What brand of HD do I have?

dtravis7 · Sep 11, 2016

Power on and hold down the Option Key right after the startup beep. KEEP it down and see if a menu comes up. Be sure to have the OSX DVD in the drive. If the DVD shows in that boot menu, click on it and the arrow. See if the DVD then loads.

mstokas · Sep 11, 2016

dtravis7 said:
Power on and hold down the Option Key right after the startup beep. KEEP it down and see if a menu comes up. Be sure to have the OSX DVD in the drive. If the DVD shows in that boot menu, click on it and the arrow. See if the DVD then loads.

Does not work. Computer just pushed out the disk after 1 minute.

pigoo3 · Sep 11, 2016

mstokas said:
Yes it is the grey disk that came with this iMac; os x install dvd (10.6.2).

Have you had any problems reading CD's or DVD's from the iMac's optical drive? Have you tried inserting & reading any CD's or DVD's lately (to be sure the optical drive is working properly). Of course this cannot be testing now (since the computer is not booted).

If the optical drive is not working properly that could be one reason the gray Apple disk is not being read. Also...is the gray Apple disk dirty or scratched? If so try cleaning it & retrying.

AND...never know. The optical drive could be dirty after 6-7 years...and it might need to be blown out with some canned air.

Trying to mention anything that might be the issue.

And just so you can check it out. Here's the Apple document regarding Internet Recovery (which I thought should work perfectly in this case):

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201314

- Nick

mstokas · Sep 11, 2016

Could I have damaged the logic board putting in the display cord connector? That's the only thing I am now scratching not my head about.

Wondering now if I should bring it into an Apple Store to get looked at.

The optical drive worked within the last month for sure. Disk is flawless.

mstokas · Sep 11, 2016

ok I just plugged into a wired internet connection and did the command option r boot, now getting the file folder with question mark (above image).

What's that mean?

pigoo3 · Sep 11, 2016

mstokas said:
Could I have damaged the logic board putting in the display cord connector?[/qoute]

This is almost impossible to know (since we were not there during the install). If you feel that everything went smoothly (according to what what was actually done & what was on the video)...then we have to assume nothing went wrong.

I know you mentioned having some slack with the display cable earlier. If it was reconnected properly (and video on the display is ok)...then my only guess for why there is extra slack in the cable is:

1. Sometimes cables inside are held in place with some tape (to keep them from dangling around & getting close to something they shouldn't.
2. Sometimes cables are routed in little cracks & crevices inside the computer...and maybe the cable wasn't exactly reinstalled in the same cracks & crevices unpon reassembly.

mstokas said:

Wondering now if I should bring it into an Apple Store to get looked at.

Click to expand...

Well...one longshot reason for the problem could be a faulty new hard drive. It's rare...but it can happen.

Since you purchased everything from OWC. OWC has great customer service. Give them a phone call or live chat...and ask for help. I'm sure they will try very hard to help.

mstokas said:

The optical drive worked within the last month for sure. Disk is flawless.

Click to expand...

Good to know. Just want to be sure we check everything off the list as possible sources of a problem.

- Nick

pigoo3 · Sep 11, 2016

mstokas said:
ok I just plugged into a wired internet connection and did the command option r boot, now getting the file folder with question mark (above image).

What's that mean?

Two things:

1. If you are now connected via ethernet cable...and you were connected via WiFi before...there could be a WiFi problem.
2. The flashing question mark (which I referred to earlier)...simply means there's no bootable hard drive or device available (which is not unexpected since a new HD was installed).

This is actually positive news. At this point (if you held the 3-key combo long enough)...and if Internet Recovery has started...then you should eventually see this:

- Nick

ferrarr · Sep 11, 2016

mstokas said:
Does not work. Computer just pushed out the disk after 1 minute.

Did you push the disk back in after it ejects?

pigoo3 · Sep 11, 2016

By the way. If your iMac is not working at the moment. How are you communicating with us (what device are you on)?

- Nick

ferrarr · Sep 11, 2016

mstokas said:
ok I just plugged into a wired internet connection and did the command option r boot, now getting the file folder with question mark (above image).

What's that mean?

Your networking may not have been properly configured for Apple's Internet Recovery security specifications.

mstokas · Sep 11, 2016

pigoo3 said:
By the way. If your iMac is not working at the moment. How are you communicating with us (what device are you on)?

- Nick

Iphone

mstokas · Sep 11, 2016

ferrarr said:
Did you push the disk back in after it ejects?

Yes then it ejects again in about another minute

mstokas · Sep 11, 2016

pigoo3 said:
Two things:

1. If you are now connected via ethernet cable...and you were connected via WiFi before...there could be a WiFi problem.
2. The flashing question mark (which I referred to earlier)...simply means there's no bootable hard drive or device available (which is not unexpected since a new HD was installed).

This is actually positive news. At this point (if you held the 3-key combo long enough)...and if Internet Recovery has started...then you should eventually see this:

- Nick

How long do you have told down the 3 keys for Internet recovery?

I've held them for about 2 minutes and the question mark comes up, do I keep holding once the question mark comes up?

pigoo3 · Sep 11, 2016

mstokas said:
How long do you have told down the 3 keys for Internet recovery?

I've held them for about 2 minutes and the question mark comes up, do I keep holding once the question mark comes up?

2 minutes is more than plenty.

Considering everything we've covered in this thread. It may be time to call OWC.

- Nick

pigoo3 · Sep 11, 2016

If you had or have a bootable external HD (must have an OS installed on it)...this would be one way to proceed (boot the computer from an external HD). I know you mentioned having an external Time Machine HD. Unfortunately...these aren't bootable.

- Nick

mstokas · Sep 11, 2016

pigoo3 said:
Considering everything we've covered in this thread. It may be time to call OWC.

- Nick

Thanks!
Unfortunately tech support closed on Sunday.

pigoo3 · Sep 11, 2016

mstokas said:
Unfortunately tech support closed on Sunday.

Should be good to go tomorrow.

More than likely OWC will cover a lot of what we've covered in this thread. Two of the things we can't address here is...the HD or the special OWC cable. Always possible one of these could be faulty. Or maybe OWC has special experience with possible issues with that OWC cable (and ways to address it).

- Nick

pigoo3 · Sep 12, 2016

Wanted to let you know "mstokas"...here's a thread of someone else on Mac-Forums doing practically the exact same thing you're doing...and they were successful (just today)!

http://www.mac-forums.com/os-x-operating-system/336327-wont-boot-running-onyx.html

Only differences are...they have a 2010 iMac and they installed an SSD rather than an HD. But they did install that same special cable that you did...and everything is fine on their end.

Please let us know what's up on your end.

- Nick

What brand of HD do I have?

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