[ValVashon]

The patient today is an original Mac Mini, 1.24 gHz G4. Mini lives at a TV station. Mini is used along with two others displaying a StreamBox feed from our affiliate TV station the next city over. The video out is hooked to an adapter that makes S-VHS video (which feeds our display sytem). This particular Mini stopped displaying S-VHS video, possibly after a short in the PS-2 connector (two pins were stuffed into one jack, why I don't know). Problem follows computer, not the adapter, when devices are mixed and matched.

Computer works fine and displays the desktop and video stream fine on a VGA monitor (with adapter). I have attempted to boot off of a system disk (10.3) from both the internal and external firewire drive, but get either the circle/slash or the apple startup and then it freezes with a bit of screen noise. These Mini's were installed in early 2005 or so and have had no maintenance whatsoever. I found this one to be running 10.3.8 (!). I did some software updates but machine still won't boot off an external drive.

Repairing permissions hasn't helped. I ran TechTool and it found 169 errors in the "Surface Scan" indicating bad blocks.

I tried putting it in target disk mode to run disk utility but the computer I hooked it to didn't appreciate it and wouldn't mount the Mini's drive a second time. I may try that again.

I don't have access to the disks that came with the computer (I might after the weekend); I was trying to boot off of a retail copy of 10.3.

Any ideas about how to get it to boot, and any idea if the S-VHS problem is related to disk damage?

[dowNNshift]

Well first of all, its likely got 3 years worth of PRAM and SMC info that is now corrupted. So first things first, clear both.

Second, ditch the old internal hard drive. If you're getting bad block errors, its time for a new drive -- and technology has come along way for 2.5-in drives in the last 3 years.

Check with the specs of your streambox what the latest OS it'll handle. All the PowerPC Mini's will handle Tiger 10.4.

As far as the prohibitory sign, that means the disc you're booting from does not have the proper firmware to boot. You'll have to use a different disc, and I recommend jumping to a 10.4 Tiger disc.

If you need to go deeper down the troubleshooting rabbit hole, there are Apple Service Providers like us that'll get you all fixed up.

[ValVashon]

Oh yeah, I forgot, I already cleared the PRAM and SMC. Got it to boot up today off of the better half's MacBook install CD's with 10.5 on them. Message says OS X can't be installed from these DVD's, but Apple is nice enough to let you use Disk Utility from the DVD. If a MacBook DVD is in a Mac Mini it is probably an emergency, so thanks for not being jerks and letting us at least boot and run Disk Utility.

Anyway, it found that the "Volume Header needs minor repair" and went ahead and repaired it. I'll be updating, but I wanted to post that so I would remember what happened.

Val