Emac won't boot/no monitor image after long sleep mode

I accidentally left my Emac 1.25GHz on for a few days and when I returned, I couldn't get it to return from sleep mode. So I powered it down with the power button and when I turned it on again, the front power light came on, I heard the familiar music chord and then nothing, no image on the monitor or anything. Tried unplugging all cables from it, including USB and power, waiting for 15-20 minutes, no luck. Had an older USB Zip drive plugged directly into a USB port if that makes any difference. Running Panther 10.3.9 with all the latest updates. DSL Internet connection accessed through a recently installed Airport Extreme card. The Emac was purchased new in November of 2004.

I've left it on for extended periods before and never had this problem, it always returned from sleep. The only thing that recently changed is the installation of the Airport Extreme card, which went fine.

I'll assume the worst, did the motherboard go bad? Or possibly the hard drive or monitor? I don't hear any activity/noise coming from inside the computer after that initial music chord, so I'm guessing it may be the motherboard or hard drive.

Sure hope it's not a hardware problem, any ideas/thoughts/remedies would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

Remove the airport card and try to run the hardware test CD that came with the eMac. If it recovers reinstall the airport card and run the hardware test again. If it won't boot from the hardware test CD then something important has died and will need repair/replacement.

Badger said:

Remove the airport card and try to run the hardware test CD that came with the eMac. If it recovers reinstall the airport card and run the hardware test again. If it won't boot from the hardware test CD then something important has died and will need repair/replacement.

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Thanks for the advice. However, I cannot get the CD drive tray to eject when I hit the eject button on the keyboard. The power light in front is on, but the monitor screen is blank and nothing appears to be happening at all.

Is there an emergency method of ejecting the CD drive tray? Thanks.

The CD should open if you hold the mouse button down while the computer is booting.

Badger said:

The CD should open if you hold the mouse button down while the computer is booting.

Click to expand...

Thanks Badger, will give that a try.

I'm not sure if the computer is actually booting up, since there is no monitor image, and I don't hear the hard drive working. But obviously if the tray opens when I hold the mouse button down, something is going on.

If nothing else works, I'm taking it into an Apple dealer for service this week. I have a suspicion it's a video or motherboard problem.