Start-up screen blues

[Glen (Planet)]

To all,
I've just joined the list in search of a solution to a very frustrating
problem.
 
As this is my first posting, please except my apology if my questions are
out of context to the discussion list's protocols but I'm afraid I search
many web sights and combed through countless OSX handbooks and can't seem to
find a solution to my problem.

As I stated in my subject line, I'm plagued by a blue screen at start up.

I'm running OSX (10.2.4) on an older iBook (Blueberry model). I've got an
airport card installed and have it working with my wife's PC which has a
D-link DI 614+ wireless router that accesses a high speed internet
connection. On this home LAN we also have an iMac (400mhz DVD) and a Newton
2100, each communicating through their own wireless cards.

My problem is that whenever I start the iBook -with either an airport card
installed or an Ethernet cable connected- my iBook fails to start-up
correctly. Instead I seem to hang up on a blue screen.

I say that it seems to hang up because if I leave the machine overnight, I
eventually can get to a log-in window. The first time I got this far I
thought hat I'd made some progress, but sadly regardless of whether I log in
as myself or as a root user it just comes back to the log in window.

If I remove the airport card then everything is as it should be and in short
order I find myself at my desktop. At this point I can attach an Ethernet
cable and browse the net.

I've come across advice on removing fonts from OS9 but this seems to be of
no help. Rather I suspect that something is astray in my Directory Access
window, but the various options are beyond my understanding. Nevertheless,
I've tried to turn on various combinations of the LDAP and SMB but no luck.

In regards to the status of the hardware. I know everything is working as I
was using the iBook's airport card until just a week ago on this very
network without problems. Furthermore, if I boot into OS9 everything works.

Lastly, whatever gremlins are at work here, they have also struck on the
iMac. The very same symptoms have appeared, and we're baffled. I can well
imagine that somewhere in my OSX naivety, I've fiddled with something and
upset the two machines enormously (we're running  (9.2) with the an airport
card in the meantime).

If anyone has any reflections on what is cursing my machines, I'd be forever
grateful for you input (by the way I've tried to download the latest upgrade
of OSX 10.2.5, but it repeatedly stalls so I don't have that option).
Secondly, I've been having a lot of difficulty backing up the iBook to the
iMac so I can't easily do a clean install- though if I must, I must).

Many thanks in advance and again if this problem is outside of the
discussion group then I apologize.
Sincerely
Glen
-- 
Glen Swanson
Ethnic Minority Specialist

The Land Titling II Project Preparation

Ministry of Finance, Department of Lands.
Lane Xang Avenue. Vientiane, Lao PDR.

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