"Computer must be restarted. Hold down the power button to restart"

[seansteez]

Hi, I'm having some problems with my white intel based iMac 20". I had it shut off and unplugged for a few days. I went to plug it in and boot it up. It kept displays this message " Computer must be restarted. Hold down the power button to restart, and once more to turn back on" I kept doing this, and getting the same message. So I found my disc's that came with the computer and started on my journey of restoring my computer by erasing everything and reinstalling Mac OS X. It was taking forever, I let it sit installing for 2 days. It had barely gotten anywhere on the second disc so I gave up.

I then tried to erase the hard drive using disc utility, and that was taking forever too. I turned off the computer during it, and now it won't even see the hard drive when I try to go through the install process with the CD.

Can anyone help me please, I don't want to bring the darn thing to the store. Thanks to anyone in advance.

 

[dtravis7]

It sounds like the hard drive is dying/dead. Put in the OSX Install DVD and hold down the D key right after the startup sound. That will run the Apple Hardware Test. Do the extended test. See what it reports.

Also you can boot from the OSX DVD by holding down C and run Disk Utility from the dropdown menu and see what the SMART status is for the drive.

 

[seansteez]

what should the SMART status be for the drive?

 

[dtravis7]

Veryfied. Check the pic below.

 

[seansteez]

I just ran the extended hardware test on it, for the second time. It came back with nothing wrong. So where can I go from here to figure it out?

The Partition Scheme says its unformatted though. So I assume I need to partition my hard drive?

 

[dtravis7]

What Did SMART report? If it's not verifyed then the drive is failing.

 

[seansteez]

SMART Status: Verified

I don't think its the drive

 

[seansteez]

Bump:

How long should a partition take?

 

[seansteez]

bumpppp

 

[dtravis7]

Partition should take maybe 10 seconds or so. Be sure the partition is GUID since you have an Intel Mac. You click the Partition tab in Disk Utility and then click where it says current and click on One Partition. Then Options will be accessable at the bottom. Click and select GUID for the Partition type.

 

[seansteez]

Okay so I have the partition issue fixed and solved.

I'm trying to reinstall OS X 10.4 using the original discs that came with the computer, but it seems to be going so slow (again). Why the **** would it be going so slow?

 

[FasterPussyCat]

For future reference and onlookers, that was a Kernel Panic (see pic attached), which could be the result of just about anything. While sometimes it can be a very serious issue requiring hardware replacement or OS reinstall I suppose. It is my understanding that is most often occurs from incompatible or corrupt files and is easily fixed. Though I've always felt like this "not a big deal" persona of a kernel panic may be more hype than not and generally something more ill is at fault. Please let us know is you see the error message again.

 

[seansteez]

this issue is still not fixed, and I can't seem to move any further. I am trying to install using a Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard disc and seeing what happens. If anyone can shed some light, please help a desperate computer out.