Hi Dane, Can you try to boot up your Mac Mini into safe mode? That's where you hold down the Shift key when you power up and boot. Keep holding down the Shift key for at least 15 seconds after you power up. Logging in under safe mode is not accessible, because your Mac boots up under a restricted set of commands, that includes disabling the audio that VoiceOver uses, but I've found that simply booting up into Safe Mode, and waiting for the boot to finish (let it alone for 10 minutes, or with your Mac Mini you can probably hear when disk activity stops), then restarting the Mac normally, without even trying to log in under Safe mode, will fix a number of conditions. This worked for another list member trying to fix his girlfriend's MacBook Air earlier this month.
When you boot into Safe mode, a repair permissions is automatically run as part of the boot up process, and a some of your dynamically loaded caches are automatically cleared. The boot up process takes longer than usual to complete, because you have to allow for the time to run repair permissions, but lots of problems are fixed by simply going through those steps. For more information about Safe Boot mode and what happens when you boot into Safe mode, see the Apple Knowledge Base document: • Mac OS X: What is Safe Boot, Safe Mode? http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1564 HTH. Cheers, Esther On Jun 28, 2013, at 5:52 PM, Dane Trethowan <[email protected]> wrote: > It seems that none of those commands such as holding down r to get into > recovery mode or option to allow booting from another drive want to work for > some reason. > > Its most likely I'm doing something incredibly wrong <smile> but I am > wondering whether its at all possible that Apple have removed these commands > in recent updates? > > > On 29/06/2013, at 1:25 PM, Esther <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Hi Dane, >> >> Do you have another account you can start up from? I'm wondering if your >> account preferences got corrupted. >> >> Failing that, can you try attaching a bootable cloned backup disk and >> rebooting from that by holding down the Option key when you power up, then >> pressing either the right or left arrow key, followed by a press of the >> Return key? If the clone boots up correctly with VoiceOver active, you can >> try either booting up and logging into another account on your Mac Mini's >> hard drive, or maybe checking for corrupted preference files on the original >> hard drive user account. >> >> Another option, if you've set up your Mini to permit remote login, and are >> comfortable with using Terminal, is to remote login with SSH using Terminal >> from another Mac. >> >> HTH. Cheers, >> >> Esther >> >> On Jun 28, 2013, at 5:07 PM, Zachary Kline <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>> Hi Dane, >>> Have you tried a system reboot with the power button followed by R? I’d >>> hate to suggest it most of the time, but if VO absolutely refuses to start >>> up again, it might be worth doing. it sounds as though some process crashed >>> unexpectedly and the system is having trouble recovering to a sane state. >>> Best, >>> Zack. >>> On Jun 28, 2013, at 7:59 PM, Dane Trethowan <[email protected]> >>> wrote: >>> >>>> Yep tried that, won't work for some reason but I can certainly see where >>>> you're coming from. >>>> >>>> On 29/06/2013, at 12:45 PM, Sarah k Alawami <[email protected]> wrote: >>>> >>>>> Try getting in to training mode with vo cmd f8. then if you hear, the >>>>> voice over quick start, hit esc. >>>>> >>>>> Take care. >>>>> On Jun 28, 2013, at 7:36 PM, Dane Trethowan <[email protected]> >>>>> wrote: >>>>> >>>>>> Hi! >>>>>> >>>>>> I've seen problems with Mac machines but nothing like this. >>>>>> >>>>>> I left my Mac Mini machine on overnight to finish some uploading. When >>>>>> I returned to the machine this morning it was to discover that Voiceover >>>>>> had stopped working, I tried turning Voiceover on and off using >>>>>> Command-f5 which usually works but no result this time. >>>>>> >>>>>> I used f11 and f12 to check the volume and heard the volume click change >>>>>> every time I pressed 1 of these keys so sound device is obviously okay, >>>>>> anyone any further suggestions? >>>>>> >>>>>> This Mac Mini machine is a 2009 model running OSX Mountain Lion just in >>>>>> case that all makes any difference of some sort. >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> ********** >>>>>> >>>>>> Dane Trethowan >>>>>> Skype: grtdane12 >>>>>> Phone US (213) 438-9741 >>>>>> Phone U.K. 01245 79 0598 >>>>>> Phone Australia (03) 9005 8589 >>>>>> Mobile: +61400494862 >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> >>> > <--- Mac Access At Mac Access Dot Net ---> To reply to this post, please address your message to [email protected] You can find an archive of all messages posted to the Mac-Access forum at either the list's own dedicated web archive: <http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/pipermail/mac-access/index.html> or at the public Mail Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/>. Subscribe to the list's RSS feed from: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.xml> As the Mac Access Dot Net administrators, we do our very best to ensure that the Mac-Access E-Mal list remains malware, spyware, Trojan, virus and worm-free. However, this should in no way replace your own security strategy. We assume neither liability nor responsibility should something unpredictable happen. Please remember to update your membership preferences periodically by visiting the list website at: <http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/mac-access/options/>
