g5 boot problem...

[usd]

cheers folks,
i don´t think it´s related to ProTools but in this forum is such a huge knowledge maybe somebody have seen this:
i experience a strange boot/start up behaviour of my good old G5 since moving to leopard and PT8. every morning when i "power up my controlroom" my mac won´t start properly at the first time. the mac stays on the white apple screen. i allways have to force shut down (with holding the power button). after powering up again everythings starts normal. strange?
maybe a HD failure or known os problem? system specs: g5 dual 2gig / 7mb ram / os 10.5.5 combo / PT8. everything installed from scratch with a new seagate barracuda system drive.
thanks, alex

[Drew Mazurek]

Does it do this when you disconnect all USB accessories first?

[usd]

i´am not in the studio at the moment but i will try tomorrow. the only connected USB devices are keyboard (with mouse and dlink bluethooth adapter) and the ilok...

[Chief Technician]

Originally Posted by usd

cheers folks,
i don´t think it´s related to ProTools

Neither do I.

but in this forum is such a huge knowledge maybe somebody have seen this:

Or can describe what is going on.

i experience a strange boot/start up behaviour of my good old G5 since moving to leopard and PT8. every morning when i "power up my controlroom" my mac won´t start properly at the first time. the mac stays on the white apple screen.

Before this happens, you should hear a startup chime. That chime indicates that the G5 passed its POST, or Power-On Self Test. After that chime, you should see a white screen with an Apple logo. At this stage, the firmware is directing the computer to load the booter file. If this is successful, then you will see the spinning gear icon beneath the Apple logo. The spinning gear icon indicates that the kernel and subsequent files are being loaded.

i allways have to force shut down (with holding the power button). after powering up again everythings starts normal. strange?

Strange indeed. When you power up your control room, are there external peripherals attached to the G5 that turn on with a single (or master) switch? What would happen if you turned on only the G5 tomorrow morning? When you force shut down and then restart, do the cooling fans of the G5 ever ramp their speed up before the screen takes on a blue background?

When the system hangs at the point of the white screen with the Apple logo, I think of a hard drive problem. This could either be physical failure, or it could be file system corruption, as it would be unable to properly locate, let alone load, the booter file. If you can, startup off of the Leopard DVD you used with this system, and choose Disk Utility from the Utilities menu once the DVD loads. You will want to verify, and if necessary, repair the Macintosh HD.

maybe a HD failure or known os problem?

HD failure, maybe. Known OS problem? I doubt it. Apple's QA may be bad, but I don't think it has gotten that bad...yet.

system specs: g5 dual 2gig / 7mb ram / os 10.5.5 combo / PT8. everything installed from scratch with a new seagate barracuda system drive.

Ah, Seagate. Wise choice.

[TCDet]

Try Safe-Boot (Bypasses extensions) (Hold Shift Key during a cold boot) If you can and repair permissions or if it still wont boot, boot from a BU drive or the Leopard DVD, Repair Permissions / Check Drive from that disk's disk utility.

If you own Cocktail (Or similar)rebuild Pre-bindings, Rotate log files.

I noticed you mentioned 7 Gb ram (7mb type-o) All ram needs to be in matched pairs and same type and speed.

Also I have a 2.3 dual G65 that had an AIT video card for what ever reason I needed new drivers when I moved into Leopard.

Also important that any Permissions repairing needs to done with Leopard Disk utilities.
Do not Mix any Non Leopard utilities from tiger. It will make matters worse and visa versa.

[usd]

Originally Posted by Chief Technician

Neither do I.
Or can describe what is going on.
Before this happens, you should hear a startup chime. That chime indicates that the G5 passed its POST, or Power-On Self Test. After that chime, you should see a white screen with an Apple logo. At this stage, the firmware is directing the computer to load the booter file. If this is successful, then you will see the spinning gear icon beneath the Apple logo. The spinning gear icon indicates that the kernel and subsequent files are being loaded.

and in this stage it keeps for ages...

Strange indeed. When you power up your control room, are there external peripherals attached to the G5 that turn on with a single (or master) switch?

no.

What would happen if you turned on only the G5 tomorrow morning? When you force shut down and then restart, do the cooling fans of the G5 ever ramp their speed up before the screen takes on a blue background?

no.

When the system hangs at the point of the white screen with the Apple logo, I think of a hard drive problem. This could either be physical failure, or it could be file system corruption, as it would be unable to properly locate, let alone load, the booter file.


thats what i think too.


If you can, startup off of the Leopard DVD you used with this system, and choose Disk Utility from the Utilities menu once the DVD loads. You will want to verify, and if necessary, repair the Macintosh HD.
HD failure, maybe. Known OS problem? I doubt it. Apple's QA may be bad, but I don't think it has gotten that bad...yet.
Ah, Seagate. Wise choice.

thank you very much for your help everybody. i will try tommorow morning and report back!!

[JC925602]

Sometime an old battery can cause weird behavior like the one you described. Best way to find out if your battery is dead is to unplug the network, than start the computer and if the date and time is wrong, the battery is dead.

JC

[Sean Russell]

Happened to me today on and old G5. It would hang on the blank grey screen (boot chime but no Apple logo). Just touching the power button would turn the unit off immediately. I yanked the firewire cables going into a couple of turned off drives and it booted up flawlessly.

When repairing permissions on the computer immediately after the boot, I noticed a bunch of out-of-whack permissions that (no doubt) were PT8 related.

[usd]

Originally Posted by JC925602

Sometime an old battery can cause weird behavior like the one you described. Best way to find out if your battery is dead is to unplug the network, than start the computer and if the date and time is wrong, the battery is dead.

JC

oh yes, very good point! mine is dead. i´ll get a new one and report back...
thanks JC!

[usd]

got a new battery, and no major boot problems since change!
although i have to say that sometimes the system boot routine/startup of 10.5 takes a lot more patience than 10.4. maybe normal for the good old powerpc...
thanks again everybody and especially JC.