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.
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.