10.4 - My iMac G5 wont boot up

[scotca]

So here's the scoop...I came home from work and my screen saver had frozen. I had a radio station on thru iTunes for my cat...this was no longer on. When I moved the mouse to 'wake' the computer up my curser started spinning that funky little rainbow circle it does when your computer is thinking or hanging. Anyway, this went on for about 10 minutes so I just switched the computer off with the power button at the back.
When I restarted, I got the grey screen with the apple logo up along with the spinning loading circle then the screen goes blank blue - at first a light blue then after about a minute turning to a darker blue with a movable curser but nothing else. It sat like this for about 15 mins then I tried to restart again with the same result. I am able to boot the computer up in Safe Mode, so therefore I backed up all my stuff and decided to do an erase and install, no big deal I can always re-install everything and I have all my stuff backed up. However, this has not worked. The computer didn't even restart properly to install the 2nd disc during the installation process. As soon as I restarted in Safe Mode it prompted me to insert the second installation disc to finish the installation! I have been thru the Disk Utility to repair my Hard Disk, but it tells me there was no repairs necessary! I don't know what to try next....any suggestions????

 

[kahlil88]

You very likely have a bad hard drive.

 

[scotca]

I downloaded SMARTReporter which also reports my Hard Drive is ok. If it turns out to be my hard drive, is this fixable? And costly? Thanx

 

[harryb2448]

Pop in the Tiger DVD and boot from that and run Repair Disk and if all is well Repair Permissions.

 

[scotca]

I just ran Repair Disk and it was ok, I also, as you suggested tried Repairing Permissions...still no change. I'm still getting a blue blank screen when I try and start up normally (. I'm still ok to start up in Safe Mode. I'm at a loss! But thanx for your suggestion harryb.

 

[harryb2448]

Have a look at these suggestions scotca and keep us posted:-

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=874362&tstart=2430

 

[kahlil88]

Pretty sure the last time I had the problem described by the OP, I ran Disk Utility and it said everything was peachy, but the bloody thing still didn't work. I still say it's a hard drive issue...

 

[billhat]

I REALLY hope scotca found an answer to this as my iMac G5 (Ambient Light Sensor) just came down with exactly the same symptoms. I can get into safe boot mode and the iMac runs just fine (minus some functionality because of safe mode). But if I try to shut down or restart into normal mode, it hangs when it gets to the blue screen.

I've tried:

-resetting the PRAM
-resetting the SMU
-running the Apple Hardware test a few times (everything passed),
-replaced the memory sticks
-replaced the watch battery on the mother board.
-did an archive and install (same problem)
-did a reinstall of Tiger (reinstalled the upgrade disc....same problem)
-reinstalled the original version of OS X. it failed after disc 1. It said something along the lines of "Disc 1 installation complete...now restarting". When it restarted, I got the same thing...it stalled at the blue screen and never got around to asking for disc 2.

That and the whole working in safe boot mode kinda makes me think it is a hard drive problem as it never exhibits any kind of problem while running the disk utility or install programs. I'm tempted to go and drop more cash and buy a new SATA drive and see if it is a hard drive issue (even though the hardware test said the drive was OK).

Any thoughts? Oh, and the 3-year Apple Protection Plan just ran out at the end of December :-(


Help!