Completely dead iMac

My iMac 17" 800MHz (2002) iMac does not start anymore. There is no fan, click or any other noise to hear when I press the start button – simply absolutely nothing happens. Start command-apple does nothing either. I did a PMU reset (button on underside (inside)), did not help either. I even did change the powercord, thinking it may be damaged, but it is OK. This iMac was connected to a ground-wired stabilizer unit all its life, so think there should not've been any power problem as a cause. It was shut down normally last time.
Does someone out there have experience with this?
I read on some models a dead internal battery can cause "dead" symptoms. Would this be the case for this model?
I am going through the Apple service manual now, but any suggestion is welcome.
Thomas Hurlimann

Did you use a new (just out of the box) power cord?
Try using another wall plug-in ..... avoiding the ground-wired unit entirely.
The internal PRAM battery's only purpose is to hold certain settings (clock, date, etc....) when the computer is shut down completely without the powercord.
A working powercord connected to the computer and plugged-in to a live receptacle provides the power in sleep mode and a normal shutdown mode to hold all the settings and preferences.
If you regain power to the unit ........Reset the NVRAM chip and the PRAM chip:
Power off the computer, then power it back up and quickly hold down Command-Option-P-R until the Mac chimes *three times*. You need to do this from a powerup instead of a restart, since doing it from a restart resets just the PRAM chip.
Hope this helps.
DIXIE

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My iMac wouldn't turn on. This has happened out of nowhere, it was working really well before. checked my power cord and outlets everything's fine. The iMac has no power at all. no sound or anything, completely dead. It is only 1 year and 2 mos old.

My iMac wouldn't turn on. This has happened out of nowhere, it was working really well before. checked my power cord and outlets everything's fine. The iMac has no power at all. no sound or anything, completely dead. It is only 1 year and 2 mos old. Any idea what it could be?

I have purposely been ignoring your responses to my posts about the heat issues in the newer design iMacs, but if you want really want to ague the point...
First, the iMac is marketed as a desktop model Mac. Not a laptop or MacBook.
I have never owned a MacBook, so I can't attest to how much heat the MacBooks generate.
I Have two iMac models. A 2009, 27 inch screen iMac for myself. And a 2010, 21.5 inch screen iMac for my Fiancée.
As a desktop Mac these are hottest running desktop Macs I have ever owned. Period. I owned two beige Macs, a pre-G3 tower, aG3 desktop, a G4 MDD Tower, the original iMac, eMac, iMac G4 and now my current iMacs.
None of my previous Macs have ever, EVER ran this hot. I have never, also, had any component failures in any of the previous Macs I have owned, either. All of my Macs have been upgraded or modded to some degree over the years. About 2 years ago I had to press my old G3 back into service. Both my G3 and G4 models have been heavily modded. The G3 ran without issue for a close friend for over a year until that friend went out a got a Mac Mini.
That's a 1996-97 Mac my friend. And it still is in working order and hasn't had any failures.
The fact I am pointing out here is that heat is an enemy to electronic components.
Whether desktop iMac or MacBooks, tightly packed enclosures of heat generating computer components with fans that do not run fast enough at most times to cool off the interior or exterior, will and does slow roast computer components to premature failure.
I do not know how frequent component failure is in the MacBook line up. So I can't attest to those.
I do not participate in those forums.
This is why at some point in computer history, Super Conputers were liquid cooled. PowerMac G5 systems were liquid cooled because they ran too hot!
I have taken my own precautions to keep my iMacs' heat down as much as possible.
I don't have the money to keep buying a new Mac every 3-5 years when some catastrophic failure happens.
I had to purchase my iMacs used as I couldn't afford the cost of a new iMac with the specs I needed.
My idea, your idea and Apple's idea of acceptable operating temps we can argue all day long.
I feel, personally, that the operating temps are too high and exacerbate operational issues.
I Have been participating in these particular iMac forums for just over a year and have seen plenty of posts of iMac component failures due to both heat and dust, dirt issues from within the iMac.
There can be no other reason for all of these failures. The SuperDrive is, usually, the first to go bad.
It's probably due more to its vertical mounting, but the excessive interior heat isn't helping it.
Next to fail is the GPU. The last to fail, but the most expensive to fix, the Logic Board.
I Have seen plenty of posts in my last year here of all of these failures in iMac less than 5 years old and ,perhaps, a little older. 2008 model iMacs seem to have their issues, too!
Apple is focusing too much on design and aesthetics, rather than longevity of their products, I feel now.
A Mac isn't going to last 7- 10 years anymore.
I don't have stats and numbers. Just common sense.
This is my story and I am sticking to it. For what it's worth.

Use dead iMac Display as monitor?

I have a dead iMac (mobo fried) and was wondering if there is any way I can extract the display panel, and use either a bought or DIY/hacked adapter to use it as a standard monitor.

K Shaffer wrote:
This topic has been well-played here; the replies
given to several inquiries have been researched.
I'm not an expert, only having owned, repaired &
donated to charities, some 140 Macintoshes.
And I've not been heavily into dissecting my four
iMac G4 computers with 17" LCD displays. But
I do know the computer with a failed logicboard
will not support the display; the graphics or video
processor is integrated, and the panel has only
a few of the necessary support circuits with it
above the chrome arm in the panel's case.
There are a few ways of integrating a different
fully self-contained display into the dead iMac
case and perhaps use the existing LCD or an
other LCD and put additional circuitry into the
base of the iMac G4 instead of the dead LB.
And the earlier reply was essentially spot-on.
Other discussions on this topic are most likely
to be found in the proper forum for iMac G4,
Apple - Support - Discussions - iMac G4 flat panel:
http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=137
Later G5 & Intel-based iMac cases could be
used, empty, to support an entire complete
display of similar size; and the circuits likely
would fit if the case had room enough, empty.
An apology would be in order, if you came in
to a retail establishment and talked to a tech
with a determined to fail attitude like that.
Good luck & happy computing!
{edited to add correct iMac G4 forum link}
My attitude was like that because i know what I am talking about. I now it is not a display. That is what bugged me. he talked to me like I had no idea what I am talking about. he also did not provide an answer like you that was well thought out and seemingly well researched, he said "I guess." I will, and have accepted, that this is not really possible. It was not his answer, it was his attitude towards the question. and just a BTW, I am talking about the intel imac. The white one, not the g4.

Ihave an I Mac g5 it won't start up is completely dead have checked all the plugs

I have an I Mac G5 it won't start up is completely dead I have checked all plugs ect I have had the back off and can see a tiny green light have pressed a few buttons but nothing works

Anything here help?
iMac G5: Fails to startup
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2173?viewlocale=en_US

Semi Dead iMac

I just inherited a semi dead iMac. When booted it displays the OS 9 icon and never goes any further. The previous owner says he was running 10.3.X
I ran Disk Warrior. It completed and the system was rebooted. The drive spun up but the screen remained black. The white LED lit up. I rebooted and held the mouse down to eject the DW disk. The drawer wouldn't open but I was able to manually eject the disk.
I rebooted and attempted to reset the PRAM. I only got one chime. I powered down and unplugged the power cord for one minute. Plugged power in and attempted to reset PRAM with no luck.
I reset the PMU and powered up. The drive spun up, the screen stayed black and the white LED remained dark.
Anyone got any ideas?
TIA,
Mike
G4 400, iBook, G5 iMac, Pismo PB, 1G iPod Mac OS X (10.3.9) F87, Crappy Toshiba Laptop, Trek Y66, Ludwig Vistalites, Birth. Drums. Death.
G4 400, iBook, G5 iMac, Pismo PB, 1G iPod Mac OS X (10.3.9) F87, Crappy Toshiba Laptop, Trek Y66, Ludwig Vistalites, Birth. Drums. Death.

If you have the disks, I'd try installing a fresh copy of OS X. Or running Apple Hardware Test.
Have you tried booting in verbose mode (cmd-v). You might get more a more specific error that way.

How to get data from hard drive in dead iMac?

I have an old slot-loading iMac (350Mhz G3 blueberry) that just died, probably a dead power supply or something. Won't turn on at all. I don't care about restoring it, I just want to take the hard drive out and grab data from it. I've found instructions for removing the HD ... but any tips on the best/cheapest way to hook it up to get data from it? It's EIDE I believe from what I've read so far. Thanks for any help.

Hey Richard.....Thanks for the reply to my question about my wife's dead iMac.....
Her iMac had been acting up lately, mostly to do with her Outlook Express freezing up in OS9. I dunno if OS9 was freezing or if the application was failing. Regardless, I would have to quit OS9, restart Outlook which at the same time restarted OS9. All would be fine for a while, a day or two and then the scene would repeat itself. But I think that issue is separate from the iMac being "dead". Often we have power outages in the area, more than we should. I had the iMac plugged into a battery backup, some APS product I think it is. I believe it is only good for less than an hour as we have other devices drawing on it too. Most of our power outages are of short duration, just enough to be aggravating, sometimes having to reset clocks, etc...And a couple times, I would have to reset the time and date on the iMac so this told me that the PRAM battery was below minimum voltage. But the iMac would ALWAYS restart, even with the low battery. But the most recent outage, about one hour duration, did in the iMac, somehow or other. I do believe the battery backup basically fully discharged. So I removed the battery, could not find a new battery locally so I drove to the big city and paid the local Apple service dealer a visit. I got ripped big time price wise, embarrassed to say. So I get home, put the battery in the holder, depressed the CMU reset, the powerbutton illuminated as did a green LED by the memory modules for less than three seconds and then quit. I also heard the HD trying to spin up and a high voltage THUMP which I assume is the CRT trying to ignite. If I unplugged the iMac, removed the battery, plug in the power again and hit the power button, the iMac would repeat the same short on period and then quit. So it did not seem to make any difference if there was a battery in place. I read somewhere to pull the battery, pull the AC cord, hold down the power button to dump any current (?) and let the unit sit for 24hrs. After that length of time, I was supposed to replace the battery, depress the CMU reset, wait ten seconds and then feed it AC. Well, when I pressed the power button, I heard life for maybe five seconds, maybe a second longer, then a beep and then it shut down. I pulled the AC cord, pulled the battery, re-inserted the battery, depressed the CMU reset, waited a few seconds, plugged in the AC cord, depressed the power button and I am back at the under three seconds of "power-up" and then nothing, dead, no beep, nothing. I think maybe it is a waste of time trying to mess with this unit, looking for a newer iMac on eBay, the snowball series with the 17" LCD, might be time better spent. Hate throwing stuff away, that's why I am up to my ears in junk, maybe u know that scenario. The wife likes my 19" ACER LCD screen, hooked up to this old dual 800mhz, though she dislikes the noise and the tower. But we both agree the large LCD screen is much easier on our aging eyes than the old iMac CRT. Anyway, I appreciate your help, always GREAT to correspond with an Apple fan.....John Bauer

When I updated to ios 5.0.1 my battery was half way full and it was charging. It started to install it and now it is completely dead (with the lightning bolt) and when i try to turn it on, i have a white screen. HELP

I have a ipod touch 4g, i just updated to ios 5.0.1 today. At the time, my battery was half way full so i had it charging. It started to install, i'm not sure if it actually did or not, but it turned off and started loading like if it were a new ipod, or like when you install new software. then the screen went blank and it restarted. it says its completely dead now but if i click the home button it turns on but goes straight to a white screen.

- If the screen remains white, let the battery fully. After charging for an hour, try a reset:
Reset iPod touch: Hold down the On/Off button and the Home button at the same time for at
least ten seconds, until the Apple logo appears.
And restore as necessary,
- If it is off try:
iOS: Not responding or does not turn on

I had Premier pro given me by the college I attend and do no use wi fi and do not use cloud. My laptop completely died and will be sent back to Apple for exchange. How can I reinstall Premier Pro on a new Apple computer since the old one is completly dead

I had Premier pro given me by the college I attend and do no use wi fi and do not use cloud. My laptop completely died and will be sent back to Apple for exchange. How can I reinstall Premier Pro on a new Apple computer since the old one is completly dead and could not be unregistered?

Hi,
You have not specified which version of Premiere Pro was given to you. If you don't have the disc (which i suppose you don't have) you will have to download it online.
As far as your registration is concerned, for Premiere Pro CS6 or earlier you will have to reach Adobe chat support for further help: http://helpx.adobe.com/contact.html
For Premiere Pro CC and later, you will not have much problems reactivating it.
Thanks,
Rameez

IPod 40 gb click wheel completely dead!

I bought an iPod (40gb click wheel) in September 2004 for the grand sum of £299 – so it isn’t even 2 years old! It has totally died. Firstly in June it refused to be identified by my Dell computer; then it corrupted a part of the software in my computer which identifies my DVD/CD drive. I had that fixed by Dell – thank goodness it didn’t do any further damage! As a result of not being recognised by my computer I was unable to add additional tunes to it. The iPod was still working but then started to make lots of noises. It then stopped working altogether and produced the folder with!. I phoned the support line in early July and was told that there are several articles on the web site which could help – I followed the recommendations and it still continued to try to re-boot itself. I was also told that getting it fixed would cost me £166 as the one year warranty had run out !!!! (Surely it should last longer than that – also I can buy something new which is more reliable for less than that!) The last stage was the final appearance of the apple logo, a black screen and now it is completely dead. It refuses to charge up with the battery and I’m absolutely livid. It doesn’t warrant being fixed. I hearby plan to return this lump of rubbish to Apple as I was on the verge of throwing it away but didn’t want to pollute the environment with whatever nasties lie within.

I've got the same problem mate. The clickwheel started to ge dead in places like around skip forward track area, (which was annoying to say the least.) But the other day it completely died, now it tries to start up showing the apple logo, then you can hear inside the hardrive spin up then a loud click then it tries this again about 5 times before showing the support website.
Ive probably had the ipod for about 2 years.
Annyoing since its a 40gb ipod and i've barely filled up 13gb. I might take it into see what the shop says but i sort of know its gonna be not worth repairing. Plus the video ipods are looking really good.

My IPOD Touch initially had a white screen. I tried correcting this by restoring default settings via ITunes. The Restore Failed with error 1602 and now the IPOD touch is completely dead. It will not power on or respond when I plug it into my PC via USB

My IPOD Touch initially had a white screen. I tried correcting this by restoring default settings via ITunes. The Restore Failed with error 1602 and now the IPOD touch is completely dead. It will not power on or respond when I plug it into my PC via USB. I get an error on my PC stating that device attached to USB port is not recognizable. Can anyone help?

Error 1602: Try the following steps to resolve this error:
Ensure proper USB isolation troubleshooting has been performed, and test with a known-good cable.
Follow the steps listed for Error 1604.
This error may be resolved by disabling, deactivating, or uninstalling third-party security, antivirus, and firewall software. See steps in this article for details on troubleshooting security software.
Above from:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3694

I wish to remove my hard drive from a dead iMac, and have it place into an external case. Any good sources for the person to do the work?

I have a dead iMac (mother board), intel duo.I wish to remove the hard drive and made into an external hard drive (hopefully being able to read the contents). Any recommendations as to whom I should go to to do the work?

AASP Locator

Completely DEAD iPhone 3GS, Data Recovery ?HELP?

I have a iPhone 3GS 16GB, The other day it just went off? tried unplugging it from the mains and plugging it back in again, but nothing happened.
I tried to get it to go into DFU mode, Nothing!
Plugged it into my Desktop PC, Nothing showed in itunes?
I had it tested by a local phone shop and they said they did all the scans/checks and whatnot that they could and the iphone is a complete dud!:(
But i really need the data that is on there?
I have been told that if i take it to an apple store they can do a data retract for me?
What are my options for a complete dead iphone but needing the data on there?

Apple does not offer and will not perform any data recovery service.
A simple google search will reveal multiple data recovery services, if you really need such a service and are willing to pay an arm, a leg, and give up your first born child for that data.
If the device has been used as designed, it would have been backed up regularly to iTunes or iCloud.
Simply restore that backup to a new iOS device.
Contacts and calendars should be synced to a supported application on the computer or a cloud service.
Pictures taken with the device should be regularly copied off the device to a computer as would be done with any digital camera.

I updated my 4s to ios7 and the phone is now completly dead. I tried to restore it with the new itunes but it won't restore. If you can't get the download be glad! Anyone have any ideas other than going out and buying a new Samsung phone?

I updated my 4s to ios7 and the phone is now completly dead. I tried to restore it with the new itunes but it won't restore. If you can't get the download be glad! Anyone have any ideas other than going out and buying a new Samsung phone? I don't really need a paper weight.

No not jailbroken. After the update which took about 45 minutes. The phone went black. Dead. Wouldn't restart. Using the new itunes I tried to restore it. It went through the motions; the white Apple and progress bar appeared on the iphone screen. Then I got a message "Itunes has detected an iphone in recovery mode. You must restore this iphone before it can be used with itunes." Then the phone went completly dead again. I Repeated the process and got the same results. Is there another way to restore the phone if it's dead, besides itunes?

I had a 'dead' iMac repaired and it needed a new HDD & graphics card, the repairer installed OSX 10.6.8 and i now need to install other software but I am being asked for 'User' password so I may do this, I've no idea what this will be. Help please.

I had a 'dead' iMac repaired and it needed a new HDD and graphics card, the repairer installed OSX 10.6.8 and i now need to install other software but I am being asked for 'User' password so I may do this, I have no idea what this will be. can anybody help please?
<Personal Information Edited by Host>

On looking at the secure.log on the iMac with OSX10.6.8, I see these entries at each attempt to scp into the iMac:
Dec 29 11:06:20 molika sshd[7248]: in pam_sm_authenticate(): Failed to determine Kerberos principal name.
Dec 29 11:06:26 molika sshd[7246]: Accepted keyboard-interactive/pam for prowat from 137.110.243.132 port 35571 ssh2
Dec 29 11:06:26 molika com.apple.SecurityServer[26]: Session 0x236a14 created
Dec 29 11:06:26 molika com.apple.SecurityServer[26]: Session 0x236a14 attributes 0x20
Dec 29 11:06:27 molika com.apple.SecurityServer[26]: Session 0x236a14 dead
Dec 29 11:06:27 molika com.apple.SecurityServer[26]: Killing auth hosts
Dec 29 11:06:27 molika com.apple.SecurityServer[26]: Session 0x236a14 destroyed
I don't know what to make of this.
Peter R

Using a hair-dryer to resurrect a dead iMac CTR!

I visit this forum often enough to see how many people are finding it hard to get their old (but perfectly usable) iMac CTR to work again.
Well, after putting in a new battery, my good old iMac G3 400 SE slot loader was still not booting. I knew everything worked. I turned it off for a day, and then it wouldn't boot up again. All I got was a green flicker as I tried to power on.
Well, low and behold, I used a hair-dryer to warm up the inside of the system, and it booted up fine!
Hopefully this might work for some others with presumable dead iMac G3s. But the question is why??? If I put the system to sleep I get the same "playing dead" iMac and have to wake it up again with the hair dryer. Any thoughts?

Thanks for your input. Yes I did check a number of things, including all connectors fitting ok, but maybe I missed something. I did try swapping out even the logic boards and hard drives, to no avail. My guess it is something with the monitor itself, since the other components work fine, and only when the monitor is heated enough will it start.
I have no problems with the computer otherwise, but I hate to waste electricity - it just can't sleep or it will play dead. Thanks again.
I hope this might help others who might have the same problem thinking it is something wrong with the computer, when it is really the monitor. Go get those hair dryers revved!

Completely dead iMac

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