[vja4him]

Power Failure Caused Video Problems ....

Yesterday our neighbor was messing around with the circuit breakers and cut the power to our dining room, which turned off my external HD.

I can still boot from the external HD, but there is a serious video problem now. I'm still online with the external HD, but having visual difficulty with certain things (buttons, links, scroll tabs, and pictures are really bad quality, e-mail hard to see ...).

I can still boot from the internal HD (iBook G4), and the video is just fine. So the problem doesn't seem to be with the iBook's video card.

I reinstalled Tiger (10.4) on the external HD, but still have the same problem.

I ran Disk Warrior and Disk Utility, but still have the same problem.

Any ideas what might be the problem, and how to fix it?

[reader50]

When you have the 'bad' video, check your resolution / color depth. Can you get a shot of the problem in action?

[vja4him]

Originally Posted by reader50 

When you have the 'bad' video, check your resolution / color depth. Can you get a shot of the problem in action?

Can we post pictures here?

I've already checked the resolution, and color depth. I tried all the various settings in the System Preferences. Still no luck.

[reader50]

You can post pictures here, but you have to host the pics somewhere else first.

The OSX Install disk you used to reinstall on the external HD ... perhaps you used an install version from before your PowerBook was released. One lacking the later video drivers needed for your built-in GPU. Have you applied the combo update to bring the external up to the same version of OS X as the internal drive?

Your sig mentions 10.4.8, the last Tiger version is 10.4.11 plus a few security updates.

[cgc]

What does the video look like when you boot from boot from your OSX Install DVD?

[vja4him]

Originally Posted by reader50 

You can post pictures here, but you have to host the pics somewhere else first.

The OSX Install disk you used to reinstall on the external HD ... perhaps you used an install version from before your PowerBook was released. One lacking the later video drivers needed for your built-in GPU. Have you applied the combo update to bring the external up to the same version of OS X as the internal drive?

Your sig mentions 10.4.8, the last Tiger version is 10.4.11 plus a few security updates.

I bought my iBook G4 in June, 2004. Tiger was released later. I updated everything yesterday. Still having the same video problem.

Somebody suggested that I use the following in Terminal to reset the start-up mode:

sudo nvram boot-args=""

Has anyone done that before? I want to make sure I'm not doing something that will cause my computer to not boot!

Here is a screen shot:

Riding 4 Life: Video Problems on My Computer ....

[ibook_steve]

Two things:

1) I was just at the giant sequoias (Yosemite, right?) where your photos are this past summer. Cool.

2) I don't see anything wrong with the video in your screenshot. What's not right?

Steve

[reader50]

Is your Tiger disc a retail copy, or an Install disc released with a different Mac?

The screenshot looks clean to me too. The PowerBook probably thinks things look OK from the inside - you may need to use a camera to capture the rendering errors.

[vja4him]

Originally Posted by ibook_steve 

Two things:

1) I was just at the giant sequoias (Yosemite, right?) where your photos are this past summer. Cool.

2) I don't see anything wrong with the video in your screenshot. What's not right?

Steve

Actually, the picture is from Calaveras Big Trees, where you can see the largest and oldest trees in the world!

The screenshot really doesn't show the problem with the video. It's difficult to see or find buttons, links, scroll bars, and hard to read titles of e-mail folders, and pictures are very, very bad quality, like they were on a very old computer with very low resolution.

I had to change the background on my browser just so I could find the buttons and links.

[cgc]

What's the app that adds the tabs all over the edge of your screen? Could you disable that and all other login items and see if your display looks normal? Maybe one of them is not compatible w/ Tiger.

Just thought of this: check the screen resolution (Apple Menu-->System Preference-->Displays) and make sure it's set to your iBook's native resolution which I think is 1024 x 768. If that doesn't fix it, connect an external monitor and see if the problem exists on the external (of course, set Mac resolution to the external's native resolution whatever that is...use Google).

[vja4him]

Originally Posted by reader50 

Is your Tiger disc a retail copy, or an Install disc released with a different Mac?

The screenshot looks clean to me too. The PowerBook probably thinks things look OK from the inside - you may need to use a camera to capture the rendering errors.

The Tiger install disc I have is for my iBook G4. Has worked just fine on my iBook and for two external HDs with no problems.

[vja4him]

Originally Posted by cgc 

What's the app that adds the tabs all over the edge of your screen? Could you disable that and all other login items and see if your display looks normal? Maybe one of them is not compatible w/ Tiger.

Just thought of this: check the screen resolution (Apple Menu-->System Preference-->Displays) and make sure it's set to your iBook's native resolution which I think is 1024 x 768. If that doesn't fix it, connect an external monitor and see if the problem exists on the external (of course, set Mac resolution to the external's native resolution whatever that is...use Google).

The tabs you see are Drop Drawers X, and is compatible with my iBook. I've never had any problems with Drop Drawers X. It's an immitation of a similar function with OS 9x.

Actually, when I booted the iBook while holding down Shift, that disabled Drop Drawers X, but still had the same video problem.

[reader50]

We seem to be having trouble figuring out the cause here. Would you settle for fixing the problem, without determining what it was?

If fixing it is good enough, you can copy the installed System from internal to external. Boot from the internal drive. Log in as the root user - you may need to enable the root account first in netinfo manager.

Once logged in as root, go to your external drive.
Replace ExternalHD/System/Library/ with InternalHD/System/Library/
Use Disk Utility to repair permissions on the external HD.
Reboot to the external, see if all is well.

[cgc]

Have you verified screen resolution? LCDs will run at a lot of resolutions but will only look their best on their native resolution (e.g. 1024x768 for your iBook)?

[vja4him]

Originally Posted by reader50 

We seem to be having trouble figuring out the cause here. Would you settle for fixing the problem, without determining what it was?

If fixing it is good enough, you can copy the installed System from internal to external. Boot from the internal drive. Log in as the root user - you may need to enable the root account first in netinfo manager.

Once logged in as root, go to your external drive.
Replace ExternalHD/System/Library/ with InternalHD/System/Library/
Use Disk Utility to repair permissions on the external HD.
Reboot to the external, see if all is well.

I tried copying the Library from the internal HD to the external HD, but kept getting error messages telling me that I don't have privileges to replace the Library.

I typed in my password, which was accepted, but then kept getting the same message telling me that I don't have privileges to replace the Library.

I was able to copy over about 1GB of the Library, but that wasn't enough, and when I tried to boot from the external HD, it crashed.

So, I had to reinstall Tiger again. Up and running again, but same video problem.

Several people have suggested that I need to update the video driver. I did a search for updating the video driver. Downloaded the driver, and tried to install it, but the message said that I can't because my computer doesn't need the update.

[vja4him]

Originally Posted by cgc 

Have you verified screen resolution? LCDs will run at a lot of resolutions but will only look their best on their native resolution (e.g. 1024x768 for your iBook)?

Resolution is set correctly.

[Cold Warrior]

Originally Posted by vja4him 

I tried copying the Library from the internal HD to the external HD, but kept getting error messages telling me that I don't have privileges to replace the Library.

I typed in my password, which was accepted, but then kept getting the same message telling me that I don't have privileges to replace the Library.

reader's key phrase was 'root user.' Enabling and using the "root" user in Mac OS X

Enable root and see if it'll let you copy then.

[vja4him]

Originally Posted by Cold Warrior 

reader's key phrase was 'root user.' Enabling and using the "root" user in Mac OS X

Enable root and see if it'll let you copy then.

Thanks! I'll give that a try ....

[vja4him]

Originally Posted by Cold Warrior 

reader's key phrase was 'root user.' Enabling and using the "root" user in Mac OS X

Enable root and see if it'll let you copy then.

I enabled the root, but still was not able to copy the Library. Same problem as before.

Seems like perhaps I will need to reformat the HD ... ??? Won't be able to do that until I get another external HD, and back up all the files first ....

[reader50]

Enabling the root user is one step. Then you log is as the root user. You *have* to be logged in as root to have full copy/delete privs to the System folders.

1. Boot from InternalHD.
2. Enable the root user account.
3. Log in as the root user.
4. Delete ExternalHD/System/Library/
5. Copy InternalHD/System/Library -> ExternalHD/System/
6. Use Disk Utility to repair permissions on ExternalHD
7. Reboot into ExternalHD, see if all is well.

[vja4him]

Originally Posted by reader50 

Enabling the root user is one step. Then you log is as the root user. You *have* to be logged in as root to have full copy/delete privs to the System folders.

1. Boot from InternalHD.
2. Enable the root user account.
3. Log in as the root user.
4. Delete ExternalHD/System/Library/
5. Copy InternalHD/System/Library -> ExternalHD/System/
6. Use Disk Utility to repair permissions on ExternalHD
7. Reboot into ExternalHD, see if all is well.

I still cannot delete the Library. I tried, and ended up losing the Library, and had to reinstall Tiger all over again, for about the 3rd or 4th time.

[vja4him]

When I trashed Library, then tried to copy over the LIbrary from the internal HD to the external HD, the old Library renamed itself to "Library 16-44-55"

Then when I tried to copy the Libary back, it renamed itself to "Library 16-39-14," and would only copy a few items, not enough to boot from the external HD, so I had to reinstall Tiger again.

[vja4him]

Originally Posted by vja4him 

When I trashed Library, then tried to copy over the LIbrary from the internal HD to the external HD, the old Library renamed itself to "Library 16-44-55"

Then when I tried to copy the Libary back, it renamed itself to "Library 16-39-14," and would only copy a few items, not enough to boot from the external HD, so I had to reinstall Tiger again.

I had to reinstall Tiger all over again, after I already reinstalled it .... because I couldn't access my e-mail. I found all the e-mail files, but when I opened up Mail, there was nothing there. Strange .....

[reader50]

You still aren't logged in as the root user on the internal HD. The errors you are reporting come from trying to delete or move or copy a system folder when you only have administrative privileges. I hope you didn't just create a new user called "root" and give it admin privs. If you did just create a user called "root" then delete it from the Accounts preference pane - it might prevent you from logging into the real root account.

From the Login window: the root account is not shown in the list of user accounts. Instead, click on the "Other..." icon. The login page will change from a list of icons to a pair of text fields. Type in root for the account name, along with the password you set when you enabled the root user in NetInfo Manager.

If the Login window doesn't show an icon for "Other..." then you have not yet enabled the root account. Refer to Cold Warrior's link for full instructions on how to enable the root user.

[vja4him]

Originally Posted by reader50 

You still aren't logged in as the root user on the internal HD. The errors you are reporting come from trying to delete or move or copy a system folder when you only have administrative privileges. I hope you didn't just create a new user called "root" and give it admin privs. If you did just create a user called "root" then delete it from the Accounts preference pane - it might prevent you from logging into the real root account.

From the Login window: the root account is not shown in the list of user accounts. Instead, click on the "Other..." icon. The login page will change from a list of icons to a pair of text fields. Type in root for the account name, along with the password you set when you enabled the root user in NetInfo Manager.

If the Login window doesn't show an icon for "Other..." then you have not yet enabled the root account. Refer to Cold Warrior's link for full instructions on how to enable the root user.

I followed directions closely, and still was not able to copy the Library.

[vja4him]

Do I need to unlock all of the items in the Library (on the internal HD), before I can copy the internal Library over to the external HD?

[reader50]

I tested copying a system Library folder on an alternate partition, while logged in as Tiger root. I did get a few error messages about special permissions on some files. Here is a solution.

WARNING - this is dangerous.

1. Boot from the internal drive. Log in as root.
2. Select the ExternalHD/System/Library/ folder and rename or move or delete it. Doesn't matter which, you just need it out of the way.
3. Select the same folder on your internal drive - the one you are booted from: InternalHD/System/Library/. Pull up the Get Info window for the /Library/ folder. Open the Ownership and Permissions section at the bottom of the Get Info window.
4. Set the Access priv to "Read & Write" for each group. You can: Read & Write, Owner Access = Read & Write, Group Access = Read & Write, Others = Read & Write. Then click the button at bottom to (Apply to enclosed items). Click through the warning dialog.
5. Now copy your InternalHD/System/Library/ folder to the external drive.
6. Launch Disk Utility. Repair permissions on both drives. Expect it to take awhile.
7. Try to reboot to the external drive only after you have repaired permissions on both drives.

The parts in purple involve risk if you miss a step. The part in RED is dangerous if you do it wrong. Some of your system files have read access turned off for everyone, so you have to grant access before a copy will succeed. But this step is a shotgun solution - it changes the group and permissions for every file/folder in your system Library. Since it changes ownerships, you have to allow everyone full read/write access or your system might crash immediately.

Afterwards, your system Library folder has no protection, which is why you have to repair permissions on the internal drive before you reboot. If you make a mistake (most likely by not giving Read & Write to all levels) and the internal system crashes or will no longer boot, then you need to boot from your install disc. Go to Disk Utility in the install disc, and repair permissions on the internal drive. That should restore bootability.

[vja4him]

Strangest thing happened today .... I pressed Escape and the video on my iBook is back to normal ... !!!

Why would the video have been messed up, and I only needed to press Escape to get the video back to normal ... ???