Leopard Blue Screen of Death… (Updated)
October 27th, 2007 by MikeThis came as a shocker to me, mainly because I have done uncounted OS X upgrades in the past with only very minor issues mainly to due to some accessory drivers… but tonight while upgrading my Friends 24 inch iMac 1st generation we had a biggie of a problem, the blue screen of death that did not go away no matter how long we stared at it. We tried resetting the PRAM and booting into Single user mode and running FSCK repairs but nothing seemed to help. So we booted up his IBM laptop and had a look on Apple’s forum, it seems 8000 or more people where interested in the same thing as the Post for “Leopard Blue Screen Freeze” was a very popular one to say the least!! After searching through many of the post we found one that looked worth trying and like an angle of mercy it worked! On our next reboot we where in to leopard, few! Well here is a cut and paste from the actual post, if you are experiencing this problem give this a try and I really hope Apple fixes this because it is very unlike any Apple update I have experienced in the past.
The Leopard Blue Screen of Death Fix:
“I had the same blue screen hang but the instructions below fixed it for me.
1. Reboot into single-user mode (hold Cmd-S while booting machine)
2. Follow the directions OSX gives you when you get to the prompt (I
think these were them - just type the two commands it tells you to):
fsck -fy /
/sbin/mount -uw /
3. Remove the following files:
rm -rf /Library/PreferencePanes/ApplicationEnhancer.prefpane
rm -rf /Library/Frameworks/ApplicationEnhancer.framework
rm -rf /System/Library/SystemConfiguration/ApplicationEnhancer.bundle
rm -f /Library/Preferences/com.unsanity.ape.plist
4. Exit, to continue booting normally
exit
In my case I think “application enhancer” was installed on my machine
when I installed RezX on my mini but I am not sure”
Update: Looks like the program Application Enhancer APP is the likely source of this problem, so make sure to uninstall it before you do a Leopard Upgrade Please!!!
To uninstall Application Enhancer - open your System Preferences and in the “Other” section will be the icon for Application Enhancer (If you have it installed), click it and then click the “Troubleshooting” tab, next click the “Uninstall Applications Enhancer” tab.
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October 27th, 2007 at 6:15 am
Thats a first.
I had no problems installing on my iMac 20″ Core2Duo 2.16Ghz.
I did a format and install, and it took under an hour to install. Then I installed all the extras, and installed iLife’08.
I copied all my important bits from my external HDD which I had backed up onto and installed things like Divx Codec, Flip4Mac and other things like Transmission, World of Warcraft etc.
Then Time Machine formatted and used the external HDD as my backup drive.
so far Leopard has not had any problems and I collected a load of updates after installation so they seem to be on top of things.
October 27th, 2007 at 1:53 pm
From what I can tell the problem is only with Upgrading to OS X Leopard, I have only done one upgrade so far juts happened to be a rocky one, I hope the rest will go much better…
October 27th, 2007 at 2:02 pm
Am currently reinstalling Leopard, after experiencing the Blue Screen of Birth. And perhaps I needn’t have done that. Shall try your measures as soon as the reinstallation is finished!
Humbly, Ylan
October 27th, 2007 at 2:02 pm
I just checked my Website data to see what people where Google-ing to get to the site and I would say more than half of them today are typing in some combination of “Leopard - Blue - Screen and Death” What does that tell me? Something is going on and I hope it gets resolved…
October 27th, 2007 at 5:50 pm
I had this problem also on my 13″ MacBook and this resolved the problem for me. Thanks!
October 27th, 2007 at 8:12 pm
Just to confirm, Unsanity’s APE code is in fact the culprit of the problem if you are running pre 2.0.3 version of the software.
The folks at Unsanity sent out an email to it’s customers recently stating that if you didn’t have 2.0.3 of the APE, you would have some serious problems with Leopard.
Looking at their site, they claim that even 2.0.3 is *NOT* compatible with Leopard. So it’s probably a safe bet to not install any Unsanity programs until their web site states that they are compatible.
October 28th, 2007 at 4:05 am
[…] I still had a spare laptop and with the help of Google I found out what to do. A quick boot into Single User mode, a fsck, a mount and a few rm -rfs later and the offending […]
October 28th, 2007 at 9:06 am
This worked for me! Thanks!
October 28th, 2007 at 3:22 pm
[…] The first of these may be Unsanity’s Application Enhancer (APE). Either remove this using these instructions or update it to the latest version. Another would be to rename your DivXNetworks folder in your […]
November 4th, 2007 at 8:34 pm
I found this helpful, a day and a half and 50 reboots later. Ive been a Mac user for over a year now, but never was familiar with single user mode.
These commands did indeed solve the “blue screen” , but I would recommend being patient after typing in the two initial commands… i jumped the gun naively, and ruined the process.. so if you are like me and dont normally mess with single user, type the commands as show, but be patient and let your mac run its process.
November 7th, 2007 at 2:13 am
[…] A derivative of the BSOD fix documented on SwitchingtoMac. The changes are to the initial commands (lacking a /sbin/ and a surplus /) and changing the two […]
November 12th, 2007 at 8:08 pm
[…] sistema tampoco ayuda, y según los foros, el apoyo técnico de Apple anda perdido con el asunto. En switchingtomac.com nos aparece una posible solución al problema que ya ha dado resultados […]
November 16th, 2007 at 3:18 am
pues.. llevo un par de veces instalando leopard y pues puedo explikarl o ke ha pasado con las dos instalaciones:
en la primera too se volvio lento un poco y funciono a la perfe cion una semana despues odias despues se volvio lento y mas lento y mas lento.. entonces no se dije voy a hacer un respaldo e instalar desde cero formatear e intalar lepopard.. asi ke lo hize y…
pues ahora estaba llenando mis datos sobre nombre cuanta,mail, todo eso y a la mitad cuando pide datos de donde usas la mac y todo eso se reinicio sola.. y eos me paso un par de veces asi ke sake el disko y volvi a hacer lo mismo por tercera vez asi ke meti el disco al mismo tiempo y funciono… despues ya usando leopar se volvio lento de nuevo… y no aguanto me desespero mucho por ke tarda como 10 minuos en iniciar… y no sse ke hacer… espero alguien me puedal ayudar– gracias!!
November 20th, 2007 at 8:56 am
I can’t delete these files, as it says they are read only files.
How do I change the permission so that I can delete it?
November 28th, 2007 at 5:49 pm
I had the Unsanity Application Enhancer installed before the Leopard upgrade and got the “blue screen of death”. The above instructions fixed the problem… You’re the man!
December 22nd, 2007 at 9:27 pm
[…] sistema tampoco ayuda, y según los foros, el apoyo técnico de Apple anda perdido con el asunto. En switchingtomac.com nos aparece una posible solución al problema que ya ha dado resultados […]
January 6th, 2008 at 5:57 pm
Interesting that I had the same problem, but have never had or used APE. I tried to do a reinstall using Archive and Install, but the install corrupted and I had to erase and install. I did restored my user files from Time Machine. The problem came back. I did this twice. I was also able to do an Archive and install. Didn’t work. Finally, I went back to 10.4 - works fine, I just feel like I’m in commercial for Microsoft.
I also experiences a I/O kernel panic, and was losing volume data and system preference settings. Somehow these are all connected, but I’m not sure how. I think there may be a connection with .mac sync.
Any non-APE users have this problem?
January 6th, 2008 at 8:14 pm
The APE Application is used with a number of programs/utilities, you may not be aware of it?
There may be a problem with your main user data? Or possibly the Leopard install disk itself?
I just Switched from Tiger to Leopard and it went very well:
http://www.switchingtomac.com/wp/i-switched-to-leopard/
January 9th, 2008 at 9:20 pm
Hola, instale el 10.5 despues de unas semas de uso funciono mas estable hasta que un dia se pego el powerbook y al reiniciarlo llega hasta la pantalla azul, incluso instale sistema 10.4.11 y me pasa lo mismo
cambie memria ram, disco duro y nada instalo sistema denuevo 10.4 y sige con pantalla azul solo arranca en modo aprueba de fallos ( pulsando la tecla mayusculas cuando inicia el mac)
que diablos puede ser necesito ayuda porfavor !
gracias
January 9th, 2008 at 9:32 pm
modelo del powerbook es
Powerbook G4 1,67 Ghz, 128 Mb video, superdrive double layer.
el problema paso al estar navegando con safari, se pego el computador, lo reinicie y llegaba solo hasta la pantalla azul y alli quedaba ( tenia instalado el 10.5.1), respade mi informacion y lo formatie de cero instalando 10.5 y no habia caso, despues probe con sistema 10,4 y tampoco logro hacer que funcione normalmente
solo arranca en modo aprueba de fallos
Porfavor necesito ayuda
Gracias
Saludos desde Chile
January 11th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
Just to update my issue.
I finally called Apple Care support who couldn’t offer any other suggestions. They recommended taking it to the Genius bar. After explaining what I had done, the Genius said it was likely a hard drive failure and is replacing the drive.
February 1st, 2008 at 4:39 pm
Same problem. It occured today with my 24” iMac (it’s only one week old…). A’ve never used APE but before the BSofDeath I was dealing with my iDisk (.Mac account). Could it be a problem?
February 23rd, 2008 at 12:16 am
Hi
I followed these instructions when the update of my Powerbook G4 didn’t work. And it booted perfectly afterwards. Thank you very much for posting this. It saved me a lot of heartache!
March 20th, 2008 at 10:31 am
Thanks It has helped me overcome the bluye screen, I had na backup done and it was almost looking like im in for a losing data when you came to my rescue.
April 14th, 2008 at 1:37 am
Thank you so much for this solution I was wetting myself that my 4 year old iBook G4 had finally kicked the bucket. I only installed application enhancer the other day and after a shutdown that was the nail in the coffin.
April 17th, 2008 at 4:29 am
Hi,
Had same problem here macbook 13″ 2.13GHz. Worked for me! Great
Thank you!
May 18th, 2008 at 10:43 pm
iMac; and fixed it!!! Thanks!!!!
May 28th, 2008 at 8:53 am
I have a intel powerbook pro that came with leopard. I have none of the files that are listed and I have the blue screen (at least for a few minutes then I get the login).
June 7th, 2008 at 8:18 am
i cant type the 2 command, after i type fsck -fy / and press enter, it start checking files.
July 5th, 2008 at 7:26 am
Our G5 early-2005 dual 2.0 was basically condemned by an Apple specialist (it was left in an office corner and we bought a new machine to replace it).
Bluescreens (non-temporary) would happen minutes, even seconds after a complete write-all-zeros and fresh install — what was attempted dozens of times during weeks in a row before “putting the machine to rest”.
This week we heard of a brand new MacBook that had very similar issues and, after a crazy thought, we decided to try downgrading to Tiger on the G5 and it is running straight after 5 days without any bluescreen issues.
Adding to this the fact that zero-alls and fresh installs did solve (even if for a short time) the bluescreen issues, there seems to be a very strong case for Leopard been the cause of certain specific conflicts that may cause bluescreens by itself — no app enhancer was ever install in this machine, as well as, during the last dozen or so tries, not even third party software was installed.
July 5th, 2008 at 8:56 am
Tabaruba,
I wonder if RAM is the real issue with your G5 iMac? I encountered a similar problem with a machine that ran fine in one OS but crashed in a newer OS. A newer OS can put more demand on the RAM and even access it differently revealing an inherent problem with the RAM, try replacing the RAM and see what happens…
July 6th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
Mike,
When adding this same comment to some other discussion groups I added some extra info regarding this.
For both our friend’s MacBook and ours, initially the hard-drive was blamed and they were replaced. For our G5, we also replaced the RAM and the SuperDrive. Even tough these replacements would “solve” the bluescreen temporarily, it would be a matter of time before re-occurrence. In the end (in our case), the motherboard (an investment of almost a thousand bucks) was blamed.
Considering that doing zero-all disk erases and fresh system installs did solve (even if for a short time) the bluescreen issues, there seems to be a very strong case for Leopard been the cause of certain specific conflicts that may cause bluescreens by itself — no app enhancer was ever install in this machine, as well as, during the last dozen or so tries, not even third party software was installed.
It is hard to believe that this is indeed a hardware problem.
After the downgrading to Tiger we have not have BSOD issues.
This just added to our suspicion that this cannot be a hardware issue and it is related to Leopard.