IMac harddrive problem

I've got a big problem with my iMac. About 4 weeks ago my Mac began to slow down and having all kind of weird hiccups. I did a disk check with the included disk utility and it gave a lot of errors and it couldn't be repaired, so I booted the disk utility from the leopard DVD. After this harddisk check (which also can't fix it) the system wouldn't boot anymore.
I formatted the disk and recovered all data from my time machine backup. 2 weeks later the same problem appeared again. I tried to install the whole system again and it worked, but only after I removed my bootcamp partition.
I had one week without problems but yesterday it all happened again. Now I have a new clean install without my time machine backup and so far so good.
Does anyone else have this problem? Could it be that my harddisk is broken? The worst problem is that the system hangs each time. There is nothing weird happening when I watch the activity monitor. The disk doesn't make any weird noises and disk warrior says its okay.
thnx E

No unfortunately i don't have apple care!
The hiccups occur when I'm working or just listening to music. Also when time machine is doing a backup. I decided to take my mac to a reseller here in town for a checkup.
Ill post the outcome.
thnx E

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IMac harddrive problems?

After installing Snow Leopard some weeks ago, my iMac suddenly crashed today. Nothing moved on the screen except for the mouse pointer. When I clicked, nothing would happen, so I hard rebooted the Mac. However, it booted up from my Mac OS X Install DVD for some reason (I didn't bother to take the disc out). After I selected my Macintosh HD startup disk and rebooted, the computer simply showed a blank pale blue screen. Now, I could only boot from the Install DVD without having a blue screen. My Macintosh HD was not detected, however, when I tried to restore from a time machine backup. Rebooting without the install disc and pressing shift or c resulted in a screen with a question mark on a folder. After resetting the PRAM and rebooting several times randomly, I somehow finally got my Mac to boot normally with the Install DVD inserted.
I did a check with Disk Utility on my harddrive, but it says "The volume Macintosh HD appears to be OK" after verifying the disk. Is there anything else I should do, and is there any way to prevent future occurrences of that happening? Thanks.

You need to install any updates that come up when you run Software Update. Before you run Software Update, you may want to run Disk Utility and use +Repair Disk Permissions+ on the +First Aid+ tab. Then restart and immediately run Software Update to install the updates. That's my usual routine for running Software Update.
The retail Snow Leopard disc does not install iLife. So if you use the iLife suite (either the version that came with your iMac or a newer version), you will need to reinstall that separately.

24" iMac harddrive failures abounding!!!!!!

Every one of our 24" iMac harddrives have failed over the past year.
Let me explain......
We have 20 - 24" iMacs, 18 - 20" iMacs. All purchaced in bulk in 2007 and 2008. We are basially a Mac shop that comprises of 30% Macs, the rest PC.
The first hardrive failure was in November of 2009. From that point till now we have had to replace 12 drives, all on the 24" iMacs. As a precation, we are replacing drives in two more iMacs that are out of warranty. Leaving 4 iMacs that are still under warranty.
Given the extent of the failures we are experiencing and regardless of any warranty, Apple should be replacing the drives for us. They won't because the one year warranty expired on many of these a few months ago.
Let me point out, that none of the 20" iMacs have had harddrive failures.
It is hardly a coincidence. This points to bad design and a failure for Apple to control quality. If someone from Apple wants to contact me about this, please do so through this post.

Yeah, I had to do a few HDD and even logic board replacements on Mid-2007 24" iMacs once upon a time. Strangely enough, people here didn't want to believe me.
It was at a university where they had two labs full of 20" models, and only a handful of 24" models, but only the 24" ones had a problem. Just be sure you catch it quick, because they will roast your logic board if you don't.
This is also why you should try to stagger your purchasing. Replace a few systems every month, so if there's a bad run of systems, you won't have a bunch of systems down at the same time.

Harddrive problem?

my iMac (24 inch, the first of the metal cased imacs, 10.5.newest update) crashed yesterday (beachball, everything frozen) and i had to hold the power button to restart it. When it came back with was just stuck at the gray screen with the little spinning thing and the apple, and it just stayed there. I tried restarting it again to the same effect.
So i popped in my 10.5 disc and booted from the disc. when i ran Disk Utility it could not verify or repair the harddrive (invalid sibling link). so i looked it up online (using my wife's imac) and booted to single user and ran 'fsck_hfs -r /dev/disk0s2' and then 'fsck -fy' Both failed.
Then i decided to erase the drive and re-install 10.5 (i had my user/app data backed up via Time Machine on an external drive). The re-install went fine. the comp restarted and made me watch the Welcome movie. Then when it takes you through the set up stuff, there was an option to use your Time Machine back up to recover your user info and data. I tried this. It froze up after about 5 minutes (there was no change for over 30 minutes and the external HD went to sleep). So i restarted and had the same thing happen again.
After another restart i just had the set up program create a new user account and i was able to get through it (the set up). Everything looked okay and i was able to run safari. Then i went to time machine to bring back my files and after about 5 minutes it froze up again (beach ball, everything else frozen). I restarted was and was back to the beginning: having to boot from the CD and getting the 'Invalid Sibling Link' error in disk utility.
Now i have an appointment at the Genius Bar tomorrow morning (i should still be under apple care). Does this sound like a harddrive problem since it couldnt be repaired after a clean install? Is there anything else i should try before taking it in tomorrow?
thanks in advance!

Welcome to Apple Discussions!
Mac OS X doesn't have a "clean install" per se as this user tip explains:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=121995&tstart=0
Now your symptoms can just as easily be software as well as hardware.
To diagnose it further, you need to make sure your data is first backed up.
Several data recovery techniques exist if you need to use them first*:
http://www.macmaps.com/backup.html
Once you are backed up, you can examine the hard drive for issues that could cause similar behavior to hardware such as those indicated on this FAQ*:
http://www.macmaps.com/directoryfaq.html
Now if you ran the hardware test that came with your computer, you could more quickly determine if a hardware issue is easily diagnosable via these instructions:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303081
But getting no result there is no guarantee the hardware is perfect.
- * Links to my pages may give me compensation.

Harddrive problem on 845PE MAX (PCB2.0)

I have a harddrive that probably is dead or something, and I get two strange sounds when the bios is trying to detect the harddrive. I wonder if these are diagnosic sounds ? In that case, what are the problem when there are these 2 sounds ? ?(
Reason I ask, is that I wonder if there is a MB problem or a harddrive problem. The bios won't detect ANY harddrives now! X(

ACIDBURN88888888,
What is your PSU, how much output for +5V?
Go to this link, it'll give you lots of help you need. http://www.msi.com.tw/program/e_service/forum/index.php?threadid=1135&boardid=16&styleid=1
All the Best... :D!!!

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Quit the game and restart the iPad.
To quit the game - Go to the home screen first by tapping the home button. Quit/close open apps by double tapping the home button and the task bar will appear with all of you recent/open apps displayed at the bottom. Tap and hold down on any app icon until it begins to wiggle. Tap the minus sign in the upper left corner to close the apps. Restart the iPad. Restart the iPad by holding down on the sleep button until the red slider appears and then slide to shut off. To power up hold the sleep button until the Apple logo appears and let go of the button.
If that doesn't work try this.
Reset the iPad by holding down on the sleep and home buttons at the same time for about 10-15 seconds until the Apple Logo appears - ignore the red slider - let go of the buttons.

Have an iMac. Problem is I hear the fan noise, yet no power on the screen yielding no power. I have checked the power cord and it seems to be fine. Not sure if computer is a total loss. What would be the next step?

Have an iMac. Problem is I hear the fan noise, yet no power on the screen yielding no power. I have checked the power cord and it seems to be fine. Not sure if computer is a total loss. What would be the next step?
<Email Edited by Host>

What does the EMC# say on the base?

HT201066 I have problem with recently with playing DVDs on my iMac. the problem only with DVDs, please anybody can help me solve this problem?

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Get a lens cleaner disc. One with brushes and try that. CDs and DVDs use different lenses, so since CDs load and play, I strongly suspect a dirty lens.

IMac encountering problems

So after having an iMac for two years it's gotten quite cluttered and quite a few problems have occurred. So I wanted to erase my harddrive (already made a backup on an external drive) and re-install the OS. Unfortunately as luck would have it, I insert the Mac OS X Install DVD and after a bit of whirring it gets ejected. This is the first time this problem has happened, but now I find that I can't put any disc in my iMac. On top of this my bluetooth keyboard has become faulty so I am using an old usb keyboard. I used to like my iMac but all these problems have driven me to hate. All I want is a clean harddrive and OS, any suggestions?

If your Mac is two years old, it may be too new to take any startup disc.
Look in your System Profiler. iMac 13,1 and later do not take any startup installer CD, and use the internet based command-R restore.   A firmware when installed on some older iMacs support the command-R restore. This offers a Disk Utility upon reboot among other features. Without that firmware, iMac 12,x and older that are newer than March 28, 2010 must use the prebundled 10.6 installer CD to restore and erase their system, which AppleCare can replace if they are misplaced for a nominal fee.
If that disc is the one being ejected the drive could be getting dirty, the PRAM battery could be in need of replacement, or the CD disc itself could be damaged from age.
Erasing the hard drive would certainly help eliminate any software based issues, but I'd only recommend it after making at least two separate backups.

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iMac 500 mhz SE DV (snow) Mac OS X (10.4.9)
iMac SE DV Mac OS X (10.4.9)

okie dokie...now i'm really scratchin' my head on this one: since i last posted, i just left the computer alone to rest and just recently i tried to start up the computer using the OS x system that in the computer already . i got to the white apple screen, (no pixelation, just like normal) and the little pin-wheel thingy spins for like 5 - 10 mins then a black blue screen with a white box with pixelation which i'm thinking is the arrow. when I move the mouse it doesn't move. then i did a force shutdown. when i tried again to start up from the system 9 disk that came with the computer, the start up screen with color bar pops up (no pixelation, as normal), then as the color bar is almost filled, then comes a black/blank/dead screen. What do you guys think it is now?
I guess the only thing i can do now because I can't see properly what's on the screen, is take the harddrive out and hook it as an external drive to get the files I need out of it. does anyone know if its possible with these harddrives?

IMac printing problem with HP Photosmart 7150

I've just bought a 27 inch iMac and I'm having problems printing out of iPhoto 9. I select for eg, 4 X photos per page and it prints about 10% of the page before spitting it out. I've downloaded the latest driver for my HP Photosmart 7150 printer (Gutenprint v5.2.5) but still no good.
The print monitor window always says it is printing Page 1 7%. Weird.
Any ideas?? Thanks in advance.
Dan

I've got the same problem on my MacBook Pro with Snow Leopard and Gutenprint 5.2.5 when printing on the 7150 - it prints about 10% (and skewed at that) and spits out the page. This occurs when printing from any app.
I am only able to print in draft mode which is not suitable for anything I need to do.
I realize this printer is no longer officially supported, but any help would be appreciated!
Thanks,
Mike.

Mid 2006 iMac Boot Problem (Since latest firmware update)

I have a Mid 2006 17" iMac. Ever since the latest firmware update in early December, about every other startup I've been having boot problems. After the white screen with the Apple Logo and the spinning wheel it goes to a blue screen like normal, but instead of the 'Loading Mac OS X' white window popping up it stays blue and the spinning loading wheel starts. I've left it loading for quite a while before and nothing changes. I have to do a force shut off by holding the power button. and then I start it up and it will boot normally.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks!

Actually, I think it'san early 2006.

IMac 27" Problems galore

I'm pretty much at my wits end with my 27" i7 iMac. Its the 4th iMac I've owned and the first to have any problems. The problem list is extensive and since I am a pro user is causing me a lot of heartache and loss of work;
*constantly grumbling hard drive (known complaint I believe)
*wireless keyboard gets disconnected randomly and quite often
*some programs - most often its itunes and logic pro - won't open. The logo bounces in the dock and then nothing. The only way I can get them to work is to restart my computer - a less than satisfactory solution.
*computer randomly wakes itself up from sleep
*when waking from sleep logic pro is often crashed and needs to be force quit.
*logic frequently crashes or runs out of memory even though I have a VERY fast machine running projects that my lesser iMacs had no problems with
*sometimes the computer refuses to shut down; even if there are no programs running
I am an experienced mac user and take good care of my machines - everything is up to date and I've tried all the troubleshooting advice I've been given by apple. Apple will not replace the machine without first replacing the HD - something that will be a gross inconvenience to me and is not guaranteed to work.
Does anyone have any fixes for any of the issues above?

comprachio wrote:
ah right I follow now. To do that I'll either have to buy another HD or wipe my bootcamp HD:( Neither is an appealing option though.
I have two external drives for backup: One for Time Machine, one for SuperDuper!. I wouldn't think about doing otherwise, as they complement each other functionally. Regardless of your current issue, I (and I think most folks) would strongly recommend that you do indeed get a second external backup drive, for a clone backup (either SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy Cloner). You may as well do that now, as it will then enable you to create the clone (as I said, I believe it's something that you really should have anyway) and use it to help diagnose your current problem. And if it turns out tht your internal drive is failing, it's much easier to use a clone than TM to recover everything to a new internal drive.
I got my iMac at the start of December 2009. HD is WDC WD1001FALS-40U9B0 which is identical to the HD in my last iMac (which didn't grumble or groan).
I thought perhaps it was an old platter. Guess not.
Personally, I never had much confidence in WD drives...but I know a lot of folks who simply love them. I used to think that Seagate was the only way to go. However, I've changed my opinion of Seagate of late. In fact, I don't think any of the drive manufacturers are currently building quality products: They've off-shored most of their production to second/third-rate assemblers and suppliers and, consequently, lost significant quality oversight and control. Mind you, that's simply my opinion, but if you mouse around the newsgroups and forums and read experience-based user opinions, you might arrive at a similar conclusion.

Windows 7 64 bit on iMac display problems and instability

I received my iMac 27" quad core with 8 gig ram & 2 x 1 TB hard drives last Friday. I'm using Boot Camp to run windows 7 64 bit on maximum 2560 x 1440 screen resolution.
I get intermittent but often display problems in windows 7. I get areas of the screen covered in little yellow dots or blue squares (never red artefacts.) This will happen at random areas of the screen, inside an open window, around borders of windows and so on. Most often the screen will go black and come back with a message in the bottom right corner of the screen saying 'Display driver has stopped responding and has recovered' with the sub message saying 'display driver ATI radeon family stopped....etc'. Sometimes I lose the screen wallpaper. Once I've had the system just shut down, once I've had Photoshop seize up and I had to do a cold reboot. Could this be an overheating problem or resolution too high problem or driver problem? Windows 7 tells me my drivers are up to date. I tried installing the drivers for the card from ATI's website which made no difference
The reason I bought a Mac is because it's the only effective way to code for the Mac family of OS's in XCode. The reason I didn't just attach a miniMac to my PC monitor was because there's rather a lot of advertising by Apple about the fact that you can use a Mac with a PC OS via Apple's own Boot Camp. Now I have a lot of Windows software (some of which is not available for the Mac or requires buying again) sitting on an unstable system. Any ideas would be much appreciated...

Sorry, that thread got moved for edit and as a user tip... which I didn't want and won't be doing....
Here is the post:
A tip and workaround for how to get ATI mobility/laptop drivers so that Windows no longer thinks the ATI is a desktop card:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=11286987
Summary (my own edit steps):
1. Install Boot Camp 3.0 and upgrade to 3.1
2. Uninstall graphic drivers and run Driver Sweeper
http://www.guru3d.com/category/driversweeper/
instead of:
removing the crashing driver by going into windows 7 setup via its install cd and deleting the ati driver manaully
3. Install ATI Mobility (link)
4. Uninstall ATI (Programs control panel?) Device Manager (rollback; uninstall?)
5. Device Nanager: update driver and BROWSE BACK to 8.681 (the original apple driver that was causing freezes and purple artifacts) - navigate to /Apple/Drivers/ATI
(Apple uses) a 4850 card in the iMac, its modified a bit for apple. Enough that desktop drivers don't work, and modded-for-laptop desktop drivers don't work either.
Now the upshot of using modified drivers is that it FORCES the catalyst control panel to be installed, meaning you get a few more options to mess around with the card.
I couldn't use the original apple drive, it locks up, the newer one had banding, the newer radeon drivers direct form ATI wouldn't work until they were modded and then they cause black screens.
SO the solution, as obscure as it was, was to download ACTUAL mobility Radeon drivers - version 10.3 still, but made for laptops.
http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/index.aspx
THESE drivers I was able to install - and here is where things changed.
THIS driver changed they way windows saw the video card in device manager.
As I mentioned before, its NOT a desktop card, its a modified laptop card, but installing mac drivers makes windows THINK its a full desktop card, and running the original 8.681 driver crashed it.
Once installed 10.3 LAPTOP driver it now appeared in device manager as a MOBILITY card.
+These Steps "should" work:+
delete ATI driver manually
reinstall apple driver after that and see if that works,
otherwise try the steps above
(mod drivers, remove via windows recovery off setup disk, install laptop drivers, reinstall apple driver over it)

Windows 7 on iMac. Problem with wifi-connection.

Hi! I recently installed windows 7 on my 27" iMac (latest model). Everything works great besides that the wifi is much slower when i run windows then when i run os x. When i connect directly with a cable in windows the speed is as it should be. Figured it must have something to do with the drivers, so I installed the latest bootcamp drivers but the problem will still remain. I've googled for a solution, noticed that other people have the same problem but can't find a concrete solution.
Please help me somebody!
Regards,
Fredrik Skärfstad

Hi,
Try this one:
HP 3D DriveGuard here
** Say thanks by clicking the "Thumb up" icon which is on the left. **
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IMac harddrive problem

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