iMAC DIES, HELP! Rapidly flashing clicking power button. Black screen.

[SYSTEM9]

We have a blue (dark blue) graphite iMAC at work. Its been sitting around for awhile, so me and an employee hooked it up and it was running good. My boss happened to be walking through the office just as it went dead. She said she heard it make a noise...then the screen just went black. Noone was using it...it was just sitting there running with the desktop screen. It was on for about 30 minutes before it died. Now when you try to turn it on, all you get is the green lit power button and a black screen. Reset buttons do nothing. Neither does pushing or holding the power button. It just stays lit green. Upon closer inspection I noticed these details...the green light appeared to be flickering faintly...and as I got closer I could hear some kind of clicking coming from indide, it coincided with the flickering of the power button. The clicking is random, sometimes faster than others. Aslo, with a cd in the slot, it will just barely move as you press the power button to turn it on, almost as if its only getting a tiny surge of power...and then nothing. Aslo I've changed the battery, but nothing. also swapped ram with known good ram. but no change.
I saw someone post a similar problem in another forum....but had no replies. Anyone have any Ideas?

 

[witeshark]

Clearly headed for the shop, looks almost like a power surg problem

 

[technologist]

Does it sound like this description?

 

[SYSTEM9]

Does it sound like this description?

Where is the video cable inside? we allready tried hooking up a monitor, but I'm assuming that that won't solve the problem if its shorting out. Any links or photos of which cable is the correct one to unplug? its a newer of the old imacs, made in 2000

 

[Matt]

My mum's IBM's hardrive did something similar. I was playing a game, and i think the computer went off, except when I booted again, it stayed in MS-DOS, the Harddrive was making a clicking noise, but htis clicking noise was noticable. the Harddrive may be gone, since Mac's don't have DOS, but then again don't Macs have a Flashing Floppy when this happens??? Just a thought, but maybe it was a powersurge and ruined the Harddrive too.

 

[uprz23]

Clearly headed for the shop, looks almost like a power surg problem

thanks for the suggestion. i switched outlets and it works now. i guess adding a new ps to the computer overloaded the ups.