Troubleshooting Issues with Leopard
and iMac G5
By Robert Pritchett
Executive Summary
The iMac G5 we use for publishing macCompanion magazine for the last 5 years started acting up.
Here is the long, sordid, painful
trip on what finally happened to it. Did Trojans take it down? After all, Macs don’t fail,
right? Right?!?!?
Owies
We’ve been having a rash of brownouts and lightening strikes
recently. Brownouts due to a phenomenal increase in community growth and
lightening due to weird weather phenomena. It was still snowing down to 1,500
feet in June!
After watching my machine gracefully(?) degrade over the
last few weeks to the point of unusability, I continued to try and get it to
boot properly, so I could actually use it. I failed miserably. Oh, happy C-cord
chimes are here again!
BTW, If you want to control that C-Cord startup sound,
try this
freeware
Diagnostic tools list
Symptoms – Screen "Mottling" and a
Bruised Machine
These symptoms did not manifest themselves until I did the
AirPort security update for Leopard. Did adding that cause my machine to get
goofy?
The screen would begin "mottling" about 5 minutes
into operation and usually mid-sentence in Email or while editing web pages and
the cursor would move, but no windows or toolbar or dock items would respond.
Mottling is the winkie-blinky, 4th of July-like “screen anomalies”
caused by missing memory or electronic failure manifesting itself. Shutdown and
rebooting would give me both alternating blue and black screens with the
blinking pixels in different parts of the screen. It didn't matter if I warm or
cold-booted. When I tried rebooting, the screen would either land on Blue or
Black or alternate between both. It was severely bruised.
This symptom was an issue with early iMac G5s years and
years ago and Apple replaced the logic boards for free to correct the problem.
That is how I ended up with this refurb. This iMac G5 has been very, very good
to me – until now
Seeking Solutions
I did all the usual fixes; PRAMing, Utility Disc hard drive
and Permissions, reinstalling Mac OS X Leopard, etc. to no avail. I pulled all
cables and that seemed to be the only way I could get a login screen. I read
that the external USB hub could be a problem, I disconnected it. Then the
problem persisted until I removed the FireWire hub. I figured that was it.
Nope, it did it again. I swapped out the mouse figuring the Wacom Tablet and mouse combo might be the problem.
Nope, it persisted, Keyboard? Nope.
Desperation
I asked macCompanion staff
what to do. Here I am with a Master of Science in Computing and I'm stumped.
Ted Bade gave me some advice; Do the test account in Mac OS X and see if
anything changed. Nothing did. So that pointed to this possibly being a
hardware problem manifesting itself in a strange, yet beautiful way.
And no, my copy of TechTool Pro 4 wouldn't even boot up, so
don't ask. The hard drive was okay and so were Permissions – after
repair. I finally removed the CUPS printer apps though (it kept showing up in
the Permissions Repaired log), since Adobe had replaced their Adobe Acrobat 8 printer
function to finally to work with Leopard. I had just left it in there as a
printer, "just in case".
Software Infections?
With the recent spat of activity regarding Trojans and
Rootkits, I wondered if I was a carrier. I used MacScan to check
things out. It found 64 cookies it figured were big-brothering me and those
disappeared. It didn't find anything else.
I ran ClamXav for 3 days in the background, as it slowly chunked through my hard drives,
finding Email phishing add-ons to spam and scam Email. Those were trashed (they
were hiding in the Mail.app deleted email folder). It found the February PDF
issue of macCompanion having the PDF- 6
Exploit in it,
so I cleaned that up and reposted it back up on the website. Adobe sent out a
fix in February, but the Exploit latched on in January when we published the
issue – without me knowing about it. Adobe recently sent out another
security update for Adobe Acrobat 8.1.2 (June 25) while I was correcting this
faux paux.
ClamXav also pointed to ColdFusion as having issues, so that
was trashed. So was Adobe AIR, since it was tagged next. Bye. See ya.
I dumped all logs and caches and histories and I was good
for about one week, sort of.
It's Baaaack!
I thought I was safe and had resolved the issue. Meanwhile,
my wife and boss at Pure Energy Systems Network both gave me permission to get
a MacBook Pro so I could do my job. I thanked them both and my credit card
company loves me. My wallet now has a big hole in it. I ordered the machine
through Mac2o – http:// for the best deal I could find at the time (just
a day or so ago). I'm still waiting for the customized machine to arrive.
Later…
So another week of pixilation screenwork and lockups
continued. I took time off from work (my access to PESWiki and other sites were
through this machine only) and I took a whole day to just explore the cause and
effects to this problem. Now I can write about it.
I am running Virtual PC and XP Pro on this machine. I
figured that might be a factor…then again, maybe not so much. This was
Mac-related.
Safe Mode
Power Supply Replacement Program
I read that there are 4 LEDs on the Logic board that where 3
have to be on to make sure the machine is operating correctly. They always did.
iMac G5 LED Diagnostics I looked. They did.
Option-Command –Escape didn't work – ever.
I quickly learned about Single-User Mode, Safe Mode, Kernel
panics (Blue Screen), Grey screens, Black screens
Doing the fsck-fy seems to sorta-kinda help, but the bruised screens always
came back.
PRAM resetting (Option-Command-R-P), Permissions resetting
in Disk Utilities (I kept having to do that), RAM swapping –
http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=85782 (RAM swapping didn't help.)
Obscure key commands and Open firmware, like
"Option-Command-O-F" to remove a disc (that got the DVD out when attempting to boot using the C key didn't work).
I even had the cover off most of the day and was alternating
between the SMU button and the crowbar button,
because the regular on/off button (internal off button) wasn't working as
advertised. I moved the machine to a different outlet, because I figured the
surge protect was failing and possibly causing the problem. (Nope, no
difference.) I read that software would give me the mottled-screen treatment,
but after removing lots of apps and also running the separate login test
account and saw no difference, I cried; "Uncle!" and decided to do
the OS replacement process. I prayed for inspiration – and got it.
Reinstalling the OS
At the point of desperation (I do have to work actually), I
ended up reloading the Leopard Mac OS in the afternoon - or tried to. The first
time it again failed, part way into reinstallation. I figured I then had lost
everything (save previous system to folder option - did it?) and after working
solidly for 12 hour straight to give 'er the olde Yankee try, I left it
alone for a few of hours and read books instead.
I finally successfully re-reinstalled the OS and it
pretended to work, but rebooting gave me back the blue and black screen
treatments, so I figured it was a power supply issue. The machine
beachballed all night long after reboot and way early this morning, I was “up and at-em”
again early in the morning to see if I could rescue the machine without having
to go to an Apple-authorized shop and get the screen replaced for $500.
(I'm sure my boss was wondering if I had fallen off the edge
of the earth. I sent him an Email from another machine, but it didn't get to
him, because I didn't type in his address correctly on the Spanish-based
keyboard.)
I was on eggshells, because I did not have a current backup of
everything. I didn't have an external hard drive large enough to run Time Machine.
Well, I tried a few incantations, offered up prayers and
blessed the machine and I can say, it seemed to be working better. However,
after changing out the OS, it MADE NO DIFFERENCE, once I did the security and
Mac OS X 536MB+ updates.
PRIOR to doing the updates, it seemed to
work for a while. I strongly suspect a secret combination of Security
updates crossing code with overzealous apps. My machine was truly possessed!
Still Goofy
Even after all that, the machine still gave me the mottled
screen on bootup. But at least it was booting up and not blue or
black-screening. Nothing was in the Launch items folder. So what to do? I went
back and looked at updates.
What was changed? When did things go goofy and what did I
add at that time? I cleaned up the log files and everything else in history
using MacCleanse. I then looked at apps again by booting with the Leopard Mac OS
X DVD in the drive and alternating between the Command-S and Command-V
thing.
Mellel was beta. It was moved to the Trash and excised. Next
was Media Central, then DevonThink Pro and finally, Daylite 3. Only then,
did things finally settle down.
Final Answer? NOT!
I'm amazed that replacing the OS didn't trash all my other
settings and software app installations or destroyed the mail folders when it
only did a partial install the first time. My hat is off to the excellent
engineering feat to make that happen. I'm also simply amazed at the compactness
and clean design of the insides of a Mac machine after having toiled for many
years inside the unfriendly confines and skin-slicing PC boxes. Apple
engineering for the tech is second to none, in my book.
Now the machine stopped the blinking pixelation screen
effects (mottling) and screen lockup (mouse worked, no connection to windows
onscreen, but hard drive churning and doing what it does best) for a while. By
looking at the crash logs and looking at what may have been causing the screens
to take forever to refresh, I figure it could very well be the latest update
from Daylite 3 (it phones home and runs a database app as well as marries
itself to Email, etc., according to Little Snitch logs).
DevonThink Pro does
something similar. With them off the main drive now, things seem to be
operational.
I could now boot up without all the waiting, screen changes
from black to blue to black to blue and beachballing. At least for a while…time
to go sleep on it.
The Battle is Still Raging!
The system ran great until I awakened Skype Beta. Then all
heck broke loose and I ended back where I was before with a frozen screen, etc.
So I spent another whole precious, valuable day trying to get my computer back
to normal. I discovered Option-Command-Shift-Delete with the DVD installed.
After doing the Option-Command-F-O thing and ejecting the DVD and reinserting
it. I fsck-f-ed and then redid the
Option-Command-Shift-Delete, this time letting it find the DVD. By booting from
the DVD, the mottling disappeared from the screen. Skype got bit-bucketed.
I also discovered XSlimmer and ran that to see if it would make any difference. I doubt it. It is designed
to remove unnecessary files that were left behind by developers. But I got this
far, so what the heck! 3 GBs of "stuff" gone from apps.
Meanwhile, I reinstalled the Mac OS X to Leopard 10.5 with
out doing the updates. We will see what happens...
Housecleaning
Peeved, I sent an Email to my boss and to my magazine staff
not too long ago stating I wished Apple would flush its head down a toilet for
putting out software updates that screwed up machines. After all, Macs aren't
supposed to act like PCs. But then again, my situation is worst-case. I work
with lots of different software. I run XP Pro on my IBM-chip-based machine.
In the process of troubleshooting this computer, I removed
about 20 GB of apps that had not migrated to Leopard, or did not have current
versions requiring a fee to upgrade or asked for licenses I no longer had
access to or for apps that let me know they were not designed to work with
Leopard – ever, since Leopard essentially replaced them with new
act-alike functionality. Those got removed. I'll just have to wait and see if
this really fixed it. I've been wrong so many times before. I get plenty of
exercise jumping to conclusions and mental gymnastics by making assumptions.
I ran Subrosasoft's MacForensicsLab. It is bootable through use of the Option key. Well after a
while I couldn’t use it much either. This was just getting weirder and weirder
by the minute.
Resolution
By now you are probably thinking; “This guy is a glutton for
punishment. Why doesn’t he just take it in to be serviced?” Well, I did.
Finally. I took it in to Alpha
Computing, who has a great Apple computer museum, by the way, and let them mess
with it. They called back saying indeed it was a hardware issue and the logic
board needed to be replaced.
Apple Cares
They called Apple, who told them the repair under warranty
was rejected. The store asked me to contact Apple directly and plead my case. I
did. I talked to Customer Relations. They saw that I never called in my Apple
Care to be registered, so there was no record of it for this particular
machine.
Note: If you have
AppleCare, you need to break the seal and call in to have it activated –
for the 3 years. I’m over 6 months beyond that grace period and then some.
“Patrick” plead my case to higher-ups and the box will get a
new brain without my having to pay for the logic board replacement. Then after
that, the box has 90 days warranty and then all bets are off.
All I can do is say; “Thank you Patrick and Apple for
looking out for me!” And thank you Alpha Computer for being an Apple store since day
one. I never had to really use your services until now…
That Oh, So Precious Backup
I never did a disc image and dug out an older WiebeTECH
external FireWire drive to transfer all files and folders over during those
brief moments when the machine was pretending to be sane. I made the external drive bootable. I
figured all the apps would retain their registrations, etc. And the Mail.app
would also stay intact. I was wrong. I also was not able to boot from the drive
to the iMac G5. Apparently the extra Finder gave the schizoid machine a split
personality. That is when I threw
in the towel and took the unit in for repair.
So I’m running on borrowed time and limping along on my
family’s machine (iMac Intel with internal iSight) and cramping their style.
Final Answer! July 2, 2008
The logic board was replaced at what would have cost me just under $1,000 USD with labor, taxes and logic board replacement. I'm happy to report that the iMac G5 is back in great working order. Apple paid for the repair and the replacement part. Alpha Computers had it back to me one day after I delivered it. No charge. That is great service!!
The family got their machine back with Leopard 10.5.4 installed. I updatd the iMac G5 with it too. So far, so good!
The 17” - 4GB RAM, Hi-Res glossy screen, 300GB hard drive MacBook Pro is on its
way from Mac2o…
Of Rainbows and Silver Linings
This exercise in frustration also allowed me time to catch
up on reading some good technical books that have been collecting dust on my
"To-Do" shelf. Waste not, want not! And sometimes burning down a
virtual house can be good for the soul, though rescuing it from certain
destruction is even better!
And as soon as the MacBook Pro arrives, I can begin
reviewing software that doesn’t work on an IBM-based Mac.
Well, now you know the “real” reason why the July issue of macCompanion was a little late getting out the door.
But I'll use the excuse that we are going to wait until the iPhone G3 is released July 11. Yeah, that's it.
Apparently I'm not the only one that has had logic board issues lately - "The Hole in my Backup Plan".
