My iMac died after attempting a Mavericks upgrade. Store replaced the hard drive - still dead. How can that be?

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My iMac died after attempting a Mavericks upgrade. Store replaced the hard drive - still dead. How can that be?

Two days ago we decided to upgrade our 2010 iMac from Snow Leopard to Mavericks. It didn't work: after the attempt, we couldn't get anything but the gray screen to show. We took it in to a Store, which fortunately had another hard drive in stock. They told us to come back in 48 hours to restore our backed-up data onto the rebuilt system.

Came back today, and the Store told us that even after replacing the hard drive, they couldn't bring up the iMac! "Your machine is dead." We bought a new iMac, loaded the data on it, and took both iMacs back home.

My question is this: How can attempting an upgrade to Mavericks mess up an iMac so badly that it can't be recovered, even by replacing the hard drive? I kept the dead iMac--what else should I try to do to bring it back to life? I don't need to restore any data -- a clean slate would be fine.

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.5)

Posted on Jun 15, 2014 12:48 PM

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Answer 1

andyBall_uk

Level 7

20,516 points

Jun 15, 2014 12:53 PM in response to CAMusicFan

Either they were wrong about the HD being the only cause, or the new drive is also at fault. I 'd have hoped that they would have given you some indication of what is wrong.

A connection cable might be suspect, but the first thing to try is the Apple Hardware Test from an original install DVD that shipped with the iMac.

Assuming that works & no problems are found, then try starting as if you plan to erase & install Snow Leopard from DVD :

Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard: How to Erase and Install

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Answer 2

Terrence

Level 1

10 points

Jun 15, 2014 1:10 PM in response to CAMusicFan

Can you boot up the failed system using a thumb drive or an external DVD drive?

If you can, i would acquire an EXTERNAL USB drive to pop the the old snow leopard on. Leave your internal start up drive ALONE. Once Snow Leopard install is done, can you then boot up with the external drive? If boot under the external SL is done, can you see the internal start up drive mount? You may not be able to see the newly installed internal hard drive depending on what else happens. So where is the original start up drive? You would want to leave that old internal start up drive alone as well for later troubleshooting.

If you cannot boot up to see the optical drive or the thumb drive, then I would say that what ever Mavericks did, it mucked around with your FIRMWARE. Best thing at this point is to turn the imac over to an apple authorize repair center for them to give you an estimate of what it will take to deal with that issue.

Good Luck.

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Answer 3

CAMusicFan Author

Level 1

0 points

Jun 19, 2014 2:15 PM in response to CAMusicFan

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm on the road for a couple of weeks but will try these when I get back to the machine.

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Answer 4

CAMusicFan Author

Level 1

0 points

May 1, 2016 8:48 AM in response to CAMusicFan

Wow, how time flies.

To bring this to closure, here's what I eventually did a few months after the original post: I continued researching possible solutions for a dead iMac, each involving more effort than the last, until I got to "replace the PRAM battery." I went to ifixit.com, followed the simple 35-step procedure (with pictures), and voila! Just 3 hours later, I had replaced the battery, and the system booted up.

So, the problem was not the upgrade to Mavericks, but a hardware issue that was happening at the same time. The solution was to buy a $5 watch battery that took about 30 seconds to pop out and replace. As for why the iMac was constructed so that it took two hours to take apart the entire machine to get to this simple part--that's a topic for another time.

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