ok so when I update the process completes 100% without sny errors or stopages it's after I do the restart that it cripples the system; I've done the 10.5.3 update with and without the voodoo kernel installed.

ok so after I update the system reboots and I get to the white apple screen that automatically restarts and doesn't go any further. So naturally i looked to the forums and tried reinstalling all the kexts I put in myself nforce, AC97, forcedeth and my ATI ones. now after I install just the ATI kexts I get past the white apple screen but the system freezes after just loading the background image (default leopard background) but after I reinstall the other kexts the system boots normally I get the finderbar @ the top and the dock as well as I can see everything on my desktop but then the system freezes. It goes to the spinning beachball cursor and locks entirely.... but I can boot into safemode so something gotta be corrupted by the update no? should i try booting -f?

I know the x1600 has issues getting full resolution and support for CI/QE but this is also discussed in the forum. As for the updates... it never hurts to do a forced loading at boot of the Extensions folder (-f). I fear that this is a graphics issue more than anything... so after making sure your kexts and bundles for getting the x1600 working in 10.5.2 backed up, remove them from the /System/Library/Extensions/ folder and do a forced boot (-f) to recreate the .mkext file. now look into the issue for fixing the graphics via the other thread.

Let me know if this stops the freeze because at the moment thats the only thing that is coming to my mind to be the cause.

Alright I'll give it a try. I was thinking if I just install the OS without any of my kexts I add after install and attempt the update I'll see what happens

Ok so get this... I install the 10.5.3.pkg and it does the whole auto restart thing again so I boot into safe mode and install the voodoo kernel and it works? I dunno I'm confused about it, lol

when you use a native Apple installer, it rewrites over the existing mach_kernel to update it to the new one... to circumvent this in the future, have a two copies of the voodoo kernel in the root directory: one named "mach_kernel" and the other "mach_kernel.voodoo"

when you want to update, use the mach_kernel.voodoo kernel and make sure you keep entering this in your boot flags until you've run the following in Terminal:This will replace the native Apple mach_kernel with a renamed copy of the Voodoo Kernel.

Cheers.

so i've determined what the problem is with my updates..... my damn video kexts.... I'm gonna have to try the manual edit, but that never seems to work for me !@#$ I knew it wouldn't just go smoothly. I have no idea why the kexts I use don't work but oh well. Gonna have to try installing up to 10.5.5 without putting in video kexts then try it..... I dunno. If anyone has a nice prepackaged installer for ATI x1600 (71c2, 1002) that work on 10.5.5 that would be awesome. I think it's my inject file that screws the system up but I know 100% it's my video kexts. Also when I do a fresh install on the system the x1600 kexts don't load (come up yellow) even booting -v -f any idea?

Also any idea why when I run the amd software updater and choose modify only it never finds any cpiuds?