Troubleshooting TechTool Pro 4.x: G5 Launch failure workaround; turning off journaling

G5 Launch failure workaround A number of readers are reporting problems launching TechTool Pro 4.x on Power Mac G5s. MacFixIt reader Sig Pfeifer is a good case example:

"I've installed TechTool 4 on a 1.8 Ghz G5, with Mac OS X 10.3.1. The results: Upon installation and re-boot, starting the application from the icon on my desktop resulted in TechTool Pro 4 immediately quitting. Also, booting up via the C key produced no results. Disc would not boot up. The spinning wheel just turned. I manually shut down my computer after 5 minutes."

We have since found that removing all PCI cards, as well as any external USB and FireWire devices will allow TechTool Pro 4.x to launch properly on some problematic G5s. Jonathan K, who had success with removing devices, writes:

"TechTool Pro 4.x still took far too long to boot (3 to 5 minutes.), but it did run the basic and intermediate tests. The basic test ran and allowed me to look at the test results. However, the intermediate tests, quit at the end and automatically restarted. Since I was running from the CD, all reports were lost."

Turning off journaling Some users who have been running into problems while optimizing volumes with TechTool Pro 4.x have been able to resolve the issue by using the software's "Volume Journaling Tool" to disable journaling on before running optimization. Once optimization is finished, journaling can be turned back on with the same tool.

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