[Loren_]

This morning I tried starting my machine and got through the login and the desktop picture came up, but no icons, just the spinning beach ball.

Reboot yields same thing.

Connected a firewire drive and loaded the OS on the drive. Restarted and the same thing happened running off the firewire drive.

Ran the 5-10 minute test tools CD and everything seems to pass the quick test. I had to skip the video ram test as I ran out of time.

Machine is:

Dual 2.0 Ghz (one month old)
1.5 Gig Memory
30" Apple Cin Display w/ 6800 vid card
Logictech MX1000 mouse

The data on the hard disk is more important than the hardware. My first concern is recovery of that data.

Thanks in advance,

Marv

[betasp]

Try flashing PRAM (hold cmd-option-p-r) at startup. Press power then the above and wait for the machine to chime a few times before releasing.

After that, try to boot from CD and reinstall the OS (overtop the old).

[cybergoober]

Try booting into Safe Mode before reinstalling your OS.
What is Safe Boot, Safe Mode?
Starting up in Safe Mode

[Loren_]

Thanks!!!

I tried safe mode and was able to rescure critical documents. I am probably going to upgrade to Tiger and do a clean install next.

Marv

[Chuckit]

If safe mode worked, there's a good chance it's just your preferences that are hosed.