I came home, and my iMac was unconscious!

I came home and my beloved reliable iMac had a dark grey screen (not a totally black screen) and was showing no signs of life!  I hit the power button, but nothing happened.  So I unplugged it, waited a minute, plugged it back in again, and hit the power button again.  It started back up as if nothing had happened. 
Is this "fainting spell" an ominous sign that my iMac has a terminal disease or something, and I will need to replace it soon? 
Is there an easy diagnostics program that I can run that will tell me what make it "pass out"?  Please don't ask me to use those grey CDs that came with the computer - I will never figure out how to use them without the help of Apple Support, and my 3 year Apple Care Plan expired 3 months ago (the computer is 3.25 years old). 
I want to get a new iMac while my current iMac is still alive and well -- so I can transfer all the data/files over to a new computer.  You see, my Time Machine has some kind of software bug and it never makes reliable backups (the last one was in May of 2011).   So I've got to transfer data/files the old fashioned way with a cable between the computers. 
Is it time for me to rush to the Apple store to buy a new iMac?

It probably isn't time to rush to the Apple Store yet. As with any computer make sure it's backed up, you should be using Time Machine to do so if you are not already. Also make sure TM is working OK, restore a file from time to time just to make sure things are working OK.
If you cannot figure out how to use the DVD's that came with your machine you can have a Genius at an Apple Store show you how. One very basic way is to run Apple Hardware Test, if you can read and follow basic instructions run AHT in Extended Mode. If it reports any errors back then that's when it's time to become concerned.
If you don't use Time Machine or don't know what it is please watch the Time Machine Tutorial.

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    Hi, and welcome to Apple Discussions.
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    There was a power outage while I was asleep and my Imac was on. Now it is comatose, no sign of life no matter what I do. I pressed the power on button for over a minute and nothing happened. I unplugged the cable and changed the wall socket too but nothing happens. I hope My hard disc is not damaged and the data is not lost. How do I determine this with no technical knowledge?

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    I needed iDvd, but since my iMac is newer, I didn't have iDvd on it. I installed iLife 11. I shouldn't have installed the iPhoto part because now my iPhoto wouldn't work since iLife 11 was 9.1 and my iMac had 9.2. So I used iPhoto Library Manager to create a new library. That was working, but my computer ran out of hard drive room since my original iPhoto had 137 GB of photos. My new iPhoto library had the majority of my pics and the iPhoto now worked with those pics. But now I still had all of those original pics in my hard drive. I thought that by getting rid of the original iPhoto on the iPhoto Library Manager I would get rid of all of those original pics. I now have no access to them but they are in my hard drive and I can't do much with my iMac because it is all clogged up with those original pics - I think. How do I get rid of my original iPhoto pics out of my hard drive?

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    OT

  • [UK] Not at home and my iphone4 was delivered in good condition ?

    TNT is really rubbish.
    My delivery was scheduled yesterday and deal to work I was not at home. Today they delivered again and at 9:45am I got an email from apple saying delivery failed which I expected, and I planned to take the card left by TNT and then go to the nearest depot to get myself.
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    The signatory is definitely nothing similar to my name either. F*CK
    And I kept calling apple for 30mins and still nobody picked up the phone !!!!!!!
    That's so irresponsible ! I paid 600quids and got nothing now. I just wanted the new phone that I waited for ages. And now I risked losing all my money and left with anger.
    I need someone from apple to clarify and give me back my phone !
    Message was edited by: ruudkyle

    Joe Z in VA wrote:
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  • I just got my iphone 4s today and came home and plugged it into my itunes and restored it to my account but something is wrong it seems to have gone to the setting that I had on my iphone 4. How do I get it back to how I had it?

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  • I came home and wanted to go on ipod touch 5. Screen wouldnt turn on. What can i do

    Can anyone help please.

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    I can find the video, but it's encrypted.  What do I do now?

  • Came home with new 4s and 3G is not coming up.

    I just came home with the new 4s and it was working in the store bc he set it up with wifi but when I left my 3G would not work. I came home and synced with my computer thinking it would help but nothing. Frustrated:(

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  • If i started the restore process in apple store on their wifi from my icloud and left came home now am on my wifi will the restore process automaticall continue? or do i need to restart anything through settings?

    i replaced my phone today at the apple store. backed up on i cloud right before. after getting new phone activated started the restoring process in the store on apples wifi. came home and now am on my wifi here will it automatcally continue or do i need to go through settings and restart anything. have been home now for about 4 hrs and nothing new has been restored from when i left the apple store!

    Try this -> http://support.apple.com/kb/TA38632?viewlocale=en_US

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