Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Level 1

0 points

UI fell apart all the sudden?! Pls help!

Hi,

I'm in a dire need for help. I have no clue what happened to my iMac.

I was using Safari and VMWare Fusions and all the sudden some weird characters started to show up on my screen.

I was trying to restart the machine but it seemed frozen only the cursor was reacting. I've shut down the machine by pressing and holding the power button. I have disconnected the iPhone that was charging from the USBport at the time than tried to restart.

That's when I've got this screen. 😟

The wheel kept spinning for a while than it froze.

Next I've connected my thumb-drive with the OSX Lion install image on it; this time it loaded perfectly with clear screen.

I've done a "fix disk permissions" (or something like that) than restarted the machine which seemed to load ok but all I got on the end is a white screen and as I was moving the mouse cursor more and more weird "character" showed up on the screen.

Turn off. Try to boot again. Same frozen boot screen.

And that's where I am now. There is no Apple Store in 250 mile radius so Genius Bar is out of question. 😟

Anyone knows what am I facing here? Please help!

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.2), 24" late 2008 3.06 GHz 4 GB

Posted on Oct 28, 2011 2:45 PM

Best reply

rkaufmann87

Level 10

140,814 points

Posted on Oct 28, 2011 3:06 PM

It sounds like you have had a hardware failure. Run Apple Hardware Test in Extended Mode, this takes about 30-60 minutes. If no errors come up you may have to run it 2-3 more times to be sure. If you have trouble running AHT (Lion is a little challenging for AHT) then use the following directions taken from another post:

FWIW. Mine boots into AHT with disc 2 inserted, restarting, and holding down the D key. Alternatively, mount disc 2, run this command in the Terminal app, OPTION-click & hold Finder's Dock icon, and select RELAUNCH:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles 1

That unhides all hidden files/folders.

Now, drill down to /"Applications Install\ Disc"/System/Library/CoreServices/ and drag the .diagnostics folder into your SL boot volume's /System/Library/CoreServices/ folder.

Run this command to hide the normally hidden files/folders and RELAUNCH the Finder again.

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles 0

This should allow the machine to boot into AHT when restarting and holding down the D key

View in context

20 replies

Sysco Author

Level 1

0 points

Nov 2, 2011 1:11 PM in response to rkaufmann87

So they diagnosed it at the Apple Service and it is the GPU as we suspected it. Turns out that the NVidia GeForce 8800 GS has a really high failing rate, but Apple never made any recalls.

On an other note. Anyone has a tip how to transfer off my Bootcamp partition from my HD to an external HDD?

I have regular backups on time machine for the OS X side but not BC. BC has Win7 32 bit on it if that changes anything. Oh, and only way I can access the iMac's HD is in target mode so can't boot up to use WinClone.

I was thinking about CCC (Carbon Copy Cloner) but it says on the website that it would not support NTFS partitions. 😟

rkaufmann87

Level 10

140,814 points

Nov 2, 2011 2:21 PM in response to Sysco

Sorry to hear that but at least you know and can make plans. I wasn't aware of CCC not supporting NTFS, you may want to contact SuperDuper and ask if they do however my guess is probably not. Remember NTSF isn't a format OS X supports because it's really a PC thing. You're left to using other forms of backup for that. But try SD, hopefully I'm wrong.

Sysco Author

Level 1

0 points

Nov 2, 2011 10:10 PM in response to rkaufmann87

I have found out that WinClone 3.2 actually does the job. I booted into target mode on the iMac then hooked it up to my wife's MBP and booted the OS X partition of the iMac's HD.

Once Lion was up and running from the iMac's HD I've installed WinClone 3.2 on it and cloned the Boot Camp partition to an external HD.

Now I just have to wait till the new iMac arrives and see if restoring it to the new machine will go smoothly.

*fingers crossed*

rkaufmann87

Level 10

140,814 points

Nov 2, 2011 10:23 PM in response to Sysco

That's great, well you're on your way. Good luck with the new machine!

Sysco Author

Level 1

0 points

Nov 3, 2011 10:03 AM in response to rkaufmann87

Thanks! Too bad that the fixing wouldn't worth it mostly because the new card could of break down in a few months again as the GeForce 8800 GS is a well known lemon. I have read plenty of cases while researching where ppl had the same card swapped 3-4 times within just a few months before apple just gave them a brand new iMac. Too bad I was just over 3 years so not even apple care would cover it.

Let's hope this new one will last for more than just 3 years.

Thanks again for the helpful responses!

UI fell apart all the sudden?! Pls help!