AHH! Why is my computer not starting up?
Asked by
zina (
1661
)
August 31st, 2007
Ok, don’t laugh at my string of technology-related questions….
So, now I got a usb wireless adapter, installed it, got the internet running, and was all excited I so started some software updates (since my computer hasn’t been connected to the internet in months), I logged on Skype, plugged my webcam in, and when I clicked to call someone… my computer completely froze. Couldn’t force quit or anything. Finally I just held down the power button to shut it off and then restarted it. It only got up to ‘Starting Windows Login’, and stayed there for a long time. I tried a couple more times (shutting off, leaving a few minutes, turning on). Then I tried unplugging the wireless adapter and the webcam. Still didn’t get past that screen. I tried taking the battery out. Finally one time I put the wireless back in, and when I do that it goes past that point to ‘Starting network file system’. But it stays there (for at least 1/2 hour). I tried escape, apple-alt-escape (not having any idea if that’d be helpful)—- I can move the mouse freely but that’s it and I have no ideas. I just went through mac website support pages but I’m not finding anything I haven’t tried.
WHAT DO I DO????
[p.s. for anyone following from previous questions, I had cleared 2gigs of space before this happened, if that makes any difference]
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6 Answers
And to add.. You could try booting from the DVD/CD that came with your computer. Hold down “c” when you boot and try to do an archive and install. If you are running low on free hard drive space this might be problematic. It won’t hurt anything.. I just might not work.
OK, I tried restarting without extensions (holding the shift key), which it called ‘Safe Boot’, but still only got to ‘Login Windows starting’.
I tried restarting with control-s for Single User mode and got a super long page of white-on-black text. The only part that clearly says error is:
“in6_ifattach_linklocal: failed to configure a link_local address on lo0 (errno=55)”
There were other parts of it that seemed interesting – like a part referencing an external HD I had used, among other things….. let me know if you’d like me to type up the whole thing here.
The very end of it says:
“Singleuser boot—fsck not done
Root device is mounted read-only
If you want to make modifications to files,
run ’/sbin/fsck -y’ first and then ’/sbin/mount -uw/’
localhost:/ root # ”
(and there’s a solid white square at the end)
So what do I do now? Anything? Or turn off and try with the original disks?
i just read a little on this, and i’m not clear on what exactly the file modification (finding/fixing) entails—do i run the risk of losing things??
Definitely try the original disks. It sounds like you’re having a software problem. Sometimes programs can try to modify or use parts of the system during a software update, while those parts are being altered… or so I have heard, I know almost nothing. But I think if you start up the computer with the original disks, your system will run.
If you can get your system to run off a disk, it should be relatively easy to reinstall the system without losing any of your files.
unfortunately, the software issue was so massive that it couldn’t even run the install disks. at the end of a long day and many-a-genius, i ended up getting a new machine (which i had been planning for anyway). now i’m just crossing my fingers that the data will transfer properly. thanks for the help!
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