128gb ssd on macbook pro can't boot from any win dvd

Like in title, installed 128gb ssd on macbook pro and can't boot from any windows based dvd.
I’m try just everything... First I was put new ssd disk in laptop, boot and than choose windows boot cd disk for startup device. CD/DVD working 10-20 sec and after that nothing happened for 3-4 min… I can just turn off computer. I was try to boot with win7, vista, xp and other boot dvd-s for partition management… Every attemp simply freeze machine.
Then I was try to install mac os (snow leopard) from install dvd and installation was done smooth without any problem… Really don’t know why I can install osx and can’t install or boot any type of windows cd/dvd.
After installing snow leopard I was try to make new partition and install windows trough apple bootcamp 3.0 but again same problem. When machine reset and try to boot from cd it simply freeze.
Falcon 128gb SSD attached over USB workin fine eaven osx booting from external ssd. SO, next what I wish to try is to clone old 320gb with two partitions to new 120gb ssd. I'm just try eaven this and when ssd attach to laptop it says that there is no bootable device... so, they don't see ssd like bootable...
Configuration:
Macbook pro 15 (late 2008 i think)model 3.1
128gb gskill falcon ssd
Mac firmware 1.3 (i think, how I can make upgrade and check fw ver under windows)
hdd firmware (1571)
Regards,
Benis

p.s. any sugestion for some other ssd that will work on this machine?

Similar Messages

  • Macbook Pro will not boot from any source after upgrade

    Hi,
    I have a late 2011 Macbook Pro - standard issue other than more memory as I recall. It has a 750MB hard drive with more than half still free. All the checks given below are done with the computer stand-alone with no hardware attached - other than the power cord and of course WiFi.
    2 weeks ago I upgraded to Yosemite having taken all the right precautions before upgrade - thanks to Take Control. It worked fine and I was getting a good experience until last Wednesday when I put it to sleep by closing the lid. Later in the day I opened it up again but only got a grey screen. After leaving it several minutes to see if it cleared I shut down by holding the on button for several seconds then tried to re-boot. The computer starts and gets as far as the grey screen then shuts down again after several minutes. Sometimes it will continue to restart after shut down and keeps doing this until I again hold the on  button in until it finally shuts down for good.
    I have two bootable drives - one is a cloned backup of the previous version and all the data, the other is an 8GB thumb drive with a bootable version of the Yosemite installer. For the record I also have a Time Machine backup and a second full clone backup and recovery drive on a Synology NAS device -  I just haven't figured out how to boot from this device as yet.
    I can get to the boot up selection screen (hold option key) and select an external drive to boot from but it makes no difference - I still get the same grey screen. Same thing if I use Command +R to boot from the Mac HD recovery partition.
    I have also tried to boot into safe boot mode (hold the shift key down). This seems to slow everything down but ultimately has the same result - a grey screen.The only difference I can see is that this grey screen does not shut down after a time. Seems to just continue until I shut it down manually.
    I can hold Command +V to remove the grey screen and see the action being written to the screen while logging on (white text on a blue screen) - up to a point.  After some time I just get the same grey screen and it shuts down after more time. I can also use Option +D (I'm told it should be just hold the 'D' key to do this but that has never worked for me and Option +D does) to get to the hardware check and I have run this both before upgrading and after having the problem. Before upgrading I got one error - 4ETC/1/40000002. I looked this up on the Internet and could find nothing specific to identify the problem and the general consensus seemed to be it was nothing major. After upgrading and running the hardware check again (after this problem occurred) it returned no errors.
    I have reset the PRAM with the same result as before - all I get is the is the Apple logo and a progress bar that increases to around 50%, then both disappear and I get just a grey screen. After a time the computer shuts down and then restarts again and goes through the same process.
    I've done pretty much everything I can think of and find in books and on the Internet. Hoping that someone out there will find this problem interesting and help me to resolve it.
    Tony

    Problem resolved. I took the machine into an authorized repair facility where, for around $30, I had it checked and the logic board replaced. Picked it up yesterday and seems to be working OK. No cost to replace the logic board even though the machine is over 3 years old. There seems  to be some sort of dispute with Apple over a class action that has worked in my favour. Great. I'm happy.
    Tony

  • My Macbook Pro won´t boot from any source/device

    Im having trouble by booting my Macbook Pro from any device. I can reach any BIOS screen were i am able to choose the startupdisk, and whatever I choose (Hard drive / Install OS X DVD disc / Other Hard disks / USB Flash with OSx running) the machine stays in the grey screen forever.
    I also tried to install again the OS on the internal Hard Drive of my machine, from another working macbook in the firewire transfer mode on, and it resulted to be succesfull and i can run the OS on the injured macbook pro, from the other computer.
    Any ideas what this could be?
    Thanks in advance.
    Pelu.

    Pelu,
    which model MacBook Pro do you have? Do you have Mac OS X 10.6.0 installed on it? If not, which version of OS X is installed? Do you also have the grey DVD for it that holds its Apple Hardware Test?

  • Macbook Pro won't boot from any partition, at all

    I tried updating an Early 2008 Intel-based Macbook pro to a clean install of Mavericks with a bootable USB drive, once in the startup manager, it would show the USB as an "EFI BOOT". and trying to access the EFI BOOT just gives me a prohibited sign
    The boot copy of Mavericks was installed with Disk Utility, so it shouldn't have had any problems.
    So I thought, "I'll completely erase the HD and try again". Did that, and still, "EFI BOOT".
    Next thing I did was ditch the USB method, and go for brute force, booted the Mac in Target Disk Mode, and through firewire I was able to install Mavericks into the HD of that Mac, using my brother's Early 2008 intel-based Macbook pro. The clean install worked, it made the recovery partition with no problem. Next thing I know, upon booting the laptop, after restarting it from Target Disk Mode, the darn computer decides to give me the "no boot device found" dreaded Question-Mark-on-a-folder sign. So I restarted the thing to the Startup Manager, and both partitions showed up, I tried both partitions, and no luck, same Question Mark Sign-Thing, not even the recovery booted.
    So on target disk mode again, I made 2 partitions, one with a bootable mavericks EDM, and the other one, free space, Mac OS Journaled, ready for the OS installation. So that it would install it by itself, to itself. Upon restarting and accessing the Startup Manager, the bootable partition I had created, was seen, but clicking on it would just give me the question mark.
    I shrank the partition on the other macbook to make a bootable firewire device on the other mac, and that partition also said "EFI BOOT" when clicked on.
    I burned a recovery DVD to boot from it, and it won't boot from it. Every time I try to boot from something, all I get is the question-mark-on-a-folder-sign.
    I disassembled the laptop, got the HD out, tried installing straight into it via USB, and was not able to access it using an external HD case, the power light comes on, and right back off.
    PRAM and SMC have been Reset.
    any ideas?

    When I removed it, it was to install mavericks into it, via usb, with the other macbook, through disk utility, but disk utility was unable to read it then.
    And yes, I am able to boot from that HD, on the other macbook, either through firewire or USB... I've verified that it is working fine, no sounds, no clicks, no scratching noises.

  • Macbook pro won't boot from any disk

    I have a Macbook Pro 17" with 10.6.8 installed but won't bootup. It stays on the logo and spinning gear screen and won't proceed from there. I have tried to reboot from a Snow Leopard install disk but it won't recognize it and haven't been able to startup from another computer using firewire connection. I am so puzzled?

    Sounds like a hardware issue.
    Run through this list of fixes and checks.
    Step by Step to fix your Mac

  • Mid 2007 Macbook Pro will not boot from windows 7 DVD

    I'm trying to install Windows 7 64 bit on to my mid 2007 MBP. The DVD is valid, boots on a PC and I was able to load WIndows 7 into a VMWare fusion virtual machine on the very same system. I am convinced from those actions I have a good DVD and a good DVD drive.
    What happens is the screen goes black and "1. 2. and Choose type of DVD boot:" appear. ( I may have the phrase slightly wrong) No matter what I type nothing happens. I've gone into the boot selecter and same thing happens if I select the DVD.

    so you did not burn the DVD from ISO? that is what this usually is.
    the error and yours being 2007 says you are trying 64-bit and your Mac does not support 64-bit versions it has 32-bit ROM (and likely cannot upgrade past Lion when 10.8 Mountain Lion comes out).
    Windows 64 Bit Unsupported Macs
    What you are seeing is an EFI boot menu "select CD 1 or 2" yes.
    Select CD-ROM Boot Error Apple
    CD-ROM Boot Type when installing
    Install Windows 7 x64 Mac Select CD-ROM Boot Type

  • Mid 2006 Macbook Pro won't boot (from HD or optical)

    My mid 2006 Macbook Pro will not boot from the hard disk, or from the internal DVD. I am currently running the latest version of Lion (10.7).
    I tried searching the forums and found a similar issue here:
    https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1687899?start=0&tstart=0
    But that was with a Mac Mini. And it doesn't look like the OP issue was ever resolved. I am having the exact same problem.
    When attempting a normal boot from the internal HD of the Macbook Pro. It will make the happy chime of a successful POST. It will display the Apple logo. And that's as far as she gets.
    No spinning wheel, no error image, no nothing. Eventually the system will start spinning up the fans as if it were under load (this was after about a half hour of just letting it sit there).
    Doing a verbose boot, it never went past this:
    com.apple.driver.Apple.IntelCPUPowerManagement
    Photo of verbose boot:
    Here's what I've tried.
    1. Bought a brand new battery (as the current one was at death's door)
    2. Zapped PRAM (Apple + Option + P + R)
    3. Reset SMC according to these directions: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964?viewlocale=en_US
    4. Attempted to boot to my original Tiger (10.4) install DVD, only to stop at this point during a verbose boot (Apple V):
    Extension "com.apple.driver.AppleACPIPlatform" has immediate dependencies on both com.apple.kernel and com.apple.kpi components; use only one style
    Photos:
    5. I am able to put her in Target Disk Mode (hold T at boot). Then with a firewire cable I can connect it to my wife's Macbook 13" and I am able to run disk utility on it! Disk Utility did find and repair errors, however, it still refuses to boot.
    6. I attempted to boot from my wife's Macbook 13" in Target Disk Mode. I put her machine in Target disk mode. Connected the firewire cable. Powered on my 15" MBP while holding the option key. Then I selected her drive as the boot disk... however it still refuses to boot even from a known working HD.
    7. Finally, I swapped around RAM DIMMs with no change in behavior.
    Help! I know she's an older gal (Laptop is 6 years old now) but I'm not exactly flush with cash and would rather not give up on her just yet.

    My Mac started freezing (colored pinwheel) every time I tried using any application (i.e. Safari, iPhoto). After restarting for the 2nd time, it would no longer boot - makes start up sound but gets stuck on gray screen w/ apple icon.  I tried resetting PRAM also - did nothing. I decided to reinstall OS; problem now is my HD is nowhere to be found! I am a tech dummy so this is way beyond my comprehension...I'm not seeing my HD from the Disk Utility either??? 
    Side question...I backed up my files (mostly pics JPEG and videos) on DVD (had to compress to save). Why can't I open files on PC?

  • MacBook Pro won't boot from Superdrive

    I have a MacBook Pro which is around 7 Months old, I wanted to run Disk Warrior on it but the Macbook Pro wouldn't boot from the disk, tried the MAC install disk same issue.
    Holding down the C key at boot time causes the drive to spin up it gets as far as the grey screen with the apple logo then the drive stops. Tried also holding down the alt key, I can see the hard disk and DVD icons but selecting the DVD same thing happens as above.
    The superdrive seams to work fine when the machine is running just refuses to boot from it.
    Any help would be much appreciated
    rgs
    Colin

    Colin: Are you trying to boot from the Install/Restore DVD that was shipped with your MacBook Pro? If not, do. Your DiskWarrior DVD may not be able to boot your MBP model, and an older Snow Leopard installer DVD can't either.
    The best setup for using DiskWarrior or any other Disk utility on your MBP's internal drive is to have a bootable clone of that drive as a backup, with all your utility software installed on it just as it is on the internal drive. Then whenever you have a problem, you can boot from the other drive to repair the troubled one. No need then to boot or run the utilities from a DVD, which is tediously slow at best, even when it works perfectly.

  • HP Pavilion 500-210 QE Can't boot from any hard drive.

    Good Evening. As you can see from the subject, my computer just can't boot from any hard drive that I put on it. I tried swapping the power supply, the SATA cable, resetting the BIOS, enabling legacy boot, changing from AHCI to IDE and RAID... 
    When I get to the BIOS setup, I can see the hard drive and its specifications, but it just won't boot or show up when I'm trying to install a new OS. I'm not an expert, but I think the problem might be in the motherboard SATA ports, but I'm not sure. Just to make sure, I did try another hard drive and it didn't work aswell. 
    I was also thinking about buying an external hard drive and instaling my OS on that, but I don't even know if that's possible and I would really like to have my computer working again.
    Thank you for your attention!
    This question was solved.
    View Solution.

    What is the installed operating system?
    Did you make a recovery disk set?
    Did you happen to make a  Windows 8.1 startup disk or USB recovery thumbdrive?
    Have you tested the hard disk?
    Press the power button and then immediately tap the Esc key. In the Startup menu, choose F2 for Diagnostics. In the HP Basic System Diagnostics menu choose hard disk. Run the test and post the results here.
    The issue you are facing has nothing to do with the SATA ports. It is a configuration issue. Your PC is a modern one and its BIOS (UEFI) is far more advanced than what you may have seen before.
    If you want to install a different operating system then you will have to make a few changes in the BIOS configuration. Secure Boot is turned on by default for Windows 8 and Windows 8.1. If you try installing a different OS without turning this off then your system won't boot up. You may be running into this if you are trying to install another operating system.
    The image below is  what will be seen in the BIOS of your PC in the security tab --> . In the secure boot configuration options do not clear the secure boot keys! Those keys are your operating system license activation keys.
    ****Please click on Accept As Solution if a suggestion solves your problem. It helps others facing the same problem to find a solution easily****
    2015 Microsoft MVP - Windows Experience Consumer

  • Macbook Pro won't boot from DVD with SSD

    Here's the timeline of events.
    Had a running MBP 17 Early 2011 Thunderbolt with OWC Mercury Extreme Pro SSD 115GB drive.
    Installed Windows 7 via bootcamp. I have done this multiple times before and every time I need to format the bootcamp partition before installing. I think this time I actually deleted the partition and then selected the freespace to install. This worked fine for the most part but I wasn't able to boot the boot camp partition using vmware fusion.
    I gave up and used the boot camp assistant to revert back to one mac partition. I was getting some odd behavior so I rebooted the machine. It then came up with a message saying no bootable partiton. This made me think (and still does) that the windows install using the free space versus the boot camp partition caused the windows MBR boot loader to get installed incorrectly and mucked up the OS X installation. Ok, fine, I can just reinstall.
    I can't seem to boot from the original MBP installation DVD. I hold down c on boot but I never get past the all grey screen. I hear the DVD drive spin up but it eventually stops. I put the original HD back in it and everything works fine but when I put the SSD in, I can't boot from the DVD drive.
    I have already set up an RMA with OWC to send back the drive but considering the order of events, I feel as though it isn't a hardware issue but can't seem to figure out how to fix it. I can always send it back in but figured I would check this community forum and see if anyone could offer some guideance/assistence before doing so.
    Thanks in advance for your help.

    Haha yeah, I posted right before. The thing I'm wondering now: Does this mean that a Mac that came with Lion cannot be downgraded to Snow Leopard? Well, I'll save it for another question if I ever cross that bridge.
    Limnos wrote:
    Just so we know, this is the original OS disc that came with this computer?  Even if you're trying to use a retail installer disc I am not sure those came out the the sufficient sub-version required to boot the computer (I think it needs at least 10.5.7 but don't have the specifics of your model).
    Edit: I guess I'm a slow typist.

  • Macbook Pro does not boot from install CD, boots from non-apple live CDs

    This story begins with my macbook becoming entirely unresponsive while just sitting around with the desktop in focus. My current problems begin with the third of such freezing events. It felt like the hard drive had stopped responding since everything looked fine and I could move my mouse, but as soon as I attempted to access anything that depended upon the file system (ie everything not already in memory) that thing I attempted to access would freeze up as well. The only thing I can do when these happen is to force a shutdown.
    The three times I have had these problems I would be greeted with the flashing folder-and-question-mark. So, for the third time now I threw in a live CD I have and ran DiskWarrior and DiskUtility and fsck and everything I could possibly need to recover the system. Each of these programs ran through their routines and reported that it had either successfully made repairs or the disk needed no repairs and was A-OK!. S.M.A.R.T. reports that the drive is perfectly fine as well.
    Now, though, whenever I try to start up my computer I'm greeted with the normal grey apple startup image, the folder with the question mark, and also the prohibited sign (grey circle with a slash through it). This is the first time that running the disk repair programs has failed. Expecting a crashed hard drive or something equally fun I threw in the live CD again and attempted to recover my data. The thing is, I was able to navigate the file system perfectly with terminal and didn't even need any data recovery tools. So, at least my data has been safely backed up.
    I've tried booting into single user mode, but it seems that DiskWarrior helped my computer in an assisted suicide of sorts as boot.efi is sitting in a DiskWarrior recovered folder and the mach kernel has been entirely misplaced. Immediately I restart, throw in the first Macbook Pro installation CD, and hold down C in an attempt to reinstall the system.
    Here is my current problem: Whenever I attempt to boot from any of the installation CDs that came with my laptop, the laptop will begin to boot from the CD and show a grey screen as it begins reading from the disk, but before the spinning gear or grey apple appears the laptop simply restarts and attempts to boot from the disk again.
    This boot-restart process loops infinitely with every Apple-provided installation CD I have tried. The laptop never progresses past a grey screen, instead restarting and happily chiming. However, I have been able to boot from a non-Apple Live CD that I own every time I have tried; moreover, the hard drive is perfectly accessible and shows no errors from any program I run. When I hold option upon startup it shows the drive and lets me boot into it (but then the problems I have described pop up). I have also tried resetting PRAM and NVRAM with no success.
    Does anyone have any suggestions for how to boot into the live CD? Or would I be better off making sure I have backed up all of my data and then wiping the drive for a fresh install?

    I am having the exact same issue. I can only log into the system in safe mode. Holding down the Shift key when turning the machine on, until the log window appears.

  • 2008 MacBook Pro won't boot from Leopard DVD or Target Disk

    Yesterday I was working on my MacBook Pro. I use FontExplorer to manage fonts. I ran the conflicts diagnostic looking for missing font files, which returned about 200 results (I was expecting this). I've moved the fonts installed by Adobe/Microsoft out of my fonts folder in my user library (user library, not system). For some reason the computer started to become very slow, to the point of beachballing. The freezing seemed to start and stop. I was able to close FontExplorer and Illustrator without force-quitting. I tried to shut it down gracefully at that point but it froze up again, so I hit the power button to force a restart. It started up but now it hangs on the gray screen right before the Apple logo. The logo doesn't come up, I can hear the drive spinning as normal but it doesn't do anything.
    I've tried booting from a retail copy of the Snow Leopard, but it doesn't work. I can hear the disc spin up in the DVD drive as though the computer is about to read it, but nothing happens. It just stays on that same blue screen. I've tried booting my MBP in Target Disk mode from my iMac. The target disk icon appears, however it just sits in the middle of the screen and my drive doesn't mount on the iMac. I've noticed now that the white status light on the front of the MBP (on the latch) doesn't come on, and if I cover the speakers the backlight doesn't turn off.
    What do I do now? I have an enclosure I could use to try and boot the MBP's drive from, but I'm running out of options. I'm really starting to worry about my data. I have a major school project that's already late which is on there, and I don't have a recent backup. If I don't hand it in... let's not go there. I don't understand how this could happen; I take very good care of my computer, I turn it off when it's not in use, and I run Cocktail on it once a day which does a SMART status check.
    Help?

    sig,
    The first thing I tried was booting from the install disk. The 2008/2009 MBP's aren't able to boot from a retail DVD of Snow Leopard, which is why I ended up using the original hardware-specific install disk that shipped with my computer. That didn't boot either. I was able to view the drive in Disk Utility when it was in the enclosure, but the partition with my data on it would not mount. I attempted a repair disk on the drive but that failed. It wouldn't mount in Terminal either. I considered trying to rebuild the volume catalog using TechTool Pro but there's the possibility that could actually make things worse. So I've taken it to the repair shop. They're running it through DiskWarrior overnight, last I heard there were 60-something thread errors. Yesterday my SMART status was fine, today my drive is dead. What happened? Hoping for the best (but expecting the worst).

  • Mac Pro Won't Boot from any HDD

    My system:
    2008 8-core Mac Pro running 10.6.8 Snow Leopard
    4 HDDs installed, 2 of them are a striped RAID 0 that is the bootup volume, a couble of external hard drives (1 of them a bootable clone), a DVI display
    backed up with Time Machine; thanks for the concern.
    Problem:
    I came home one day, and my computer was acting funny. It was fine earlier in the day. Time Machine had failed a backup, an AFP mount had unmounted with an error, Dropbox was trying to sync but couldn't because of bad access permissions for a file, and Terminal wouldn't open, giving me a message about an invalid shell. I restarted, and it failed to restart, so I turned it off. I thought it was a corrupt filesystem (and striping is unstable, so it would make sense), but no, no other bootable disks worked.
    Boot chime plays, grey screen comes up with Apple logo, wheel spins forever.
    ATI graphics card fan runs pretty fast after a minute or so.
    Light is solid, not blinking to indicate a RAM problem.
    What I've tried:
    Googled the problem. Got results about MacBook Pros. Did "-MacBook" in the search. Got similar questions but no solutions for my Mac.
    Tried booting from an install DVD and the clone. Same thing happened.
    Reset the PRAM (twice). No effect.
    Reset the SMC (twice). No effect.
    Unplugged the monitor. Graphics card fan wasn't loud, but the computer still wouldn't boot.
    Unplugged all USB and FireWire devices. No effect.
    Left the computer unplugged for an hour, which also resets the SMC. Who knows, this sometimes works! It didn't.
    Any ideas?

    Booting in Safe Mode did not help, but it did show a grey circle with a cross through it instead of an Apple logo like before.
    I remembered that there's an Apple Hardware Test (a bit hard to figure out how to do on your specific machine ), and I booted into it. Before I even ran the test, it told me that there is an error. The error message was just the name of one of my RAM slots. So... a piece of RAM might be dead. I ran the extended test, and it was halfway through after 30 minutes, but I stopped it because I don't have enough time. I have to continue this tomorrow.
    As for the GPU, its fans might just be running because the system runs them at a high level by default when it's in certain states. I know older Macs did this in Target Disk Mode with every fan, and the GPU fan was running during the AHT too. At least I hope this is the case. Right now, it seems beyond a hard drive problem. Maybe booting from a DVD works because it only uses 1 RAM slot or something. I'd much rather have a piece of inexpensive RAM be dead than my GPU, and besides, I've kinda wanted to upgrade the RAM anyway.

  • Mac Pro doesn't boot from any media

    Hi,
    We have a Dual Xeon Mac Pro that has been running fine since 2007 the person that uses it reported that it started making loud banging noises (how loud I do not know as thats quite subjective although it was loud enough to warrant other people in the office going to see what the noise was) and then the desktop crashed and now when it boots we get the folder with a flashing question mark.
    I've put it down to disk failure but due to them having a Mac Pro (intel) and a Dual G5 PowerMac I think at some point in time they binned off one set of disks believing that one set would work for both machines resulting in none of the disks they have will boot the machine.
    Oddly I haven't been able to boot it from any other media though, I downloaded the live version of Ubuntu for Netbooks to try to get it to boot from that but it wouldn't boot from that either and when I put it in selective startup mode it detects the CD in the drive as Windows.
    So here I am with a Mac Pro an old G4 Mirror Doors era Apple Keyboard, no media that will boot the thing for diagnostics and wondering what my next move is. Back in the day when I admin'd a network of Mac's it'd be selective boot from a firewire drive try a repair do some cloning if required slap a new disk in reimage and off we go.
    I haven't actively worked on a day to day basis on Apple kit for about 4 years though so I'm a bit rusty and have no experience with the Intel Architecture Macs other than my Mum and Dads iMac and MacBook and I'm pretty sure the media that came with them wont boot the Mac Pro, different media sets never used to work across ranges, not sure how true that is now though.
    Any help with this much appreciated. Stats below
    Sean

    I had a quote from the local Apple Service Centre and Media for this machine was £70.
    Luckily we found the Media for the Mac Pro inside a box for some other software.
    I have since been able to retrieve the data by inserting the disk into a SATA equipped G5 and using disk utility on that machine to repair the volume and disk.
    I've retrieved the data and the disk, volume and permissions structures all check out.
    However the Intel Mac Pro will not boot from the now repaired drive, or from the original DVD shipped with the computer.
    So off to the Apple Service Centre it goes for hardware diagnosis. I expect this to be expensive
    Cheers
    Sean

  • Weird screen pattern freezes iMac, can't boot from HD or DVD

    I woke up today to find the screen of my iMac black with a sparse pattern of bright pixels on it. I wasn't able to power down holding the Power buton so I unplugged it and left it for a bit before plugging back in. I was then able reboot without any problems. Then a few hours latter a weird pattern appeared across my screen, kind of rolling, animated in spots as seen here:
    I powered down, started it up and the screen had this pattern on it:
    It froze during startup at the point shown in the photo with the Apple logo. I powered down, unplugged, plugged back in and then tried booting up from my Snow Leopard install disc. It also froze on the logo screen. Another attempt brought up the "You need to restart your computer…" message in different languages shown here:
    I figured it was having a kernel panic so I did some searching around and followed instructions on The X Lab - Resolving Kernel Panics page and Apple's Kernel Panic Troubleshooting page. I unplugged everything but my mouse (wireless keyboard) and tried booting into Safe Mode. The screen still had the same pattern but it froze again during startup, the grey progress bar having disappeared.
    I can't boot from my hard drive or from a DVD and the pattern is always on screen when I turn the iMac back on. I can't run Apple Hardware Test. I'm stuck but I'm wondering if anyone knows what the cause might be or has any suggestions on how to fix it or even get it to boot up somehow.
    I have TechTool Pro and a large flash drive. I'm going to try creating a bootable USB drive with Snow Leopard on it from this backup computer and try to get TechTool Pro on it as well. I'll report back but I'd really appreciate any feedback on this problem.

    Some things to report. First, the night before any of this happened, I noticed the fan was running when there wasn't really any reason for it. The computer was idle, no major tasks running. I'm wondering if perhaps the videocard overheated and is causing problems. Perhaps the temperature sensors are screwed up?
    Today I got a USB keyboard hooked up and reset the PRAM. Still unable to boot but the pattern on the screen did change from the mess of b&w squigglies above to vertical bars as shown here:
    Trying to boot normally or in Safe Mode both result in the spinning wheel freezing and halting startup.
    I found powering down then gets weird. It's like it tries to turn on again but can't after a second. Or sometimes it will and the mouse lights up, I can hear the optical drive but the screen stays dark. At that point I need to unplug and try again.
    I tried booting from Snow Leopard install DVD during one of these weird cycles and could hear it trying to access the optical drive but I don't believe it even got to the chime stage.
    I attempted booting from the install DVD again after unplugging. No luck there but instead of a frozen spinning wheel, it brings up the "You need to restart message…". Other methods don't do this.
    Still at a loss to find a reason for this but it appears to be a hardware problem, no doubt the video card based on the screen issues. Does any of this shed any light on what the problem is or (even better) how to fix it?

Maybe you are looking for