EXTREME PROBLEM: iMac G5 will not turn on
Yesterday night my second iMac G5 (3 or 4 years old) froze while I was using Google Maps. The screen was completely frozen, I could not move the mouse or anything. After a while the fans suddenly began going very fast and were louder than I had ever heard before. I waited a while and then shut down the computer using the power button and restarted. The light came on as usual, but there was no "on" chime and the screen remained dark. I could hear the fans going very quietly, but nothing else happened, so I again shut down, this time removing and reconnecting the power cable before restarting. Same result, nothing. Each time I shut down I did hear an odd click noise, which sounded like a heavy clock tick, and it scared me because it's similar to the sound a heard the last time I had a problem with this computer. It was 2 or 3 years ago, and for an unknown reason the computer would shut itself down and eventually did not turn on. I ended up losing the entire hard drive. The sound was not exactly the same -- last time it happened, there was a steady ticking accompanied by a series of beeps, but I thought I would mention it.
Unfortunately I have nothing backed up and I'm not crazy about losing another hard drive. I continued trying to shut down and restart last night. One of the other times I tried to restart, I was able to get the computer on, only after having left the cable out for over five hours. However, after signing in, the computer froze again, this time on the login screen, just after it had accepted my password. I had to shut it down again after that, and it hasn't turned on since. I left the cable out for seven hours overnight, but this morning I had the same result, the computer would not turn on. I'm very worried because of this computer's history that this could be a hard drive killer. I would very much appreciate any assistance before having to take it in to our Apple Store. The odd thing is that prior to the crash, I had not installed any new software or done anything out-of-the-ordinary, though I do think that the hard drive was getting a little full. The computer was in great shape though as far as I knew. Thank you for any help!!!
Unfortunately I have nothing backed up and I'm not crazy about losing another hard drive. I continued trying to shut down and restart last night. One of the other times I tried to restart, I was able to get the computer on, only after having left the cable out for over five hours. However, after signing in, the computer froze again, this time on the login screen, just after it had accepted my password. I had to shut it down again after that, and it hasn't turned on since. I left the cable out for seven hours overnight, but this morning I had the same result, the computer would not turn on. I'm very worried because of this computer's history that this could be a hard drive killer. I would very much appreciate any assistance before having to take it in to our Apple Store. The odd thing is that prior to the crash, I had not installed any new software or done anything out-of-the-ordinary, though I do think that the hard drive was getting a little full. The computer was in great shape though as far as I knew. Thank you for any help!!!
iMac G5, Mac OS X (10.4), The specifeid OS may be incorrect, I'm not able to log in to see what it is.
