iMac is Dead

I am going to the apple store tomorrow. I already reserved a genius bar visit for 8:00pm after work. I know you guys probably think I am crazy, but I have been trying to install some form of windows for work related purposes for almost 2 weeks now with some success. I was very successful installing vista and had a nice dual booting machine for work and play. Until today.

I was sick of vista's constant warnings and crap, so I decided to install my XP and now its all over. The XP configuration program couldn't find the 32GB volume I had made for vista and was hoping to use for XP, so it gave me the option to quit the xp installation and restart. So I did, and now I am stuck with a computer that won't:

Boot to previously installed Vista Volume
Boot to previously installed Leopard Volume
Boot to CD
Eject the CD
Boot to command prompt
or
Get past the bright white-ish grey screen after the "dong" noise.

I have zapped the PRAM, PMU, tried Command+option+o+f, holding 'C' during startup, holding 'D' during startup, shift during startup, s during startup, control during startup, holding the left mouse button during startup (yes it is plugged into the the imac USB not the keyboard), option key during startup.

Any advice? Other wise.. wish me luck tomorrow.

Is the XP CD in the drive? If so try this if you have not. Boot and right after the startup sound hold down the mouse button and keep it down. See if the CD ejects. If not take it in. If it does try putting in the OSX DVD that came with the machine and holding C and if that boots run the disk utility. Can not hurt if you can get that far.

Good luck either way.

yeah as mentioned, I already tried that and the mouse was plugged directly in iMac usb port. Yep taking it in after work.

Just got back from the apple store where the guy managed to get the disk out using an APPLE mouse and the left click and hold at startup trick. I don't know if it matters about the fact that the APPLE mouse was used, but it finally got it out on the third try. He said he didn't have a reinstall disk to use there, but that I would end up losing all of my data anyways. So he said I could go home and use my leopard install disk to at least get some sort of OS running.

I just popped in my leopard install disk and nothing happens. Same old white screen with the CD stuck in the drive.

I guess back to the Genius Bar tomorrow.

Sorry for the questions but just making sure. You are holding C right at the startup sound and keeping it down? The Leopard DVD, is is the main install DVD that came with your iMac?

No questions are fine man. Yeah its the CD my computer came with. Yep I am holding C at start up. I held it for over 10 mins earlier. It was kind of sad I was just hoping for some reason that things would just work if I held it long enough.

Thanks for the response.

One more quick thing. Since they got the Windows CD out of the drive have you tried zapping the PRAM one more time and see if with C held down it will boot? Figured it can not hurt to try at this point.

Yeah man, thanks for the idea. I just tried what you said. No dice. It was definitely worth a shot though.

Thanks.

try rebooting with control-S to start from single user

Darn, wish I could try this... I just dropped my iMac off at the Apple Store today. They are calling me tomorrow at some point. Hopefully I can talk it out with them.

I'll let everyone know what's up.

Logic Board Issue...

They just got back to me today at 3 pm to tell me that they had finally looked at it. It was the logic board! The guy at the store said it was the first of the new iMacs he had seen with a logic board issue. He was also surprised I knew what a logic board was. Anyways, they have the part in, and they are installing it tomorrow hopefully.

The only thing I can think of is that I had the iMac plugged directly into the wall and we have had a bunch of power surges at my apartment recently. I am thinking of getting a continuous power supply now. Does anyone recommend a particular type?

I kind of want one that will allow my iMac to realize it is running on the battery backup and then shut down when it gets near the end of the reserve in the CPS. Is this possible?

I run 7 computers in my apartment, 2 of which are my eMacs, ALL 7 are jacked into APC UPS devices that have automatic voltage regulation, surge suporession and battery backup, I have never had a computer fail while plugged into one of these units. just my 2 cents worth.

What bothers me is your iMac seemed to be working fine till you tried to install Windows with Bootcamp. That makes no sense.

dtravis7 said:

What bothers me is your iMac seemed to be working fine till you tried to install Windows with Bootcamp. That makes no sense.

Click to expand...

Don't get me wrong, I am not trying to breed dislike for windows or bootcamp by posting misinformation, I am just telling it how it happened, and what the genius bar responded with.

It bothers the heck out of me too. If it wasn't the storms that surged my apartment, then it could have been me hard rebooting (holding the power button to shutdown) just to try to get the windows cd out. I had to do this about 5 or so times in a row to try all of the methods listed online. Doing this isn't healthy for the computer, but I didn't think it was that bad for the logic board.

I plan to ask as many questions as possible to understand what happened when I get my computer back. Let me know if you want me to ask them anything in particular so we can all understand the issue better.

APC UPC's are a great product. have on in my basement for my home theater. never had a problem

jdgti said:

Don't get me wrong, I am not trying to breed dislike for windows or bootcamp by posting misinformation, I am just telling it how it happened, and what the genius bar responded with.

It bothers the heck out of me too. If it wasn't the storms that surged my apartment, then it could have been me hard rebooting (holding the power button to shutdown) just to try to get the windows cd out. I had to do this about 5 or so times in a row to try all of the methods listed online. Doing this isn't healthy for the computer, but I didn't think it was that bad for the logic board.

I plan to ask as many questions as possible to understand what happened when I get my computer back. Let me know if you want me to ask them anything in particular so we can all understand the issue better.

Click to expand...

I am having very similar issues. Here is my thread to the problem.

Could you please ask the mac people if that hard rebooting can cause hardware problems and also if any UPS is necessary?

My iMac is only 3 months old and now stuck at that stupid grey screen. I am kinda regretting now buying an iMac!

sad and frustrated...

If you mean by Hard Rebooting, yanking the power and not using shut down, not hardware issues but it can mess up any modern OS. I have had it happen here by accident and no issues but seen it on other systems, both Mac and PC, totally mess up the OS.

Surges though can destroy hardware. I had a brand new Hard Drive die when the power company had issues once and there was this large surge. I had surge protectors at the time also.

dtravis7 said:

If you mean by Hard Rebooting, yanking the power and not using shut down, not hardware issues but it can mess up any modern OS. I have had it happen here by accident and no issues but seen it on other systems, both Mac and PC, totally mess up the OS.

Surges though can destroy hardware. I had a brand new Hard Drive die when the power company had issues once and there was this large surge. I had surge protectors at the time also.

Click to expand...

I have Dell latitude laptop, and this force/hard rebooting/shutdown never caused booting problem. I have windows xp.

It is true that this kind of shut down is painful to the computer but the brand new OS like LEOPARD should be able to recover from it unless, of cuz, hardware has some issues, shouldn't it? Windows can recover from it. I had lots of desktop pcs shut down physically and rebooted fine. I don't know why this is big deal in Leopard or in mac.

The systems I have had die from Surges were windows PC's. Seen many Windows systems where XP was messed up from pulling the plug. Remember just because it does not happen one time does not mean it will not another.

It's no more of a deal in Leopard than it is in XP. A power Surge will blow a lot of hardware, Dell also. Remember there is a difference between a bad surge from say a lightning strike and just pulling the plug.

Actually guys, I had the same problem when I was playing with Bootcamp. If you like to install Windows the minimum is Service Pack 2 or Vista. Other version will cause it to partition the HD incorrectly and freezing your Imac.

Last time I called AppleCare and they don't know what happened to my Imac and suggested to bring the Imac to a service centre. I fixed it by connecting my Macbook via Firewire then i started my Imac holding T. Once you see the Macbook Hardisk on your Imac, choose it. From there you can run HD utility and format your IMAC disk.

Well this method works for me. You may want to try it. I know my instruction is very vague. Search the internet in regard to fixing "mac white screen of death" using 2 macs.