Number of issues with iMac

Hi all,

Newbie here and with Apple products so please do bear wth me!
I work in repairs and landed with a iMac which had a blank white screen. After 5minutes (if not more), it has a folder icon with a ? mark.

This was potentially caused by constant turning off by the switch and not shutting it down safely.

As it would not do the usual PRAM reset, boot of cd etc, I dismantled it, removed the HD and deleted all partitions via a USB caddy.

Plugged it back in, was able to boot via restore cd 1, found the drive, initalised it and reinstalled. This is where the problems started...

1. It took some 6 hours to install the complete OS. Having never done a Mac install - I ignored it thinking maybe it works by verifying every component but still, 6 hours was a lot!

2. Once installed, it poppedu p with updates to download/install. It has only found a small handful but it takes a VERY long time per update to download (not broadband related).

3. While this is happening, I cannot seem to go anywhere else as it takes a long time. For example, with nothing but the downloads happening...I click on the apple sign, and it takes around 3 minutes to open up.

4. Not sure if this is related or genuine, but the screen then turns off and white light starts flashing - this could be standby for the screen as its taking so long to download.


I would appreciate any insight into fixing this - is the drive on its way out? I can replace Ram if needed. If its a drive issue, I can get hold of a 250GB drive if needed.

Thanks in advance

iMac is ...well one of those all in ones. it's a 2.16 (I think) Ghz, 1GB ram, 250GB drive, cdrw/dvd combo and has mac os ....(menu is taking too long to open so I'll post back version shortly)

Bear in mind this is a brand new install so it would not be software related but my gut feelig is its hardware. I'm fine about going in and digging around so if that is needed, please do advise.

It's a iMac 5.1 according to sys pref
Mac OS X 10.4.7

Sounds like the hard drive may be defective. The first indication of that was the blank white screen and then the folder with the question mark. That usually means the operating system could not be found. Shutting down a Mac or a PC improperly can result in file corruption - which could also be the case here.

Try testing the hard drive first before replacing it. Boot the machine with the Tiger install DVD but do not allow the install process to proceed. Escape out of it and instead run "Disk Utility" from the top menu "Utilities". Verify and repair (correct errors if any) on the hard drive. If everything checks out OK, post back and we can go from there.

Regards.

Thanks for your help
I did do a verify and it was fine however, I did not do the whole test

What I have done in the mean time is plugged in a USB laptop drive to eliminate the drive. I think you are right - found a thread online which had the exact symtoms as myself from the start and it was the drive

Will report back once it has finished installing Tiger - currently 10% on the checking installation DVD -

Well almost 2 hours has passed since my last message which was when the install had started and its still on CD 1
Currently, it is on installing Hewlett-Packard printr drivers @ 70%
So far, it's been roughly 1%-3% per minute

What is the rough rule on installation time for Tiger bearing in mind that this time, I'm writing to a laptop drive @ 4200rpm over USB

aj_84 said:

Well almost 2 hours has passed since my last message which was when the install had started and its still on CD 1
Currently, it is on installing Hewlett-Packard printr drivers @ 70%
So far, it's been roughly 1%-3% per minute

What is the rough rule on installation time for Tiger bearing in mind that this time, I'm writing to a laptop drive @ 4200rpm over USB

Click to expand...

You're well beyond the normal time. I'm not sure what's wrong with your system...but the installation of Tiger does not take that long.

I installed Mac OS 10.5 on a 2005 iBook G4...AND all the updates to 10.5.7...in less time than it has taken you so far...and you're only 70% done.

- Nick

Leopard is much more advanced than Tiger and takes 22 minutes to fully install so something major is wrong. Do as chscag suggested and boot from the install DVD, go to Utilities and run Repair Disk from there. Verify does not do much at all.

One suggestion you are talking about CD1. Tiger comes usually on DVDs. Take it you are using a black coloured full retail version of Tiger on DVD and not a silver grey system restore disc? These will work only on the machine they came with.

Just switched off the system - coming up to 3 hours and it was still installing languages

OK in order of posts:
Thanks Nick, I can use your time to go by tomorrow when I try another internal drive. I doubt even on USB it should have taken 3 hours to barely finish CD1.

Harry: The only reason I did not bother doing the disk check is because this time round, I was installing to a USB laptop drive and avoiding the potentially corrupt internal drive altogether. As for CD1/2, it was the restore CDs I am going by which was in the box of the system. CD1 is in the system but CD2 is the same as 1....Grey, has MAc OS X Install Disc 1 (or 2) on the left handside
Disc Version 1.0

And a little disclaimer on the software being part of the hardware bundle.

So I suppose the next question is, where do I go from here? Shall I try another internal drive anyway and see how that goes?

Hi all,
Just a quick one to say thanks for the help on this

The issue is now resolved. It was indeed the hard drive that had gone.

Replaced it (250gb) with a 320gb WD and everything is working. Strange how it still affected the install on the USB drive as it was connected but anyway...

Tiger is back on, overall install took about an hour and a bit but I realised the first CD was a bit fingerprinted so maybe it was that.

All updates installed quickly though I can't believe that there were actually more updates needed than WinXP with no service back

Thanks again!¬

aj_84 said:

Hi all,
Just a quick one to say thanks for the help on this

The issue is now resolved. It was indeed the hard drive that had gone.

Click to expand...

Way to go! Congratulations on getting things resolved. Sometimes these computer issues (hardware or software) can be a real headache...but feels real good when you figure it out!

- Nick