[pills103]

Hi,

My name is Earl, and I am having a problem with my Powerbook G4.
I'm running Mac OS X 10.4.8, and have 512 MB DDR SDRAM.

Earlier today my computer froze up and i had to force quit it with the
power button.
When I tried to restart, it took 2 times because it would stay at the
apple logo with the circle underneath.
On the third time it started up just fine, but now the "Starting Mac OS
X" screen won't go away.
When I tried to verify disk permissions, it get about 90% of the way
done, then just stops. Also my external isn't being recognized, so I can't back my files up.
I can still use my computer normally other than this.

Also, I brought my computer into IT at school about a week ago
because of a similar situation,
It turned out that some information was corrupt.
I hope there is an easy way to fix this problem,

Any help is greatly appreciated.
Thank you very much,
Earl

[cgc]

How long did you leave your computer try to startup before you stopped it? I'd suspect you just need to let it sit there and see what happens. I mean, leave it for hours if necessary. I'd suspect data corruption on the drive and nothing more...be patient.

Can you boot from CD?

[ehwang114]

i am having a similar problem except i get past the apple screen and then come to a blue screen and just stays there. it seems like os x wont load. ive tried to boot from cd but it wont read the cd. please help!!!

[brassplayersrock²]

i had this before. it went away after a restart, and to play it safe i did a disk utility and all is fine. happened about 4 months ago

-a

edit:
ehwang: boot into safe mode and start that way, and see if youre start up disk (apple-> system preferences->startup disk) is something other then the Mac OS X (os version you have) on Macintosh HD change it to the italicized volume and press the restart button, and you should be okay

[ehwang114]

thank you for responding so quickly. i tried to follow your advice but i cant even get into safe mode. when i turn on the computer, i get the start up tone and i hold down shift key. the spinning cogs come up and then after a long time, maybe 10 minutes, the screen will change to blue screen with the cogs still there. then the cogs will go away but nothing comes up after. i left it like this for an hour or so and nothing changed. any ideas on whats wrong?

this all started when i was using safari. i dont remember exactly what i was doing but i dont think i was downloading anything. safari crashed so i went to force quit. the beach ball came up and i couldnt click on any other programs, ie ichat, iphoto, etc. so then i did a manual reset by holding down the power button. since then this has happened. anyway, any advice from anyone would be appreciated. btw i using an acer...i miss my mac!

[ehwang114]

ok i was able to restart in safe mode. it seems my s.m.a.r.t shows its failing when i run disk utility. i did some research and it recommends that i should replace my hard drive. anyone know if this is serious and if i really need to do this?

[romeosc]

Originally Posted by ehwang114 

ok i was able to restart in safe mode. it seems my s.m.a.r.t shows its failing when i run disk utility. i did some research and it recommends that i should replace my hard drive. anyone know if this is serious and if i really need to do this?

You said you couldn't brom CD. Make sure it has a good OS X on it.

Try rebooting again from Tiger DVD and reinstall OSX make sure to use archive and install.

or ty booting from an external, or one of the schools Macs in firewire mode.

[brassplayersrock²]

cd = compact disk

disk utility = something to help "flush out" your computer, and help you figure out what might be wrong.

[ehwang114]

sorry for the confusion. i am able to boot just fine thanks to first going from the safe mode. i guess what im asking is why is it that when i run disk utility it's saying my HD is "failing." my disk is almost full, could that be the reason or is it something else?