Grey screen requiring reboot due to switching users

L

Lpayne

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I have the latest iMac less than a year old. I have three users, myself as admin and two others. It worked fine until now. When one of the other users logs off or goes to log in screen, the grey screen scrolls into view stating I need to shut off the computer. Please help! I switched from PC to mac due to windows issues, now mac has issues!
 
It sound as if the affected user did something if this is the only user having problems. So first run the steps on that Mac according to the Apple document Mac OS X: Gray screen appears during startup. The get a third part hard disk utility like Alsoft's DiskWarrior.

Now do you have a clone of that iMac? Did you know you could boot a modern Mac with a USB2 or Firewire external clone? Plus you could make an external clone with programs like the free Carbon Copy Cloner or the shareware SuperDuper.

All hard eventually drives will fail and any computer on the market today can't fix the failing that is between the keyboard and the chair. :eek:
 
Actually, the problem exists with the Mac, not me.

After a couple hours of troubleshooting and a couple dozen reboots (ahh, just like my PC days!!), I have determined the problem is with Parental Controls and Safari. I have two other users with Parental Controls enabled. When they go on Safari, then either log off or go to the Login Window, the Mac crashes now. Did not have the problem before. Seems like a recent software update contributed to this problem??

I setup two new accounts for them and so far it seems to be working but I have not extensively tested it.

There existing profiles have alot of custom links, pages, etc which I feel bad they may have to start over with new accounts. And these may end up crashing also. Way to go Mac!
 
Lpayne said:
I setup two new accounts for them and so far it seems to be working but I have not extensively tested it.

There existing profiles have alot of custom links, pages, etc which I feel bad they may have to start over with new accounts. And these may end up crashing also. Way to go Mac!
Click to expand...

Well, it sounds like a conflict between third party software that wasn't tested with the current Parental setup. So open the log files in /Applications/Utilities/Console to see what the error is that is affecting the account.

Now mist computers (Mac, Windows flavor/Linux) and have problems with super old or badly written system plugins made by third party developers. Now blaming the problem with OS X alone is really not fair. I could say the same about the stupid Vista business boxes at my work that mysteriously forget their setup to the 2008 Domain. So IMHO the problem is rarely because just the operating system. So take a step from Windows trouble shooting. With the roaming Domain account just re-image the box and then the roaming profile and user will get their own settings from that profile on the Domain, easily.

Plus I have come across MANY so-called system Administrators that are so bad that I could take a person off the street that could do a better job.

Now to get back to your problem simple reason steps could give you a clue. You sad other accounts on the Mac have no problem. This should be your first clue in trouble shooting!
 
Thanks for the advice Satcomer. I found thru more troubleshooting the problem exists when Parental Controls are turned on for other users. When other users are operating, there does not seem to be a problem.
So, something must be causing the computer to crash when another user is operating Safari when Parental Controls are enabled and when they log off or go to the login window.
I went to the Console as you suggested and saw many problems. One was with Carbonite. Eventhough I had deleted the program, it was still hunting for files. I got on tech support with Carbonite and resolved the problem in a couple hours.
Still have the Parental Control problem. My kids could run on the separate user, but with Parental Controls not enabled....Any other suggestions.
 
Try the utility (made by a professional Mac System Administrator) Yasu and run all the cleaning routines. Let the program reboot the Mac but then upon that reboot immediately manually reboot again to completely rebuild the startup/shutdown/switching cache.

Then if it is still happening try a Safe Boot to see if it panics again. The Safe Boot will turn off all plugins to see if the system itself is running good.

Your clue from the Console logs about the Carbonite try stopping that for a little while to see if it is causing problems with the Parental Controls. Short of making a new account for the User this would be a thing to try. After that i am fresh out of ideas, sorry.
 
Thanks Satcomer. I did more testing and isolated the problem to VirusBarrier X6. When their Web Threat Protection feature is enabled, my users with Parental Control using Safari will cause the Mac to crash when they log off or switch users. Seems when I disable Web Threat Protection, it does not crash. Seems this occured after an update to OSX 10.6.6. I notified VirusBarrier company and they acknowledged a problem.
 
Then protect your self with some of the Unix shell stuff already in your Mac, for free. Forget the built in OS X GUI firewall because it is designed some basic users. Instead use the ipfw program command line firewall that is so much more robust. Luckily a clever Mac developer made NoobProoof (for beginners) or WaterRoof (for advanced DNS administrators) to control the command line firewall ipfw easily.

Now there are no viruses for OS X. However there are some proof of concept Trojans. As a home user to avoid those is not visit web sites that hosts these known Trojans (using OpenDNS - see their instructional video setting it to block know Trojan hosting sites) and not opening emails from people I don't know or pirate software anytime.

Lastly if you really need antivirus software then look at either the free Sophos or ClamXav.
 
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