IMac 20" won't start. l led 1 is on, but led2 flashes, led 3 off. Why?

My wife's original iMac 20" suddenly today went fans full on. She turned it off by holding the on/off button for some time. Now it won't start up. With the back off led 1 if on, and led 2 is flashing. I've found reference to led 2 off and led 2 on, but not flashing. I've reset the SMU several times and the led went off, but after several seconds started flashing again. Can anyone suggest why?

It's likely that your power supply has failed, but ake sure that there is no dust clogging the fans or vents.

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IMac 24 won't start up, grey screen with progress bar, then shuts off

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Hello:
I would try restoring as an approach to eliminating some software glitch. However, you might also have a hardware problem (not good news).
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My iMac G5 won't start up.

My iMac G5 won't start up, and I don't know why. Before I had this problem, my iMac was working fine, but slower than my expectations. So, I decided to reinstall Mac OS with the erase and install option, and the installation went ok. When I turn on my iMac, I usually see a brief glimpse of a light gray screen, which changes to the white screen, and then shows the Apple logo and the spinning indicator. Now however, whenever I press the power button of my iMac, it doesn't get past the light gray screen. I hear a chime, and it changes to the light gray screen, but it never gets to the white screen with the Apple logo and the spinning indicator. If I leave the computer on at the gray screen, after a while, the fans start to spin at full speed. I didn't know what to do, so I tried to turn it on while pressing option. It kept searching for my operating system, but it never found anything, the watch indicator kept spinning and spinning and never stopped. So next, I tried to reinstall my operating system with the archive and install method. It worked, but after my computer went to sleep, it got frozen when I woke it up and the colored disk kept spinning at the password request screen (requests password when I inturrupt the screensaver or sleep).
My questions are:
1. What is the problem, and what can I do to solve it?
2. Could my computer be affected with the problem at: http://www.apple.com/support/imac/repairextensionprogram/ (my serial number is in the range that Apple said that is effected)
3. I have not reset the SMU. Should I try that?
Thanks!

Here's what I did. (bold text represents what the computer did after what I did)
1) I opened the back cover.
2) I plugged in the power cord.
The first green light went ON
3) I pushed the top internal button (internal power button).
Lights 2 and 3 went ON.
4) Even though the lights went on, which means that everything is fine, I still pressed the bottom internal button (reset SMU)
The computer stopped everything. Fans stopped, the computer turned off, etc.
5) I don't know if I did it right, so I put the back cover back on my iMac, and pressed the external Power Button.
The computer still has the same problem.
What should I do? First call Apple Care and then take my Mac to the Apple Store to repair?
Thanks again!

IMac just won't start up!

I'm running out of ideas here, fellas.
My first-generation iMac G5 won't start up. I turn it on and it only goes up to the screen with the gray Apple logo. It never gets to the point of the spinning gear. After a while, the fan makes a constant loud sound.
I have read similar posts but I have a more complicated situation: even before this start-up problem, my iMac's internal optical drive had died out, so I've been using an external one.
So far I've done the following (with peripherals removed):
Reset PRAM
Reset SMU
I've also tried doing the following with the external drive:
Hardware Test
Run Mac OS X Install CD (Both original and Tiger)
Nothing going, and my warranty's out.
Help?

Might be worth trying a new PRAM battery, alternativeman. It is a CR2032 lithum button battery - used in many calculators, remote controls, etc etc and available from any electronics part store (and many other places too) for a couple of dollars (or from an Apple dealer for about $50).
Very easy to replace on this model. See http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/imacG5allModelsBackupBattery.pdf
Cheers
Rod

HT201441 I restored my iPhone 5 to a back up on my brothers iMac ..now I have access to the phone but can't turn off the find my phone with the owner of the account I backed my phone to .. What can I do to solve this issue??

I restored my iPhone 5 to a back up on my brothers iMac ..now I have access to the phone but can't turn off the find my phone with the owner of the account I backed my phone to .. What can I do to solve this issue??

You sould be able to sync both ways. Check your default calendar on your phone by going to Settings>Mail,Contacts,Calendars>scroll down to the calendars section to Default Calendar. Check to be sure you have selected your mac calendar as your default (and not, for example, On My iPhone). Then enter a new event on your phone and sync to confirm that it appears on your mac.

IMac G5 won't start up

I have an iMac G5 (iSight) 20" that won't start up. Press the power button, the power light comes on, but no startup chord, screen stays black. I can hear a quiet humming sound if I put my ear to the case, either the fan or the hard disk spinning (but no access sounds, if it's the disk). After about a minute the fan comes on high and loud. That's it.
I've tried (twice) resetting the System Management Unit (SMU), as described in http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301733, but that hasn't helped.
I tried resetting the PRAM (hold down opt-cmd-P-R and press power button): Fan comes on high immediately, it makes three beeps (not the startup chord), and fan continues while the power light blinks three times - pause - blink three times - etc.
Anyone have any thoughts?
Andrew Main

+I live in San Diego, Ca and that week it had been pretty hot, perhaps it over heated.+
It's possible; I work mostly with portables, so don't have much experience with this model, but it does have a lot of parts stuffed into that flat case, and I get a feeling it could overheat. The one I'm working with I noted the fan intake on the back was covered with crud, which can't be good; it's not mine and I haven't been to where it was, but apparently there was a lot of dirt around, and a lot of dirt inside it now.
+I was furious at Apple for selling me an iMac that would break after only 1+ year of use.+
All technological products fail eventually. Some fail early, some fail later. Apple warrants Macs for a year, which is about normal in the industry. Past the first year, you can either gamble that you'll be among the +great majority+ whose Macs last five years or more, or you can buy AppleCare (which I've never done). You don't even have to buy your AppleCare from Apple; if you shop around a bit you can save 20% or more.
+I know that the logic board alone is around $600-$800, not including the labor. I could buy another computer, not an Apple, but a pc with that amount of money.+
As a 20 year Mac user, with 15 years as an independent Mac support guy, I confess I'm just a little tired of the common complaints about the cost of Macs. Macs are not for everyone, no. If a $600-$800 PC would have satisfied your needs (and wants), that's what you should have bought in the first place. It's like going into a Mercedes showroom and complaining to the sales guy that you could buy a Chevy for a fraction of the price. You're just wasting everyone's time.
Actually, a look at eBay shows this model now selling for ca. $600-$800. That's how the computer world goes.
You're lucky to be in California, where there are a lot of independent Mac repair providers. (I'm in New Mexico, which is less convenient.) For a computer out of warranty that's what I usually recommend, using refurbished parts rather than the expensive new parts from Apple. For instance, I've done a lot of business in past years with DT&T Service, who will replace a logic board in an iMac G5 iSight for $425-$495 + shipping:
http://www.dttservice.com/imacg5.html

IMac Help - won't start up in OSX, starts to text...

I was wiping my hard drive so that I could give away my old 20" white iMac G5. It worked fine the first time using the OSX Installation disk, but someone told me I should do it several times to be sure to remove all the data in the binary. So I did it a second time and that worked fine too. I decided to do it a third time so that I could put the new person's info onto the computer and I got a disk error during the re-install. It asked me if I wanted to "try again" so I clicked yes, but something bad must have happened...
Now the computer won't start up in OSX and it won't boot from the disk (even if I hold down the C key). When it starts up, first I get a gray screen with the apple, then I have a quick flask of a tiny file folder with a question mark, then a quick flask of the same file folder but this time with the Mac face graphic, then the screen goes black and there is a bunch of white text. I can post the text if it will help - at the very end it says something like: localhost:/ root#
I tried calling apple and they just told me to turn off the mouse and keyboard and try again - didn't work. I have tried to boot in safe mode, I have tried to reboot from the start up disk (it just ejects the disk), I have tried to reset the PRAM, nothing is working. I do not have any peripherals other than the mouse and the keyboard (I had to go out and buy a new wired keyboard today just to push the C button to try to start up from disk since the wireless keyboard wasn't being recognized).
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So hooked the iMac up to my MacBookPro as a firewire target disk and ran a disk utility on it overnight. It didn't fix the problem completely, but it didn't get worse. Now, instead of the black screen with white programming text, I get a gray screen with a flashing question mark (a file folder that flashes between the mac face and a question mark) this time it just keeps flashing (unlike before where it only appeared once).
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How do you eject a CD stuck in the drive from an imac that won't start?

My Imac won't start. Its stuck on the Apple screen with the little gear going around. Other discussion have suggesting trying to boot directly from the install disc, which I want to try but can't because when it crashed there was a DVD in the optical drive and I now cannot remove it.
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Here is a collection of ways to eject a stuck CD/DVD from your Mac.
How to Eject CDs or DVDs From Your Mac Even When They Are Stuck
Tom
http://macs.about.com

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I have this problem with my iMac G3 computer as in it won't start up as normally as it has been.
Actually to be more precise, when you turn it on, it just shows a folder with a the smiley iMac face and a question mark flashing at short intervals.
I have tried installing using a bootable Mac OS X cd but nothing happens.Please help

Hey brayo and Welcome to Apple Discussions,
it just shows a folder with a the smiley iMac face and a question mark flashing at short intervals.
Yes that's the classic symptom of a Mac not able to find a viable operating system. Usually it means your hard drive is dead/corrupted.
I have tried installing using a bootable Mac OS X cd but nothing happens.
Well would this be a bootable CD with an operating system on it appropriate to the iMac? A retail installer or the original system disks?
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My iMac G5 won't start - please help?

I don't get a chance to get near it very often, but my wife & kids say it has been really slow recently and particularly getting stuck in Microsoft Word. Then it froze. Now it won't start-up - get to the grey screen & the apple logo and the pin-wheel below goes round & round but nothing further happens. Then the fan starts spinning really loudly (indefinitely) so I switch it off & try again - same outcome. I have reset the SMU & PRAM, and run disk utility (says hardware all fine), but couldn't get it to archive & install.
Worst of all, I haven't backed up photos & quite a lot of work for some months
Any advice gratefully received>
Will

Welcome Will - try putting it in Target Disk Mode and see if you can pull the data off that way. Use Disk Utility from the Host machine to repair your drive, or if you can get hold of DiskWarior or TechtoolPro, use one of them to repair the machine. It does sound, though, as if your power supply unit is failing which, being a hardware problem, nothing can fix except replacing it (and likely the logic board).

Both iMac iSights Won't Start Up After Upgrading To 10.4.6

I just bought 2 iMac iSight's clearance from Mac Mall - with Applecare, but I can't use it until Mac Mall resets the serial numbers with Apple, who currently thinks they were bought in January, so no chat help. Ack! Downside to buying open stock clearance! Anyway, when setting them up, I let them upgrade to 10.4.6. They did the first reboot, then totally froze on the second. Both of them, exactly the same. And I don't have the right Torx driver to do the internal reset. What happened to the flat head screws on earlier iMacs? I tried the power cord in and out with the power button depressed trick. Nada. Help, I have new employees coming in tomorrow expecting computers to sit at. TIA,
Fred

<<If you look at MacInTouch, you will find reams of complaints about MacMall. You have to be very firm with them, and threaten all kinds of dire things.>>
I'm sure they're all criminals, but I have one salesperson who cuts me some deals, so sucker that I am I go back. I once had a G4 problem with a defective RAM slot - inserting the stick bent the contacts both sides across the middle, and I was going to be stuck for a new m-board on a machine that had only booted once, and they weren't very nice to me about it, until by chance they noticed the same thing in other machines of similar serial number. With their testimony, Apple gave me a "one time only" repair on it - how very generous of them.
Back to current problem, and thanks all for the help - power cable manipulation has gotten one of the two to boot up normally, thank god, and the other is being slightly more responsive (rapid manipulation of power button makes front panel LED and mouse LED light up momentarily), but hasn't booted yet.
Fred

Won't start up, makes weird beep, power light flashes, and fan revs

I just tried to install new ram, but now it won't start up. I put the configuration back to what it was, but still not starting up. It makes a different beep then the fan gets really load, and the blue light flashes slowly...
ahhhh... did I break it?

Hi don rumsfeld-
Greetings and welcome to the Apple boards
Flashes described here: About the Power Mac G5 (Late 2005) diagnostic LEDs
My guess is that the RAM was either not installed properly or not seated firmly. This may be helpful: Memory (DIMMs)
Replacement Instructions
Luck-
-DP

After reboot firefox won't start. runs in task manager, but won't pop up. reset, safe mode and uninstall/re-install won't help. ok if no reboot.

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There may be a corrupted file on Firefox.<br>
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Imac 24 won't start up after crash!

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Message was edited by: peganian

Already tried all that if you read my post...
Update: I did the extended hardware test and got this:
Error 4MOT/2/40000004:HDD-1440
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Imac G5 won't start with Isight plugged into the firewire port.

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Welcome to Discussions - try resetting your PRAM, if that doesn't work, I'm afraid there is something wrong with your logic board, where the firewire bus is located. The best thing to do would be to take it in for servicing.

IMac 20" won't start. l led 1 is on, but led2 flashes, led 3 off. Why?

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