On Dec 7, 2009, at 3:36 PM, William Spencer wrote: > Hi there: The newer of the two machines listed below has decided to enter a > parallel universe. It will not boot to the regular login screen but instead > goes straight to my son's desktop after just a couple of seconds worth of a > grayish screen I've never seen before, with a horizontal progress-bar-looking > sort of thing visible at the bottom of the screen. The menu across the top of > the screen is no longer visible, the mouse pointer moves but will not open or > close anything, there is no way to command-tab through apps (even if there > are any open), and the only way to shut down is to hold down the power button. > > I plan to dig up the original discs and see if I can boot from there, and > then see what happens...maybe repair permissions or something. I think I have > an old copy of Tech Tools floating around someplace, but I don't even know > what version, let alone if it will function properly on this thing. Push > comes to shove I can take it down to the genius bar tomorrow night, but not > before then. > > Any advice gratefully accepted, the sooner the better. > > *************** > > Bill Spencer in Maryland > IMac Core Duo 2.4 ghz/1 g RAM/Snow Leopard > IMac Core Duo 1.83 ghz/1 g RAM/Snow Leopard
Sounds as if the directory is munged, perhaps from one or more improper shutdowns, and that the iMac's booting in a hybrid EFI/OS mode. Running the latest version of DiskWarrior for SL (4.2) should clear it up, but if you don't have it, try booting from the Snow Leopard install disk. Then try repairing the disk using Disk Utility. It's probably not a permissions issue, but you can run that too. If Disk Utility repairs the hard drive, keep running the repair function until it stops repairing. Then quit the SL installer and see if it will boot normally. If it doesn't, then reboot from the SL install disk and reinstall SL, then update. The reinstall actually will do an archive & install, so you won't lose anything. If that doesn't set things right, then by all means take it to the Genius Bar. What it's doing now is very unusual, and possibly could indicate a faulty hard drive or some other hardware problem. Let us know what transpires. Jim Scott -- You received this message because you are a member of the iMac Group, a group for those using Apple iMacs and eMacs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/imac/list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to imaclist@googlegroups.com To leave this group, send email to imaclist+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/imaclist
