2007 Mac won't boot

Question

Level 1

0 points

2007 Mac won't boot

Hi,

I've searched for ages to find a similar thread, but nothing seems to be helping. I'll try to keep this short.

My boss has a 2007 24" iMac that he hasn't used for a year, because (according to him) a programme called MIXIE was installed by an IT company to connect the phone to the Mac. I managed to remove this programme, anyway, but it didn't solve the problem.

Basically, it originally wouldn't start correctly and would crash most times and go into (I think it's called) Kernel panic both before and after login.

To remove MIXIE I booted in Safe Mode and managed to use the trick that makes the Mac think it hasn't been used before so I could set up a new Admin account (as the boss had forgotten the password for his admin account).

So i deleted MIXIE, deleted his old account and just used the new one. I did as many software updates as I could, with reboots in Safe mode as it still wouldn't boot normally so it was fully updated in OS 10.4.

So, as it still wouldn't boot normally I tried the fsck in single user mode. All through this time the device has failed to load recovery mode, so that has never been an option for me. So, I thought perhaps updating the OS to leopard (10.5) would help. I located a disk and managed to boot from it (eventually). It actually wouldn't boot by pressing c on startup, only when I attempted safe mode with the disk in.

So, finally got updated to 10.5, and began the awful process of trying to bring that up to date. After one restart, I installed another wave of updates, but after the second restart the machine now goes past the Apple logo and spinning gear and then freezes on a light blue screen (lighter than the correct login screen) with no login option, just completely plain blue.

So that is as far as I have got. It now does this when I try to boot normally, in safe mode and in Recovery mode. It manages to boot in Single User mode, however, so I have no idea what to try now. If it's worth mentioning, when the machine managed to start up after installing 10.5, I ran the HDD verification to see if there is anything wrong. It reported nothing wrong so I don't think it's that. I'm thinking it's a hardware issue, as this Mac has been dropped in the past (but worked fine for years afterwards) and maybe finally the board has given in or something. I'm not very techy though, so have only been using what I can from advice online.

Any help would be greatly appreciated as I was planning on adding more RAM to this and then updating to a newer OS that it could handle to get a few more years' use out of it.

Thanks!

Chris

iMac, Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Sep 11, 2014 8:15 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Best reply

BDAqua

Level 10

239,003 points

Sep 11, 2014 4:51 PM in response to ChrisClarity

Whew, have you blown the dust out lately?

Do you have the Apple Hardware test disc that came with that Mac?

Reply

Answer 2

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Sep 11, 2014 5:43 PM in response to ChrisClarity

To add to what BDaqua has mentioned...

1. AHT - Using Apple Hardware Test . If you do not have the disks, here is an option to burn the AHT to a disc - https://github.com/upekkha/AppleHardwareTest . Your iMac is 7,1. The direct link is iMac7,1 Mac-F42386C8.

2. If you are able to boot in Single-user mode, you may also be able to boot in Verbose mode (Command+V), which may help a bit.

3. Startup keys - Startup key combinations for Intel-based Macs and Short cuts are - OS X: Keyboard shortcuts.

Please also see this Mac OS X 10.5: "Blue screen" appears after installing Leopard and restarting . Option C may solve your problem since it is executed in Single-user mode.

Reply

Answer 3

ChrisClarity Author

Level 1

0 points

Sep 12, 2014 1:17 AM in response to Loner T

Thanks both for replying. Well I followed the blue screen link given by Loner T and have now successfully got it to start in safe mode. It does start in normal mode, but gets stuck on the spinning pinwheel at the desktop (strangely it doesn't ask to log into the account, just goes straight to desktop without icons).

and no I haven't blown the dust out - I'm trying to avoid taking it apart for fear of not being able to reassemble it! 😝

I have managed more updates, though. Apparently now there are no more to install. So no I have a fully updated Leopard OS, but it still won't start properly in normal mode. I'll try the AHT asap!

Thanks again!! 🙂

Reply

Answer 4

ChrisClarity Author

Level 1

0 points

Sep 12, 2014 2:50 AM in response to Loner T

I've tried to burn AHT to a disk, but it doesn't seem to be working.

I looked at the system specs and it said the Mac was 6,1 so I tried to burn that, too. It doesn't load though when holding d on startup 😟

Reply

Answer 5

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Sep 12, 2014 4:58 AM in response to ChrisClarity

Can you please look at this How to identify iMac models and also look at About This Mac.

According to this your iMac is 2006 - http://www.everymac.com/ultimate-mac-lookup/?search_keywords=iMac6,1 .

The Upekkha website has a little shell command. Can you run that and post the output of the following? If I can find it on my Grey disks collection, I will post it to DropBox.

On my machine (13" 2012 MBP) I get -

ioreg -l | grep board-id | awk -F\" '{ print $4 }'

Mac-6F01561E16C75D06

system_profiler SPHardwareDataType | grep 'Model Identifier' | awk -F: '{ print $2 }'

ioreg -l | grep board-id | awk -F\" '{ print $4 }'

Reply

Answer 6

ChrisClarity Author

Level 1

0 points

Sep 12, 2014 6:22 AM in response to Loner T

Okay so this is what I have:

Is this what you are after? And yes it seems it is a 2006 Mac. I think I assumed it was 2007 because before I updated to Leopard on the 'about this Mac' it had 2007 (I assume because of the OS on it).

Thanks!

Reply

Answer 7

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Sep 12, 2014 6:40 AM in response to ChrisClarity

Yes, the ioreg command output is perfect. Let me look on my Grey disk collection. If I can find it, I will the load the whole ISO in dropbox and post a link here.

Reply

Answer 8

ChrisClarity Author

Level 1

0 points

Sep 12, 2014 6:59 AM in response to Loner T

Okay, thanks! 🙂

Reply

Answer 9

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Sep 12, 2014 9:55 AM in response to ChrisClarity

The Dropbox link is - https://www.dropbox.com/s/p8n8ejep3d9bfj3/iMac6%2C1-AHT.tar?dl=0

1. Download the tar file to your local disk.

2. If USB works, create a USB, and format it via Disk Utility as Mac OS Extended.

3. Expand the tar file on local disk. Copy the following files to the USB root folder.

ls -1

Apple Hardware Test Read Me.app

System

You should be able to see this directory as well.

ls -1 System/Library/CoreServices/.diagnostics/

Mac-F4218FC8

diags.efi

4. Power cycle and use the Alt key to select the USB to boot from.

Please post back here, if you have any issues with the AHT.

Reply

Answer 10

ChrisClarity Author

Level 1

0 points

Sep 15, 2014 12:24 AM in response to Loner T

Thanks, I'll do that tomorrow when I get my USB stick.

I'll report back after that 🙂

Cheers!

Reply

Answer 11

ChrisClarity Author

Level 1

0 points

Sep 26, 2014 1:28 AM in response to Loner T

Hi sorry for the late reply. It has been manic in work and fixing this had to take a back seat.

I have expanded the file you provided, but I can't see the files that you said to put on the USB.

I have provided screens of what I see in the folder:

Any idea why I can't see them?

Thanks!

Chris

Reply

Answer 12

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Sep 26, 2014 4:47 AM in response to ChrisClarity

.diagnostics is a hidden folder. The simplest method is to use OS X terminal and use ls -la to look in each directory as you traverse the tree structure.

Reply