iMAC WHITE SCREEN NO BOOT ETC

Joined
Feb 17, 2017
Messages
4
Reaction score
0
Points
1
I have white screen no boot stuck on apple logo time bar then goes to white screen. Have no discs and no hardware test - command D does nothing. Its a early 2008 Imac running Yosemite. Ran all recovery disc repair etc two or three times, When I tried to recover the disc it was grayed out and inaccessible for a further repair. Tried reinstalling OS made no difference. Tried booting form external drive - goes past apple logo to a plain blue screen that then changes to an odd broken pixel image across the screen.
At a loss without the hardware diagnostics option I have no idea how to get access to a disc for diagnostics any ideas?:(
 
Joined
Nov 28, 2007
Messages
25,564
Reaction score
486
Points
83
Location
Blue Mountains NSW Australia
Your Mac's Specs
Silver M1 iMac 512/16/8/8 macOS 11.6
You have maybe a dead hard drive or even a dead logic board.

If you have the original DVD that came with the machine use that. Command D does nothinbg as your computer is too old for that. Hard Test is on the original DVD. You are between a rock and a hard palce. The best option may be to purchase OS X.6 Snow Leopard on a DVD from Apple Online for $20.00 and start with that.
 
OP
P
Joined
Feb 17, 2017
Messages
4
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Thanks for the reply harryb .
Unfortunately no discs came with the machine as it was bought as a used machine for my son who has limited funds for an expensive repair. It had a failing hard disc flagged two years ago and I managed to replace this myself cloning the original Hitachi drive which was quite straightforward. The drive I used was a brand new 1tb Western Digital blue that I had over from a PC build. The old drive, although signaled as failing, was working fine and I placed in a caddie for emergencies such as what has happened. I thought I may have been able to boot from this drive and it does in fact go further but to a blue screen and then a white one with confused graphics across the screen. Would snow leopard have the correct diagnostic files? Are there any third party diagnostic discs available?
I suspect it may be a logic board problem personally my son always had the machine on for days on end and it always seemed to produce a lot of heat which may have finally taken its toll.
What I cannot understand though is why I could run disc repair successfully a couple of times, once using control "v" command and then when I tried to get some files off of the drive it was suddenly grayed out.
Thanks again.
 
Joined
May 21, 2012
Messages
10,703
Reaction score
1,158
Points
113
Location
Rhode Island
Your Mac's Specs
M1 Mac Studio, 11" iPad Pro 3rdGen, iPhone 13 ProMax, Watch S7, 2018 15" MBP, AirPods Pro

Slydude

Well-known member
Staff member
Moderator
Joined
Nov 15, 2009
Messages
17,596
Reaction score
1,072
Points
113
Location
North Louisiana, USA
Your Mac's Specs
M1 MacMini 16 GB - Ventura, iPhone 14 Pro Max, 2015 iMac 16 GB Monterey
Nice find there Bob. Thanks for posting.
 
Joined
Nov 28, 2007
Messages
25,564
Reaction score
486
Points
83
Location
Blue Mountains NSW Australia
Your Mac's Specs
Silver M1 iMac 512/16/8/8 macOS 11.6
Well Pete I never turn my Macs off, unless a thunderstorm is predicted. That running repair is a sign things were beginning to go haywire with the hard drive. Going on for ten years is a pretty good run so I guess you have to decide if it is worth spending money on.
 
OP
P
Joined
Feb 17, 2017
Messages
4
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Thanks for the input guys.
I have now had the imac diagnosed and the conclusion is a faulty graphics card and have been quoted £280 (I'm in the UK) to fix.
Hard drive is good which is the main thing.
I had no idea it would fail to boot with this problem but managed to get further with the external drive with the strange screen graphics.
This is a common problem I gather and usually an issue with the solder joints on the GPU.
Could be a scrapper unfortunately as the cost of repair outweighs its value unless I try the You tube "oven bake trick" Anyone heard of this or done actually had success with this?
 

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top