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TICKET ARCHIVE -> 500MHZ Pismo Grey Screen on Boot
sinistersai4d - Feb 1, 2006 - 1:56 pm
Please read...
ok... I my pismo is only booting in safe mode. It is running OSX 10.3.9 - I did a fresh reinstall of the OS. (didn't help) I tried normal booting on an external firewire drive and it still wouldn't...just grey screen.. but it WAS able to Safe boot via firewire also. My main problem with safe mode... aside from the annoyance of having to hold down the shift key.. is that the pismo won't decect my soundcard... it still "chimes" at start up.. but once I safe boot I can't play audio.... it doesn't even recognize the soundcard. I'm this close to duct taping my ipod to the fucking thing and pretending its an "external soundcard"...
At least I know its not the ram and not the hard drive or the operating system. I have reset the pram and updated all firmware. even checked the pram battery and the verified/repaired disk permissions with OSX utility and Disk Warrior... all of which seem to be working fine. I tried booting with only the stock ram too.. but still.. Grey screen of death.
Any ideas on what to do next.. I hoping there is no damage to the motherboard.. thats all I can think of. if there were damage would it still safe boot?
I use the machine primarily for surfing the net, word processing, and listening to music... All of which I can do in safe mode except for the music part.
Anybody know how to make the machine safe boot by default? ANybody know how to get it to recognize sound card in safe mode? Anybody know what else I won't be able to do by only running the machine in safe mode?
thanx in advance.
ok... I my pismo is only booting in safe mode. It is running OSX 10.3.9 - I did a fresh reinstall of the OS. (didn't help) I tried normal booting on an external firewire drive and it still wouldn't...just grey screen.. but it WAS able to Safe boot via firewire also. My main problem with safe mode... aside from the annoyance of having to hold down the shift key.. is that the pismo won't decect my soundcard... it still "chimes" at start up.. but once I safe boot I can't play audio.... it doesn't even recognize the soundcard. I'm this close to duct taping my ipod to the fucking thing and pretending its an "external soundcard"...
At least I know its not the ram and not the hard drive or the operating system. I have reset the pram and updated all firmware. even checked the pram battery and the verified/repaired disk permissions with OSX utility and Disk Warrior... all of which seem to be working fine. I tried booting with only the stock ram too.. but still.. Grey screen of death.
Any ideas on what to do next.. I hoping there is no damage to the motherboard.. thats all I can think of. if there were damage would it still safe boot?
I use the machine primarily for surfing the net, word processing, and listening to music... All of which I can do in safe mode except for the music part.
Anybody know how to make the machine safe boot by default? ANybody know how to get it to recognize sound card in safe mode? Anybody know what else I won't be able to do by only running the machine in safe mode?
thanx in advance.
ishan - Feb 1, 2006 - 8:19 pm
By safe booting, you're not loading both Apple and third party extensions that run on startup. Since you reinstalled (archive/install?), it's a pretty safe bet that your apple extensions are OK. What third party extensions are set to run in your setup (what items were shown in your "login items" list in your Accounts prefpane? One or more of these is causing the problem. You can't safe boot and use Apple's kernel extensions to make your sound card work, so that's not an option. I think this is still a software problem. If you didn't do a clean install, i.e., ERASE/install with your ORIGINAL install CDs, you should do that. If that also fails to allow you to boot normally, then I would suspect a hardware problem.
HTH and please let us know what happens. Thanks.
HTH and please let us know what happens. Thanks.
sinistersai4d - Feb 1, 2006 - 9:39 pm
ok.. didn't work.. but that was a good idea that I hadn't tried yet. My only login item was something called "itunes helper" which I removed from the list.
I did do a clean install (erase install) and I also tried using a brand new firewire hard drive with nothing but osx installed on it. I have osx discs that I have used previously and they worked fine.. they aren't the originals though. However, I have also put an original version of Tiger on the pismo (that I have on my G4 eMac) and did a clean install. And that would still only boot in safe mode. So I did another clean install and put back on osx 10.3. Now I know it doesn't work with panther or tiger .. and I know both discs are fine. That was actually the first thing I tried.
still when I boot up without using safe mode... i hear the chime, then I see the apple logo with the spinning load spiral... than the screen turns gray.. then it turns blue... than it turns grey and stays there... sometimes I will have a mouse cursor in the top left corner.. and I can move the mouse around. Is it normal to be able to hear the chime.. and then have safe mode not be able to detect the sound card? What do you mean by third party extensions? does that include new ram? Thats the only upgrade I have done lately.. but like I said, I reset the pram... and it is reading the memory just fine. I have a belkin wireless notebook card in it and I can still get online wirelessly.
ok.. thanks alot by the way.... I appreciate your help.
I did do a clean install (erase install) and I also tried using a brand new firewire hard drive with nothing but osx installed on it. I have osx discs that I have used previously and they worked fine.. they aren't the originals though. However, I have also put an original version of Tiger on the pismo (that I have on my G4 eMac) and did a clean install. And that would still only boot in safe mode. So I did another clean install and put back on osx 10.3. Now I know it doesn't work with panther or tiger .. and I know both discs are fine. That was actually the first thing I tried.
still when I boot up without using safe mode... i hear the chime, then I see the apple logo with the spinning load spiral... than the screen turns gray.. then it turns blue... than it turns grey and stays there... sometimes I will have a mouse cursor in the top left corner.. and I can move the mouse around. Is it normal to be able to hear the chime.. and then have safe mode not be able to detect the sound card? What do you mean by third party extensions? does that include new ram? Thats the only upgrade I have done lately.. but like I said, I reset the pram... and it is reading the memory just fine. I have a belkin wireless notebook card in it and I can still get online wirelessly.
ok.. thanks alot by the way.... I appreciate your help.
sinistersai4d - Feb 1, 2006 - 9:54 pm
one more thing... somebody suggested this.. do you think it might work?
Remove Battery and Power-cord. leave the machine alone for a day (This should make the backup battery run empty)
press the reset button on the back of the machine.
put the battery and power-cord back in and try to start again.
what does the reset button "reset".. and why would letting the backup battery run empty be a good thing?
Remove Battery and Power-cord. leave the machine alone for a day (This should make the backup battery run empty)
press the reset button on the back of the machine.
put the battery and power-cord back in and try to start again.
what does the reset button "reset".. and why would letting the backup battery run empty be a good thing?
ishan - Feb 1, 2006 - 11:38 pm
You didn't mention the new RAM before. That's really helpful, please take it out. I bet your Pismo will boot up just fine without the new RAM chips.
The other suggestion is also a valid one, but the new RAM is almost certainly the problem.
The other suggestion is also a valid one, but the new RAM is almost certainly the problem.
sinistersai4d - Feb 2, 2006 - 12:16 am
no sorry. to get your hopes up but thats not it... I tried booting with the original 128mb stick alone and it still didn't boot.. now I have two third party sticks in and they are working fine... the machine recognizes them... but only in safe mode..
but I did try booting with only the 128 stick in that came with the pismo.. still did the same thing.. just alot slower.
.. and before this occured the 128 stick was accompanied by a third party 256 stick (which is still in there along with a new 512 stick) and it worked fine.
I have downloaded the osx updates but I think I might need the firmware updates for the pismo.. I thought that osx updates were the same as firmware updates..(apparently they are not) maybe after doing the clean install I needed to reinstall the firmware updates... heres the problem... don't I need os9 to use the firmware updates for the pismo? is there a way to do the firmware updates with only osx on the machine? And if I am able to get the new firmware on there, will there be issues with the firmware update and the third party ram?
but I did try booting with only the 128 stick in that came with the pismo.. still did the same thing.. just alot slower.
.. and before this occured the 128 stick was accompanied by a third party 256 stick (which is still in there along with a new 512 stick) and it worked fine.
I have downloaded the osx updates but I think I might need the firmware updates for the pismo.. I thought that osx updates were the same as firmware updates..(apparently they are not) maybe after doing the clean install I needed to reinstall the firmware updates... heres the problem... don't I need os9 to use the firmware updates for the pismo? is there a way to do the firmware updates with only osx on the machine? And if I am able to get the new firmware on there, will there be issues with the firmware update and the third party ram?
ishan - Feb 2, 2006 - 5:13 am
I'm sorry that removing the RAM didn't do the job. You're right-you have to boot into OS 9 to install the new firmware. Can you use your OS 9.x disk to do that (hold down c at startup)?
sinistersai4d - Feb 2, 2006 - 8:44 am
no.. I don't have an os9 disk... I have been using os 10.3 since I got the thing. I'm thinking the previous owner might have installed the firmware... then, by me doing a clean install, I erased the it. I don't know what to do... do you think the reset button might help? Will it do any damage?
ishan - Feb 2, 2006 - 5:47 pm
Hold the reset down for a couple of seconds ONLY and ONLY ONCE, and you should be OK.
sinistersai4d - Feb 2, 2006 - 10:43 pm
that just reset my clock.. still didn't fix it.
I'm thinking about buying a new 500mhz cpu card
I might have damaged mine during the ram install.. I think the logic board is ok....I'm pretty sure the power/sound card is working (because I'm still getting the chime sound and the power cord is working fine)... thats all I can think of... it has to be a hardware problem..
http://cgi.ebay.com/PowerBook-G3-Pis...QQcmdZViewItem
thanks again... but I'm out of ideas.
I'm thinking about buying a new 500mhz cpu card
I might have damaged mine during the ram install.. I think the logic board is ok....I'm pretty sure the power/sound card is working (because I'm still getting the chime sound and the power cord is working fine)... thats all I can think of... it has to be a hardware problem..
http://cgi.ebay.com/PowerBook-G3-Pis...QQcmdZViewItem
thanks again... but I'm out of ideas.
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