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iMac g5 is stuck at white startup screen with apple logo & spinning circle

Hello,
i had a digital copy of os x leopard and i was trying to reinstall it, so i would double click on install mac os x, and it would tell me to restart, i would do this but nothing happened so i had to mount the disk again and double click install mac os x, and it told me to restart again. so i looked up how to install leopard from a dmg file, and it said to restore the dmg to the drive, so i went into disk utility and i put the source as the dmg, and the destination i dragged the imac hdd icon. it finished and i was gonna select the leopard file as my startup disk in system preferences, but that wouldnt run. i then noticed some of the letters were missing on the name of the icons in the dock, so i just restarted the computer, but it got stuck on the white screen. i tried lots of stuff like turning on while holding shift, but it didnt do anything, and i tried with cmd+s and that gave me some black command prompt where i typed/sbin/fsck -fy and that did some stuff and it said my drive was okay, but it still wont start up. What do i do?!?!

imac g5, Mac OS X (10.4.11), imac g5 white

Posted on Nov 7, 2010 1:18 PM

Reply
29 replies

Nov 7, 2010 1:29 PM in response to guitarraholic

Hi guitarraholic, and a warm welcome to the forums! 🙂

i had a digital copy of os x leopard...


No DVD? You need a DVD unless you have another boot drive.

so i looked up how to install leopard from a dmg file, and it said to restore the dmg to the drive, so i went into disk utility and i put the source as the dmg, and the destination i dragged the imac hdd icon.


Hopefully you didn't try that while booted from the drive you tried to Restore to!

Nov 7, 2010 3:50 PM in response to BDAqua

im trying tiger right now, first i wanna reinstall tiger, than leopard next, you know, one problem at a time. i dunno maybe, heres the readme:
Read Before You Install
Mac OS X
Read this document before you install Mac OS X. It includes information about
supported computers, system requirements, and installing Mac OS X.
For more information about Mac OS X, visit this website:
• www.apple.com/macosx/
For the latest information about using Mac OS X, connect to the Internet and open Mac
Help. To open Mac Help, click the Help menu in the Finder and choose Mac Help.
For information about the support available for this product, see the AppleCare
Software Services and Support Guide included with Mac OS X.
System requirements
You must have a Macintosh computer with:
• a PowerPC G3, G4, or G5 processor
• a DVD drive
• built-in FireWire
• at least 256 MB of RAM
• a built-in display or a display connected to an Apple-supplied video card supported
by your computer
• at least 3 GB of disk space available, or 4 GB if you install the developer tools
If you see a message in the Installer that you do not have enough disk space to install
Mac OS X, you can deselect items to save space. To deselect items, click Custom Install
in the Easy Install panel.
Updating your computer’s firmware
You may need to update your computer’s firmware. It’s best to update the firmware
before installing Mac OS X. If you haven’t started the Mac OS X Installer, check the
Apple Software Updates website to see if there are any firmware updates for your
computer:
• www.apple.com/support/downloads/
If you don’t do this, you may see a message that you need to update your computer’s
firmware when you start the Installer. To update the firmware, you will need to quit the
Installer and restart your computer using your current startup disk, then check the
Software Updates website.
If you have problems with your computer after installing this version of Mac OS X, you
might need to update the firmware even though you did not see a message when you
installed the software. Check the Software Updates website for recent firmware updates
for your computer.
Starting installation
To start installing Mac OS X, insert the Mac OS X Install DVD and double-click the
Install Mac OS X icon:
You can also start installing Mac OS X by inserting the Install DVD and restarting your
computer while holding down the C key, or by selecting the Install DVD as your startup
disk using Startup Disk preferences.
Quitting the Installer
If you need to quit the Installer before you click Install in the Easy Install or Custom
Install pane, choose Quit Installer from the Installer application menu, then click
Startup Disk to select a startup disk for your computer.
If you have already clicked Install, wait until installation finishes.
Advice about hardware compatibility
Installing on a Power Macintosh G3 (Blue and White)
If you have a Power Macintosh G3 (Blue and White) that came with an Apple SCSI hard
disk, do not choose UNIX File System (UFS) as the format for the destination disk.
Installing on a computer with a third-party SCSI card
If you have a third-party SCSI card installed in your computer and you cannot start up
Mac OS X, attach a disk drive or terminator to one of the card’s ports. If you continue
to have problems, try removing the card. Contact the manufacturer of the card for
more information about using the card with Mac OS X.
Installing on a computer with a third-party video card
If you have a third-party video card installed in your computer, you may need to
remove it before you install Mac OS X. Contact the manufacturer of the card for more
information about using the card with Mac OS X.
Advice about installing Mac OS X
Erasing and formatting your disk
When you install Mac OS X, you can erase the destination disk you select. In the “Select
a Destination” pane of the Installer, click the Options button. Select Erase and Install
then choose a format. In most cases, choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
Important Do not choose UNIX File System (UFS) unless you need to work with this
format. If you choose UFS, Mac OS 9 and all Mac OS 9 applications must be installed on
a Mac OS Extended format disk to use them with the Classic environment.
To install Mac OS X on the same disk or disk partition as Mac OS 9, the disk must be in
Mac OS Extended format. If it isn’t, quit the Installer and back up your files, then
reformat the disk.
You can also partition your hard disk into several volumes before you install Mac OS X.
In the Installer, choose Utilities > Open Disk Utility and click Partition. Partitioning the
disk erases the entire disk, so be sure to back up your files first.
Installing optional software
Easy Install installs all the software you need to use Mac OS X, but does not install
some additional software. If you want to install this optional software or you don’t
want to install all the software installed using Easy Install, click Custom Install and
select the items you want to install. If you want to install this optional software later,
insert the Mac OS X Install DVD and double-click Optional Installs.
Locating the Installer log
When you install Mac OS X, the Installer saves a log of the installation. To see the log,
open Console (in /Applications/Utilities), click Logs, then click the triangle next to /
var/log and select install.log.
Reinstalling Mac OS X
To reinstall Mac OS X, insert the Mac OS X Install DVD and double-click the Install
Mac OS X icon, then follow the onscreen instructions. When you see the “Select a
Destination” pane, click Options to select how to install Mac OS X:
• Select “Archive and Install” to save your existing system files, user accounts and
their home folders, and existing network settings. The Installer saves files in a
folder named Previous System so that you can copy them to an appropriate location
later. You cannot start up your computer using the Previous System folder.
• Select “Erase and Install” to erase the destination volume and install a new copy of
Mac OS X. If you select this option, you will lose all your files and the software you
have installed on the destination volume, so you may want to back it up first. If you
select this option, you can choose the format for the volume. In most cases, choose
Mac OS Extended (Journaled) from the pop-up menu.
Setting up and connecting to the Internet
If you have an existing Internet service provider (ISP) and you’re installing Mac OS X for
the first time, you need to enter your Internet connection information when installation
finishes. Be sure to have the information available. If you have problems connecting to
the Internet, contact your ISP to make sure you have the correct information.
Advice about using Mac OS X
If you have problems starting up
If you cannot start up your computer, insert the Mac OS X Install DVD and restart your
computer while holding down the C key. Choose, Choose > Open Disk Utility, then
click First Aid to repair your disk.
If you have problems starting up your computer and you have devices connected to
your computer such as FireWire drives, USB printers, or external displays, try
disconnecting them before starting up again.
Upgrading your applications and other software
For best results with Mac OS X, look for versions of your applications that are built for
Mac OS X. Check the Mac OS X website for information about available applications:
• www.apple.com/macosx/
If you cannot find Mac OS X versions, upgrade to the latest Mac OS 9 version to use
with the Mac OS X Classic environment. Check with the manufacturers for the latest
updates.
Using POP email accounts and On My Mac mailboxes in Tiger and Panther
If you have a shared home folder and you access a POP email account using Mail in
both Mac OS X Panther and Mac OS X Tiger, you will not see messages that you retrieve
in one version when you switch to the other.
As an alternative, you can deselect the option to remove copies from the server after
retrieving your messages. To change this option, open the Accounts pane of Mail
preferences and click Advanced.
You will not see messages saved in a mailbox on your computer when you switch from
one version to another. To avoid this problem, use separate home folders for each
version of Mac OS X.
Your IMAP account will synchronize automatically when you switch between Mail in
Tiger and Panther.
© 2005 Apple Computer, Inc. All rights reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, FireWire, Macintosh, Mac OS, and
Power Macintosh are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.
PowerPC is a trademark of International Business Corporation, used under license therefrom.






it says that a imac g5 can work

iMac g5 is stuck at white startup screen with apple logo & spinning circle

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