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OS 10.4.11 1440x900 Resolution 1.67 GHz Power PC Processor 2x512 MB sticks of RAM = 1 GB total RAM

I have tried several troubleshooting methods including different startup key combinations to reset power management, etc.

The laptop used to only boot up if it had sat for a longtime. If you turn it off and try to restart it wouldn't chime and it would just be a black screen.

One of the troubleshooting methods I have tried is booting with just one stick of ram and also swapping the ram into different slots. Ever since I flipped the ram sticks it still has to sit for hours to have a normal boot without just a black screen, but now it chimes every time.

One of the other things I tried was checking the integrity of the hard drive and it did have an issue,but I just safe mode booted it (shift + power button) and the hard drive now passes the disk utility test.

I have also done many tests to see if the battery is at fault and its not.

Please help.

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1 Answer 1

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If it chimes, but then takes a long time to boot, you might be able to figure out what it's doing by booting into "verbose mode":

  1. Hit the power button to start it
  2. Immediately hold down Command-V

This will change the boot screen to a text scroll from the kernel putting out messages as it boots. That might show you if it's getting stuck on something.

You might have to do it a few times to be sure. If the disk drive is going south, that might show up as drivers are whatnot having a hard time loading. If it seems to be a different driver each time, or a lot of them, it's probably the drive.

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  • Thanks for your fast input! I have tried this and unfortunately I still just get a black screen unless its been sitting for a while (several hours), in which it boots fine with no issues... eg I also have tried other key combos like long holding the power button or holding "t" and I can tell the computer goes into that special mode but I only have a black screen. Also the screen is fine as it works 100% of the time when it has sat for a while...
    – Paul Masek
    Commented Jun 25, 2013 at 1:28
  • Hmm, you might take a look in the logs, via Console. There might be things in the syslog which would give you a clue. But it's sounding like a hardware problem.
    – Hack Saw
    Commented Jun 25, 2013 at 4:19
  • OK, I don't have a ton of experience with Mac's. Could I send you the syslog to take a peak at? Also I just booted again now using the cmd v method and everything looked fine on boot-up. I also haven't had it running at all today, so I assumed it would start fine...
    – Paul Masek
    Commented Jun 26, 2013 at 2:30
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    Indeed! I figured out another hack, placing it on top of an A/C vent cooled it down to point where I could boot it again in 20 minutes :)
    – Paul Masek
    Commented Jul 10, 2013 at 2:06
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    It now boots back up in about 10 minutes, so far all practical purposes it's fixed! I now have a fully working/very usable/extremely stable machine! Thanks for all the help, I'm marking your answer as the solution for hanging in there with me.
    – Paul Masek
    Commented Jul 30, 2013 at 19:41

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