Flashing power light and blank screen

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Level 1

8 points

Flashing power light and blank screen

I’ve had my 20-inch iMac G5 for a 1 year and 4 months. I upgraded to leopard last December and everything was working fine until last night.

I got home from work, switched on the Mac, added it to a new wireless network (the old router was playing up) and an hour later, the graphics went all over the place.

I went to restart the Mac but everything just froze so I pressed the power button to switch it off. When I switched on the Mac all I saw was a blue screen.

I tried removing/installing the memory with no luck. I put in the leopard CD to reinstall it but now all that happens in a power light (bottom right) just keeps flashing with a blank screen with the CD unable to be ejected.

Anybody have any solution?

Thanks.

iMac G5, Mac OS X (10.5.2), 3GB RAM

Posted on Mar 28, 2008 2:42 PM

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Answer 1

den.thed

Level 10

91,546 points

Mar 28, 2008 5:17 PM in response to gonner

Hi gonner

Welcome to Apple Discussions

{quote:}I’ve had my 20-inch iMac G5 for a 1 year and 4 months. I upgraded to leopard last December and everything was working fine until last night. {quote}

If you iMac is only a little over a year old it's an Intel iMac not a G5, the last G5's were made in 2005.

{quote:} I tried removing/installing the memory with no luck. I put in the leopard CD to reinstall it but now all that happens in a power light (bottom right) just keeps flashing with a blank screen with the CD unable to be ejected.{quote}

1. A Flashing power LED once per second - bad RAM, no RAM
2. Three flashes, a pause, and three more flashes (occurs continuously) - marginal RAM

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303363

The flashing LED light does indicate a problem with RAM, either the module(s) are bad or are not seated properly. Open the ejector clips and install the ram module(s) pushing real hard with both thumbs then close the ejectors and replace the cover. If you still have a problem install one module at a time or reinstall the original ram that came with your iMac.

Dennis

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Answer 2

gonner Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 30, 2008 4:35 AM in response to den.thed

den.thed wrote:
Humm...well if you let it sit there for a while, does it eventually move on?

No it just kept going back and forth.

From the link you provided I had to use 'Option B' and now everything seems to be working (so far) without any files/application missing.

Thank you for your help.

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Answer 3

den.thed

Level 10

91,546 points

Mar 29, 2008 6:55 AM in response to gonner

You need to repair your startup volume from the Install Disk.

1 Insert the disc and restart your computer holding down the Option key, then select the Install Mac OS X disc and click the arrow.

2. Once your booted from the Install Disk, go up to the menu bar Utilities and Open Disk Utility.

3. Select your startup disk (Macintosh HD), click First Aid then Repair Disk.

Here are the Apple instructions for the Repair process.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=DiskUtility/10.5/en/duh1018.html

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Answer 4

den.thed

Level 10

91,546 points

Mar 29, 2008 9:17 AM in response to gonner

Humm...well if you let it sit there for a while, does it eventually move on?

There is this article about 10.5 blue screen:

After completing an upgrade installation of Leopard and restarting the computer, a "blue screen" may appear for an extended period of time.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=306857

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Answer 5

gonner Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 29, 2008 6:36 AM in response to den.thed

Hi Dennis,

Thanks for your quick response. Yea, sorry I was meant to say Intel iMac.

I did what you asked and forced the RAM into their slots. The flashing light issue doesn't appear anymore so it must have been seated wrongly like you said. However, I’m back to where I began with the blue screen.

It seems like it’s trying to load as the spinning loading wheel appears against a dark blue screen before a light blue screen appears for a few seconds before going back to the dark blue screen with the spinning loading wheel.

When powered on, the apple logo against the white background is shown (which usually happened when the iMac was working) and I managed to eject the CD during this period by holding down the eject button on the Mac keyboard.

Anybody have any idea what could be wrong and what can/needs to be done to resolve this issue?

Thanks.

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Answer 6

gonner Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 29, 2008 7:58 AM in response to den.thed

I did what you asked but I still get the blue screen error.

When performing the disk repair, the details showed "The volume Hard Drive appears to be OK". But upon restart the issue as I described in my 2nd post occurs.

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Answer 7

gonner Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 31, 2008 2:56 AM in response to gonner

Just to let anyone thinking of following the 'Option B: Archive & Install' method:

You'll need to enter the serial numbers of most of your applications.

You will also need to run 'Software Updated' before using the Mac as normal.

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Answer 8

den.thed

Level 10

91,546 points

Mar 30, 2008 6:16 AM in response to gonner

Your welcome, glad your working again!

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