I've got a Bondi blue iMac that is acting strangely (or strange to me).

On startup, it loads everything up fine, gets to the desktop, but as
soon as the hard drive icon appears, I get a blank programmer box on the
screen.

Desktop pattern loads fine, clock shows up, hard drive icon shows up and
the mouse will move around, but nothing else.

Restarting with extensions off gives the same behaviour.

I tried my Norton Systemworks CD and got the same behaviour. Everything
loads, but I get the programmer box right after the Norton Disk icon
shows up.

Tried zapping the PRAM and nothing is plugged in except the keyboard and
the mouse into the keyboard.

Any ideas?

As always, many thanks.

rob

Hi Rob,

Are you running Classic or X?

See if this helps:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=30556

Mike



Rob wrote:

> I've got a Bondi blue iMac that is acting strangely (or strange to me).
>
> On startup, it loads everything up fine, gets to the desktop, but as
> soon as the hard drive icon appears, I get a blank programmer box on the
> screen.

In article <vjng3s6d78p9c7[at]corp.supernews.com>, MikeC <no[at]spam.com>
wrote:

> http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=30556

Sorry, forgot about that.

It's running 9.1 with 128 megs of RAM.

BTW, I just tried resetting the CUDA, no luck. Doing the same thing as
before.

Hi Rob,

Have you tried to boot with the keyboard plugged in or maybe used a
different keyboard? Maybe there's a problem with it.

Mike

Ops...I meant with the keyboard unplugged...

Mike


MikeC wrote:

> Hi Rob,
>
> Have you tried to boot with the keyboard plugged in or maybe used a
> different keyboard? Maybe there's a problem with it.
>
> Mike
>

On 8/14/03 2:32 PM, in article vjnli91tpcvlc4[at]corp.supernews.com, "MikeC"
<no[at]spam.com> wrote:

> Ops...I meant with the keyboard unplugged...
>
> Mike
>
>
> MikeC wrote:
>
>> Hi Rob,
>>
>> Have you tried to boot with the keyboard plugged in or maybe used a
>> different keyboard? Maybe there's a problem with it.
>>
>> Mike
>>
>
Is the CUDA the same thing as the PMU on my iBook which controls different
pieces of hardware? I resolved a mysterious modem problem by resetting it.
See Knowledge Base article # 14449.

In article <vjnli91tpcvlc4[at]corp.supernews.com>, MikeC <no[at]spam.com>
wrote:

> Ops...I meant with the keyboard unplugged...
>
> Mike
>
>
> MikeC wrote:
>
> > Hi Rob,
> >
> > Have you tried to boot with the keyboard plugged in or maybe used a
> > different keyboard? Maybe there's a problem with it.
> >
> > Mike
> >

Just tried that, same result. Gets to the desktop, clock goes on, hard
drive icon shows up, empty programmer's box.

Rob <laffmakr[at]REMOVETHISaye.net> wrote in message news:<laffmakr-BACD4F.14540414082003[at]unknown63223005101.ipbbc.net>...
> In article <vjnli91tpcvlc4[at]corp.supernews.com>, MikeC <no[at]spam.com>
> wrote:
>
> > Ops...I meant with the keyboard unplugged...
> >
> > Mike
> >
> >
> > MikeC wrote:
> >
> > > Hi Rob,
> > >
> > > Have you tried to boot with the keyboard plugged in or maybe used a
> > > different keyboard? Maybe there's a problem with it.
> > >
> > > Mike
> > >
>
> Just tried that, same result. Gets to the desktop, clock goes on, hard
> drive icon shows up, empty programmer's box.

There is a programmer button on the early iMac. I thought that it
allowed you to load the firmware. You insert a paper clip to set it
on. Maybe it got stuck on.

Seems like it is time to start pulling out the cd-rom drive, extra
memory, etc. and see if you can get around the error.


Robert

Aye caramba, what an interesting lot of advice Rob has gotten so far!

_I_ think Rob's iMac has the classic symptoms of a corrupted or damaged
disk driver and/or volume directory corruption or damage. When Finder
tries to mount the disk to the desktop the screwed-up disk causes
Finder to crash.

Restart with the Norton CD in the drive, and hold down simultaneously
cmd-opt-shft-del to prevent the main HD from mounting. _Then_ you can
use Drive Setup to re-install the disk's driver, and NDD to fix any
problems with the volume(s) themselves. Actually, if you have it,
DiskWarrior is a much better choice for this sort of repair, provided
DW can 'see' the unmounted disk. Sometimes it cannot where NDD can, in
which casemay need to run NDD first.

WARNING!! I'm not suggesting you re-initialize your disk, _DO_NOT_DO
THAT_!! Merely select the internal drive in Drive Setup's window, and
then go to -> Menu: Functions: Update Driver.

hth,

Dan K

Well, after a couple of hours, I finally got it back up to speed. Tech
Tool Pro was the only utility that would mount & run.

Turns out one of the problems was a crosslinked file. It was a 1.6 meg
PDF that the finder was reporting as being 7.5 gigs (on a 6 gig drive).

Took about 8 runs of TTP to get it to the point where it could be
deleted.

Thanks to everyone for all the suggestions. Especially for the
cmd-opt-shft-del trick...I'll have to remember that one.

rob


In article <160820031620599565%macSNIPdan[at]comSNIPcast.net>,
Dan K <macSNIPdan[at]comSNIPcast.net> wrote:

> Aye caramba, what an interesting lot of advice Rob has gotten so far!
>
> _I_ think Rob's iMac has the classic symptoms of a corrupted or damaged
> disk driver and/or volume directory corruption or damage. When Finder
> tries to mount the disk to the desktop the screwed-up disk causes
> Finder to crash.
>
> Restart with the Norton CD in the drive, and hold down simultaneously
> cmd-opt-shft-del to prevent the main HD from mounting. _Then_ you can
> use Drive Setup to re-install the disk's driver, and NDD to fix any
> problems with the volume(s) themselves. Actually, if you have it,
> DiskWarrior is a much better choice for this sort of repair, provided
> DW can 'see' the unmounted disk. Sometimes it cannot where NDD can, in
> which casemay need to run NDD first.
>
> WARNING!! I'm not suggesting you re-initialize your disk, _DO_NOT_DO
> THAT_!! Merely select the internal drive in Drive Setup's window, and
> then go to -> Menu: Functions: Update Driver.
>
> hth,
>
> Dan K