Kernel Panic??!!, My G4 tower won't restart all the way! Options

[macintarian]

Hello good people,

I have a G4 tower, 512MB RAM, 800 MHz processor, OS X 10.2.4, 40 gigs harddrive. I think it may be "kernel panic" which I read about in previous posts with similar error messages. Halfway thru restarting I get a "You need to restart your computer. Hold down the Power Button for several seconds or press the restart button", with what non-english alphabets at the bottom. Again and again I try and get the same message.

I have a MOTU Fastlane Midi USB interface and a firewire cable for a camcorder connected to my machine(camcorder is unplugged from cable).

I don't know where or how to begin to resolve this problem as I can not even get the machine started. I would appreciate some advice to nudge me in the right direction without risking the loss of data on my harddrive. Thanks in advance.

[Francois Déchery]

except if you're used to unix, i would suggest you to restart from the MacOSX CD 1 (press C during startup to boot from CD-rom).

When the installer program starts, go in the menu and choose "Disk Utily".

Then choose the second tab 'disk first aid' and try to 'repair DIsk' and ALSO 'repair permissions'. If you get error during this processes, do it again, until all is fine (except some weird permissions problems that could remain, and could be ignored)

When its OK, quit, then restart (press Option to be sure to boot from the HD)

If its not a big problem, it should works

If it fails you can boot in single user mode (appleKey-S at startup) and play with the terminal to figure out whta's wrong. but if you're not a unix guru, you only risk to add more problem than you solve.

Next solution, find another HD (IDE or FIrewire), plug it to the mac, boot from the CD, install OSX on the second new drive, boot from the second drive, backup your data (home directory) to the new drive, then re-install OSX on the first HD...

HTH

[TheWeaze1]

Turn the computer off, then on. Hold down shift right after you hear the start up chime. This is called safe mode in OS X. It is kinda like extensions off in OS 9 but it also runs a directory check. Also, make sure you un-plug everything from your mac. Except for stock keyboard/mouse. You can also try starting up in verbose mode...apple-v after start up chime. This goes to a unix shell and tells everything that is being loaded so you can see where it hangs. Its like watching a windoz box start up.

This post has been edited by TheWeaze1: Thu 12 Jun 2003, 11:28

[macintarian]

Thanks a lot Webmaster and TheWeaze1, I will try your suggestions too Weaze1, Webmaster I tried your advice to boot up from the MacOSX CD 1 but was afraid to proceed past the point where I have to click Restore. It explained what restore would do which was "Apple Software Restore will restore software and factory settings and will erase your HD to it's original settings". As I don't want to lose my data I just hit "Quit" till I was sure about what to do. I did have an option to "Switch" but didn't know what that would do. Would that have created a new and seperate HD on my system? If so could I then have access to my original HD and just copy my data unto the new HD?

Thanks a lot guys

[lepetitmartien]

macintarian, the switch would have allowed you to tell the installer where to find a different drive/partition to install OSX on.

If you have only this drive, it would have been of no use.

If you have ANOTHER drive, install OSX on this different drive then do the stuff Soif the webmaster told you.

If you don't, follow either the first recommendations of Soif, or the weaze1's.

keep us informed so that we can help you in case.

[macintarian]

Thanks lepetitmartien,

On trying to install Mac OS X, after selecting the harddrive I get a message saying "There are newer versions of some of the software packages in Mac OS X already installed on the volume Macintosh HD". "This software does on allow older versions to be installed on top of newer version".
Originally I had the factory setup which was both OS 9.2 and OS X, then I upgraded to Jaguar 10.2 then to 10.2.4. There is a check box that I haven't checked saying "Erase destination and format as: Does this mean that I have to check the erase box and won't that erase my data,......or is it already gone?

[TheWeaze1]

omg, don't erase anything. Did you try those things I told you to do yet? You should be using the Jag disk to try and make repairs, but do the things I told you to do first. You can try to Archive and install off the Jag disk, but don't earse anything!

[macintarian]

Well, I did not check the erase box, so my old data should still be there, I am trying both what you and Soif suggested. I think may have cleared up why I got the warning about "Newer software does not allow me to install older version". I was using the Mac OS X disc, I will try starting up from the Jaguar disc. This was my confusion as I didn't know which disc to start up from. I will keep you guys posted on my progress. Thank you guys once again.

[macintarian]

I have tried what the webmaster and weaze1 suggested. After I
verified and repaired my disk and permissions,both using Disk Utility and using the "fsck command", I get an "Invalid sibling link" error. I quit disk utility and restarted holding down the option key to start up from the harddrive but now I get two white stripes going across my monitor. As I'm not a Unix guru I couldn't understand the other options offered by pressing apple-v or s, so I didn't try those. I don't mind re-installing my software from scratch but I really don't want to lose the data I have on my harddrive. Does this mean that I am left with no more options?

[Francois Déchery]

It seems you got a serious HD problem.

Your BEST option if to find ANOTHER HD, plug it, and install OSX (or OS9) on this NEW drive.

Then boot from this new drive and try to backup your /Users/loginName/ folder from the old drive to the new drive.