[X Newbies] 10.2.8 frozen on startup

[Randy B. Singer]

Ed Theriault said:

>Hi all, I'm having a problem starting up after a force quit of a program 
>that hung.
>Upon getting to the gray apple screen the spinning disk freezes and in 
>the top left corner I get the
>prompt  sh-2.05 a #
>I've started in single user mode and checked files ...all ok
>I've started up with OSX CD  and repaired permissions and disk
>all ok.  Same result.
>I'm hoping someone has a solution without reinstalling the OS again.


Try starting up in Safe Boot Mode, by holding down the Shift key on 
startup. 
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214
Does that work?  (Then the problem more than likely lies with a 
third-party kernel extension or a user startup item.)

Sometimes an NVRAM reset helps.
http://www.macattorney.com/tutorial.html 
Item #39

If not, finding the corrupted bit of system software might be impossible. 
 On the other hand, doing an archive and install of your system software 
is more or less painless.


Randy B. Singer
Co-Author of: The Macintosh Bible (4th, 5th and 6th editions)

How To Deal With Common OS X 10.3 Panther Problems
http://www.macattorney.com/panther.html