[Kzrdhd]

Hi everyone,
I'm hoping you can help.

My power g4 froze this morning and I couldn't force quit anything so I held down the power button to reset the computer.
Went to restart it did the normal chime and grey load screen, and blue then flicked to the the image I have on the desktop and the bar down the bottom poped up. But then quickly disappear to a blue screen and it just keeps looping.
I have put in my instal disk one, and verified permissions and disk repair. Also did a hardware test, and it said I had one failed ram. So I took that out, did the test again and it said my hardware was all fine.
But I still can't get it to start.

Any suggestions?

Many thanks!!!!

[P]

Try booting in safe mode, ie by holding down shift. If that doesn't work, I suggest you do an Archive & Install to reinstall the OS.

[Kzrdhd]

Hi P,
I tried doing the safe mode and it just kept sending me back to password. And just did an archive and instal also, I'm still getting the looping. Any other ideas?

[Waragainstsleep]

Sounds like an issue with the user. Can you log in as someone else? What OS do you have? It should be possible to create another user from the command line by booting in single user mode.

[Kzrdhd]

Originally Posted by Waragainstsleep 

Sounds like an issue with the user. Can you log in as someone else? What OS do you have? It should be possible to create another user from the command line by booting in single user mode.

I only have one user, as it was only me using the laptop. I had tiger 10.4.11 now I think its 10.4.6??? Maybe after archive and install. How do create another user ect? Can I please have the steps for that?

Also on a side note, not sure if will mean anything, but a few weeks back my firefox upgraded and that seemed to crash a lot. It is one of the programs that auto starts up.

Cheers

[Waragainstsleep]

To boot into single user mode, start up holding command-S. Run the commands:

mount / -uw
fsck -fy

I forget which is the correct way to do this for 10.4.

Try:

dscl / -create /Users/Kzrdhd
dscl / -passwd /Users/Kzrdhd PASSWORD
dscl / -append /Groups/admin GroupMembership Kzrdhd

If that doesn't work, try:

niutil -create / /users/Kzrdhd
niutil -appendprop / /users/Kzrdhd “passwd” “PASSWORD”
niutil -appendprop / /groups/admin GroupMembership Kzrdhd

[Kzrdhd]

Hey ya,
I have just done both ways, and it still doesn't turn on. Another suggestions?
Cheers

[Waragainstsleep]

If the above worked and created a new user, you should be able to see their user folder:

cd /users
ls

If the user is there, then try safe mode again so you can bypass the automatic login.

Another way to create a new user is to boot single user mode like before, use the

mount / -uw

command, then do this:

cd /var/db
rm .AppleSetupDone
reboot

It should take you through the setup assistant again, just go through it and create a user with a different name to your main one. It looks like the Mac has reset but your data will still be there.

[Kzrdhd]

Still not working.
When I did the last stuff in single user mode, it said command not found.
Also when I tried to go to safe mode start still only the user there
Cheers

[Waragainstsleep]

Do you have access to another Mac and a firewire cable?

You might find by (temporarily) moving some of the user preferences in ~/Library that you can persuade it to boot. Its probably easier at this point to just archive & install it.

[Kzrdhd]

I have done an archive and install, still didn't work. Maybe this weekend I can go visit my friend has has a Mac, when I connect the two, is it my broken one I hold down t?? On it?? Or his one?

[Waragainstsleep]

Hold down t on yours.