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DPChallenge Forums >> Hardware and Software >> HELP!!! My Mac's gone from Bad to WORSE
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01/09/2008 08:35:19 PM · #1
I now am greeted with "No Bootable Device".

Without going into the long story of my troubles today...

I know I can probably fix it by booting from my Leopard or Tiger disc, but there's no way to open the DVD drive unless Mac OS is running. The keyboard eject isn't opening it, and it's a tray drive Mac Pro. Some genius decided to make the front of the Mac Pro real sleek and leave off an eject button or emergency paper clip hole.

Is there another way to open the drive if you can't boot?
01/09/2008 08:53:28 PM · #2
I'm on hold with Apple right now -- I'll see if I can squeeze in your question along with mine.

What model Mac do you have, and what OS version is it supposed to be booting from?
01/09/2008 08:54:38 PM · #3
Maybe try holding down the "C" key when you power it on and see if that will open the drive.
01/09/2008 08:56:40 PM · #4
Originally posted by GeneralE:

Maybe try holding down the "C" key when you power it on and see if that will open the drive.


I'm in the hold queue too :)

I tried the c, it didn't work.

I have a Mac Pro (intel) dual processor purchased in Nov. It came with Tiger and a Leopard upgrade disc. Leopard is on there.

Message edited by author 2008-01-09 20:57:03.
01/09/2008 09:02:13 PM · #5
holding option worked to get it to a better screen, and then I was able to eject, and QUICKLY insert the disc (had to since it opens and closes right away.)
01/09/2008 09:05:05 PM · #6
good to know -- maybe now it will boot from the installer.

we better hide this thread soon before any of the pc vs. mac folks see it ;-)
01/09/2008 09:05:34 PM · #7
1- reboot with the mouse button held down = open drive dray
2- reboot with "c" held down and it boots off disk in the drive

once you boot off the install disk, go to the top menu and select "disk utility" and run the "repair disk" and "repair disk permissions."

if it runs and can't repair all problems, run it again. if it runs it and repairs all of the problems, run it again until it says "no errors found." run one more time so you get back-to-back "no errors found" and then go to the top menu and goto the startup disk selector and choose your hard drive as the startup disk, restart
01/09/2008 09:06:56 PM · #8
just posting so this thread is always in my profile--good thing to know!
01/09/2008 09:11:30 PM · #9
Thanks. Don't ask me why, but when I pressed option on booting, it then showed me a system disc. I think it's because I was trying to setup bootcamp before and it set the default boot to the CD drive? But you would think if there's no CD in the drive, it would just go to the hard disc.

But now I'm back to one of several "layered" problems. Perhaps if you don't mind, I'll describe it here.

First, I have to say that Apple support just did to me what I've seen "Bad support" departments do in the past.

I was on hold, for 20 minutes. Then the music stopped, and I heard some typing. I said, "hello?". Nothing. Then some more typing. "Hello". Nothing. I heard someone clatter something around. "Hello?". Nothing.

Then, I heard: "Click". And my wait was over. They had hung up.

01/09/2008 09:14:23 PM · #10
also too if you ever have this problem again and holding down C does not work you should be able to slide down the little metal door that hides the cd drive and then you should be able to see the manual pin hole eject button. If not you have to slide the door off (basically open you mac) and then a screw or two slide out your cd drive and you will see the pin hole.

Trust me its their, I have one on mine....
01/09/2008 09:43:56 PM · #11
I am doing a system archive and install. Although I could boot, my Mac's been giving me problems for the two months (I thought it was one, but it's been two whole months already).

Today I decided there was a memory or disc controller problem--but it passed diagnostics.

I have been experiencing consistent crashes in Finder and other applications for certain files and file types. (Previously, I thought it was just bad programming--for example, iPhoto was crashing on jPeg2000s.)

Now, I'm not too sure. I found that Finder was consistently crashing when I look at JPEGs created with my Panasonic Lumix TZ3! Every time I try to open it, it crashes. Other programs too. Furthermore, it crashes, not only when I open it, but if I "Get Properties!" (I guess that might be related to the preview in Get Properties).

However, the file opens fine under Windows 2000 (running on the Mac within Parallels). And it opens fine on my PC running XP (even looking at the file that's on the Mac).

And I sent it to scalvert today, and he can open it fine. But if I download the copy I sent him, from my gmail account sent folder, that crashes Finder too.

So I thought maybe I have a hardware problem. But I ran diagnostics, and extended diagnostics, and it didn't find anything. And I've fixed permissions so many times, and it never seems to do anything. (There are still a bunch of "unexpected" errors even after its done, but I don't think they are serious ones.

Anyway, we'll see if it's any better after the archive and reinstall. I'm a bit unhappy that I think I will lose the efforts I applied to install the Scansnap driver, which wasn't exactly straightforward, but I'm not to happy with the Mac OS in general, and having it crashing all over the place hasn't helped any.

While I'm reinstalling, I'm also PC shopping ;)
01/09/2008 10:04:13 PM · #12
I wouldn't go to the extreme of getting a PC. I'd make an appointment at your local apple store and talk to the geniuses... it wouldn't hurt and they may have experienced the problem before and may know a quick fix.
01/09/2008 10:06:17 PM · #13
Could you have gotten a virus? Have you been regularly downloading all the Apple security bug fixes and updates?
01/09/2008 10:09:18 PM · #14
That is a referb you bought, right? I wonder if the original owner had the same issue.

I;d bring that up with Apple.
01/09/2008 10:10:19 PM · #15
Hmmmm, MAC's having issues, all this time I thought they were bullet proof..:P

Sorry somebody had to say it.
01/09/2008 10:11:30 PM · #16
Originally posted by annasense:

I wouldn't go to the extreme of getting a PC. I'd make an appointment at your local apple store and talk to the geniuses... it wouldn't hurt and they may have experienced the problem before and may know a quick fix.


Well I just tested it after the archive and install, and it still crashes.

I'm doing the Leopard downloadable updates now, but I don't think that will help.

As far as I can tell, that leaves hardware as the issue.

Perhaps, since it seems to be graphics files that do it, it's a display adapter/driver issue? I have the nVidia 7300GT w/256 MB. Anyone also have one running a mac; I would be interested in emailing the file to you and see if finder crashes for you?
01/09/2008 10:40:53 PM · #17
Unfortunately, I think some of the hacks you've installed may be part of the problem. Pathfinder, for one, still has some major issues with Leopard. The 7300 Gt is the default video card that shipped with most Mac Pros, so that's unlikely to be the culprit.

Message edited by author 2008-01-09 22:41:58.
01/09/2008 10:59:44 PM · #18
Originally posted by scalvert:

Unfortunately, I think some of the hacks you've installed may be part of the problem. Pathfinder, for one, still has some major issues with Leopard. The 7300 Gt is the default video card that shipped with most Mac Pros, so that's unlikely to be the culprit.


Pathfinder and "hacks" can't be the problem, since it's no longer installed (I did an Archive and Reinstall). It has to be hardware, or leopard.

Unfortunately, I may still be in "trouble". I did get Leopard reinstalled fine, but then I downloaded the leopard update. It's been "Installing 4 items" for over 20 minutes and the bar is only 1/10 across the dialog. Hope it's not stuck!

Can I install Tiger too, on another hard drive? Would I be able to read the other discs with my data on it? I'm curious if that solves the problem. Otherwise, I could pull the additional memory I added and see if that's it. Or order a new video card.

Message edited by author 2008-01-09 23:03:23.
01/09/2008 11:01:45 PM · #19
Pull the RAM you added and see if the problem persists.
01/09/2008 11:03:40 PM · #20
Originally posted by scalvert:

Pull the RAM you added and see if the problem persists.


Ha, was just typing that! But I suspect the graphics card first. Since the consistent crashes are always when opening (viewing, or get info) on the jpeg file(s) in question.

Message edited by author 2008-01-09 23:18:38.
01/09/2008 11:41:30 PM · #21
Originally posted by scalvert:

Pull the RAM you added and see if the problem persists.


We have six Macs in the house (G5 Tower/ACD, iMacs Intel and PPC, MBP, eMac, iBook G4, 3 on Tiger, 4 on Leopard), albeit pristine systems with little third party software and certainly no haxies. I am astounded at the problems you're listing here, and, at this point, like scalvert, suspect bad RAM.

I'd like to suggest to run MemTest before you do anything else.

Message edited by author 2008-01-09 23:52:28.
01/09/2008 11:47:08 PM · #22
Could be RAM. I'll come back to the thread later and see what's transpired.
01/09/2008 11:52:06 PM · #23
Originally posted by nshapiro:

[quote=annasense]

Perhaps, since it seems to be graphics files that do it, it's a display adapter/driver issue? I have the nVidia 7300GT w/256 MB. Anyone also have one running a mac; I would be interested in emailing the file to you and see if finder crashes for you?


You are welcome to e-mail me the file, I have the same card with 128MB. computers@bluehillwellness.com
01/10/2008 12:26:09 AM · #24
Given the symptoms I think you are going to find that there is some bad memory on the system board, video adapter or the hard drive cache. Since it seems to consistently crash when decompressing graphics files, it could be that the OS is utilizing some capabilities on the video card and keeps hitting the same damaged piece of memory or hardware instruction.
01/10/2008 01:02:30 AM · #25
Update: Shannon tells me he has TIGER at work, and he's having problems with the Lumix jpeg on Leopard (can't even download the email). So maybe it's just a Leopard problem after all?
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