iMac will only boot when sound is muted before shutdown

Before I begin, let me confess that I am primarily a PC user. I have been forever and just generally feel more comfortable with PCs (my wife is a PC guru and can work wonders with them). That said, my boss is a Mac person and I have been using (mostly antiquated) macs at work for the past ten years. In that time, I have learned minor things here and there, but for the most part, I am still a mac novice.

I hope I'm posting in the best forum, but I truly don't know if this is a hardware or software/OS issue.

I am now using a more current mac, but my knowledge of internal workings is still limited, so I hope I am giving complete information to diagnose my problem. If I need to provide more info to diagnose my issue, please let me know what I need to provide and where/how I would find that info.

I have an iMac running OSX 10.4.11; 800 MHz Power PC G4; 256 MB SDRAM. It is a mushroom cap looking machine with the flat panel monitor on a swivel.

Here is my issue. If I power the machine down after muting the sound (internal speaker - no externals plugged in) all is fine, but if the machine shuts down with my sound turned on, I am unable to successfully boot it back up again without multiple attempts. Hitting the power button starts to boot the machine and the power indicator on my monitor screen lights up. But the screen does not turn on. I get three short tone/beeps from the speakers, but no further startup sequence. I often have to power the mac off and on a dozen or more times in order to finally get it to boot up. When it DOES finally boot, I hear the familiar chord/tone startup sound intermixed with loud and choppy static. From there, the machine seems to work fine.

It has been doing this for quite some time, and I just left it go, but if it is a simple fix, maybe I can do it myself. In the past, my solution has been to simply keep the sound muted all the time, but every now and then, I need to use sound and if I forget to turn sound off again, I am faced with this problem the next morning on startup. On a few occasions it has taken me over 90 minutes to boot up the next day, which is quite frustrating and a productivity nightmare.

Has anyone experienced this issue before and do I have some hardware or software conflict that can be easily corrected? With my limited mac knowledge and the fact that it is my WORK computer and not my own personal computer I am extremely reluctant to monkey around with any configurations or settings.

Thanks for any help.

I'm sorry to say I've never heard of this issue. I have a newer iMac here at work and mute it every night before I leave because I hate hearing the startup sounds. I've never had any issues.

I also have the iMac with the swivel head at home, so tonight when I get off of work, I'll try it and see what results I get.

I haven't heard of that either. But have you tried using disk utility? (applications/utilities) Try repairing permissions and verify disk.
Also, try starting in Safe Mode with the mute off and see if it will boot.
(hold shift key during startup)
Check the logs as well. System Profiler in the utilities folder. You can post the appropriate logs that apply.

Excuse the long delay in responding

I followed Soulwar's advice of trying to start in safe mode, but the problem occurs before the machine even tries to initiate any boot sequence, so that did not produce any different results. I meant to get back here to see if there was any additional advice, but time got he best of me and I just continued to keep my audio muted since that alone seems to work perfectly. I pretty much forgot about this problem since it doesn't hinder my computer use for the most part. It wasn't until I recently came back to the forum with a completely different question that I remembered/found this previous post.

I tried the safe mode boot again with no luck, but I do now have some logs from my System Profiler generated this morning when I was trying to boot up with unmuted audio. Three logs in particular show times consistent with my boot efforts this morning: console log, error log, system log. Do I need to post all three or just one or two? And before I add those logs, IS THERE ANYTHING in the logs that I should remove -- anything sensitive about my machine that should not be broadcast to the entire world on the Internet? Obviously I am trusting the integrity of those who respond to my concerns, but that's really all I have to go on. All I know is that I can't make much out of the logs, but don't want to give away any sensitive info to someone who can read them.

Thanks for any help.

The logs will be fine, no sensitive / personal info will be stored in there. (Unless maybe there are applications that you don't want anyone outside the company knowing are installed on the machine.) They can be hard to interpret, but might give us some hints.

My suggestion: Don't tell the boss you've figured out how to prevent the problem, only that it takes up to 90 minutes to get the thing to boot so you can start work every day. It's fullfilled is usefullness and it's time to upgrade to one of the new 24" iMac's. ;D The time savings from this alone, not to mention the increased productivity of the newer Intel machines will pay back the cost in only 2-3 months time.

Logs and Startup Video

I tried to copy in my logs from yesterday morning, but not sure what happened, so I am going again, this time from today’s startup. My machine is on auto start up at 8:00 am before I arrive. So I logged on and un-muted my audio and then tried to restart. I took cell phone video to show what happens on un-muted startup. Each series of three beeps occurs after I manually power down then power up.

A second video shows the machine finally starting up and the static noise that accompanies a successful boot.

I will post three logs that indicate updates from this morning: console, error, system. I think the error log relates to a printer, but I am throwing it in just in case. If there is another problem in there unrelated that needs attention, I don’t know…

console log

console.log:

Description: User events log
Size: 2.03 KB
Last Modified: 3/3/09 9:14 AM
Location: /Library/Logs/Console/502/console.log
Recent Contents: Mac OS X Version 10.4.11 (Build 8S165)
2009-03-03 09:08:49 -0500
Mar 3 09:09:04 tom diskarbitrationd[41]: SystemUIServer [194]:20483 not responding.
2009-03-03 09:09:08.700 SystemUIServer[194]
MenuCracker
(c)2002 <[email protected]>
MenuCracker is now loaded. Ready to accept new menus. Ignore the failure message that follow.
2009-03-03 09:09:08.722 SystemUIServer[194] failed to load Menu Extra: NSBundle </Users/tomlucas/Library/Preferences/AliasMenu Prefs/MenuExtras/MenuCracker.menu> (loaded)
2009-03-03 09:09:19.757 SystemUIServer[194] failed to load Menu Extra: NSBundle </Users/tomlucas/Library/Preferences/AliasMenu Prefs/MenuExtras/MenuCracker.menu> (loaded)
2009-03-03 09:11:17.324 loginwindow[72] FSResolveAliasWithMountFlags returned err = -128
dyld: Library not loaded: /Library/PrivateFrameworks/SymBase.framework/Versions/A/SymBase
Referenced from: /Library/Application Support/Norton Solutions Support/SymQuickMenu/SymQuickMenu.app/Contents/MacOS/SymQuickMenu
Reason: image not found
2009-03-03 09:11:20.705 SpeechFeedbackWindow[214] _NSShapePlainWindow: error setting window shape (1001)
2009-03-03 09:11:20.983 HPEventHandler[232]: DebugAssert: Third Party Client: (NULL != m_lock && 0 == errno) Can't create semaphore lock[/Volumes/Development/Projects/mac-software/mac-software/components/HPEventHandler/Sources/Core/HPTMNotificationManager.cpp:62]
Mar 3 09:11:23 tom crashdump[238]: SymQuickMenu crashed
Mar 3 09:11:24 tom crashdump[238]: crash report written to: /Users/tomlucas/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/SymQuickMenu.crash.log
Warning: unrecognized command line flag -psn_0_3014657
dyld: Library not loaded: /usr/lib/libiconv.2.dylib
Referenced from: /Applications/FileZilla.app/Contents/MacOS/filezilla
Reason: Incompatible library version: filezilla requires version 7.0.0 or later, but libiconv.2.dylib provides version 5.0.0
Mar 3 09:14:19 tom crashdump[243]: filezilla crashed
Mar 3 09:14:22 tom crashdump[243]: crash report written to: /Users/tomlucas/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/filezilla.crash.log

error log

error_log:

Description: Printer error log
Size: 501.69 KB
Last Modified: 3/3/09 9:08 AM
Location: /var/log/cups/error_log
Recent Contents: ...
I [02/Mar/2009:11:31:53 -0500] Listening to 300f80:0
I [02/Mar/2009:11:31:53 -0500] Loaded configuration file "/private/etc/cups/cupsd.conf"
I [02/Mar/2009:11:31:53 -0500] Configured for up to 100 clients.
I [02/Mar/2009:11:31:53 -0500] Allowing up to 100 client connections per host.
I [02/Mar/2009:11:31:53 -0500] Full reload is required.
I [02/Mar/2009:11:31:55 -0500] Full reload complete.
I [02/Mar/2009:11:32:26 -0500] Adding start banner page "none" to job 2398.
I [02/Mar/2009:11:32:26 -0500] Adding end banner page "none" to job 2398.
I [02/Mar/2009:11:32:26 -0500] Job 2398 queued on 'Xerox2125' by 'tomlucas'.
I [02/Mar/2009:11:32:26 -0500] Started filter /usr/libexec/cups/filter/pictwpstops (PID 304) for job 2398.
I [02/Mar/2009:11:32:26 -0500] Started backend /usr/libexec/cups/backend/pap (PID 305) for job 2398.
I [02/Mar/2009:11:53:06 -0500] Adding start banner page "none" to job 2399.
I [02/Mar/2009:11:53:06 -0500] Adding end banner page "none" to job 2399.
I [02/Mar/2009:11:53:06 -0500] Job 2399 queued on 'LaserWriter_4_600_PS' by 'tomlucas'.
I [02/Mar/2009:11:53:06 -0500] Started filter /usr/libexec/cups/filter/cgpdftops (PID 313) for job 2399.
I [02/Mar/2009:11:53:06 -0500] Started filter /usr/libexec/cups/filter/pstops (PID 314) for job 2399.
I [02/Mar/2009:11:53:06 -0500] Started backend /usr/libexec/cups/backend/pap (PID 315) for job 2399.
I [02/Mar/2009:12:07:01 -0500] Adding start banner page "none" to job 2400.
I [02/Mar/2009:12:07:01 -0500] Adding end banner page "none" to job 2400.
I [02/Mar/2009:12:07:01 -0500] Job 2400 queued on 'Xerox2125' by 'tomlucas'.
I [02/Mar/2009:12:07:01 -0500] Started filter /usr/libexec/cups/filter/cgpdftops (PID 323) for job 2400.
I [02/Mar/2009:12:07:01 -0500] Started filter /usr/libexec/cups/filter/pstops (PID 324) for job 2400.
I [02/Mar/2009:12:07:01 -0500] Started backend /usr/libexec/cups/backend/pap (PID 325) for job 2400.
I [02/Mar/2009:12:09:23 -0500] Adding start banner page "none" to job 2401.
I [02/Mar/2009:12:09:23 -0500] Adding end banner page "none" to job 2401.
I [02/Mar/2009:12:09:23 -0500] Job 2401 queued on 'Xerox2125' by 'tomlucas'.
I [02/Mar/2009:12:09:23 -0500] Started filter /usr/libexec/cups/filter/cgpdftops (PID 328) for job 2401.
I [02/Mar/2009:12:09:23 -0500] Started filter /usr/libexec/cups/filter/pstops (PID 329) for job 2401.
I [02/Mar/2009:12:09:23 -0500] Started backend /usr/libexec/cups/backend/pap (PID 330) for job 2401.
I [02/Mar/2009:12:30:18 -0500] Adding start banner page "none" to job 2402.
I [02/Mar/2009:12:30:18 -0500] Adding end banner page "none" to job 2402.
I [02/Mar/2009:12:30:18 -0500] Job 2402 queued on 'Xerox2125' by 'tomlucas'.
I [02/Mar/2009:12:30:18 -0500] Started filter /usr/libexec/cups/filter/pictwpstops (PID 334) for job 2402.
I [02/Mar/2009:12:30:18 -0500] Started backend /usr/libexec/cups/backend/pap (PID 335) for job 2402.
I [02/Mar/2009:12:30:44 -0500] Adding start banner page "none" to job 2403.
I [02/Mar/2009:12:30:44 -0500] Adding end banner page "none" to job 2403.
I [02/Mar/2009:12:30:44 -0500] Job 2403 queued on 'Xerox2125' by 'tomlucas'.
I [02/Mar/2009:12:30:44 -0500] Started filter /usr/libexec/cups/filter/pictwpstops (PID 338) for job 2403.
I [02/Mar/2009:12:30:44 -0500] Started backend /usr/libexec/cups/backend/pap (PID 339) for job 2403.
I [02/Mar/2009:18:25:33 -0500] Scheduler shutting down normally.
I [03/Mar/2009:08:00:45 -0500] Listening to 7f000001:631
I [03/Mar/2009:08:00:45 -0500] Listening to 300f80:0
I [03/Mar/2009:08:00:45 -0500] Loaded configuration file "/private/etc/cups/cupsd.conf"
I [03/Mar/2009:08:00:45 -0500] Configured for up to 100 clients.
I [03/Mar/2009:08:00:45 -0500] Allowing up to 100 client connections per host.
I [03/Mar/2009:08:00:45 -0500] Full reload is required.
I [03/Mar/2009:08:00:45 -0500] Full reload complete.
I [03/Mar/2009:08:00:45 -0500] Printer sharing is off and there are no jobs pending, will restart on demand. Exiting.
I [03/Mar/2009:08:38:51 -0500] Listening to 7f000001:631
I [03/Mar/2009:08:38:51 -0500] Listening to 300f80:0
I [03/Mar/2009:08:38:51 -0500] Loaded configuration file "/private/etc/cups/cupsd.conf"
I [03/Mar/2009:08:38:51 -0500] Configured for up to 100 clients.
I [03/Mar/2009:08:38:51 -0500] Allowing up to 100 client connections per host.
I [03/Mar/2009:08:38:51 -0500] Full reload is required.
I [03/Mar/2009:08:38:51 -0500] Full reload complete.
I [03/Mar/2009:08:38:52 -0500] Printer sharing is off and there are no jobs pending, will restart on demand. Exiting.
I [03/Mar/2009:09:08:19 -0500] Listening to 7f000001:631
I [03/Mar/2009:09:08:19 -0500] Listening to 300f80:0
I [03/Mar/2009:09:08:19 -0500] Loaded configuration file "/private/etc/cups/cupsd.conf"
I [03/Mar/2009:09:08:19 -0500] Configured for up to 100 clients.
I [03/Mar/2009:09:08:19 -0500] Allowing up to 100 client connections per host.
I [03/Mar/2009:09:08:19 -0500] Full reload is required.
I [03/Mar/2009:09:08:20 -0500] Full reload complete.
I [03/Mar/2009:09:08:20 -0500] Printer sharing is off and there are no jobs pending, will restart on demand. Exiting.

system log

system.log:

Description: System events log
Size: 852.34 KB
Last Modified: 3/3/09 9:14 AM
Location: /var/log/system.log
Recent Contents: ...
Mar 3 09:07:13 tom loginwindow[65]: sendQuitEventToApp (Palm Desktop Background): AESendMessage returned error -1712
Mar 3 09:07:13 tom loginwindow[65]: sendQuitEventToApp (iCalAlarmScheduler): AESendMessage returned error -1712
Mar 3 09:07:27 tom shutdown: reboot by tomlucas:
Mar 3 09:07:29 tom SystemStarter[281]: authentication service (290) did not complete successfully
Mar 3 09:07:35 tom SystemStarter[281]: The following StartupItems failed to properly start:
Mar 3 09:07:35 tom SystemStarter[281]: /System/Library/StartupItems/AuthServer
Mar 3 09:07:35 tom SystemStarter[281]: - execution of Startup script failed
Mar 3 09:08:06 localhost kernel[0]: standard timeslicing quantum is 10000 us
Mar 3 09:08:06 localhost mDNSResponder-108.6 (Jul 19 2007 11: 33:32)[34]: starting
Mar 3 09:08:07 localhost kernel[0]: vm_page_bootstrap: 61081 free pages
Mar 3 09:08:06 localhost memberd[43]: memberd starting up
Mar 3 09:08:07 localhost kernel[0]: mig_table_max_displ = 70
Mar 3 09:08:06 localhost lookupd[42]: lookupd (version 369.8) starting - Tue Mar 3 09:08:06 2009
Mar 3 09:08:07 localhost kernel[0]: 71 prelinked modules
Mar 3 09:08:07 localhost kernel[0]: Copyright (c) 1982, 1986, 1989, 1991, 1993
Mar 3 09:08:07 localhost kernel[0]: The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
Mar 3 09:08:07 localhost kernel[0]: using 655 buffer headers and 655 cluster IO buffer headers
Mar 3 09:08:07 localhost kernel[0]: FireWire (OHCI) Apple ID 30 built-in now active, GUID 000393ff fe90b5fc; max speed s400.
Mar 3 09:08:07 localhost kernel[0]: Security auditing service present
Mar 3 09:08:07 localhost kernel[0]: BSM auditing present
Mar 3 09:08:07 localhost kernel[0]: disabled
Mar 3 09:08:07 localhost kernel[0]: rooting via boot-uuid from /chosen: 66FB2422-4D4E-3CC8-8556-59A32D5CE32E
Mar 3 09:08:07 localhost kernel[0]: Waiting on <dict ID="0"><key>IOProviderClass</key><string ID="1">IOResources</string><key>IOResourceMatch</key><string ID="2">boot-uuid-media</string></dict>
Mar 3 09:08:07 localhost kernel[0]: Got boot device = IOService:/MacRISC2PE/pci@f2000000/AppleMacRiscPCI/mac-io@17/AppleKeyLargo/ata-4@1f000/KeyLargoATA/ATADeviceNub@0/IOATABlockStorageDriver/IOATABlockStorageDevice/IOBlockStorageDriver/ST360020A Media/IOApplePartitionScheme/Apple_HFS_Untitled_1@3
Mar 3 09:08:07 localhost kernel[0]: BSD root: disk0s3, major 14, minor 2
Mar 3 09:08:07 localhost kernel[0]: Jettisoning kernel linker.
Mar 3 09:08:07 localhost kernel[0]: Resetting IOCatalogue.
Mar 3 09:08:07 localhost kernel[0]: Matching service count = 2
Mar 3 09:08:07 localhost kernel[0]: Matching service count = 4
Mar 3 09:08:07 localhost kernel[0]: Matching service count = 4
Mar 3 09:08:07 localhost kernel[0]: Matching service count = 4
Mar 3 09:08:07 localhost kernel[0]: Matching service count = 4
Mar 3 09:08:07 localhost kernel[0]: Matching service count = 4
Mar 3 09:08:07 localhost kernel[0]: NVDANV10HAL loaded and registered.
Mar 3 09:08:07 localhost kernel[0]: IPv6 packet filtering initialized, default to accept, logging disabled
Mar 3 09:08:07 localhost DirectoryService[46]: Launched version 2.1 (v353.6)
Mar 3 09:08:08 localhost kernel[0]: UniNEnet: Ethernet address 00:03:93:90:b5:fc
Mar 3 09:08:08 localhost diskarbitrationd[41]: disk0s3 hfs 66FB2422-4D4E-3CC8-8556-59A32D5CE32E Macintosh HD /
Mar 3 09:08:09 localhost launchd: Server 3307 in bootstrap 1103 uid 0: "/usr/sbin/lookupd"[42]: exited abnormally: Hangup
Mar 3 09:08:09 localhost kernel[0]: NVDA,NVMac: vram [98000000:04000000]
Mar 3 09:08:10 localhost lookupd[68]: lookupd (version 369.8) starting - Tue Mar 3 09:08:10 2009
Mar 3 09:08:11 localhost kernel[0]: UniNEnet::monitorLinkStatus - Link is up at 100 Mbps - Full Duplex
Mar 3 09:08:11 localhost /System/Library/CoreServices/loginwindow.app/Contents/MacOS/loginwindow: Login Window Application Started
Mar 3 09:08:11 localhost configd[38]: AppleTalk startup
Mar 3 09:08:12 tom configd[38]: setting hostname to "tom.local"
Mar 3 09:08:13 tom loginwindow[72]: Login Window Started Security Agent
Mar 3 09:08:14 tom configd[38]: executing /System/Library/SystemConfiguration/Kicker.bundle/Contents/Resources/enable-network
Mar 3 09:08:14 tom configd[38]: posting notification com.apple.system.config.network_change
Mar 3 09:08:14 tom lookupd[83]: lookupd (version 369.8) starting - Tue Mar 3 09:08:14 2009
Mar 3 09:08:16 tom mDNSResponder: Adding browse domain local.
Mar 3 09:08:16 tom configd[38]: target=enable-network: disabled
Mar 3 09:08:17 tom configd[38]: AppleTalk startup complete
Mar 3 09:09:04 tom diskarbitrationd[41]: SystemUIServer [194]:20483 not responding.
Mar 3 09:11:23 tom crashdump[238]: SymQuickMenu crashed
Mar 3 09:11:24 tom crashdump[238]: crash report written to: /Users/tomlucas/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/SymQuickMenu.crash.log
Mar 3 09:14:19 tom crashdump[243]: filezilla crashed
Mar 3 09:14:22 tom crashdump[243]: crash report written to: /Users/tomlucas/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/filezilla.crash.log

1. FileZilla crashed for one - Are you using this? Try just removing it from the startup items to begin with. System Preferences - Accounts - your user Login

It could be that the FileZilla version installed is a Leopard only version. The most recent versions require 10.5. That's what's causing the message pertaining to this:

dyld: Library not loaded: /usr/lib/libiconv.2.dylib
Referenced from: /Applications/FileZilla.app/Contents/MacOS/filezilla
Reason: Incompatible library version: filezilla requires version 7.0.0 or later, but libiconv.2.dylib provides version 5.0.0

Click to expand...

If you do use FileZilla you need to get a version compatible with Tiger.

2. SymQuickMenu is also crashing - Personally I'd recommend taking Norton off of that machine. You really don't have a need for an anti-virus on a Mac.

3. The three beeps indicate the memory is not passing it's testing. It's possible the RAM is failing. To test this out, assuming you have other similar Mac's in the office, try swapping the memory out with a machine without issues.

I just installed FileZilla on the machine this week (actually added it so I could send the above videos online to create valid links to them in my earlier post). When I ran it for the first time, a window popped up telling me a newer version was available and asked if I wanted to upgrade. I did, and the newer version would not operate, so I deleted that and just went back to the previous one.

I located a Symantec uninstaller in my Applications and ran it, only to be told: "Nothing found to uninstall The Symantec Uninstaller did not find any Symantec products to uninstall. The Symantec Uninstaller removes Symantec products from the current startup disk only." I have no other startup disks that I am aware of... Is it as simple as deleting the Symantec / Norton files from Applications?

I'll have to see what I can do about RAM swapping. Thanks.

Have not used anything Norton since around '99-'00 when it got to be a memory hog on my own systems and have seen it cause too many irregular issues since. Am pretty sure that Norton would have it's own installer and probably scatter files around a Mac system the way it does on a Win system. That being the case, if Norton was removed by dragging it to the trash, there could be this left over SymQuickMenu left hanging around that the uninstaller couldn't find.

First place I'd check would be the user account login items and remove anything from there that you don't need to start at login. FileZilla and Norton may have left remnants sitting in there. Although, these are unlikely to be the culprits causing the failure to boot.