iMac G5: I get flashing globe but it never boots up

Question

Level 1

0 points

iMac G5: I get flashing globe but it never boots up

Hi-- So I've read about how simple the solution for this "flashing globe" that appears on start up is supposed to be, except with my situation it never actually continues to boot up. The globe will flash for hours until I turn it off again. I can start up with the install disc, but when I tried to do 'repair disk" under disk utility it told me there was an error. I also tried to just re-install OS X but it does not give me an drives or discs to select to install the program. I feel like it is not recognizing my hard drive. This computer is about 2 years old, never had a problem, and I run very minimal programs on it. Any thoughts?

iMac, Mac OS X (10.4)

Posted on Mar 17, 2009 12:15 PM

Reply

Answer 1

MGW

Level 7

27,041 points

Mar 17, 2009 12:52 PM in response to mexcellent

Your computer is looking for a network to join. Your hard drive may have died, do you have Apple Care? If so, call them, if not, take the machine in for repair. I am assuming that you have an intel machine since it's only two years old?

Reply

Answer 2

Mar 17, 2009 1:04 PM in response to mexcellent

Hello, if your iMac is flashing a globe and it shows you no disks in disk utility from the installer then your hard drive has died. The iMac is trying to netboot (using the globe) because it has no other media to boot from. The optical disc you've used (install disc) is possible to be booted from therefore you should run hardware diagnostics to confirm this problem, and determine if any other hardware is affected.

Insert the install disc and hold down D at boot time to start in hardware diagnostics. Make sure you insert the disc that says it has Apple Hardware Diagnostics on the gray label. Good luck!

Reply