[graphics84]

ok, this may need to be in the OS X section but It may be a laptop specific problem.

When I try to boot in OS X I get the gray apple and the spinning circle (not an aqua spin)... then it just stops booting and lines appear on the screen. It looks like a bad TV signal from the 60's (all grayscale).

My computer won't boot in OS X at all from CD or the Hard Drive yet I can pick a startup folder in OS 9. I switch ii and get the same lines either way (drive or cd).

I fixed the hard drive with Disk First Aid (which it found errors) and it took 3 times to get it.

So what are your suggestions.

I'm trying to avoid a disk reformat and reboot.

Oh, how did it happen... I think I have a defective Firewire drive... when I booted in OS 9 to throw away some stuff that had weird privileges it all went bad when I went back to OS X.

[graphics84]

well it might be bad form but I'm answering my own post...

nothing was working so I copied my info to an external FW drive which I then booted from with the old OS 9 folder (OS X wouldn't work that way either).

I ran disk first aid several times and it wasn't working.. so I initalized my drive...

now when I start up I have a flashing question mark...

OS 9 disk boots fine (cd and external FW)

OS X cause a scary screen with a square and text in a bunch of differnt languages telling me to restart.

Well I did but every time (for OS X) got the same screen

Zapped the p ram (yes took all power off)

now I'm about to do a low level...

crossing the fingers...

if I can't install OS X after that then I'm going to the apple store I guess

[mrmister]

10 to 1 that is hardware--I've seen that when graphic cards and motherboards have issues.

[graphics84]

hum... it may be hardware...

but after the zero all data (6-7 hours) it still did the same thing with my generic jaguar disk but it booted in OS X on my system CD that came with the computer...

I'm doing the full install now... including updates...

nothing points to an one problem... it's all kinda random...

I'll see after the full install and updates...

the last thing I did update wise was a security update the same day it happened?

but not sure if that's it yet...

it restarted and I'm still doing updates...

[riverfreak]

this is totally a hardware problem. Have you tried running the hardware diagnostic CD, and running it over and over?

Many times errors in things like VRAM or other motherboard problems won't show up with a single run through the hardware diagnostic.

[graphics84]

Originally posted by riverfreak:
this is totally a hardware problem. Have you tried running the hardware diagnostic CD, and running it over and over?

Many times errors in things like VRAM or other motherboard problems won't show up with a single run through the hardware diagnostic.

I will tomorrow at work... it'll be a bummer cuz my machine is running like brand new again...

I guess wiping the drive and rebuliding from scratch will do that...

will keep the thread updated