Snow Leopard Crash

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Hey guys, I'm really hoping someone can help me out here. It's 2:00 in the morning and I NEED to be working on my machine right now, but I can't. Here's what happened:

I installed the latest Snow Leopard update on to my 24" iMac, and after the obligatory restart, it has now been frozen on the blank loading screen for almost a hour. Just the default SL desktop background with the eternal pinwheel. When not touched, the screen saver comes on, but that's all.

Somebody PLEASE help, preferably as soon as possible, I'm desperate! Thanks in advance.
 
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Welcome to mac forums

Have you tried a reboot and repair permissions?
I'd try a reboot in safe mode first though!
 
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alright, thanks for the thanks and the private message, but best to keep it on here so if we resolve this, that others will know what the fix was, and also, that others may have input as to how to resolve this.

So, any way, I would start by using Onyx or mainmenu, to clean out your system and user caches, also, running through http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/os-x-operating-system/93819-basic-os-x-mac-troubleshooting.html

After all the troubleshooting, I would then go to Mac OS X v10.6.2 Update (Combo) and download the combo update as a safeguard for anything that may have not been upto date, and that software updater may have missed.

Please message back either way, and until you do, I will keep brainstorming trying to find a fix.
 
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Thanks. So while in Safe Mode, I tried using Onyx to clear all the caches and repair disk permissions. I also tried booting from my install disk and running a disk repair, as well as resetting the PRAM.

All to no avail.

Any help you guys could possibly throw my way would be amazing. Thanks.
 
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Do you have a recent backup of your system? PLEASE SAY YES!
 
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One trick that has helped before - download the 10.6.2 Combo Updater and run that. YOu may have to boot into Safe mode by holding shift key to do the download and install. Mac OS X v10.6.2 Update (Combo)
 
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One trick that has helped before - download the 10.6.2 Combo Updater and run that. YOu may have to boot into Safe mode by holding shift key to do the download and install. Mac OS X v10.6.2 Update (Combo)
Agreed, I suggested that in an earlier post, but heard nothing back on that....
Failing that, I was going to go for the last resort of clean install and restore from last working backup if that didn't work, so hoping that before that you may have some suggestion of something that I may have missed in my suggestions above. :Smirk:
 
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Yes, I have Time Machine backups on my Time Capsule from as recent as an hour prior to the attempted install. I was just hoping there were other options for me, like you said, keeping that as my last resort.

As for the Mac OS X v10.6.2 Update (Combo) thing, how does that work since I technically already installed the 10.6.2 update, thus causing this whole fiasco.

Can't thank you guys enough.
 
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Just run the OSX10.6.2.combo update over the installed OSX10.6.2.

When going OSX 10.6 > OSX 10.6.1. > OSX 10.6.2. some small parts of the OS can get corrupted. The Combo updater goes straight from OSX 10.6. > OSX 10.6.2 with everything included. It's usually the first thing to try.

Many don't bother with the smaller delta update and always use the latest Combo updater.
 
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6string - did not read your post/s properly - no intention of increasing trans tasman rivalry. ;-)
 
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Just wondering... how long would it have taken to restore from a backup? How long have we wasted with this unresolved now? I'll never understand why some people don't just pick the efficient method. :D Anyway, hope it's working out for you!
 
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6string - did not read your post/s properly - no intention of increasing trans tasman rivalry. ;-)
All good, and what rivalry? No rivalry here, just heaps of Kiwis :D

Just wondering... how long would it have taken to restore from a backup? How long have we wasted with this unresolved now? I'll never understand why some people don't just pick the efficient method. :D Anyway, hope it's working out for you!

I'm quick to grab my install disc and backup if something doesn't quite look right, and in all honesty, that is what I would recommend to everyone, but I know that all my backups are fully working, and I can't be sure that is the case for everyone, but I totally understand your point.
There are still many issues that for some reason don't get resolved that should after a clean install or a restoration from backup.
 
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The reason I didn't jump at the whole booting from my latest TM backup solution right off the bat is is because:
A.) I've never done it before, and...
B.) When I finally decided I had no options left and did it, it said it was going to take 5 days.

I went and bought some heavy duty ethernet cables, which finally cut that time down to a measly SIX hours, but now guess what, after all that time... I'm still having the exact same problem anyway. And this backup is from before I even installed 10.6.2.

To reiterate, I'm able to boot in Safe Mode, and it says I'm running 10.6.1, but still, when I try to boot in normal mode, I get stuck on the same loading screen.

I am about to try the Mac OS X v10.6.2 Update (Combo) solution several of you suggested and see what happens. But I must admit, this is getting really frustrating. Especially since NO ONE at AppleCare was even close to as helpful as all of you have been.

Any more ideas? Somebody, please. Thanks.

Sincerely, Loathing on Long Island.
 
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By all means, try the 10.6.2 update, and also, get yourself car Carbon Copy Cloner to do you your backups as it's a lot faster.
*I can't imagine how big your HD and external HD are if it's taking soooooo long... doesn't sound right!
And what haven't you done before, a clean install?
 
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I noticed that you are a new member. Is this a new Mac as well? If so, why don't you just return it for a new one?
 

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Do you have any Paragon software installed?
 
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I can't imagine how big your HD and external HD are if it's taking soooooo long... doesn't sound right!
And what haven't you done before, a clean install?
I noticed that you are a new member. Is this a new Mac as well? If so, why don't you just return it for a new one?

I have the 24" iMac from Spring of 2008 with a (roughly) 300GB hard drive built in (I'm on my iPhone on the train so I can't check the exact specs,) and a standard 500GB Time Capsule. I've just never had to restore from a Time Machine backup before.

I've been a Mac user for 15 years, but everything has gone just swimmingly for me until this point. I'm very much a newbie to this particular problem.

As for the problem itself, I did the combo install you guys suggested last night, but all it has done is brought me back to exactly where I started from. 10.6.2 installed, can boot fine in safe mode, but booting in normal mode causes machine to freeze up on lading screen

The saga continues.

Do you have any Paragon software installed?
No I do not.


Thanks for of all your continued interest in this.
 
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I don't know if you went through the troubleshooting that I mentioned earlier.
http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/os-x-operating-system/93819-basic-os-x-mac-troubleshooting.html

If you have, then under the circumstances, as this could go on forever trying to resolve this, I would suggest the clean install.
The reason being that if the system works properly after a clean install, then you know that it is something corrupt on your system as it is, and then you can restore your system with the last working backup that you had before things went all pear shaped.

CLEAN INSTALL
Back up onto an external hard drive.
Then, insert your SL disc, and restart holding the C key when you hear the tone.
After you choose the language and press continue, go to utilities/disk utility in the menu bar.
Choose the HD (second in the left column) and select erase disk which by default will and should be formatted as Macintosh OS extended (journalled).
Once erased, exit disk utilities and continue installation.

(Once installation is compete, it will ask you if you want to restore from a time machine backup or using migration assistant later)

SELECT LATER as before you put anything back, you want to see that the system is now functioning properly!

If it is, then there are various methods to restore.
You can manually move applications back which can be tricky, reinstall fresh applications that you know are fully compatible, or using time machine or migration assistant.
The photos, documents, movies, and music are easy to move back manually.
If you want to restore from the last working backup, I would choose time machine, as migration assistant won't allow you to choose which time machine backup you would like to restore from.

Restore from Time Machine
Boot from SL DVD (Holding C at startup)
Choose language and click continue
Go to utilities in the menu bar and scroll down to restore from time machine backup.
This will guide you through the selection of the HD you wish to install onto and the backup you wish to restore from.
Once your done you should be all good.

Good luck, and fingers crossed for you.
 

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It's the freeze on loading screen that caused me to ask about Paragon.

My initial install of SL caused a kernel panic at boot due to a piece of Paragon software that was loading a kext on startup. I would guess that to be your issue also. Some piece of software is attempting to load at startup and causing a crash in SL. In safe mode, it's not loading.

Since you can get into safe mode, have you checked the console error log? The error log led me right to the Paragon kext and was able to delete it which got me booted up into SL.
 
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Hey guys. So after several days of racking my brain and talking to AppleCare, the issue has finally been resolved.

First off, I did complete a complete erase and clean install, followed by either restore from backup or migration assistant roughly 6 times with different combinations, and nothing changed. Everything worked fine with the fresh install of SL up until the data from my backup hit the machine, then all **** broke loose again. Like I said, I went through this about 6 times over the past 4 days.

After several hours of tinkering with specific StartupItems, Fonts, Caches, LaunchAgents, LaunchDaemons and other .plist files, we finally figured out that the problem existed in the user/library/fonts folder. Must have been a bad apple third party font that I installed (which I do frequently being an Art Director.)

Wow, I really wish I would have looked through that stuff from the get go instead of wasting 4 days reinstalling SL (45 minutes each time) and restoring my data (4 hours each time) a bunch of times.

But in any case, thank you all so much for your help. The list of diagnostic stuff you suggested will certainly come in handy in the future.
 

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