6 year old iMac resurrected but why and how

I apology if this is in the wrong forum but I am lost.
Rudimentary? Obvious? Does everyone know?
Fall of 2000 purchased an iMac DV+ according to sales slip...
added OS 9.1
Have an iMac and a eMac in the same room but different wall outlets.
(The eMac is used for this posting.)
In the spring of 2006 there was a power interruption during the
night.
In the morning the eMac restarted by pushing the on/off button.
iMac did not restart.
Would press the power on button - the “chimes” sounded and
the screen remained dark. A sound like Canola oil hitting a hot
skillet came from the area of the on button. (Sounded like
electricity arcing.)
Put the iMac in the basement. Would try restarting it now and
then and no luck.
Went down the other night & plugged in the iMac.
Held down the command key as the iMac was turned on.
The iMac worked. Why?
When you get reach your 80th decade in life and have no heirs ---
(but errors) you can waste time and money.
Post script: Seems that there have been circuit breakers tripped at
times while the iMac was used.
Also, there are many correspondents in these forums that appear to
be knowledgeable and helpful. Thanks to each and all. I like the jargon
but don’t understand any of it.
eMac PowerPC G4 (3.3) Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Many of the parameters that make your Mac a joy to use on a daily basis are stored in parameter RAM, along with a map of what-hardware-is-where inside this Mac. Parameter RAM is maintained by an "always-on" power supply, and backed up by a battery.
When you have a power failure, or pull the plug to move or service your older Mac, and the backup battery is low, corruption can creep into the parameters. This often leads to no display, or the flashing question mark display (can't find the system to boot from).
When the battery voltage drops lower, different things may happen to the parameter RAM. (For example, it may be cleared rather than just corrupted.) This can change what happens when you try to power on. YOU did not change anything, but the battery inside your Mac has changed.
Please challenge us when there is too much jargon! I know there are many more readers than posters, so I try not to talk above people's heads, but I do not always recognize it when it happens.
And I will do the same. What's a curmudgeon?

Similar Messages

Just purchase new iMac and migrated. I want to strip my 2 year old iMac of personal files and photos and take to my office. Is there a simple method? Thx

Just purchase new iMac and migrated. I want to strip my 2 year old iMac of personal files and photos and take to my office. Is there a simple method? Thx

The simplest way, is to erase the drive and reinstall the OS X.
Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard: How to Erase and Install
Other than that, you will have to trash all your User files, delete all the photos from within iPhoto and then empty the trash.

The display on my 4 year old iMac has horizontal lines and gradations of gray. Is my machine on its way out? Can I fix the screen?

My four year old iMac has developed horizontal lines and gradations of gray over the last month. Is my machine on its way out? Is there anyway to fix the display?

If you live near an Apple Store, make a Genius Bar appointment to have the computer tested. Supposedly there is no charge for testing.
Genius Bar Reservation

How can i install a windows version 8 on a 3 year old iMac 27 (only windows and nothing else not via bootcamp = result shut be a clean iMac with windows - no

When i now had recieve a brand new 27" imac, i had a 3 year old model 27" imac which my daugter want to have BUT i should be as a clean Windows thing -
so how to change the computer to a clean windows 8 computer with no apple programs in and no Maverick or other lovely programs?
I had seen on the net that a lot of peoble had windows with bootcamp - i am not a computer tecnician and when i try - i end op with a machine with could nothing - no mac programs - no office pack - no adobe programs - so i had to start op again with a new harddisk.
Some of the problem is that i dont understand the thing which bin told when you go to bootcamp for a user of mac's since the model was the "classic" and we make newspapers on them - so i want and easy way to have and mac computer for my self (the new one) and let my daugter have a beutiful imac with windows on.
dont begin talking about parrelles i had try that, results it had a windows 7 which cant be updated, apple dont support that and microsoft doesnt so - help me
regards
Chevron B50

If you don't want Boot Camp and you don't want a virtual machine, go buy a Windows computer.
Both Boot Camped Windows and Windows running in a virtual machine work well. Your issues are because of your lack of knowledge or understanding, not because Boot Camp and virtual machines are poor products. Universities, large and small businesses, home users, etc. use virtual machines to run their operating systems.
Your statements about Boot Camp and Parallels are not the experience of thousands of users.
Either find someone who is knowledgeable about running Windows on Apple computers to help you or buy a Windows computer. Believe me, if you find a way to install only Windows on your Apple computer without using Boot Camp or a virtual machine you will have more problems than what you have already experienced.

My three year old busted keys on 4 year old macbook- can I replace and how much should I expect to pay?

how much would it cost to replace keyboard on 4 year old macbook?

you can either update to lion/ios5 and use the cloud to sync or you can plug in said devices and sync them with your MBP instead of your dell via a tethered usb connection.
also, sign into your itunes store account on your mac.

My 5-year old iMac is freezing up and will not reboot unless it is turned off for an hour or so. What is going on?

After some heavy lifting ( backing up or working in several applications) the system will slow down to a crawl and then freeze. A hard shutdown and restart will usually not reboot it. I typically get a white screen with a floder with a ? mark on it, a circle with a line through it, an Apple logo with a spinning wheel for many hours (I let it go overnight once to no avail), or a simple white screen.   The disk checks out fine with Drive Genius and disk usility, from both the hard disk (when I can get it running) and from the Disk utilite and Drive Genius Disks.    I have erased (zeroed out) the disk and reinstalled Snow Leopard several times with all updates. Reparied permissions successfully. It runs swimmingly until I start loading up files and try to use them or tao back up to Time Machine on a Time Capsule.   It will then repeat the whole scenario.   Often, If I leave it shut down for an hour or two, or overnight, it will boot fine, even after all of the prior white screens.
I have taken it to the Genius Bar a coupole of times, and they have done a system reinstall and analysis to no avail.   Everything looks fine. Infact, ast time it had rested and while it did not boot before I left, it did fine there.
The only devices connected are an ethernet cable, bluetooth mouse, and keyboard. What's up?
I think this is a hardware not a software issue.

    BankerDad, let's see if we can change this device's behavior. Is there any physical or liquid damage on that device? Connect it to a charger to see if the charging battery icon populates on the screen. Keep us posted.
LasinaH_VZW
Follow us on Twitter @VZWSupport

My 6 year old iMac is freezing frequently and I have random weird display spots - any suggestions?

I'm having issues with my desktop Mac - I took it to apple and they ran a diagnostic and said it was fine. The screen has frequently appearing inconsistencies like weird little sections of random colors and now the whole thing is freezing frequently. I have approx 60 gb free and I'm running 10.7.3 with no odd software or especially labor intensive programs other than iPhoto.
Any ideas are more than welcome!

Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.
Make sure the title of the Console window is All Messages. If it isn't, select All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left. If you don't see that menu, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar.
Click the Clear Display icon in the toolbar. Then try the action that you're having trouble with again. Select any messages that appear in the Console window. Copy them to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message (command-V).
When posting a log extract, be selective. In most cases, a few dozen lines are more than enough.
Please do not indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Important: Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.

My two-year old imac is getting much slower, how do i speed it up?

My iMac, with a 3ghz process, 4gb of memory, 1TB hard drive, is becoming slower and slower, especially when booting up. I used to be a Windows person, and this slowness reminds me of that problem. I am assuming that the Mac accumulates a bunch of junk over time. Is there a utility that I can purchase or get that will speed my machine up?
Thanks.

It does many other things; I would only run Onyx for caches. Probably the safest maintenance/toubleshooting program is Applejack, which may help in this situation. I'd run it as "applejack AUTO" first and then go back and run it in "applejack" for your user. The first restart will be slower than usual as it rebuilds the boot caches. It may take several restarts to see the full benefit.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/applejack/
Article on how to use it
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-10334620-263.html?tag=mfiredir
Also, check free space on the drive. You should maintain around 15-20% free.

We have a 4 year old iMac 24 inch. My hard drive died and we have a new hard drive now, but all that the fixit shop put on it was the Snow Leopard OS; can I ask Apple for a download of our other many software programs to reload them? Does it cost to do

We have a 4 year old iMac 24 inch. The hard drive died and we had a new hard drive installed. They only installed the Snow Leopard OS on it, and there were many software programs that came with the iMac originally.. now missing. Does anyone know whether Apple will resupply these? I do have an Apple installation disc but have upgraded from the original Leopard to Snow Leopard... so the OS is not quite the same. Ideas? Thanks!

No bootable bakup/clone or Time Machine backup? No initial install discs? If no to both of those, call 1-800-MY-APPLE and request replacement discs for that machine. They're available for a nominal S&H charge.

ITunes 11.0.4 - why can't I access to browse music, podcasts, or anything else in the iTunes store? I'm running X10.8.5 on a 2-year old iMac. I've had access previously, and done nothing to change anything.

Why can't I access to browse music, podcasts, or anything else in the iTunes store now? I'm running iTunes 11.0.4 X10.8.5 on a 2-year old iMac. I've had access previously, and done nothing to upgrade or change anything since I last could access everything in the store.

Hi Mary,
I'm sorry to hear you are having issues with the iTunes Store. If you are having issues connecting or logging in, you may find the troubleshooting steps outlined in the following articles helpful:
Can't connect to the iTunes Store - Apple Support
iTunes: Advanced iTunes Store troubleshooting - Apple Support
Sincerely,
- Brenden

Four-year-old iMac and Mountain Lion

My wife has a four-year-old iMac that has been horrendously slow for the last couple of years. This has been true with nearly all the programs, but especially Word for Mac and Outlook (both part of Microsoft Office for Mac) -- even when only three or four programs are open at a time. Click Outlook, for example, and you can wait a minute and half for it to open while it checks identities.
I just upgraded the machine to Mountain Lion hoping that might solve some problems but the situation is even worse now. She clicked on Message last night as I was standing there and I finally gave up waiting and walked away. Frankly, the speed of the machine under both Lion and now, worse, Mountain Lion is driving us crazy.
So, what to do?
Should I be doing some sort of in-depth analysis of the the current machine? (A little background: three months after buying it, it had a problem and Apple Service ended up replacing the screen and the motherboard.)
Or should I just buy a new iMac and forget about this machine ever being fast enough?
Here are the specs on the current iMac:
Model Name:                    iMac
Model Identifier:              iMac8,1
Processor Name:              Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed:              3.06 GHz
Number Of Processors:   1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache:                           6 MB
Memory:                            4 GB
Bus Speed:                         1.07 GHz
Thank you for any advice.
Don

Your computer is on the very low end of systems which are supported by Mountain Lion. Anything newer than Snow Leopard will likely hurt performance rather than help it.
When your computer is freezing up, it is probably loading data from the disk into RAM. You can't put any more RAM into the machine, but you can have the hard drive upgraded to an SSD. That's quite a bit of money to pour into a five-year-old machine, but it's a lot cheaper than getting a new computer.
One other option is to back up your files, wipe everything, and start over. Install the applications one at a time until things start to slow down. You may have an application that is sitting in the background and using up system resources.

I have a year old iMac and Macbook, both on 10.7.3. Every time the iMac goes to sleep I lose wi-fi. No problem with the Macbook and iPad. A lot of people seem to have the same problem. What's the solution?

I have a year-old iMac and Macbook, both on 10.7.3. Every time the iMac goes to sleep I lose wi-fi from Airport Express. No problem with the Macbook or my iPad. It seems a lot Mac users are having the same problem. Is there a solution? Does Apple have a solution?

Sometimes there are problems.
Somethings to try but probably won't help....
1. Repair Disk Permissions
2. Startup in Safe mode by holding down the "Shift" key....
3. Reset the P Ram by holding down the "Command/Option/P/R" keys at the same time...
The above are standard items to do on any Mac from time to time.
I repair permissions at least once a month....
The other 2 periodically as they do straighten things out when they get out of whack....
Thanks for the feedback.

HT3231 I have a new iMac OS X version 10.8.5 and a 12 year old iMac OS X version 10.4.11.

I have a new iMac OS X version 10.8.5 and a 12 year old iMac OS X version 10.4.11.
I wish to transfer Quicken and iPhoto from the old to the new.
I tried using wired Migration Assistant and received error message.
So following directions for alternate methods I used a flash drive. It seemed to work but I received error message to the effect that the PowerPC G4 is not compatible with the new system with 2.7 GHz Intel Core.
I discissed by phone with Apple service rep who indicated that it is true that this transfer is not possible.
But this HT 3231 article seems to say that it is possible. Any suggestions?

Properly configure the flash drive:
Drive Partition and Format
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to APM then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Apply button and wait until the process has completed.
Copy the files from the old machine to the flash drive. Then plug the flash drive into the new computer. Copy the files from the flash drive.
You need to understand that the files are no likely to be compatible which means you may not be able to use them. But the above process will transfer the files properly.

HT3680 My 3 year old iMac is freezing and I get a message "startup disk almost full for running applications. delete files..." Where do I find the startup disk and what should I delete?

My 3 year old Mac is having trouble and freezes up from time to time lately. I get a message saying "startup disk almost full, delete files ..." something about having enough room for applications to function. I know my startup disk is the Macintosh HD, but what kind of files do I need to delete and how much space do I need to free up? In my "about this mac" area, it says I have 4.89gb free out of 319.21 So I am confused why I need to do this.

You're less than 2% free and should always have at least 15% (my SWAG). Best is to get an ext FWHD and move stuff from the startup disk to it and delete it from that. Best things to move are movies, music, and photos, using the apps that manage those things.

In Contacts, I don't have any duplicates, but in iMessage contacts on iMac in Mountain Lion, the contacts it provides for a new message are all doubles. Why and how can I fix? Thx.

In Contacts, I don't have any duplicates, but in iMessage contacts on iMac in Mountain Lion, the contacts it provides for a new message are all doubles. Why and how can I fix?
I also notice that each contact says iCloud in it twice, but when I go to iCloud.com, there are no duplicates either. Help..

mdd770,
Try Contacts>Preferences...>Accounts...remove {-}/re-add {+}your iCloud account.
If that is not successful, follow the steps listed in iCloud: Troubleshooting iCloud Contacts.

6 year old iMac resurrected but why and how

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for