. Immediately press and hold the Command (Apple) key and one of the following:

the "s" key for single-user mode. (Command-S)
the "v" key for verbose mode. (Command-V)
---------
Do the Command + V. At least you will be able to see where your mac is hanging. Once you see the file it stopped on write down the error. Search for it on the web. Maybe once you have the answer, you can fix it. Sometimes booting with Command + S will bypass some errors.

Do you use Time Machine? If so, you can reboot from the install disc, and choose the Time Machine drive as your restore source.

Also read this, from http://8help.osu.edu/1142.html
Disabling System Extensions When Starting Up in Mac OS X


Unlike earlier versions of the Mac OS, OS X does not have control panels and extensions. Therefore, it is not possible to disable extensions by holding Shift or Space Bar when starting in OS X.

However, it is possible to do a Safe Boot which allows users to boot their system into Safe Mode. Safe Booting takes longer than a normal boot and restricts what users can do after the system has restarted. However, it does three important things:

It forces the system to do a directory check at startup, hence the reason it takes longer to start up doing a Safe Boot
It loads only required kernel extensions
It runs only Apple-installed startup items

This allows users who are having system problems to start up in a relatively clean enviroment in order to identify and remove 3rd party products that may be causing problems with the system.

To perform a Safe Boot in Mac OS X:

Shut down your computer. Be sure the computer is turned off.
Press the power button to turn on the computer.
After you hear the startup chime, press and hold the Shift key on your keyboard.
Release the Shift key when you see the startup screen with the Apple logo and the progress indicator. During the startup, you will see "Safe Boot" on the Mac OS X startup screen.


To get out of the Safe Boot, restart your computer without holding down any additional keys.

PS - I hope you were not copying files from a Hackintosh, I have seen that cause hangups like the kind you are talking about.
 
flopticalcube said:
You could try rebooting from the DVD again, pressing c while booting or option and choose the DVD. Sometimes resetting the SMC helps there too. Try plugging the kb into a different USB port as well.
Click to expand...

I just tried booting from the DVD a couple times, once "c" and once "option." No luck. I hear the disk spin up as it would if I weren't going to boot from it, then spin down and I get the logo screen and spinning wheel.

I had already tried three different USB ports for the keyboard, to rule that out.

ddmcnair: I appreciate all of your advice, but it all assumes I'm able to make the system do what I want through boot-time key presses. Unfortunately, I can't. And no, no hackintoshes are involved in any way.
 
flopticalcube said:
Looks like you logic board is faulty since the kb doesn't respond.
Click to expand...

Yeah, you're probably right. Oh well. It could have happened at a better time, but I got a great amount of use out of a little $500 Mac. Thanks for the help!
 
jmichael said:
Hi all, I've got a ~5 year-old intel Mac mini that failed to reboot after a simple Font update. No matter what I try, it begins the boot process just enough to get to the logo and spinning wheel, but stops there.

I've tried target disk mode, boot from install DVD, single-user mode, verbose mode, flash PRAM, and every other keyboard combination I can find and nothing has any effect. They literally change nothing about the way it boots. It's as if the keyboard and DVD drive are being ignored (I'm using a wired USB apple keyboard).

What do you think, is my mini hosed?
Click to expand...

Have you tried opening it up? Maybe you have some bad ram. Ram can cause weird problems. Try booting up with only 1 stick of ram....
 
Reflow said:
Have you tried opening it up? Maybe you have some bad ram. Ram can cause weird problems. Try booting up with only 1 stick of ram....
Click to expand...

Awesome, I'm going to try this.

satcomer: Unfortunately, my system hangs shortly after the startup chime and doesn't respond to the keyboard.
 
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