[kentuckyfried]

I tried installing an ATI radeon 7000 for mac yesterday, and I guess the driver's on the cd were too old. The card wouldn't work.


I put the old one back in.


Unfortunately, the ATI drivers are still in there, and they're wreaking havoc on my computer. I know this b/c when I was following the Macworld tips, I was able to boot up without any of the extensions on by holding down the "shift" button, and the computer can start up.

Here's the problem: The only thing I can do is startup up one of the apps that comes with mac os 10.2.3. If I try to open up a hard drive, it bombs and makes me restart the mac. So one of the few things I have to work with is the terminal application.

I can't restart from a cd b/c when I do the force boot from cd thing, the OS keeps starting up from the hard drive anyhow. I think it's b/c the cd-rw I have is linked to my mac through a firewire enclosure, so by first priorities, it doesn't know to look at the firewire connection first.

Getting back to the terminal app: I managed to get the installtion log of the radeon installer, and deleted all the things listed there (they were in like, two directories...but mostly only help files and utility directory).

I then went into system:library:extensions and deleted all of the extensions that were installed on Feb 1.

I am looking for the library:startupitems directory mentioined in the macworld feb 2003 issue, but I think that's a misprint, might be system:library:startupitems.


Does anybody know where else I need to delete files? I haven't hit the correct ones obviously b/c something is still there that's causing the computer to crash.


I'm hoping the new drivers released in October don't cause the same headaches, if and when I get around to installing them.

[awcopus]

You write:

"I can't restart from a cd b/c when I do the force boot from cd thing, the OS keeps starting up from the hard drive anyhow. I think it's b/c the cd-rw I have is linked to my mac through a firewire enclosure, so by first priorities, it doesn't know to look at the firewire connection first."

Stop deleting files. You have a sufficiently friend OS to merit reinstalling OS X.

First, try booting in Single User mode (restart and hold down Command-S). Then type "fsck -y". If it finds problems and fixes them, run it one more time to verify that your disc is okay. Then type "reboot".

If everything is fixed, promptly back up your Users folder and reinstall OS X.

You should start up from your OS X disc inside your Mac's optical drive. Holding down your mouse button during a restart, should eject your CPU's optical drive. Install the OS X disc, and restart again holding down C.

Reinstalling OS X does not wipe your User directory, so your data should be fine, but it's always good to have a back up anyway. It should simply reset the OS.

I wouldn't bother to install driver updates. In general, Apple is including up to date drivers in its OS X updates. 10.2.4, due in about a month, will include updates to nVidia and ATI drivers. Wait for that. Hope this was helpful. Good luck!

[Fallout]

Just restart, hold down Option and choose the CD from there. Backup and reinstall ASAP.

[kentuckyfried]

^ The B&W for some reason can't boot from a firewire cd-rw. That's all I have right now.

It turns out the internal cable had just gotten worn out enough that the connection was bad. My cd-r is still salvagable after all, though I'll probably dump in a cheap dvd player for $35 tomorrow.

Thanks for the tips guys. My friend agreed with me...since I had lost most of my mp3's and other data with the loss of my 60 GB hard drive a few weeks ago, we just went ahead and reinstalled OS X.


Lessons learned from this ordeal:

1. Need to backup way the hell more often
2. Must remember to download newest drivers before installing hardware, not depend on ones included with hardware.