Can't get past the Happy Mac!
Help! My 1999 iMac won’t go past the “Happy Mac” startup page.
Here is the history. The first problem was that the iMac does not recognize any flash drives inserted into either USB port. The iMac recognizes the keyboard but not a flash drive. This computer uses OS 10.3. I looked in System Preferences and could not find any setting that would direct the iMac to show or not show any drive. So I zapped the Pram. Since then the computer has not been able to get past the Happy Mac in start up.
I then started up from the Disk Warrior CD-ROM. It has been years since I ran Disk Warrior on this computer, and it reported the usual array of disabled file icons. Disk Warrior then reported that there was no further problem with the hard drive.
But when I restarted, the iMac still refused to go past the Happy Mac page.
I should note that a few days ago I noticed that the clock in the menu bar was set to the wrong time and date. The System Preference for the clock was set to automatically update. The iMac did not automatically update the clock. I then set it manually. So I have to suspect that perhaps the iMac battery might be bad. (The computer is old, after all.)
This iMac is model number M5521 DHHS. It has Code GX and EMC No 1857,
Does anyone here have any ideas as to how I might get this computer to start up again?
iMac, Mac OS X (10.3.x)