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Level 1

40 points

imac having a hard time booting

Hey guys, my parents iMac started acting up today. randomly while in use it will just power cycle. But when the power returns it wont boot, it just sits on a black screen starting the fan and spinning the cd tray for a short burst. there is no disk in the drive and it wont boot, without mucking around and unplug it, then it may boot, but it will then just crash again..

any ideas at all? if i do get it online, are there any log files i can look at to see why its crashing?

MacBook Pro 15" 2.4GHz, iPod Touch 32GB 2nd Gen, Mac OS X (10.5.6)

Posted on Nov 22, 2009 4:53 PM

19 replies

spyd4r Author

Level 1

40 points

Nov 22, 2009 8:10 PM in response to Kenichi Watanabe

SMC is actually the only way I can get it to boot. :/

Nov 22, 2009 9:00 PM in response to spyd4r

Booting is good... And once it boots, it does not work properly? You need to do an SMC reset each time? I'm not clear on all the details of the current problem. You may want to do a reply to your original post (so that it is not indented all the way to the right), and summarize the current situation.

spyd4r Author

Level 1

40 points

Nov 23, 2009 3:30 AM in response to spyd4r

To sum up exactly what is happening.

iMac will just randomly reboot, but instead of just restarting, it sits with a black screen spinning the fan off and on, and trying to eject a dvd (there is nothing in the drive)

the only way to get it to boot is to do a SMC, but if you manually reboot it or wait for it to crash randomly ike above, it will just go back to the black screen, turning the fan on and off, and trying to eject a dvd.

Nov 23, 2009 4:38 AM in response to spyd4r

What happens if you start it up from a Mac OS X installation disc; insert disc and restart with the C key held down. It will eventually get to the first Installer screen. Don't do anything there, but let is sit on that screen for however long it normally takes for this "random reboot" to occur. Does it happen, when you are started up from another system (such as the Mac OS X installation disc)?

imac having a hard time booting