iMac does not boot up

Question

iMac does not boot up

Hey everyone. Looking for a little guidance on this one.

We have an iMac that we purchased back in 2008. Never had any issues. Wednesday night, finished up with it and shut it down.

Thursday night, came home and turned it on. When the grey boot up screen came up, we bar goes about 1/3 of the way and then the computer just turns off.

When I turn it on, I do not hear the fan go on. But, for some reason, I can't remember if it always hear it.

Looked on the boards about the AHT but nothing shows up.

Anyone ever run into this? I'm goingto make an appointment at the Apple Store but I thought I would run it by everyone first.

Just hoping we don't lose everything that's on it.

Please let me know what you all think.

iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10.3)

Posted on May 29, 2015 5:54 AM

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Answer 1

rkaufmann87

Level 10

140,562 points

Jan 5, 2017 8:38 AM in response to rosaliefromnj

rosaliefromnj wrote:

Woke up this morning and my apple wouldn't. What can I do to get it to boot up?

If your Mac won't turn on - Apple Support

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Answer 2

May 29, 2015 5:59 AM in response to nicandbrad0817

Checkout this article, http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/mac/steps-take-when-your-mac-wont-start-3423817/

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Answer 3

rkaufmann87

Level 10

140,562 points

May 29, 2015 6:04 AM in response to nicandbrad0817

Actually Apple is pretty explicit on how to trouble shoot this. Please carefully read and then follow the steps in Apple's Gray screen appears during startup article. If you get through all the steps and it still will not start then follow the steps in Learn More.

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Answer 4

May 29, 2015 7:00 AM in response to nicandbrad0817

Thanks for the info. But, our problem is that while we do have power, it never gets passed the grey screen and then turns off by itself.

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Answer 5

D.Cohen

Level 6

8,588 points

May 29, 2015 7:02 AM in response to nicandbrad0817

Follow these steps:

- Shut down your Mac

- Wait until your computer turns off and after that press the Power button

- Right after you hear the startup tone, press and hold the Shift key

- Release the Shift key when you see a grey Apple sign and the progress bar below this sign

- Once you see Desktop, start a Disk Utility scan to detect and repair file system errors (don't forget to choose your main hard drive)

- Click on Verify Disc and then, if asked to fix problems, on Repair Disk

- After this, click on Verify Disk Permissions and then on Repair Disk Permissions

- After the process is finished, shut down your Mac and turn it back on after about 30 seconds

Apart from that, take a look at this Apple article and follow the instructions on Resetting PRAM shown there: OS X Lion: Reset your computer’s PRAM

Try these steps: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC) on your Mac - Apple Support

Take a look at the steps suggested by Apple in this article:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204267

Hope this helps!

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Answer 6

rkaufmann87

Level 10

140,562 points

May 29, 2015 7:09 AM in response to nicandbrad0817

nicandbrad0817 wrote:

Thanks for the info. But, our problem is that while we do have power, it never gets passed the grey screen and then turns off by itself.

I will say it again, read the article and follow the steps!

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Answer 7

Jul 22, 2015 9:34 AM in response to nicandbrad0817

I have a 2009 Mac Book Pro and have followed this string completing every task/instructions from all of the articles with the same result - grey screen 1/3 way through and then it shuts off. I also restarted in target mode, the 2009 Mac Book Pro does not appear on t new Mac Book Pro using a thunderbolt cable. Any other suggestions?

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Answer 8

Jan 5, 2017 8:25 AM in response to nicandbrad0817

Woke up this morning and my apple wouldn't. What can I do to get it to boot up?

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