3 beeps at start and no sign of life on my iMac. Dead?

Question

3 beeps at start and no sign of life on my iMac. Dead?

This morning I turned my iMac on (2008 model) but after 10 minutes it went black and beeped 3 times loudly, repeating at 5 second cycles. Shut it down by pressing the ON button for 5 sec. Restarted and all worked for a hour before repeating the same problem...screen and keyboard and touchpad all locked out....shut down with the ON button. On restart it gave me the 3 beeps every 5 sec with an ALL BLACK screen...no hard disk whirring, either. I don't know how to do cardiac massage on an iMac. Is it dead? Is it the processor? Is it the video card? Is it the hard disc? HELP!

iMac, iOS 7.1.2

Posted on Sep 8, 2014 9:08 AM

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Answer 1

Klaus1

Level 9

52,749 points

Sep 8, 2014 9:14 AM in response to gregoryfrombologna

Beeps on startup:

1 beep = no RAM installed

2 beeps = incompatible RAM types

3 beeps = no good banks

4 beeps = no good boot images.

5 beeps = processor is not usable

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2538

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Answer 2

Sep 8, 2014 9:20 AM in response to Klaus1

Thanks Klaus...but I have trouble believing that all of my RAM has failed without any provocation. I have 16GB of RAM on this baby! Are those the banks that you refer too? Can a failure cascade like dominos destroying all of my RAM chips or am I not understanding something? Please excuse my ignorance. If I bring my poor baby to the Apple Store here in Bologna (I have an appointment Wednesday) what would they do to fix it? What causes this failure? Thanks!!

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Answer 3

Klaus1

Level 9

52,749 points

Sep 8, 2014 9:26 AM in response to gregoryfrombologna

RAM may have worked loose, but the Apple Store will give you a free diagnostic and hopefully fix the problem! 🙂

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Answer 4

a brody

Level 10

82,925 points

Sep 8, 2014 9:39 AM in response to Klaus1

Banks actually indicate the slots that the RAM get installed in.

Now as indicated, a loose RAM module can make a slot look bad, when in fact it is the RAM that has gotten loose.

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Answer 5

Sep 8, 2014 9:41 AM in response to a brody

Hmmmm...rather improbable that 4 ram chips of 4 GB each loosen up all at once, though, ain't it?!

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Answer 6

rkaufmann87

Level 10

140,454 points

Sep 8, 2014 10:58 AM in response to gregoryfrombologna

gregoryfrombologna wrote:

Hmmmm...rather improbable that 4 ram chips of 4 GB each loosen up all at once, though, ain't it?!

Yes, that would be extremely unprobable however if 1 DIMM has loosened or is malfunctioning the machine will get the same error. It takes 5 minutes to unseat and reseat RAM. Just do that then re-test, if the machine still fails take it to your local Genius bar and have them help diagnose which DIMM(s) are causing the problem.

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Answer 7

Sep 8, 2014 1:02 PM in response to rkaufmann87

Thanks my dear rkaufmann87 from Folsom (I'm a San Diego boy)...unfortunately, it didn't pan out. I shut everything down, pulled the plugs, opened the RAM door, pulled the RAM cards out, cleaned them (they were pretty dusty), reinserted the cards, closed the RAM door, said a prayer to the hardware gods and with my forbidden fruit (Apple, of course), plugged it in, turned it on and.......beep, beep. beep....every 5-6 seconds. So it goes. At least my ram is clean and happy. Could the motherboard be shorted out? Oh, the lateral dvd drive hasn't worked either for at least 4 months.

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Answer 8

Sep 8, 2014 1:46 PM in response to gregoryfrombologna

Look Here....

Mac computers: About startup tones

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Answer 9

Sep 8, 2014 1:50 PM in response to gregoryfrombologna

It is much more likely to be bad ram module (s) than the logic board as other errors would show in that case. At this point, you can either get different ram modules to insert and see if that takes care of it or take the machine to the Apple store genius bar and have the techs check it out for you. If you decide to try other ram modules, make sure they are high quality Mac certified ram as Macs are extremely sensitive to their memory.

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Answer 10

rkaufmann87

Level 10

140,454 points

Sep 8, 2014 2:05 PM in response to gregoryfrombologna

As Ralph mentioned it's likely just a bad RAM module and very unlikely the main logic board.He is also correct about using high quality RAM, most experienced users on these forums use Crucial or OWC (www.macsales.com).

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