Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

[Steven Champeon <schampeo AT hesketh.com>]

on Thu, Dec 12, 2002 at 08:04:26AM -0500, Sarah Ovenall wrote:
> I didn't know there were so many Mac users on this list. My G4 
> (running system 10.1.5) has been acting weird since the power came 
> back on: When I shut it down, the light on the front of the computer 
> stays on. Then the only way to restart it is to reset the UPS -- the 
> buttons on the monitor and the computer do nothing. When it starts 
> up, it makes a loud beep and then starts in Open Firmware. Then I 
> type "mac-boot" and it starts up normally.
> 
> I tried resetting the PRAM, which didn't help. That's about the 
> extent of my troubleshooting abilities :) Any OS X guru who could 
> help me out?

I dunno from G4s, but the iMacs had a problem called the "green light
of death", where the light on the front of the Mac would stay green at
shutdown, and wouldn't allow a restart (the computer would boot, but
without the display) until you'd unplugged the power completely and 
waited until the green light went out. Subsequent restart would work
fine. Something to do with the analog/video board, they tell me. 

But this doesn't sound like quite the same problem, to me. 

In OF, is your auto-boot? variable set to true? To check, go to the
Terminal and start a shell, then type 'nvram -p'. You should get 

auto-boot?      true

(The '?' is part of the variable name, FWIW). Others to look for include

boot-command    mac-boot
boot-args
boot-file

You may have empty settings for the last two, or not, depending on whether
you've set your box to do a verbose boot (in which case the 'boot-args'
variable may read "-v") or to allow for multiple OSes (in which case you
will have probably set boot-file to 'bootscript' or as appropriate).

But I'm no expert. I've got a Rev A. sitting on my desk in pieces,
waiting for the magic combination on my DB15<->HD15 converter that will
send a nice, lovely, compatible signal to this here NEC multisync
external monitor. So YMMV.

-- 
hesketh.com/inc. v: (919) 834-2552 f: (919) 834-2554 w: http://hesketh.com
Book publishing is second only to furniture delivery in slowness. -b. schneier