SweetBerry26
Level 1 (0 points)

Q: iMac makes a loud beep on start up, won't load past the blue screen and the black ticking dial appears every few seconds in centre of screen.

Urgent help!

Out of the blue my mac lost the mouse cursor even though it had connection so I rebooted only for the mac to make a loud beep on start up then get stuck at the blue loading screen. It won't load past the blue screen. I've tried to reboot holding down the shift key but no change. I've also shut down, unplugged the main for 15 seconds, re plug and wait 5 seconds before starting up again but no change. Does anyone have any suggestions?

 

PS: I'm not too sure which systems I am running without being able to check in about this mac. I bought my imac in January or February 2011 if that helps.

iMac (27-inch Late 2009), Mac OS X (10.6.4)

Posted on Dec 31, 2012 11:47 AM

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SweetBerry26

Q: iMac makes a loud beep on start up, won't load past the blue screen and the black ticking dial appears every few seconds in centre ... more

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  • Helpful answers

  • by Allan Eckert,

    Allan Eckert Allan Eckert Dec 31, 2012 11:57 AM in response to SweetBerry26
    Level 9 (53,919 points)
    Desktops
    Dec 31, 2012 11:57 AM in response to SweetBerry26

    Guessing that it has either Lion or Mountain Lion with that purchase date, try holding down the Command and R keys during a boot and see it starts up in Recovery Mode.

     

    Allan

  • by SweetBerry26,

    SweetBerry26 SweetBerry26 Jan 1, 2013 3:24 AM in response to Allan Eckert
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 1, 2013 3:24 AM in response to Allan Eckert

    Hello Allan,

    Thanks for your help but no joy I'm afraid. Just seconds after pressing the power button it makes a loud beeeeeeeeeeeep sound then goes to grey then gets stick on blue. Even before the grey screen appears it sounds like its having trouble as I can hear the humming motor sound going then it stops then starts again. I think a trip to

    The mac store is how I'll be spending New Year's Day. Happy new year to you.

  • by killhippie,

    killhippie killhippie Jan 1, 2013 5:41 AM in response to Allan Eckert
    Level 3 (852 points)
    Mac App Store
    Jan 1, 2013 5:41 AM in response to Allan Eckert

    The op said February 2011 surely that would have been Snow Leopard which came on the machine. My Mid 2011 machine purchased in August 2011 had Lion on it and Lion had only recently been released. Mountain Lion came out Last year in July 2012.

  • by killhippie,

    killhippie killhippie Jan 1, 2013 5:44 AM in response to SweetBerry26
    Level 3 (852 points)
    Mac App Store
    Jan 1, 2013 5:44 AM in response to SweetBerry26

    Did the machine come with recovery discs? Although that noise does sound more ominous

  • by WZZZ,

    WZZZ WZZZ Jan 1, 2013 6:17 AM in response to SweetBerry26
    Level 6 (13,112 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 1, 2013 6:17 AM in response to SweetBerry26

    The power on self-test resides in the ROM of the computer. This test runs whenever the computer is turned on after being fully shut down (the power-on self-test does not run if the computer is only restarted).

     

    If a fault is detected during the test, you will not hear a normal startup chime. Instead, the system will beep as explained below. If you experience one of these beeps, you may call your Apple Authorized Service Provider for additional troubleshooting assistance.

     

    1 beep = no RAM installed

    2 beeps = incompatible RAM types

    3 beeps = no good banks

    4 beeps = no good boot images in the boot ROM (and/or bad sys config block)

    5 beeps = processor is not usable

    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1547

  • by SweetBerry26,

    SweetBerry26 SweetBerry26 Jan 1, 2013 9:04 AM in response to SweetBerry26
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 1, 2013 9:04 AM in response to SweetBerry26

    Thanks all for your support. No joy I'm afraid so it's booked in with a technician at the mac store. Hopefully nothing too serious and can be fixed straight away but I'll put a post up explaining the problem and what was done to resolve it or anyone's future reference.