Anyone know what this on screen message means ?

[jimbo1984]

Hi everyone, ime relatively new to the world of Mac OS, ime generally a windows person, but I do prefer the Mac OS environment over Windows, however ive been looking online at a really cheap early 2008 A1224 mac just to use as a spare unit, its not for heavy use, just basic internet surfing & word processing, the imac is listed as spares or repairs but ive hunted high & low online to find out as to what this icon represents when the unit starts up & can find nothing, is it a software issue ? or is it something else ?

I know the usual boot errors, but this ones stumped me, if its something bad ill just look for something else but as it was cheap i thought it may be worth a punt

Ive attached the photo of the unit when it boots up just to make things easier..

Thanks

 

[Slydude]

Do you have a keyboard attached to the Mac? That almost looks like the back of the Apple BlueTooth keyboard. If you don't have a keyboard attached, try attaching a USB keyboard to test. Even a cheap Windows keyboard will work.

 

[chscag]

That almost looks like the back of the Apple BlueTooth keyboard.

Yep, that's exactly what it is. Like you stated, he needs to attach a keyboard to get things working.

 

[Slydude]

@jimbo1984 If you have an Apple Keyboard keyboard handy, either of the following things may get you started assuming the keyboard is charged/has batteries:

1. Make sure the keyboard has power. The first generation keyboard has a silver button on the right side, IIRC. Press that and hold it for a second. On the current keyboard, there is a small switch on the back of the keyboard. If it doesn't show green, slide the switch.

2. If this is the current BlueTooth keyboard, use a USB to lightning cable to connect it to the Mac.

Edit: I should have mentioned that in my first post.

 

[harryb2448]

Lightnng Sly?

On a 2008 iMac?i

 

[Slydude]

Lightnng Sly?

On a 2008 iMac?i

No Harry. Not at all. The end of the cable that connects to the computer is USB, The end that connects to the keyboard is lightning. Even if the USB port on that computer won't charge the keyboard it should still allow the keyboard to behave like a wired USB keyboard.

Sorry for any confusion.

 

[Lifeisabeach]

No Harry. Not at all. The end of the cable that connects to the computer is USB, The end that connects to the keyboard is lightning. Even if the USB port on that computer won't charge the keyboard it should still allow the keyboard to behave like a wired USB keyboard.

Sorry for any confusion.

I was about to question this also, but took a look at Apple's site and sure enough, their current keyboards are charged using a Lightning cable.

Magic Keyboard US English - Apple

Apple Store Search Results

www.apple.com

 

[Slydude]

I think mine was included with my late 2015 iMac. Wikipedia says that the Magic Keyboard 2 became available in October 2015. AFAIK, this was the first model that did not require batteries.

 

[jimbo1984]

Just as a quick update, I ended up buying the IMac for the very cheap price of just £39.99, I was expecting it to have just 1gb ram & a 320gb HDD like its factory spec was, but upon powering it up with a keyboard & mouse plugged in like you all said, I found it had 4gb ram & a 1TB hard disk, fresh installed OSX El Capitan on it, & it now takes pride of place on my desk with no running issues whatsoever, really pleased with it & surprisingly fast on the internet, gives my HP envy 17 laptop a run for its money for sure. I appreciate all your help, I was thinking it was going to be something major with it & id have just passed it over, but it turned into a bargain purchase ?

 

[pm-r]

@jimbo1984

Congrats on joining the Mac World and mac-forums.com and the good bargain you got and the fix.

Let's hope you will get lots of use and enjoyment out of it.



- Patrick
=======

 

[chscag]

Glad to hear that it turned out to be a great bargain. But, hold on to your HP Envy just in case.

 

[Slydude]

That's a heck of a deal. It's not the newest/fastest gear but you'll certainly get your money's worth out of it.