09-08-2010, 04:49 PM

Hi all, sorry if I'm asking a redundant question but I need some exper advice.

I have one of the very first intel Imacs and all of a sudden all I get when I turn it on is the white light and a short fan whir for about half a second then after about 10 seconds the white light comes back on, the fan is low speed continuous, and that is it. No screen flicker or anything. Screen never does anything.

Tried different ram, tried opening and changing the small disc battery "2032".

Ive buit a large number of PC's but never an iMac. I really don't have any idea how to tshoot them. I took it to a MAC store and they say "Well It might be the logic board of something else"

Before I give up and toss it, is there any way to know what the problem is w/o just willy nilly changing expensive parts till it works?

Thanks in advance for any advice,

09-08-2010, 10:52 PM

Try booting the machine with your original Tiger DVD. If it boots OK, run a verify and repair on the hard drive. Let's see what it says. I suspect your hard drive may have died. It could be something else, but we need to test that hard drive first. Let us know.

09-08-2010, 11:40 PM

It won't let a cd in the slot. I can push the cd in the slot and it just springs back out. There isn't a cd stuck in the drive.

Appreciate you taking the time to help

09-09-2010, 07:01 PM

Without being able to use your original install DVD, we have no way to check out the hard drive or do any other kind of trouble shooting. Do you have access to another Mac (must have a firewire port)? If you do, you may be able to boot your machine using Target Disk Mode (firewire to firewire) and run a check of the hard drive that way. The other problem is we don't know if the DVD is bad or the drive is acting up.

09-10-2010, 02:54 PM

Originally Posted by chscag

Without being able to use your original install DVD, we have no way to check out the hard drive or do any other kind of trouble shooting. Do you have access to another Mac (must have a firewire port)? If you do, you may be able to boot your machine using Target Disk Mode (firewire to firewire) and run a check of the hard drive that way. The other problem is we don't know if the DVD is bad or the drive is acting up.

It acts like the whole machine is dead except for the light being on and the fan slowly whirring. The CD drive acts as if it would when it's not powered on at all. Push a cd in all the way against light spring pressure and it just pops back when you let go. The screen does nothing either, just remains black.

09-10-2010, 04:28 PM

Warfrat,

Don't toss it send it to me!! LOL...

I had a probem with an iMac G5 that, you would stick a cd or dvd in and it would spit it right back out again... the parts inside were a bit worn... so after pushing it in had to find a popcicle stick (used it cause its wood and would not short or damage anything) to push the cd further in till it caught and started spinning

you might try that, but then your dvd might get stuck in there permanently

09-10-2010, 04:51 PM

It almost sounds like either the Power Supply or the LogicBoard has issues. Remember, this is just a guess. Since you are inside the iMac, try unplugging the hard drive and then power on and see if at least the screen lights up/

09-11-2010, 12:45 PM

Originally Posted by dtravis7

It almost sounds like either the Power Supply or the LogicBoard has issues. Remember, this is just a guess. Since you are inside the iMac, try unplugging the hard drive and then power on and see if at least the screen lights up/

I'll try that and thanks for taking the time to reply. I appreciate the help.

09-11-2010, 01:18 PM

Main reason for my question is I have seen at least one Intel iMac that acted that way when the hard drive was really messed up.

09-11-2010, 01:27 PM

Originally Posted by dtravis7

It almost sounds like either the Power Supply or the LogicBoard has issues. Remember, this is just a guess. Since you are inside the iMac, try unplugging the hard drive and then power on and see if at least the screen lights up/

I agree...Unplug the hard drive and see if you get the ? mark.