11-26-2011, 07:25 PM

Hi,

Okay I've notice that there are a few post already that are similar to my problem but I think mine is a few steps ahead of those.

I have the first edition of the intel iMac's, the plastic white ones (Late 2006) About a few months back it crashed on me and it would only boot up to a white screen. I tried resetting the PRam and leaving my computer unplugged for hours before restarting and finally got it to work once. That's where I was lucky enough to back up all my files. After that it crashed again. I tried the same procedures of before and nothing worked so I brought it into Apple. The guy tested it out and was in a rush because he had a lot of appointments to get thru. So at the end he was like most likely its an hard drive issue. So I decided to take it back and do it my self.

I went out and bought 1TB harddrive, followed some tutorials and installed it into my 24inch iMac. I mounted it thru firewire to my Macbook Pro and installed Lion and everything seems good. I even tested it by putting it into start disk mode on my iMac and the harddrive worked fine, Lion loaded up and its good. But when I try to start up the iMac by itself, I have the same problem as before. It would take a long time on the apple loading screen and then it just goes white and stays there. I tried resetting PRam, leaving the iMac unplugged for a couple hours, rebooting in safe mode, but nothing worked.

So I know its not the hard drive, because it runs fine thru start up disk mode. The only thing left is ram or motherboard... My iMac started out with 2gb ram, so I went out and bought new ram and installed 4gb. That didn't solve the problem either...

Does anybody know what the problem is? The only things I can think of is possibly my old ram is friend, the new ram i bought is wrong? or I didn't install the heat sensor properly.. I went out and bought rubber cement, but instead of sticking it on the side I stuck it on the bottom of the hard drive because it kept getting loose on the side. Would that effect the computer from starting up? Somebody please help me!

11-26-2011, 09:44 PM

The hard drive heat sensor even if it were missing would not prevent the machine from booting OK. Of course then the hard drive fan would go full speed without the sensor.

I'm having a hard time following what you did. You talk about mounting something via firewire to your MBP.... was that the new hard drive? You installed Lion on the new hard drive from the MBP?

Then you state that the hard drive runs fine in start up disk mode? Was that from an external firewire carrier? So the iMac will boot from the external carrier but not when the hard drive is mounted internally?

Please clarify....

11-27-2011, 03:12 AM

sorry I guess that was a bit confusing. But yes I installed Lion onto the new harddrive using my Macbook pro. To elaborate, I installed the new harddrive into my iMac and then used a firewire cable to connect to my macbook pro. I then started the imac held T and it mounted to my macbook pro and installed Lion on it. I then went into start up disk mode and selected the harddrive that was in my iMac to test if I installed the OS properly and it ran fine on my macbook Pro. But when I disconnect the firewire for the iMac to run by itself, it gets stuck on the white screen... I hope that clarifies things..

Another question, is how can I know if the ram I have is no good. Would it even get to the apple logo? I know if I don't have ram in there, the computer doesn't even start. Or is there a certain type of hard drive that I have to get for the iMac motherboard to read....?

11-27-2011, 10:59 AM

OK.... Thanks for the clarification. You used Target Disk Mode from the MBP in order to install Lion on the new hard drive. That's not going to work for this reason: The copy of Lion you placed on the hard drive has drivers and hardware enumeration for the MBP not for the iMac and that's why you got the white screen when you tried to boot from the iMac. It booted fine from the MBP because that's what it was installed for. Hope you understand what I said above....

Let's fix it. Are you able to boot the iMac with your Snow Leopard DVD? (assuming you have one) Post back and let us know. If you have a Snow Leopard DVD it will make things a bit easier.

Another question, is how can I know if the ram I have is no good. Would it even get to the apple logo? I know if I don't have ram in there, the computer doesn't even start. Or is there a certain type of hard drive that I have to get for the iMac motherboard to read....?

If bad memory is installed, you'll hear a series of beeps from the speaker. As for the hard drive... your machine can use any SATA 3.5" hard drive. The late model iMacs like the one I own use a proprietary hard drive.

I'll be off line until later this evening but someone else may be able to jump in here and help out. In any event, post back.

11-27-2011, 05:59 PM

okay, that makes a lot of sense. I don't have a disk, only the one that came with my MBP. I also have a burned version of Lion and leopard that my friend supplied. I tried installing it with all 3 cd's and none of them worked. That's why I did it thru target disk mode. The procedure I did for the disk, was put in the DVD, hold option when it started up, I would select the disk and then it would just go back to the apple logo and then white screen... I also tried making USB boot ups from the Lion and Snow Leopard dmg. In this step, I did the same thing held option, selected the USB and then it would go to the apple logo and then cross in the center, as in the no smoking cross...

11-27-2011, 10:06 PM

First, we don't talk about making illegal copies of anything let alone OS X. Buy a copy of Snow Leopard from Apple on line. The retail version which will work for your iMac is only $29.99. Once you get that, you should have no problem getting it up and running as long as the hardware in the iMac is good.

11-28-2011, 12:31 AM

I did before, I just lost the DVD. I already ordered a copy of the Lion USB, so once I get that, I hope that will solve the problem. I'll let you guys know, thank you very much for your help!