iMac won't start - loud fan noise

Question

iMac won't start - loud fan noise

Out of the blue, my 3rd gen iMac G5 completely refused to start last night.

I get the grey screen and spinning wheel. Then after about a minute the fan starts whirring very loudly. I've left it for up to 15 minutes and nothing happens.

Anyone got any clues? I've tried the fix where you keep the power button held down. That gets me to a grey screen and an option to boot up or shut down. Neither results in any change.

G5, Mac OS X (10.4.5)

Posted on Feb 13, 2009 2:42 AM

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Answer 1

MGW

Level 7

27,041 points

Feb 13, 2009 5:49 AM in response to Rocknrollsoul

Have you tried booting from your install disk and the using Disk Utility

1. Insert the Mac OS X Install disc that came with your computer, then restart the computer while holding the C key.
2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first.)
Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.
3. Click the First Aid tab.
4. Click the disclosure triangle to the left of the hard drive icon to display the names of your hard disk volumes and partitions.
5. Select your Mac OS X volume.
6. Click Repair. Disk Utility checks and repairs the disk.

Then boot from your internal drive and repair permissions.

Disk Utility

1. Insert the Mac OS X Install disc that came with your computer, then restart the computer while holding the C key.
2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first.)
Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.
3. Click the First Aid tab.
4. Click the disclosure triangle to the left of the hard drive icon to display the names of your hard disk volumes and partitions.
5. Select your Mac OS X volume.
6. Click Repair. Disk Utility checks and repairs the disk.

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Answer 2

Feb 13, 2009 6:14 AM in response to MGW

Will try this tonight and report back.

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Answer 3

Feb 16, 2009 2:19 AM in response to Rocknrollsoul

Unfortunately, this had no effect whatsoever. I'm anticipating now that this will be a log board problem, then?

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Answer 4

MGW

Level 7

27,041 points

Feb 16, 2009 6:53 AM in response to Rocknrollsoul

Could either be a logic board problem, or it could be that your hard drive has died. In either case, it's probably best that you take it in and have it looked at. If it's the drive, you can get them inexpensively on the web, and install it yourself. The logic board is a bit more complicated, but doable.

Please post back and let us know what the diagnosis is.

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Answer 5

Feb 16, 2009 7:03 AM in response to MGW

Got an appointment to have it looked at on Fri. Must say I'm a bit disturbed by how many other users have had this problem. Machine is only about four years old.

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Answer 6

MGW

Level 7

27,041 points

Feb 16, 2009 8:24 AM in response to Rocknrollsoul

Yes, but think of all the users who don't post here and don't have a problem 🙂

Let me know what they say.

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Answer 7

Feb 27, 2009 3:22 PM in response to MGW

Okay, they fixed it after 5 days at a cost of £157.

Was a hard drive problem; wasn't mounting, corrupt in some way; they gave it me back in case I can get some of the info off there.

What now concerns me is that they've installed a different operating system on the new hard rive - Tiger, rsther than Panther. I've got no iPhoto or Garageband. What can I do about that? Having already paid for them, paid for the fix, and the potential data retrieval, I don't want to be paying for those programs all over again.

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Answer 8

MGW

Level 7

27,041 points

Feb 27, 2009 3:45 PM in response to Rocknrollsoul

If you have your Panther install discs, use them to reinstall the system.

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Answer 9

Feb 27, 2009 4:04 PM in response to MGW

You mean reinstall iPhoto and Garageband from the Panther discs? I could do that, but which discs are they on? Don't want to inadvertently erase me operating system in favour of the earlier one.

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Answer 10

Feb 27, 2009 4:22 PM in response to Rocknrollsoul

Very interestingly (and disturbingly), putting the Panther install disc in to do the above made the Mac almost revert to the original problem.

I got an endless grey screen, with the loud fan noise. It was only on the third attempt, when I managed to do a force eject of the disc that I managed to boot up at all.

So, being loath to try again with the Panther discs, is that the end of the line for my copies of iPhoto, Garageband and iWeb?

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Answer 11

MGW

Level 7

27,041 points

Feb 27, 2009 4:35 PM in response to Rocknrollsoul

Yes, unless you buy the retail versions. You can look for them on eBay or Craig's List.

Hmm, if it was a hard drive problem, why did it recur with the Panther discs?

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Answer 12

Feb 28, 2009 6:04 PM in response to Rocknrollsoul

My G5 won't start either, tried to reboot when it froze and it came back with a black screen and in top left corner was the following:

/etc/master.passwd:invalid argument
-sh: /etc/profile:invalid argument
IOBluetoothHCIController::start Idle Timer Stopped
-sh-2.05b#

Then the fan becomes very loud, any ideas of what to do? Thanks.

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Answer 13

Feb 28, 2009 6:07 PM in response to MGW

My G5 won't start either, tried to reboot when it froze and it came back with a black screen and in top left corner was the following:

/etc/master.passwd:invalid argument
-sh: /etc/profile:invalid argument
IOBluetoothHCIController::start Idle Timer Stopped
-sh-2.05b#

Then the fan becomes very loud, any ideas of what to do? Thanks.

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Answer 14

Mar 1, 2009 2:07 AM in response to MGW

It seems a little unfair - I never asked for Apple to remove the applications from my computer. Similarly I've had to track down a driver for Airport Extreme.

Srange about the Panther discs. The fault wasn;t exactly the same. Went to grey screen, then the Apple logo displaced by a couple of centimetres, and a tiny fuzzy line appeared above it. Then the fan came on very loudly.

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Answer 15

MGW

Level 7

27,041 points

Mar 1, 2009 6:06 AM in response to Rocknrollsoul

It might be worth your while to go back to Apple and ask for copies of the Apps, you are right, you didn't ask for them to be removed, perhaps they will reinstall them for you. Call Apple Customer Relations at 800-767-2775 and ask them politely to solve your problem.

Please post back with results,

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