Horrible G5 startup issues

[dcorwin]

Ever since I followed the instructions from a post on this board where you're supposed to do all kinds of unix startup/cleanup commands my dual G5 crashes on bootup, forcing me to restart it. Then it comes up. Of course this might be unrelated from the list of advanced-user commands, but it seems a little too coincidental. Any ideas how to track down the problem?

It says "hanging here..." and has a huge list of hex numbers before that, with kernel errors. I bought techtool pro and have used the various cleanup tools available with no luck. Any ideas?!

Thanks!

[Kubi]

I have had similar issues that ended up being due to TTP4 overwriting some basic system file in part; Disk Warrior fixed it, but only temporarily, and the only solution in the end was to wipe the drive and restore off of a clone.

Don't know what UNIX clean-up routine you referred to having done prior to the kernel panic, but the only ones I do are the basic cron scripts at the obvious intervals ("daily" every day, "weekly" every week, and "monthly" every month.)

Did you use Terminal or something like Onyx to do whatever unix cleanup you referred to? If you used terminal, there is the chance that you ended up doing something unintended due to a typo or so. Also, I always make sure i don't do anything else while running UNIX scripts, I just don't want to mess things up...

[dcorwin]

I'm referring to Macaroni and Mac Janitor re: upkeep. But mainly it was the steps from a post on this board (which I can't seem to track down). It contained a number of steps that are carried out by starting the Mac up in it's programmers' shell or whatever it may be called. Hanging startups ever since.

[sdemott]

First off - regardless of what advice anyone gives you... never drop into Open Firmware or Single User Mode or type anything into Terminal unless you are 100% sure of the expected outcome and know what to do if the outcome is not what you expect.

UNIX is very powerful and you can do a lot with the command line tools provided...including disabling your system.

With that being said, try this:
boot from your OS X install disk & run Disk Utrility from the CD to cheack & repair your drive.

HTH

[Timeline]

It's likely too many fonts.

Turn em all off and see what happens.

[sdemott]

In my experience fonts very rarely cause startup issues. They usually cause application crashes and printing issues.

Worst case scenario: you may have to reinstall your software. If you have a 2nd Mac or a friend with a Mac (especially a laptop - easy to carry over) you could boot your G5 into FireWire Target disk mode and retrieve any important files before wiping the drive and reinstalling everything.

HTH

[Timeline]

Steve...

That may be true if you are talking about the stock fonts supplied by Apple in installation but NOT if additional fonts are added.

I had over 1200 fonts loaded and had boot issues exactly like this user is claiming. I called Apple and they figured it out for me.

There are many out there that do graphics and audio that have this problem so please keep an open mind instead of simply dismissing my post.

Thanks

[sdemott]

My day job is IT in a marketing company (lot's of audio, video & graphics). With over 300 users I have never (as I stated) seen a font problem cause a boot problem.

I wasn't dismissing anything I was stating a fact as I knew it. That's why I started with "In my experience..."

No need to get bent out of shape.

BTW- if you are doing both audio & graphics on your system you should have separate logins for each and all fonts should be loaded into the ~/Library/Fonts folder of ONLY the graphic user. Fonts eat resources.

But again - not meant as a dismissal, just relaying years of Mac troubleshooting experience.

HTH

[dcorwin]

This is purely a music production Mac. It works fine, but fails on first startup, then I hold in the button to shut it down, and restart and it's fine. I'm in the middle of projects so really don't want to erase my drive, reinstall, etc.

I'm almost positive it has something to do with that startup post (can't find it now though!).

[giles117]

Do A Clean install of OS X and see if it solves the problem....

(just to be clear ... clean not erase and install but archive and install)

[Timeline]

Don't do a clean install before you create a new user and try that first. It might be user specific and you will save hours of time.

Gary

[denne]

I got the same "we're hanging here" at first startup. It first occured about a week ago. After hard-reboot it works fine. creepy. What about the second user account? Do I have to install Digital Perfomer and the plugs separately for the new user? That's what I heard, but what do I know?

G5 2x1.8 (the one with PCI-X), 10.3.6, DP 4.5, 1.5 Gig RAM

[abe_lincoln78]

Don't know if yall fixed it yet, but for me, "hanging here" was a ram caused problem. I bought a bad memory stick (see what happens when you don't buy stuff from apple) and that did it.

[dcorwin]

Nah, my problem had "something" to do with the weird startup commands I had done, pretty sure. Anyway, with newest 10.3.7 it does it less, still happens but not as often. It always starts on the second restart though, so I'll just have to live with it since I don't have time to mess with anything.

[denne]

silly question to dave

what's your room-temperature? I got my mac in the basement, where it's gettin pretty cold, when I turn off the heater for a few hours. I talked to a guy who had similiar problems with a G4/OS9. He said that his harddrive doesn't work below a certain temperature, so the system simply doesn't load. Turnin the heater on a few minutes before boot an it's all fine. I tried it and know what? No kp at startup.

<small>[ December 24, 2004, 02:51 AM: Message edited by: denne ]</small>