Ski2B

Q: Older iMac G5 won't start up some times

I have an iMac PowerPC G5 that I transplanted from my office when I upgraded last year. 1.8 GHz, 2 GB DDR, OS 10.4.11 with 115.71 GB available on the drive. We use it as a print server - hooked up via ethernet to an Airport Express - as well as various school work for the kids like internet research and Word. Lately it has started having startup issues. The center of the screen has a multi-colored box or the spinning wheel spins, forever. Once, a screen message came up advising me to shut down by holding the on button. When I restart it works fine. I have used disk utility several times - not much to repair. Is this a deeper issue?

 

Thanks

iMac, Mac OS X (10.4.11)

Posted on Aug 28, 2012 6:10 AM

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Q: Older iMac G5 won't start up some times

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  • by D.I. Johnson,

    D.I. Johnson D.I. Johnson Aug 28, 2012 5:04 PM in response to Ski2B
    Level 3 (815 points)
    Aug 28, 2012 5:04 PM in response to Ski2B

    Hi.

     

    Given the age of the machine and assuming that is the original hard disk drive, I would suspect the drive is beginning to fail, perhaps developing bad sectors that the machine is having trouble reading/writing.

     

    If you have access to another drive, a FireWire external would do well, try installing a fresh copy of the OS on that. Then select that as your boot drive and see how things go.

     

    In any event, I would backup any important data that currently resides on the internal drive before it completely fails.

     

    I hope this is helpful.

  • by Klaus1,

    Klaus1 Klaus1 Aug 29, 2012 5:46 AM in response to Ski2B
    Level 8 (48,831 points)
    Aug 29, 2012 5:46 AM in response to Ski2B
  • by Ski2B,

    Ski2B Ski2B Aug 31, 2012 6:54 AM in response to D.I. Johnson
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Notebooks
    Aug 31, 2012 6:54 AM in response to D.I. Johnson

    Thanks. I think you are right. I found my discs and booted from the Hardware Check disc. The Mass Storage did not pass, error code 2 STF/8/3:S-ATA Bus0-Master. So I guess you are correct that the drive is going.

     

    I have a second iMac and it did pass the Hardware test completely. I think I need to reinstall the software thought. It starts up a bit slowly, loads the OS, but then every mouse click induces the spinning color wheel for 10, 15 sometimes 30 minutes. I couldn't even run the Disc utility. I was able to load the Hardqwre disc and restart and I only had to sit there holding the C key for about 15 minutes. The test took about 40 minutes, probably because I have max ram installed. These computers weere used for CAD drawing.