EMac won't startup and other troubling issues.

Question

Hi All,
First time posting, so forgive the newbie factor here.
I have an eMac Combo that was manufactired in 2003, ATI Graphics card model. The problems started about a week ago when after a storm, we were unable to connect to the internet using dial-up. The computer was unplugged before the storm, so don't think it was damaged by lightning, but you never know. Anyway, I was trying to resolve the problem yesterday, and I have made things much, much worse.
Firstly, I checked that all my passwords and account info was correct, checked dial-up server - OK, checked phone line and got dial tone with a handset. So narrowing down the possibilities, I ran the OSX Hardware test DVD, all came up fine. When I rebooted, I repaired permissions and restarted, I then noticed the time was wrong, corrected the time. Still with no luck, I tried to set-up another user account, something happened when I did this and I was forced to manually power down the eMac. Upon restarting, I decided to use an existing different user account. I logged out and back in as this user. As soon as i touched the internet connect button, the computer froze. Manually reset, thyen got a message after the white screen with grey apple logo, "You need to restart the computer". I did and got the massage again. The consulted the manual and pressed cmd, opt, p, r during startup. Still got error message. Computer is now dead I fear, however after doing some more research have determined that the battery may be dead. Can anyone please help me out and advise whether the computer may be restored with just a battery replacement? All other help greatly appreciated. Sorry for the long post, but thought the more info, the better help I would get.
Dave

Answer 1

The problem is that I can not start up at all. When
it gets to the white screen apple logo, I get a
message saying that "You need to restart the
computer" in multiple languages with this error
message on the last line "FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF". I have
no idea what this error message is. It is proving
difficult to research as well, as I haven't found a
Mac OSX reference to this error yet.
That, as you've been told is a kernel panic. Typically they're hardware-related. Yours seems to have something to do with ethernet. Note that the most common cause of KPs is bad memory, so if you install some new RAM and start having KPs the odds are pretty good that the new RAM is bad.
The basic troubleshooting steps for all hardware KPs is the same: remove the possible causes of the problem. As was pointed out to you, in your case, what you do is to remove the ethernet connection if you just made one, or to make an ethernet connection if you don't have one.
This is driving me crazy.
Wellcome to the joys of hardware troubleshooting. Be glad that you don't need to know about IRQs, DMA channels, and IDE master/slave/cable select nonsense.
I am trying to find Hdd's
that will work on the eMac and most computer shops
are proving to be unhelpful.
Any internal one-third height IDE/ATA100 or 133 (yes, I know, I know, IDE isn't really the same as ATA, but for our purposes it'll do, and any computer store will know what he needs) 3.5" drive will work. Get one which is rated for low power consumption, space in an eMac is tight and high-power-consumption drives will overheat. Your real problem isn't getting the drive, it's opening up the eMac to install it. I REALLY DON'T RECOMMEND that you open an eMac as your first hardware hacking project. Find a professional to do it. If you must open it yourself, there are take-apart instructions available online. Apple used to post them, don't know if they've taken 'em down, or even if they've posted the ones for the newer generation eMacs. Get hold of a take-apart PDF and READ IT CAREFULLY before starting. Be especially careful of the monitor, that thing stores 25,000 volts, and is fragile besides.
I don't want to shell
out money on a new hdd and discover that it will not
fit,
It's really hard to find internal drives that aren't one-third height nowadays...
or that it is not supported by Mac OSX 10.2.4.
If it'll fit, and it's a IDE drive, it'll work. (SATA drives and SCSI drives need not apply, but they cost more than IDE drives, anyway.)
It is times like this that I get so frustrated being
the only mac user I know.
But think you good you'll feel the next time a big virus (<cough> Sony rootkit (</cough>) starts making the rounds.
Can somebody please advise whether the error code
refers to hdd failure or OS system failure.
Neither. It's ethernet, but you know that already.
I tried
to archive and install OSX again, but still got this
error code. Disc Repair says that my drive is 99.7%
free. Have i lost everything?
Did you do an erase?