10-21-2010, 07:18 PM

I'm sorry I'm really rather bad with some technical speak and good with others so I'll try to explain this as best I can...

Just last night my iMac suffered what I assume is a kernel panic and I haven't been able to get past it. When I boot the system up it gets to the point of the apple image in the middle of the screen with the loading wheel (I suppose it's loading my OS at this point) when the wheel suddenly freezes and the screen grays out. The message "You need to restart your computer. Hold down the Power button for several seconds or press the Restart button" appears in several languages. All I can do at that point is shut down again. I tried resetting the PRAM (a suggestion from another site) but that did nothing to help. I've accepted that I may lose the entire 600GB of info on my HD. None of it was irreplaceable so I'm willing to try almost anything to just get back to my desktop. Days of reinstalling and downloading is nothing compared to a useless $1,200 machine. Can anyone help me out here?

I'm running Mac OS X Leopard on an iMac. I'd give more detailed info but I can't exactly get into my specs window right now

Also a quick and possibly stupid question but please don't make fun if it is heh. I purchased an OS X Snow Leopard disc for $35 today... is it possible to blank the hard drive and reinstall the entire OS from this disc?

10-21-2010, 09:21 PM

Before you get too carried away and erase your hard drive, try this:

Boot your machine with your original Leopard install DVD and run Disk Utility from the DVD. (top menu - Utilities, Disk Utility) Run the verify and repair option for the hard drive. Post back results and we can go from there.

10-21-2010, 09:31 PM

Unplug any stuff like USB hubs or external Hard Drives as well.

10-21-2010, 09:43 PM

You mentioned running the disk utility by going to the top menu... how do i do that? It panics at boot up so I never get any menus.

10-21-2010, 09:48 PM

Originally Posted by Shea

You mentioned running the disk utility by going to the top menu... how do i do that? It panics at boot up so I never get any menus.

You have to boot from the Install Disc that came with the machine. Insert disk,restart ,hold down C key. When the installer window opens do not click install OS..but at the top menu find the disk repair utility and run it.

10-21-2010, 09:55 PM

It absolutely has to be from the original install discs? Like, it can't be from any later discs like the Snow Leopard one I have? I just ask because I'll have to hunt down my Leopard discs otherwise. If I must, though, I will.

10-21-2010, 10:03 PM

Yes...You did not give the specs on the iMac...it may not run SL. You have Leopard on it,so lets repair it with Leopard. You may have a restore disc that you may need if the repair will not work.

10-24-2010, 11:18 PM

My mom found my install discs but during some issues with getting my keyboard to respond properly I got into the Apple Hardware Test so I figured I might as well let that run first. If that goes by without an issue I'll try the disk utility option and let you know what happens. Thanks for the responses by the way I'm glad i finally got something to happen on my screen. I'll be back when this is finished with the results.

10-25-2010, 01:16 AM

Wow... um... so my Mac's working again. Strange story...

The hardware test revealed there was a hardware error with this error code:

4SNS/1/40000000:T00P-64.750

But my roommate said I should run it again because I had a mouse plugged into a USB port at the time and apparently it can screw with the test process. So I unplugged the mouse and started the test again without resetting the Mac. But at my roommate's suggestion I decided to stop the test and restart the Mac first before rerunning it. So I held down "D" again at startup (as I had to initially to get to the Apple Hardware Test screen) but I must have hit it too late because instead it booted my OS and brought me to my desktop where everything was exactly as I left it. My roommate then told me she'd found some interesting info:

"If you have a code that starts with 4SNS that is usually indicating an issue with a temperature sensor being faulty, unplugged, or reporting incorrectly." -iCare from the Apple Discussions Forum

Now my question is: How can I keep this from happening again?

I'm going to back a few things up to an external hard drive and try restarting to see if it panics again.

10-25-2010, 02:40 AM

Okay so I haven't managed to back anything up yet because when I plugged my hard drive in after a minute the graphics freaked out. There were suddenly bright green pixels all over the screen and when I tried to drag a window it left trails behind it. Then suddenly the screen went black. It flickered from black to the desktop a few times before it finally stayed black. Now I'm really concerned... Is this an overheating issue?

10-25-2010, 12:29 PM

It sounds like you're having some major hardware issues with your iMac. Is the machine still under any kind of warranty? Apple care? With the result from the hardware test and the graphics acting up, I suspect the logic board is at fault. You really should take it on in to Apple and have them run a diagnostic. Are you near to an Apple store or authorized Apple reseller?

10-25-2010, 05:19 PM

Yeah luckily there's an authorized apple reseller right in town here. I guess I've done all I can do then Hopefully they can figure out what's wrong with it. Thanks a lot for trying to help guys!