[Target Practice]

Hi,

I'm trying to help my housemate troubleshoot a problem with his 12" PowerBook G4. He left for a 2-month trip to Sydney Australia and I'm in New York. I'd know exactly what to do if he were here, but he's not, he forgot to take his restore disks, and AppleCare Australia is closed on the weekends. Anyways, here is the problem...

He either shut his AlBook down or put it to sleep while plugged in and went to bed. When he woke up the computer would not wake up or start, but he noticed that the monitor was displaying a kernal panic screen although the backlight was off. I suppose the KP occured before the shutdown process was finished. Now whenever he starts the machine, it will never get past the grey apple with the gear progress indicator. I've tried to walk him through booting in "safe" and "verbose" mode and resetting the power manager -- but there is no effect. I was surprised that it would even boot in verbose mode, because when I try this on my Mac it starts in verbose mode instantly -- before I see the grey Apple Screen.

Anyone have any quick ideas before he seeks out some friendly Apple service center in Sydney on Monday? Or, I'll have to ship the software restore disks.

[dettociao]

try zapping the p-ram (it's always worth a shot).

if that doesn't work, ship the disks.

[Karim]

This sort of issue is one reason dual partions, and a system on each is a good idea. Either that or a religous adhearance to travelling with a system restore disk.

All that aside, there is not much else he can try other than what you have already expertly recommended to him. The only other thing is a fsck in single user mode or a trip to the local University or maybe even cybercafe where they or a random user may lend him the disk he needs.

[Mohammed Al-Sabah]

dude when he restarts he only gets the apple logo and doesnt get the spinning circle right? same prob here with PB1ghz

[PeterKG]

How about running fsck -y? Did he try that?

Reboot while holding down the Apple-S keys.
He will get a black screen with all kinds of text. When the text stops loading type in fsck -y (space between k -). If it says system was modified then keep typing fsck -y until it says the system appears to be okay. Then typr reboot to start up again.

This procedure should take care of a kenel panic.

[Mohammed Al-Sabah]

Originally posted by PeterKG:
How about running fsck -y? Did he try that?

Reboot while holding down the Apple-S keys.
He will get a black screen with all kinds of text. When the text stops loading type in fsck -y (space between k -). If it says system was modified then keep typing fsck -y until it says the system appears to be okay. Then typr reboot to start up again.

This procedure should take care of a kenel panic.

would not work with me not sure about him tho.. the only thing i can do is T any other commands wont work and no spinning circle at all... and its not a hardware prob cuz i booted my Imac using the Powerbook as a FW HD and got the same screen on Imac gonna erase disk and re install OSX and see how it goes

[Mohammed Al-Sabah]

how do i zap the pram ?

[PeterKG]

Originally posted by Mohammed Al-Sabah:
how do i zap the pram ?

Hi Mohammed,

Reboot while holding down the Command (Apple) - Option - P - R Keys. Hold down the keys until you hear the start up chime three times. Then let go of the keys.

When all else fails I always wipe and re-install. That will take care of any problem software related.

Good luck!

Peter

[Mohammed Al-Sabah]

thx pete!

do u zap before u try re installing the OS or after? kina a newbie with this stuff

[PeterKG]

Originally posted by Mohammed Al-Sabah:
thx pete!

do u zap before u try re installing the OS or after? kina a newbie with this stuff

Mohammed,

Try zapping first. Kernel panics are usually caused by hardware connected to your computer. Do you have anything plugged in?


Peter

[Target Practice]

THANKS EVERYBODY!!! I know I'm looking for longshot or "out-of-the-box" solutions beyond what I already know in order to help him over the weekend...

I always partition my Macs for exactly this reason -- thanks for the affirmation, Karim.

Mohammed, I read your post earlier and thought the problem was similar to yours... but he's getting the spinning indicator that never stops. I was hoping you'd get an answer from somebody that would apply to our situation. BTW, he's running a nice and clean 10.2.4 installation.

PeterKB, I did indeed walk him through booting in "safe" mode (Apple-S) but just got the grey Apple logo with the spinning clock dealio. Same results when using Apple-V. This surprises me, because I thought either of these actions would interrupt the boot process before the Apple logo and progress indicator code would load -- at least this is the case on my own Mac.

Since buying the 12" he's had several kernal panics -- a couple while shutting down. On the other hand, I've been using OS X since before the public beta and never had a kernal panic on any machine I've personally set-up and used (mostly a PowerMac G4 450 and 1Ghz Tibook). In fact, it took me a while to get that he was describing a kernal panic over the phone.

This AlBook also has other problems: it gets quite hot; it had a previous problem starting up after conditioning the battery that required an AppleCare phone guy to direct my friend through resetting the power manager; full-screen DVD playback is choppy, and Airport Extreme sucks (but that's not the laptop's fault). It's a blessing that all the screws are still in place and it doesn't wobble. Actually, I think the 12" is a sweet machine.

Anyways, thanks for the help -- if you have other ideas, keep them coming.

[Mohammed Al-Sabah]

back all and YES my PB is back online yay ( but for how long ) lol

well pete i just erased and reinstalled OSx Jag with the combo .4 update... lets see how long this would last this time thx again for all your help