Major Kernel Panic - Tiger - hanging up can't boot up

[Moosey10]

Good morning !
I have a 17" iMac G4 800 running Tiger 10.4.7 (?) (pretty sure it's 7). The computer went through Katrina very well - virtually no trouble at all.
When I turn on the computer, I get an immense "Unresolved Kernel trap" error message referencing exceptions states, and attempts to backtrace.

I've tried running Disk Utility from the original install CD, verified and repaired Permissions and Disk from that CD, but it's not doing the trick. I know I need to run something off the Tiger install disk, but I can't get it to boot from the Tiger DVD. The iMac isn't recognizing my wireless keyboard so I can't press "c" or "option" to get it to mount the DVD. I plugged in my old keyboard and get no response (it DID get wet in the hurricane).

Do I need to use Techtool or that other repair software? Will they mount if I don't have a keyboard? Anyone have any thoughts about how else to address this?

Thank goodness for my Powerbook and Airport!

 

[Ric]

Hi there and welcome !

good plan...you (as you suspected) need to run Disk Utility from the Tiger DVD !

Pop the disk in, then go to the SYstem Preferences-->Startup Disk and select the Tiger DVD.

Then press the restart button.

You should then be able to restart...and run the Disk Utilities from the Tiger DVD.

Once you have run the Utilities...go back to the Menu and select Startup disk and reselect the Main drive...

regards

Ric

 

[Moosey10]

Thanks, Ric, but unfortunately I can't get to System Preferences - I can't get to anything - I just get a Kernel Panic (actually an "Unresolved Kernel Trap"), which is why I need to be able to mount that DVD and run Disk Utility directly without having the computer try to boot from the hard drive. Any other way to get that puppy to start up from the DVD?
eek.

 

[Ric]

Hi there,

I see...

is anything plugged onto the iMac ?

regards

Ric

 

[Moosey10]

Hi, Ric - I see you're online, and now I'm back home with the patient. I unplugged everything except the mouse and the bluetooth on the off chance that it will communicate with the wireless keyboard. (false hope...)

 

[karazelle]

Good morning !

Thank goodness for my Powerbook and Airport!

Actually, I say Thank goodness for it as well. You should start with a Firewire cable, and attach between the iMac and the Powerbook. Then, while booting the iMac, hold down the letter "t". You should now see a huge firewire symbol on the iMac jumping around.

Now you should be able to boot the Powerbook and have the iMac appear on your desktop as a harddrive icon. Open Disk utilities first and do a Disk check on the firewire disk volume (= your iMac). If that fails, it may be as simple as a disk failure (those happen).

If it doesn't fail, you should try to backup as much as your stuff as possible right now. Remember that you can directly copy an iPhoto folder and the iTunes folder and tell iTunes and iPhoto to look at them if you have to rebuild your Mac. You don't need to reimport music and so on.

Let us know if this works, then we can take it from there.

(I have not tried it, but I believe you can actually boot your Powerbook using a MacOS X CD with the iMac in Firewire target mode and install OS X to it. This should work even if you had Panther on the iMac and Tiger on the Powerbook and use the Panther install disk.
But remember to backup first! You might also need to run the OS X CD on the iMac afterwards to establish it as a boot volume).

 

[karazelle]

Any other way to get that puppy to start up from the DVD?
eek.

Holding Option down while the Mac is booting should present you with a boot selector where you can make the Mac search for all boot devices. If your OS X DVD doesn't show up in that search (those searches are slow, might be faster if you unplug any ethernet cables and the like) then there could be a problem with the DVD. If your Powerbook will boot from it, there might be a problem with the drive.

To boot from a device it find, just click on the device and then the "Next" arrow. Everything here goes in syrup mode, so be patient when you click and wait about 5-6 seconds before you click again.

 

[Moosey10]

Omigosh, ljuvefreya, that sounds so likely! Must run off to work now and you'll undoubtedly not be online when I return to take your advice. Will update after giving it a try.

Thanks to all and I'll be in touch later in the day.

 

[Moosey10]

If anyone is looking - I'm going to try and get a new USB keyboard today, (or maybe get my old one cleaned up so it's usable) and see if that will help me get moving. I'll be back in touch once I've tried it.

Does anyone know if there are any off-brand keyboards I can use instead of spending so much on a Mac keyboard. I don't want to compromise the system any more than it already is, but my checkbook is looking at me with warning in its little eyes.

 

[karazelle]

As I mentioned in my email, I got a cheap USB keyboard. You might be able to borrow a friends keyboard in a pinch. Any USB keyboard should work, but remember that Windows key = Command and Alt key = Option (i.e. the two keys reverse order on a PC keyboard compared to apple keyboard). You should get a "wizard" of sorts in Tiger that asks you to identify the keyboard, but I found it worked without going through that.

 

[Moosey10]

Well, here we go: I borrowed an Apple USB keyboard from a friend. - I think I have a hardware problem - tell me what you think: I got a keyboard and ran Disk Utility off my Tiger install disk - verified and repaired disk and permissions and there seems to be no problem according to Disk Utility. Using the Target function, I can access my documents and applications from my laptop. HOWEVER.... When I try to run the Hardware test disk, the iMac does not recognize the mouse (USB) and will respond only to the Tab on the keyboard, so I cannot run the hardware test - just tab round and round.

If I can't find a way to run this hardware test in a loop, then I fear that I'll have to back up my files and reinstall -- and I confess that I'm a bit nervous about it.

Any thoughts?

Happy First Day of September!

 

[Kyomii]

Do you have your mouse plugged into the keyboard or on the actual computer? If on the keyboard, try and plug it in to the actual computer and restart again and see if it recognises your mouse

 

[Moosey10]

Thanks, Kyomii - the mouse is indeed, plugged into the computer itself, not the keyboard. I wish this were so simple. <sigh>

 

[Moosey10]

Well, still struggling along - can't wait for tomorrow when I have a full day to devote to this...

So, I can't run the Hardware Test from the iMac.
Does anyone know if there is a way to run the Hardware Test from the PowerBook with the iMac in Target mode? It may be something very simple and my thinking mechanisms are following my computer down the rabbit hole.

Have a good day, everyone. Maybe I'll see you online on Saturday!

 

[Moosey10]

Hello my friends, the saga continues - here's what I have so far:

I looped the Hardware test for seven hours and there were no error messages.

I've run Disk utilities and verified the disk and permissions both off the original install disk (Jaguar) and off the Tiger Upgrade Install disk.

I still am getting this "Unresolved kernel trap" message. Clearly I have a problem - but can't identify it.

Hoping someone will have a good idea. Thank heavens tomorrow is Saturday and I might be able to actually spend some time chatting with you.

 

[Moosey10]

Many thanks for your help - my iMac is back and running. The problem appears to have been a problem with the software for the Keyspan Serial-USB adapter. (I still use an a-n-c-i-e-n-t Palm IIIxe PDA that runs on AAA batteries and only has a USB Hotsync cradle presently held together with electrician's tape and prayer - but that's another story)

I updated the software for the Serial Adapter and that seems to have done the trick. I also discovered that the folder with a question mark inside it was because for some reason the startup disk wasn't set. So I set it.

Thank you all for your help and input. I've learned a great deal over the last week or so and couldn't have done so without it.

 

[Ric]

Hi there,

I'm glad you got it working.

regards

Ric