Another iMac G5 failing to start up

Question

Hello!
I'm writing for my 84-year old neighbor, whose computer has given her much stress since last summer. I believe she purchased it in 2005 (Serial #W8445*PP6). Last summer the power supply died, and was replaced; last month the hard drive died, and it was replaced with a Seagate 320GB 7200, and Leopard was installed.
Since then, periodically there was a loud whine coming from the unit. Today, upon startup, the gray screen with the Apple logo and spinning gear appeared, stayed for about 10 seconds, and then the screen went black and shut down.
I read through the iMac G5 forum posts regarding similar problems, and from the tips contained there I tried the following:
- Started up from the Leopard Install disk; this was successful.
- Used Disk Utility to attempt to Repair the disk; 'Repair' wasn't an option, only 'Verify', so I attempted that; after about 10 seconds, the following message appeared:
Disk Utility stopped verifying 'MacIntosh HD' because the following error was encountered:
File system verify or repair failed.'
Within the progress window, the following appeared:
Invalid key length
Volume check failed
Error: File system verify or repair failed.
Perhaps of note is that last week I used Disk Utility from within the installed OS to Repair Permissions, and when about 1/4 of the progress bar was filled and 'about 1 minute' remained, no further progress occurred, even after 15 minutes. I repeated this two more times, with the same result.
Today, after unsuccessful First Aid from the Install disk, I then wondered what would happen if I took a few steps into an Installation of the OS; I got to the 'Select a Destination' screen, and there were no destination possibilities - just an empty window.
So, might the new hard drive have failed? Or something else?
Based on the serial #, it seems that this unit qualifies for the Repair Extension program; do the issues with this computer correspond with that program?
One further question: How do I get the Leopard Install disk out of the computer?
Thanks!
David
Message was edited by: Host

Answer 1

If the drive was replaced only last month, the repair should still be under warranty, it would be best to contact the repair shop and take it in to have it properly fixed.
Using Disk Utility can take an enormous amount of time, almost 3/4 of an hour in some cases. The progress bar bears no relation to reality.
You should also certainly call Apple and see if they will help, although the repair extension isn't valid for computers that were bought over three years ago.
Let us know how she makes out,