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TICKET ARCHIVE -> Gray Screen of Death
Paul1e - Jun 2, 2005 - 12:31 pm
I have a Pismo 400 G3 Firewire...It froze this morning, when i restarted it froze on the gray apple/ spinny thing screen...after that it would not boot at all...i tried booting from some old norton disks and then an os x disk, but even that has ceased. It will not boot at all!! not even from a disk...it only loads to this gray screen with a frozen mouse in the top left corner. One web board said that the drive is fried, another says that it's the logic board...WHAT IS WRONG?!?!?!?!?!?
bobw - Jun 2, 2005 - 2:29 pm
Hi Paul
See if you can boot into Single User mode and run 'fsck'
===============================================
To run fsck, you first need to start up your Mac in single-user mode. Here's how:
1. Restart your Mac.
2. Immediately press and hold the Command and "S" keys.
You'll see a bunch of text begin scrolling on your screen. In a few more seconds, you'll see the Unix command line prompt (#).
You're now in single-user mode.
Now that you're at the # prompt, here's how to run fsck:
1. Type: "fsck -y" (that's fsck-space-minus-y).
(If you're running Panther, v 10.3, then type this "fsck -f"
2. Press Return.
The fsck utility will blast some text onto your screen. If there's damage to your disk, you'll see a message that says:
***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED *****
If you see this message--and this is extremely important-- repeat running fsck. It is normal to have to run fsck more than once -- the first run's repairs often uncover additional problems..
When fsck finally reports that no problems were found, and the # prompt reappears:
3. Type: "reboot" to restart,
or type "exit" to start up without rebooting.
4. Press Return.
Your Mac should proceed to start up normally to the login window or the Finder.
===================================================
If it won't boot in Single User Mode or from an OS CD, you may have a bad logic board. If the hard drive was bad, it should still boot off the CD.
Bobw - Macosx.com Tech Support
See if you can boot into Single User mode and run 'fsck'
===============================================
To run fsck, you first need to start up your Mac in single-user mode. Here's how:
1. Restart your Mac.
2. Immediately press and hold the Command and "S" keys.
You'll see a bunch of text begin scrolling on your screen. In a few more seconds, you'll see the Unix command line prompt (#).
You're now in single-user mode.
Now that you're at the # prompt, here's how to run fsck:
1. Type: "fsck -y" (that's fsck-space-minus-y).
(If you're running Panther, v 10.3, then type this "fsck -f"
2. Press Return.
The fsck utility will blast some text onto your screen. If there's damage to your disk, you'll see a message that says:
***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED *****
If you see this message--and this is extremely important-- repeat running fsck. It is normal to have to run fsck more than once -- the first run's repairs often uncover additional problems..
When fsck finally reports that no problems were found, and the # prompt reappears:
3. Type: "reboot" to restart,
or type "exit" to start up without rebooting.
4. Press Return.
Your Mac should proceed to start up normally to the login window or the Finder.
===================================================
If it won't boot in Single User Mode or from an OS CD, you may have a bad logic board. If the hard drive was bad, it should still boot off the CD.
Bobw - Macosx.com Tech Support
Paul1e - Jun 2, 2005 - 3:01 pm
won't boot in single user mode or from cd....this thing is FRIED...is a logic board something i can install at home or is that a technician's job...
bobw - Jun 2, 2005 - 3:26 pm
Paul
You can download a service manual to use for changing the board here;
http://www.whoopis.com/computer_repa...Book_G3_FW.pdf
Read through and see if it's something you would want to do.
Bobw - Macosx.com Tech Support
You can download a service manual to use for changing the board here;
http://www.whoopis.com/computer_repa...Book_G3_FW.pdf
Read through and see if it's something you would want to do.
Bobw - Macosx.com Tech Support
Paul1e - Jun 2, 2005 - 3:55 pm
Bob
well...i'm about 9/10 of the way through opening the pbook...i'm wondering though...what if i replace the logic board & it's something else? is there a physical way to tell if it's been damaged?
Thanks for all the help so far
well...i'm about 9/10 of the way through opening the pbook...i'm wondering though...what if i replace the logic board & it's something else? is there a physical way to tell if it's been damaged?
Thanks for all the help so far
bobw - Jun 2, 2005 - 4:00 pm
Paul
Unless there's a burnt spot, no way to tell if it's bad without having a tech check it out.
Bobw - Macosx.com Tech Support
Unless there's a burnt spot, no way to tell if it's bad without having a tech check it out.
Bobw - Macosx.com Tech Support
Paul1e - Jun 2, 2005 - 4:28 pm
ok...i think i found it...on the underside of the logic board there's a somewhat octagonal chip that says "lucent" on it....it's covered in black and sitting on a slightly larger, slightly raised tiny green board...one of the corners of the tiny board is missing the printed circuits and a gold surface is exposed in a weird way...there is also a burned look to the exposed area and a somewhat less burned look to all the other corners...
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