User Guide

Troubleshooting Symptom Charts/ System Hangs/Freezes During Boot - 25
System Hangs/Freezes During Boot
System begins a
normal startup
process with a boot
chime and normal
display, but then
freezes before the
Finder appears.
1 Boot with Extensions off by holding down the Shift key during
startup. (See TIL article #14343 for more information on
possible Extension conflicts.) Does the system startup
successfully with Extensions off?
Yes: Begin adding back the system Extensions one at a time
and starting up the system after each addition. If the system
freezes again, you know that the last Extension you added is
causing the problem.
No: Go to the next step.
2 Boot from the system CD that came with the unit. Does the
system startup successfully?
Yes: Reinstall system software. (You must use the system
software CD that came with the unit to get the correct version of
Mac OS .) If the problem persists, go to the next step.
No: Reseat the SDRAM. If the problem persists, replace the
SDRAM (one DIMM at a time) with known- good SO-DIMMs.
3 Bad USB device. Turn off the computer and disconnect all USB
devices. Next, power on the system using the power button on
the front of the unit, and begin adding back the USB device one
at time, beginning with the keyboard and then the mouse, and
so on. If the system hangs only after you reconnect a
particular USB device, replace that USB device.
4 The hard drive or its software drivers are most likely the
problem. Can you see the hard drive using Drive Setup?
Yes: Use Drive Setup 1.5.1 to reinstall the software drivers for the
hard drive. If the problem persists, use Drive Setup 1.5.1 to
reinitialize the hard drive (See TIL article #22206 for Drive Setup
information.)
±Warning: You will lose all data on the hard drive when you
reinitialize it. Backup the data first if possible.
No: Go to next step.
5 If you don’t see the hard drive using Drive Setup:
- Check all cable connections to and from the hard drive.
- Replace the hard drive/CD data cable.
- Replace the hard drive.
- Replace the hard drive power cable
6 Disconnect all external devices (USB and Ethernet). Then
begin reconnecting these devices one at a time (beginning
with the keyboard and then the mouse) and start up the
computer after each device is connected to see if one of the
external devices is causing the problem. If the problem
occurs after you connect a particular external device, replace
the device in question.