Black Screen of Death

c98tac98ta
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
I have had this happen to me twice since upgrading to Panther. Everything will be running fine and then the computer just freezes, with a black message box that says to restart the computer and displays a power button graphic, it says this in several languages. Any ideas why this is happening - I never had any problems with Jaguar. I performed a clean install when I upgraded to Panther.



When I restart the computer I get a flashing question mark. My manual says to restart the computer holding down the option key and then select the hard drive icon and then the right arrow icon. I get the arrow icon but no hard drive icon. The first time this happened I restarted the computer holding down the option + D key, but this last time it didn't work. HELP!!!

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 6
    ghost_user_nameghost_user_name Posts: 22,667member
    That's a kernel panic. It's typically induced by either a hardware malfunction or a major system error.



    Have a look at this Mac OS X Kernel Panic FAQ for some ideas.
  • Reply 2 of 6
    dmband0026dmband0026 Posts: 2,345member
    I have had a few kernal panics since starting to use OS X back in the days when it was just that, X. Not X.1/.2/.3. I have never had the flashing question mark after one though. You should get that checked out, it could indicate a major system problem.
  • Reply 3 of 6
    agent macintoshagent macintosh Posts: 187member
    I had a couple kernel panics, but i never had flashing question mark after. When i DO have the evil flashing question mark, i do a reinstall ( archive and install) the nmove everything over to the new system.
  • Reply 4 of 6
    dobbydobby Posts: 797member
    hold down option+ v while starting and you will hopefully be able to see where its hanging.

    If you get lines of startup comming up then its most likely a software issue and a re-install will should fix this.

    If you don't see the startup output then you've probably got a hardware prob.



    dobby.
  • Reply 5 of 6
    gargoylegargoyle Posts: 660member
    I got my first EVER kernel panic today. I was using TCP/IP over firewire to update a windblows machine without a network card. I blame the problem 60% on the really cheap firewire card I used in the PC and 40% on IP over Firewire not being quite finished. Hence the options not being immediately visible.
  • Reply 6 of 6
    dmband0026dmband0026 Posts: 2,345member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Gargoyle

    I got my first EVER kernel panic today. I was using TCP/IP over firewire to update a windblows machine without a network card. I blame the problem 60% on the really cheap firewire card I used in the PC and 40% on IP over Firewire not being quite finished. Hence the options not being immediately visible.



    Yea, that sounds to me like a recipe for a big software/hardware problem. I haven't had any trouble with IP over Firewire though. Workin fine for me. I hope it stays that way.
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