Level 1

0 points

iMac won't boot at first attempt

Hi

Recently I've been experiencing that my intel iMac won't boot at first attempt and I have to powerdown manually and then try again. Second time it boots just fine. It's usually in the morning (been shut off for the night), but not always. I've tried disc utility from the install dvd, have repaired permissions and reset the nvram and everything seems just fine. The thing is, this has happened after the 10.4.8 update as far as I can remember. Does anyone else see this or is it a coincidence and some other problem?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Best regards

Rico

intel iMac 20" Mac OS X (10.4.8)

intel iMac 20" Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Posted on Oct 9, 2006 9:54 AM

50 replies

Rico Jensen Author

Level 1

0 points

Oct 19, 2006 9:00 AM in response to den.thed

Hey Dennis 🙂

Well, I'm sorry about that, but my eyes refused to stay open when I got home so the mac problem had to wait a couple of hours 🙂

Yeah, dunno if the last update did something to my mac or it's all strange coincidence, but I'll give my apple center a call on monday when I have a spare moment. If my mac is on it's way to meet its maker, I'll like to know it 😉

Rico

Rico Jensen Author

Level 1

0 points

Oct 19, 2006 9:01 AM in response to Scudder

Hi Scudder

You might be right. I'll let you know what the apple center said on monday - propably going in straight away I think.

Rico

Rico Jensen Author

Level 1

0 points

Oct 19, 2006 9:04 AM in response to taflorch

Hi Thorsten

Sorry to hear about your bad apple experience :/ I hope mine comes out well.

Rico

den.thed

Level 10

91,858 points

Oct 19, 2006 9:03 PM in response to Rico Jensen

Later Rico

Dennis

Dah•veed

Level 9

66,607 points

Oct 19, 2006 9:27 PM in response to taflorch

I am sorry for your bad experience. I am deeply sorry that you received a brand new computer with problems.
But I also wish to offer a different point of view. There are no Apple Stores in Germany. Although you may have been working with Apple Care on the phone occasionally, in fact, you were mostly working with a local German Apple Computer reseller. Although, unfortunately, Apple Computer takes the hit for your bad experience, point of fact is that in reality the poor service was a German company. Apple Computer probably had as much trouble as you did getting information about your computer's repair. Perhaps Apple should remove this company's certification as an Apple Repair Center and revoke their right to sell Apple Computers.

Rico Jensen Author

Level 1

0 points

Oct 19, 2006 10:37 PM in response to den.thed

Hi

I tried letting my iMac go to sleep again yesterday and it didn't wake up this morning, so that doesn't work either - just if anyone are curious. I can hear the harddrive just as when I boot up "cold", but after that nothing happens.

I think there's one last thing that I haven't tried and that is to take the plunge and do a clean install and see what happens.

I'm off for work now. I'll post again tomorrow and let you if it worked.

Rico

den.thed

Level 10

91,858 points

Oct 19, 2006 10:52 PM in response to Rico Jensen

Rico

In my case that would be pain full, I'd have to burn to disk or go get that Ext. HD (alot of photos+) I've been considering anyway. Hope that works!

Dennis

Rico Jensen Author

Level 1

0 points

Oct 21, 2006 12:25 AM in response to den.thed

Hi

I did a complete erase and install yesterday and my system went back to 10.4.4. It didn't do the trick unfortunately :/ It still won't boot when it's been off for 6-7 hours. I'm bringing it in now, no doubt about it - I think I, and we, have been trough everything possible.

Best regards

Rico

Nov 8, 2006 8:58 PM in response to Rico Jensen

It looks like I'm having this problem as well. It will start to a grey screen, chime, then nothing. No Apple logo, nada. A number of power cycles later then it boots. Brand new machine (well, three or so weeks old), iMac Core 2 Duo. Frustrating.

Nov 10, 2006 9:12 AM in response to Rico Jensen

Hello. I've been following this thread with great interest since my 17" Intel iMac does the same thing. I'd like to add a couple of other items that might shed some light on the problem. After finally getting it start, I get a message that the security settings in the startupitems need fixing. After doing so, the Mac reboots and this time more quickly. This happens every time after running Retrospect from a previous session. Whether they are related is not clear to me yet. Oddly enough, I have two identitical Intel iMacs at work and they do not have this problem. They get shut down at the end of the day. Go figure.

I first noticed the delayed start up when I used the FireWire start up to transfer my files from a G4 tower. Thinking that I transferred over something that caused the delay, I went ahead and did a complete re-install and tranferred my files manually. That worked for a while, but obviously I'm still having the problem.

Thanks to everyone who's been contributing to this perplexing problem.

Tom

iMac Intel Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Nov 10, 2006 5:12 PM in response to Allen Huffman

If it's been less than 30 days since you bought it, you could always try to contact Apple and settle something with them (ask for a replacement computer, for example).

Nov 11, 2006 5:51 PM in response to Caroline Marie

I see a similar issue with my Core 2 20" iMac.

On cold boots, basically turned off for 8 hours, I get the startup manager ie. choose the boot drive, it also sometimes takes several presses of the power button to come on.

If I connect the AC power and leave for a few minutes and press the power button it starts instantly and does not ask me to select the boot drive.

Anyone else see this, I have just put in for repair.

Could be a PSU issue, I have a separate thread about my problem here:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=705283

Nov 11, 2006 7:38 PM in response to Thomas Maggio

It seems we all have variations of startup problems. For me, my system acts as if it can't find any way to boot (but it does not display any broken Mac icon or anything; just a solid grey screen). Others report errors on startup, or "missing system folder" type icons, etc. Not sure if we're having the same issue or not.

I just know that, since I moved to Mac a few years ago, I've really never had any issues so I don't really know what to do once I have a problem 🙂 Kinda nice to be spoiled by that.

-- Allen

Nov 12, 2006 10:34 PM in response to Neil Curry

Geez, what a nightmare! However, your thread gives a good list of what to try. So I take it the Apple Service guys didn't solve your original problem?

iMac Intel Mac OS X (10.4.8)

macjan

Level 1

8 points

Nov 14, 2006 5:45 AM in response to Rico Jensen

Hi Rico,

I have exact the same problem as you describe. I also tried everything (reset, clean install, ..) without result. There is no way that I can live with the fact that I need to boot my mac (when he's cold) 2x to get it going. I plan to send it back for repaire (I still have warranty until the end of this year).

Do you already have more news from the shop?

regards,

Imac G5 isight 20" 2,1 Ghz Mac OS X (10.4.8) 2GB

This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

iMac won't boot at first attempt