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"You need to restart your computer. Hold down the..." It won't end! Help!

t300

t300

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Apr 10, 2004
976
1
"You need to restart your computer. Hold down the power button for several seconds or press the Restart button."

I get this message everytime I turn on my G4 Powerbook and cannot get past it. Just last night I came home, it was entirely frozen so I just manually turned it off. Now, I can't even get into the Mac OS! I keep getting that screen. I heard this might be a kernal panic, but I don't know what to do. I will turn it on, get the little Apple, then it will go into the Mac OS Startup thing where it starts going across the room, then halfway it goes to the Restart screen. I tried zapping PRAM, and holding C to try to boot from the CD but they are just like NOT working. This is really making me crazy because I must do school work soon. Could someone please attempt to help...! Thanks!
 
Is it the kernal panic multi-language message? That message is almost always a hardware malfunction. Since you can't even boot from a CD, I'm going to suggest that it is a RAM failure, Remove an third party RAM you may have installed, otherwise see if you can borrow a RAM chip from a friend to try out in your computer.
 
stoid said:
Is it the kernal panic multi-language message? That message is almost always a hardware malfunction. Since you can't even boot from a CD, I'm going to suggest that it is a RAM failure, Remove an third party RAM you may have installed, otherwise see if you can borrow a RAM chip from a friend to try out in your computer.
Click to expand...

Gosh, it is a multi-language message...And I DO have third party RAM...AHH! Does that mean the RAM stopped working altogether and it's dead or what?
 
t300 said:
Gosh, it is a multi-language message...And I DO have third party RAM...AHH! Does that mean the RAM stopped working altogether and it's dead or what?
Click to expand...

only way to find out is to check. good news is that, depending on which 3rd party RAM you are using, it's probably under a warranty and should be replaced at no cost to you. so right now your major concern should be getting things running. later you can worry about making things run quickly.
 
GOSH! This sucks...Well, I will check it out but I must get a little screwdriver. College life didn't seem to bring one....Oh well, I will buy one or something. Thanks to all.
 
Yep, my guess would be the RAM too. You could also try running Apple Hardware Test from the DVD included with the system.

On a lighter note, once for a birthday a friend gave me a card. On the front it says 'I wanted to get you a brand new Ferrari for your birthday,' and on the inside it says 'but I could only afford the tool set!' and it came with 3 miniature screwdrivers :D (each about 2 cm long).

I still have the miniature screwdrivers and they're the perfect size for those little screws inside iBooks (and presumably PowerBooks too) :cool:
 
Thank you all for your replies. I took out the RAM but nothing...I still get the same multi-language message. My Disc One of Panther is stuck inside there two. Anyone have any idea of the next steps to take? I am getting NOWHERE! Thanks a lot!
 
If you hold the mouse button while turning on the computer, it should force the CD to eject. This happens in firmware, before the OS loads.

t300 said:
I did PRAM, but what's NVRAM? Thanks.
Click to expand...

Hold down Cmd-Opt-O-F while turning on the computer to drop into Open Firmware. Type these lines:

reset-nvram
set-defaults
reset-all

That will clear NVRAM etc. and will automatically restart the system.
 
Tool set

Nermal said:
Yep, my guess would be the RAM too. You could also try running Apple Hardware Test from the DVD included with the system.

On a lighter note, once for a birthday a friend gave me a card. On the front it says 'I wanted to get you a brand new Ferrari for your birthday,' and on the inside it says 'but I could only afford the tool set!' and it came with 3 miniature screwdrivers :D (each about 2 cm long).

I still have the miniature screwdrivers and they're the perfect size for those little screws inside iBooks (and presumably PowerBooks too) :cool:
Click to expand...
I have got the same card. With the same mini tool set. lol. i know this doesn't concern the thread sorry I just had to type it. :cool: . Anyway I hope you get things running.
 
I tried the VRAM thing and it didn't work. Also, holding the mouse down to eject the cd is NOT working. Any other ideas? There is nothing attached to the computer, I haven't recently installed anything, and I took the 1gb ram stick out yesterday. I am so puzzled that NOTHING is working and I need to do all of my school work on it. Thanks to all!
 
Just, you never know about these things but try this, turn on the computer while holding Apple (command) + S that'll put you in Single User Mode. Once there type in fsck - don't ask how that'll help - next try:
sudo diskutil repair_permission
sudo update_prebinding -root / -force

I can't remember if sudo diskutil is repair_permissions or repair_permission... Other than that, you can hold down a key to choose what medium you can boot from. If you have a jump drive that holds over 1GB of even a Cards with at least 1GB on them or.... an ipod, install OS X (copy the CD onto one of those) on one of those and try to boot from them. Um..... other than wht the people said, I'm all out of ideas. BTW if you have a pin you can get out your OS X CD... at least if its a Tray CDROM or you can usually press a button while its off but has a charge or plugged in and it'll shoot out the cd.

EDIT: Ahem... now where were we talking about the sticky with all the key commands..... hmm... Anyone wanna start a post (going to Apple and typing all them up) about all the keys and what they do on startup and for while in the OS like CONTROL + OPTION + ESCAPE brings up the force quit menu. Yeah... if no one does, I'll start on it tonight after work.
 
Okay, I was able to get into single user mode but....I get a whole lot of info there but at the bottom it says "panic: We are hanging here..." WHAT does that mean? It won't let me do anything or type anything. Any clues? And my drive in my PB is slot loading so that idea will not work, I think.
 
I recently experienced a problem similar to this on an iMac DV. it would begin to boot and then spit out "panic: we are hanging here". I eventually remedied it by starting the iMac up in firewire target mode (hold t as the computer starts up), mounting it to my powerbook, and re-blessing the OS 9 system folder. OS X had to be reinstalled to be usable again.

If you do not have a copy of OS 9 to boot from on the drive, I would suggest mounting your powerbook's hard drive onto another mac using firewire target mode, backing up all of your schoolwork, and then reformatting the disk and reinstalling OS X. it will be a pain, but it seems like a completely clean install is the best way to remedy a kernel panic being thrown that early in the boot process.
 
first off lets try figure out where it is hanging too

press apple + V after you hear the chime or just hold it until you get rows of text tell us where it hangs
 
i am going to have to agree that if the ram isnt an issue that you might have to reinstall OS X, do you have your stuff backed up? if not be sure to boot up in firewire mode and get your important info & docs, then using that mac's disk utility i would then format the drive and reboot from your Panther disk and re-install
 
Firewire target mode worked, and I intend on using it, but one thing...How do I hook, say, two Powerbooks together to get the other one to read the "broken" one? USB-TO-USB or does it just have to be Firewire? In that case, I have to buy a cable to do so. Also, I still can't get my Disc One of Panther out of my slot loading drive in my PB. The "hold the mouse down while booting" does NOT work. Thanks to all.
 
any two recent macs (i think it's a panther thing) with Firewire will do the target disk mode. but you need a 6pin to 6pin firewire cable.

if you have an isight that cable works, in my experience.

target disc mode will sort the problem of not being able to access files, but as to reinstalling macos, you're at another point. i think if the message still comes up you may have a BIOS problem. best bet may be get apple involved if you have a warranty. they replaced my pb's LCD in two days including taking it from me in remotest Scotland and getting it back. not bad.

if you don't have a warranty, i'm sure we'll all keep our thinking caps on. just don't get too worried yet! it's not the end of the world!
 
bigandy said:
any two recent macs (i think it's a panther thing) with Firewire will do the target disk mode. but you need a 6pin to 6pin firewire cable.
....
Click to expand...

Any new world mac (with builtin firewire) will work, panther is not required.
 
eject cd from open firmware

You should be able to eject the cd from open firmware. Hold down Cmd-Opt-O-F then at the prompt type:

eject cd
mac-boot

As for your other troubles, without any more info it looks like a clean install is your best option at this point.
 
t300 said:
Firewire target mode worked, and I intend on using it, but one thing...How do I hook, say, two Powerbooks together to get the other one to read the "broken" one? USB-TO-USB or does it just have to be Firewire? In that case, I have to buy a cable to do so. Also, I still can't get my Disc One of Panther out of my slot loading drive in my PB. The "hold the mouse down while booting" does NOT work. Thanks to all.
Click to expand...

Something like this happenned to me. One thing I did when this happenned was go for my Jaguar discs (I've got an old G3 Powerbook). If you've got only 10.3 on your computer (not 10.3.7 or anything like that) the simplest way to fix it would be to install Panther again from the original System software disc. With something like this, the system software would overwrite your corrupt version, but keep your home folder and all your programmes intact. Similarly, you could wait for Tiger, and that would do the same thing. :p

However, since you can't eject the Panther disc (I'm guessing you've tried ejecting the disc by pressing the eject button as soon as the computer turns on and by pushing a paper clip into the disc tray to shimmy the hatch), the only other thing I can suggest you try is booting onto OS 9 when you turn on your laptop using your setup discs (now your CDs working again). Fixing permissions on your OS X drive could work too. These all could work depending on your setup.
 
t300 said:
it says "panic: We are hanging here..." WHAT does that mean?
Click to expand...

Its a Kernel Panic! But text-based, without a purdy screen that goes black...

bigandy said:
any two recent macs (i think it's a panther thing) with Firewire will do the target disk mode. but you need a 6pin to 6pin firewire cable.
Click to expand...

Any G4 based Mac, and a few G3s too. Pretty much anything New-World that uses Open Firmware.


Maybe something else fried aside from the RAM? KP's are usually hardware related...
 
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