G4 Powerbook won't load

[Tobin]

Hi all,
I am a new member. I read a related thread to my problem, but I thought I better write my own. Yesterday I was downloading the most recent OS X upgrade on Software Update and part way through, a red exclamation point popped up and said it encountered an 'unexpected error', popped up the spinning rainbow cursor and froze. When nothing else worked, I did a hard restart and the startup stuck at the light gray, dark apple screen with the spinning gray cursor for over two hours. I got the sofware install disk, performed the hardware test, which said everything was fine. I then went into the Disk Utility and ran the four HD tests which finished OK. The problem still exists though and the computer will not start up. Any suggestions? If I can fix this and save the documents on the HD (some of which are very important) that would be preferable. Thanks in advance for any help or guideance!

 

[Stanley_Beamish]

Hi all,
I am a new member. I read a related thread to my problem, but I thought I better write my own. Yesterday I was downloading the most recent OS X upgrade on Software Update and part way through, a red exclamation point popped up and said it encountered an 'unexpected error', popped up the spinning rainbow cursor and froze. When nothing else worked, I did a hard restart and the startup stuck at the light gray, dark apple screen with the spinning gray cursor for over two hours. I got the sofware install disk, performed the hardware test, which said everything was fine. I then went into the Disk Utility and ran the four HD tests which finished OK. The problem still exists though and the computer will not start up. Any suggestions? If I can fix this and save the documents on the HD (some of which are very important) that would be preferable. Thanks in advance for any help or guideance!

After googling about your issue I found this:

The 10.4.9 update hung my computer, and its been hanging other people's as well. Mine ran and reported an error, then failed to fully restart the computer - it just sat there on my wallpaper with no finder or menu bar for ages. I powered the system down and then up again and it just hung on the gray Apple boot screen with the swirling circle. After 15 minutes I tried again, no love. Disk Repair from the install DVD made some minor repairs but never solved the problem. In the end I made a disk image of my drive onto an external and did a reinstall, which seems to have gotten me back on track, all my apps, files, settings, etc, are all in tact, apart from a couple of stray System Preference add-ons I had, and my Account photo is AWOL. Not bad, all things considered.

I back up, I've got DVD-Rs with loads of stuff squirreled away, but clearly a regular disk image routine is also in order for times like these. Lesson learned... until Time Machine comes along, anyway!

I also found this solution to someone in a sililiar situation to you:

Had to do an archive and install - from my Tiger disk - then do the larger combo update.