iMAC does not boot, only chimes. Keyboard not responding

[robertin75]

Hello:

I am trying to figure out why an iMAC does not boot properly.

Model ECM 2133
Memory:1GB (only 1 module in one of the 2 available slots).

Everytime I push the power button I only hear the chime sound and that's it.

You can hear the HDD spinning but the screen is always black.

I already did the SMU and PRAM reset and nothing changes.

Keyboard is still unresponsive and the screen is black. Mouse light is responsive.

Any ideas?

I pluged the keyboard on another computer and it works fine.

Sorry if I'm not doing something right but I am a newbie with MAC's

Thanks,
Roberto

 

[blackmac11]

How old is the iMac? And please provide another minor detail: Does the screen ever show signs of life? ie. does it ever look like it is on, or does it always look the same wether the computer is on or not? If this is the case, then your display is toast, or the wire's connecting the display are toast, or even the video card is toast. I would take it to an apple store/certified apple repair store and have them check it out.

I hope you computer is still under warranty

 

[robertin75]

iMac is approximately 2 years old according to my friend and unfortunately is out of warranty

The screen does not show any signs of life. I turned all the lights to make the room dark and I could not see any light on it.

My friend told me that another person had already disassembled the iMac in hopes to make it work so I don't know if I should do the same and see if there is something wrong that can easily be fixed.

I aleady did an SMC reset and the only thing that happened is that the iMac became a noisy iMac, very very noisy. I unplugged/plugged in back again and the noise came back to normal.

I don't know if the PRAM reset is working as the keyboard seems to be unresponsive.

Mouse light does respond to movements though.

What do you think?

Thanks for your help

 

[blackmac11]

Well, the chime indicated that all the important hardware is in order, so it's probably the display/video card or somewhere in between. It might be worth a shot to disassemble it since it is already out of warranty, but I would go to the apple store first to see if they can do anything for you. If they can give you a diagnostic, then you can decide wether or not you could fix it for yourself.

I had a funny problem with my iMac about a year ago, the computer would boot fine but it would randomly restart; sometimes during the booting process, somethings after running for an hour. After I took it to the apple store, they discovered a bad wire that was screwing up the heat sensors. It was really cheap to fix. So you never know, you could get lucky and just have something small thing like that seem like a big problem.

Best of luck