Please help can't restart, log out or shut down

iris4iris4
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
since a few days I can't "restart", "log out" or "shut down" my iMac DV SE 500 OS 10.3.3 and 1gb Ram. (Sleep mode still works)

Even if I go to Preference Startup Disk and select another drive my System will not restart. When I press the reset button on the side of my Mac and press the "alt" key I was able to start up from my external drive. While running my Mac on the external I was able to log out, restart and shut down my comp.

I was also unable to start up from my DiskWarrior CD

I really would appreciate any help you guy's can give me.

Thank you in advance

IRIS

( I DiskWarriored my drive did the fsck thingy and repaired permissions but according to them my Mac has got no problems)

The other thing I just tried was to -since when i boot from my external drive it seems to work- use CarbonCopyCloner to copy the "working" System over to my Internal Drive, but this hasn't helped either.

One more thing I tried was to check my preference files Systemwide for corruptions but even they came back with an all clear result.

I'm at a complete loss with this one.

Creating another user with admin privileges and logging in with this account didn't help either nor did resetting both the PRAM and NVRAM

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 9
    wi04kwi04k Posts: 5member
    do you have any file servers in your startup items list? i had the same problem and removing them (and a hard reset) helped. strange bug.
  • Reply 2 of 9
    whisperwhisper Posts: 735member
    I can log you out, shutdown your computer, and restart it in three easy steps.



    1) Locate Power Cord

    2) Unplug Power Cord (This step is important. It shuts down the computer, and, since it's not on anymore, you aren't logged into it anymore either)

    3) Plug Power Cord Back In and Turn Computer Back On (There, now your computer has been restarted)



  • Reply 3 of 9
    iris4iris4 Posts: 3member
    Bloody hell Whisper why didn't I think of this myself. Thanks for this tip. I'll give it a shot as soon as I get my Brain amputated.
  • Reply 4 of 9
    whisperwhisper Posts: 735member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by IRIS4

    Bloody hell Whisper why didn't I think of this myself. Thanks for this tip. I'll give it a shot as soon as I get my Brain amputated.



    Sorry, sometimes I can't help it



    Welcome to the board, BTW.
  • Reply 5 of 9
    iris4iris4 Posts: 3member
    no worries
  • Reply 6 of 9
    gargoylegargoyle Posts: 660member




    He, he Whisper, that tickled me.





    1st Rule of AppleInsider

    Don't talk about AppleInsider



    2nd Rule of AppleInsider

    Don't talk about AppleInsider



    Oops, wrong rules...



    1st Rule of AppleInsider

    Post funny sarcastic answers first and real answers later!

  • Reply 7 of 9
    whisperwhisper Posts: 735member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Gargoyle

    1st Rule of AppleInsider

    Post funny sarcastic answers first and real answers later!





    'Tis a good rule



    Ok, it's later now. IRIS4, are there any error msgs, or does it just ignore the commands? Off the top of my head, there are two situations that could cause this, and both involve apps/daemons misbehaving. First, something won't quit, and second, something can't quit because it can't/won't close an open file (hmm... I guess the second case is just a more specific version of the first case).



    There are two options for determining what files are in use. The first, and simplest, is to use Sloth. The second way is to use the terminal command lsof (FWIW, this is how Sloth does it). I recommend Sloth, because it's the same info as lsof, but it's a lot easier to read due to the extra formatting that Sloth does.



    Activity Monitor (/Applications/Utilities/) and the terminal command "top -ax" will both give you a list of all the running processes. If you need to logout without restarting, open up the Activity Monitor and sort by process name. There'll be one called "loginwindow" that will be owned by you. Kill it and you will be instantly logged out.



    Good luck.
  • Reply 8 of 9
    pepsipepsi Posts: 55member
    I have had this problem before.



    I narrowed it down to the system not being able to quit classic.



    Once a force quit of classic is performed, the system will shut down/restart.
  • Reply 9 of 9
    ghost_user_nameghost_user_name Posts: 22,667member
    Helpful hint....



    If the topic of your post includes "Please Help" it most likely belongs in the Genius Bar.



    Moving.
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