Mac mini not booting
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From: Edward Reid on 4 May 2008 23:02 Thanks. Update: it's a wired USB keyboard. I found the Apple specs which say that any USB keyboard should work. It was running through a USB hub, so I tried plugging it directly and that did not work either. It's a Win/Mac Logitech keyboard, so the keys are actually labelled for both. (In general, you use the keys which are in the expected location, no matter what they are labelled. I think that's what you are saying.) I also hooked the keyboard up to a Windows computer and it worked fine. Also I didn't mention before, it never does the blinking question mark thing. It sits on the apple plus spinning gear for quite a while and goes to a bank screen. I've seen trouble shooting docs which discuss not reaching this point at all, or no video, or not booting from the HD when it's possible to boot from CD, but I haven't see any docs discussing a breakdown at this stage. I can hear the HD seeking for about 30 seconds when I turn the mini on, then it stops. (I need a new stethoscope.) I can't try target disk mode because it's the only operational Mac here at present. Oh, and I followed the directions to reset the PMU. No joy. I've started replacing the HD anyway, since it's pretty clear it was bad, and I read some thread on the Apple web site forums indicating that a bad HD can sometimes prevent booting even from other devices. I have to wait until tomorrow to finish because I can't find my smallest Phillips screwdriver. Thanks again, Edward
From: E Z Peaces on 4 May 2008 19:53 Edward Reid wrote: > My wife's Mac mini, about 3yo, isn't booting. Comes to the apple and > spinner and just sits there. > > A few days ago, while I was out of town, she described the symptoms > and made a perfect imitation of a crashing disk. OK, I ordered a > replacement disk, which was waiting when I got home. > > But I can't get that far. Won't boot from the hardware test CD -- > ignores it whether I hold down C or not. Boot with option down, it > does not come up with a boot choice. Boot with ctrl-opt-P-R down, > nothing happens. > > The only sign that it gets anywhere at all is that if I boot with the > mouse button down, it does eject the CD. > > Is this a sign that the Mac isn't reading my Logitech keyboard this > early in the boot sequence? IIRC, I did not have to install drivers > for this keyboard -- I just looked at the CD that came with it, and > the label only refers to Windows -- but I'm not totally certain. And > if it is the keyboard, what's the minimum fully supproted keyboard? > > Other ideas certainly welcome too. > > Thanks, > > Edward Is it a wireless keyboard? Wireless keyboards may not work during startup. I think a Windows wired USB keyboard should work. The only difference I know is that the two keys on the left side of the space bar are swapped, so you press Option to get Command, and the two on the right side of the space bar are swapped the same way. If it happened to me and I didn't have a keyboard, I'd unplug everything but the monitor and see if it would start.
From: Jolly Roger on 4 May 2008 23:17 In article <694d9902-c3f1-462b-9483-3f138eb9058d(a)p25g2000hsf.googlegroups.com>, Edward Reid <edward(a)paleo.org> wrote: > Also I didn't mention before, it never does the blinking question mark > thing. It sits on the apple plus spinning gear for quite a while and > goes to a bank screen Try holding down Command-V during boot to boot in Verbose mode. Then watch the screen to see if you see any error messages on the screen. You might also want to try booting in Safe Mode, as described here: <http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107392> -- Please send all responses to the relevant news group. E-mail sent to this address may be devoured by my very hungry SPAM filter. I do not read posts from Google Groups. Use a real news reader if you want me to see your posts. JR
From: Edward Reid on 5 May 2008 19:17 I installed the new HD and the Mac mini is alive again. Now running through all the installations. I did try booting once after blowing all the dust out of the case, since I've had the experience (quite a few years ago now) of fixing a Mac IIci by blowing all the dust off the motherboard. Didn't help today. ;-) None of the options requiring keyboard input worked, only the mouse option. But swapping out the HD resolved it and the keyboard was OK. My guess would be that the mouse is checked at an earlier point in the boot process, and that the system hung between then and the point that it checks the keyboard. Just a guess based on the symptoms though. On May 4, 11:17 pm, Jolly Roger <jollyro...(a)pobox.com> wrote: > I do not > read posts from Google Groups. Use a real news reader if you want me to > see your posts. If you know of a good offline (!) newreader for Windows, let me know. I'm stuck using Windows at the moment, though with the advent of Parallels and VMWare it's entirely possible that my next will be a Mac again. The best offline Windows newsreader I've found is 40tude Dialog. It's powerful, but clumsy enough that it's not worth subscribing to a newsgroup for just one or two threads. When I was able to use a Mac full time I used Hogwasher, and will use it again if I can get back on a Mac. Edward
From: Edward Reid on 7 May 2008 02:04
Information from another source says that mouse and keyboard are checked at the same time, but that something about the interaction between HD and keyboard occasionally prevents the keyboard from working. Edward |