IMac G5 hangs on startup, won't boot from disc

Hello,
My brother's computer has been acting up and I've been unable to fix it for him...so I was hoping I might be able to get some advice here.
Problem: hangs on startup. It goes to the gray screen with the Apple logo and the spinning progress wheel like it normally would, but never gets past that. You can hear the hard drive working and eventually the fan comes on.
What I've done:
1) attempted to boot from OSX disc, same result
2) attempted to boot from Apple hardware test disc. this brings up an open firmware terminal style prompt but does not boot from the disc. using the prompts i reset pram and did the "reset all" command which restarted the computer but it continued to hang
3) opened it up and pulled the only ram chip out and put it in the other slot. Unfortunately we don't have another chip to test out, but if you guys think it is a likely culprit I'll go buy him one to see if that fixes it.
Any advice will be appreciated. Thanks!
-Alan

Do you hear the drive spinning up? Have you tried a safe bootAfter the startup tone, hold down the <shift> key until you (hopefully) reach the desktop, it will be longer than normal, because Disk Utility's "repair" is invisibly run; it also will bypass any login items. If the system gets to the desktop OK this time but stalls when the shift key is NOT held down, the problem may be some login item that will need to be removed, using the Accounts panel of System Preferences and its Login Items section.
You could try to repair the machine using Target Disk Mode to access it.

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Imac 350Mhz G3 Slot loading-Won't boot from cd's

So here's what's going on
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http://www.apple-history.com/?page=gallery&model=imacslot
I plugged it in today(it uses the same cable as my summer 2000 indigo imac) and i turned it on, it make 3 angry sounding clicking noises.
Then it started up, and the hard drive is kinda...old sounding.
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Also, I've tried booting from a disc by putting it in and holding down alt, which as you know allows you to choose a boot disc. It has the same result, of note though is that it doesn't show a hard drive as an option to boot from, just the disc I put in.
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When I'm workin on an Imac, I generally plug the mains cable back in after I've removed the case. (but turned off at the wall!)
American and Japanese power outlets do not have a switch at the wall. American power strips tend to have a switch, but there is no guarentee that the switch is on the 'live' side of the circuit. (Only with the ANSI standard requiring asymmetric plugs in the 1990s in effect has that issue been addressed). Many properties remain unearthed and/or poorly earthed and/or have those three-prong to two-prong converters in service. There are many homes here still wired with "legacy" wiring that are cloth insulated, or are part of the old DC circuits converted for AC use, especially in Northeastern U.S. where Edison was dominant (as opposed to the Midwest, where Westinghouse was dominant).
Unfortunately, BS 1383A isn't applicable here. Fortunately, 115V is usually not potent enough to kill.

Intel iMac won't boot from disc or in safe mode - cannot repair disk

I have an early Intel iMac 20" (2GHz core duo) that generally works fine. I recently ran Onyx and it reported a startup disk error, suggesting I insert the install disk, hold 'c', and use disk utility to repair the disk.
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I then attempted to hold 'option' to be given the choice of startup disc but again was ignored and went straight to my normal desktop after multiple attempts.
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Hello Devoidarex
You'll want to use the Leopard Install DVD to Repair your Startup Volume and may want to try a USB keyboard if your using a wireless.
Another option is to insert the DVD and go to: System Preferences > Startup Disk > select the Install DVD > then Restart.
Dennis

After attempting secure erase, iMac w/homemade fusion drive won't boot from *anything*

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Here's what I did:
Pulled both drives out of the iMac, put them into a USB dock, and reformatted each one. Both drives appeared at this point to be fine.
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Recreated the fusion drive from the terminal. No problem.
Now, because I am a glutton for punishment, I tried wiping the fusion drive again. This time, part way in, it kernel panicked. Luckily, I was able to reboot once again to the external drive.
At this point, the fusion drive was in the exact same messed up state as when I started. Disk Utility app could do nothing with it.
Fortunately, this time I went right to the command line, and was able to fix things up and recreate the fusion drive before anything else bad happened.
I gave up on wiping the drive for now. If I need to do so in the future, I will disable the fusion drive and try to wipe each physical drive separately.
I should note that this iMac has never given a spot of trouble before now, so I am highly suspicious of the way disk utility tries to wipe a fusion drive. I certainly won't try it again. (I don't know if it has ever kernel-panicked before in the 5 years I've owned it).

IBook G3 flashing question mark/won't boot from disc

I recently bought a used iBook, and I knew that the hard drive was bad. No big deal, just replace the HD and reinstall OS X, right? Not quite. I'm still getting the flashing question mark, and the CD won't boot. I reset the PRAM, etc. Still nothing. Held down alt/option at start up. It recognizes that the OS X disc is there, but still won't boot it. It just shows me a smiling computer with a spinning rainbow CD looking thing in the upper left corner. At this point I'm thinking it might be a failed optical drive, or the ribbon might not be seated properly (Entirely possible, since the retard that owned this before obviously took it apart at least once. Half of the screws are missing). Am I correct in this assumption, or is there something else I should be looking for?
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Message was edited by: InVenereVeritas

Well, that iMac has a G3 processor and I see it's running OS X, so if you can get the iBook working, that is about what you can expect from it.
There was a later G4 processor (in iBooks and iMacs), and the end of the PowerPC iMacs had a G5 processor in them, but that processor ran too hot for a portable — a main consideration in Apple's decision to switch to Intel processors.
Surfing the web may be a trifle difficult with it, depending somewhat on the speed of your internet connection.
The MacBooks are a phenomenal improvement over the iBooks (even the iBook G4). There's no way around it — the Intel processors are just so much faster. I wince a bit when I hear someone say they're basing a future purchase decision on the performance of such an old model as this. It's simply not an accurate representation of what modern Macs are like.
Comparing Mac OS X 10.2.4 to Mac OS X 10.6.7 is a bit like comparing Windows 98 to Windows 7.

MacBook won't boot from disc

On Sunday my ten-month-old MacBook froze up and made some nasty clicking noises. I forced a restart, but now it just boots to a white screen and, after a good five minutes or more, eventually displays the blinking, question-mark folder.
I'm quite certain the drive is toast, but what I find more interesting (and in some ways more irritating) is that I can't for the life of me get it to boot from a DVD. I've tried my Leopard disc and the install disc that came with my computer. I hold C while booting, the drive spins for a bit, and eventually it just spits the disc back out. I've also tried holding D with the original install disc to boot the Apple Hardware Test and get the same result. I've tried holding Option to get a list of boot volumes and just get a white screen with a mouse cursor. I've tried resetting the power management unit and zapping the PRAM, as suggested in the "What to do if your Mac won't boot" list, and have noticed no change.
Thoughts? There must be something else I can do.

You may have a bigger problem than just the Hard Drive. Call Apple support or go by an Apple store if your near one and talk to them. You've done everything you can do. It will be up to them now. Be thankful it's still under warranty.

Won't boot from disc...

I'm running a less than a year old iMac with 10.5.8 currently installed.
I've been trying multiple times to install SL but the disc will just not stay in the drive to be booted from.
I've tried entering the commands to force the computer to boot to the disc on restart and I've also tried installing from the disc while being booted up.
It is almost as if the computer doesn't think its an install disc when it restarts, am I approaching something wrong here?
Thanks.

That will be a puzzle. It could mean that the disk is not working perfectly and that error correction routines don't work as well in the installer as they do with a working OS.
On the other hand, being able to restore the DVD to a drive from a working OS may also be possible with a less than perfect optical drive due to the OS re-reading data with error checking until it get's the data right.
I've gotten some optical drives to work pretty well by just using a 'cleaning disk' that you can buy from a electronics store for about $10.
It seems like drives on which I've had to use a cleaning disk do work for a few months, but then fade away and eventually need to be replaced anyway.
So, you can't go wrong with trying to get a replacement disk, and keep one eye on the optical drive itself.
Meanwhile, for me, I keep many installer disks as bootable partitions on a 250GB external FW/USB drive that has quite a few partitions on it. Hard drives are much faster for installing an OS or running a boot diagnostics or repair disk, and I never scratch my disks.

Powermac G4 won't boot from disc

Hey everyone, I have a G4 Agp 450 that I recently bought and I have an issue. When i try and install from my iBook G4 10.3 disc, which I successfully ran on my powermac/imac g3, the computer won't recognize the disc. Anyone have any pointers? Thanks

You can't use the iBook installer on another model Mac. You need a retail version of Panther 10.3 or Tiger 10.4.
If you do a Google search for M9227LL/A (Panther 10.3 retail install CDs) or M9228LL/A (Family Pack), you may find a set. The CDs should be black with a white X.
After you install the base 10.3.x, update to the final Panther version 10.3.9. See Mac OS X 10.3.9 Update (Combo) http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2464
Tiger install DVDs are in short supply. Tiger is no longer available at the Apple Store but may be available for $129 by calling Apple Phone Sales @ 1-800-MY-APPLE (1-800-692-7753). For other sources, do a Google search for MA453Z/A (10.4.6), MA190Z/A (10.4.3) and M9639Z/A (10.4) . Also look on eBay. Be sure & buy a retail version (black with silver X) and not a model specific version (gray). Expect to pay (possibly a lot) more than the Apple list price of $129.
Also check this web store http://www.lacomputercompany.com/cgi-bin/rpcart/index.cgi?command=dispitem&type= sku&sku=19521
Possible Alternative if you are currently using Panther 10.3 – Do a Google search for Tiger 10.4 Upgrade DVD . It will upgrade your 10.3 to 10.4, but it doesn’t contain the full retail Tiger installer. Should be cheaper than the retail Tiger install DVD.
After you install the base 10.4.x, update to the final Tiger version 10.4.11. Here's the link for the 10.4.11 combo update http://support.apple.com/kb/TA24901?viewlocale=en_US
Look at this link Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger Installing Software Support Page
http://www.apple.com/support/tiger/install/
You can also download the Tiger Installation and Setup Guide
http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/TigerInstall_SetupGuide.pdf
When you upgrade the OS, do it via Archive & Install. See About the Archive and Install feature http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1710
Be sure to select Preserve Users & Settings. Also, repair permissions before and after the install.
 Cheers, Tom

MacBook pro won't boot from disc, MacBook pro won't boot from disc, MacBook pro won't boot from disc

I bought a MacBook pro unibody a1286 model faulty off eBay and am attempting to resserect it. it came without a battery, HDD or charger. I have bought all 3 however no harddrive is installed yet as it hasn't arrived.
The logic board required replacing so I have done this, I noticed a pin sized hole in the keyboard ribbon cable when doing the replacement.
My question is, do I need the harddrive in for the laptop to function relatively normally? I've tried putting the OSX Lion disc in to see if I can get any activity but it won't load, just makes disc drive noises. The laptop gets very hot as the fans don't appear to activate although they do work.
The keyboard backlight also doesn't light up whether this is due to the hole I don't know. It does power on an chime and I can get to a screen with a cursor if I hold ALT, any further information would be greatly appreciated.
Edd

Edward Durrant wrote:
My question is, do I need the harddrive in for the laptop to function relatively normally?
This is where you would install OS X, so yes, you need a hard drive.

G3 Beige: grey screen at startup; no icon; won't boot from CD

G3 Beige, OS 9.2; working perfectly for past year.
I was using a D-Link wired router, to this and my other Mac, G4 Graphite OS X Tiger.
Having just gotten a netbook, I installed a D-Link wireless router (DIR-615), and changed the ethernet cables for both (non-wireless) Macs over to the new router. (It had been configured for me by a Staples Associate where I bought it.)
The netbook and the Graphite G4 worked as they should, but upon restart, the G3 Beige not only wouldn’t boot, it didn’t even show a sad Mac or a question mark. It chimed, but only has a grey screen. Cursor works (& keyboard); nothing else.
I disconnected ethernet cable; same grey screen upon restart.
Won’t boot from Norton or Mac OS 9 CD, pressing “C” at startup.
Zapping pram didn’t help.
Shift during startup didn’t help.
Now what??
TIA.
PS: Meanwhile, I'm afraid to connect my emergency spare 7300 w/G3 upgrade & OS 9.1 to that router. Should I?

The next thing to try is re-seating the sound card. The backpanel is only well-supported on one side, and the sound card takes a beating in all the Beige G3s and similar Macs with tumble-open or lift open designs (but not the All-in-One). Jeff suggests you remove the exterior third screw \[and leave it out] and bend the top tab slightly before re-installing the two screws on the rail. This helps push the sound card back into the slot and keep it firmly seated.
Do you have any SCSI devices or SCSI cables connected? A dangling SCSI cable or a badly-terminated SCSI device can cause a Hang where you describe.

IMac won't boot from Firewire?

Hey gang-
I wanted to post this to save anyone else pulling out their hair if they have a Mac that won't boot from a Western Digital (WD) external Firewire drive. I recently purchased a Western Digital My Book Studio 2 TB FireWire 800 External Hard Drive.
I bought this drive intending to partition it into two 1TB partitions- one for a bootable backup and one for a Time Machine backup. I do my bootable backups with the application SuperDuper, which is outstanding for this purpose. I have used it to create bootable backups on 3 different Maxtor external Firewire drives, and they have all flawlessly booted all my Macs. I expected no different from this new Western Digital (WD) 2TB drive.
Unfortunately, the WD would not boot 2 out of my 3 Macs when connected via Firewire. It would NOT boot an Intel MacBook (Late 2007 edition) or an Intel iMac (Mid 2007 edition). It does boot our Intel iMac (Mid-2010 edition). Strangely, the WD booted all 3 Macs when connected via USB, though needless to say very slowly in all cases. If you need additional technical information, read on.
Technical Info: The following tests were done with the WD connected via Firewire. The WD is correctly formatted for booting Intel Macs with GPT GUID formatting. Note that the WD appears as a bootable drive in System Preferences->Startup Disk on all 3 of my Macs. But when attempting to boot via Firewire, I get only a grey screen on the Intel MacBook (Late 2007 edition) and the Intel iMac (Mid 2007 edition). The Intel iMac (Mid-2010 edition) boots normally. When booting with the Option Key held down, Startup Manager does NOT see the WD as a bootable drive on the Intel MacBook (Late 2007 edition) and the Intel iMac (Mid 2007 edition). It does appear as a bootable drive on the Intel iMac (Mid-2010 edition).
When connected via USB, the WD boots all three of my Macs, but very slowly compared to the internal drive.
It's probably worth noting that the Late-2007 MacBook and the Mid-2007 iMac all share the then-new Santa Rosa architecture. So I'm guessing that they may share the same Firewire chipset. And for whatever reason, that chipset does not play nice with the WD chipset.
So, bottom line is that if you need a Firewire bootable backup, be sure to test the drive right away so that you don't think you have a bootable backup when in fact you don't.
On the good side, the drive is amazingly quiet. At this point, I need to decide whether to keep the drive, knowing that I have only USB as a bootable option on 2 out my 3 Macs, or return it. But in any case, wanted to pass this on to anyone else having problems booting from an external Firewire drive.

baltwo wrote:
FWIW, many WD HDs won't boot Macs and booting Macs isn't supported. Details at their site. That's the main reason I never recommend their crappy HDs.
Actually I'm very familiar with that list- spent a lot of time looking at this past week!
Ironically, the majority of that page is a list of drives which they claim WILL boot Macs. In fact, the list is entitled "List of Mac-bootable WD external drives..."
And yep, mine is on there...on the list that reads "The following external hard drives should be bootable on Intel-based Mac computers systems through FireWire (1394a/b)" is "MyBook Studio" as well as my drive model number.
But that's all beside the point. Like you, I couldn't recommend their drives at this point. At least make sure if you buy one that the vendor has a good return policy.
Dave

27" iMac won't boot from anything BUT the main drive

Hi all,
My lovely 27" iMac is in perfect working condition, but I thought I'd try to install a OS on a large SD card to see if I would gain any speed.
In the process of doing that (cause I never got that far) I discover that the iMac won't boot from the original install DVD. It simply spits out the DVD when I try to insert into the drive. I'v managed to make an image of the DVD (in a different mac) onto the SD card in order to try an boot from that. No luck. I've tried to insert a original install DVD from my Mac Pro into the iMac, which it reads fine and well, and when I tap the restart button it restarts, but stop with a white screen doing boot up.
If I try to hold down the option key during startup, the iMac WILL let me choose which OS to boot from, but if I choose anything else than the OS already installed it freezes.
I've even tried to boot my Mac Pro from the iMac install DVD - no problems.
I've even run a hardware test on the iMac - no problems.
I am running out of options fast! Please help a devoted Mac-friend.
Take care.
Peter

I WAS using the DVD that came with the machine, but I fear Apple may have sent me the wrong one?
In trying to solve the issues I'd tried other OS disc's (A Mac Pro install DVD and a OS X Leopard DVD) - but none of them would even boot, nor install of my iMac. I always end up with a white screen during boot up.
As I described, the original iMac install DVD would indeed boot my Mac Pro, do the disc seems ok?

My 27" iMac Freezes, Won't boot from DVD

My iMac has started to freeze up every few minutes. Every so often, it becomes unresponsive; the mouse cursor still moves (sometimes it turns into a beach ball), but I can't click or type anything. Whenever this happens, the hard drive begins to churn as if it's reading or writing something big. This usually lasts only about thirty seconds to a minute, but it's happening with frustrating regularity.
I've been trying to troubleshoot this for a few days, now. I'll walk you through the steps I've tried so far.
I ran a check on the hard drive with Disk Utility. This came back with a message about the files/directories not matching up with their expected counts. The solution it suggested was to boot from a Snow Leopard disc and let Disk Utility run a Repair Disk while the startup drive is not mounted. It was at this point that I realized that I couldn't boot from the dvd. Whether holding 'C' or 'Option', when it tries to boot from the disc, it gets to the Apple logo and then hangs.
I kept researching and found a workaround; boot into Single User Mode and perform fsck, which fixed the Disk Utility error, but did not solve the freezes/noises, and I still can't boot from the dvd.
Any ideas?

Thank you for your prompt response.
Well, I'm not sure if I explained it clearly. Holding the Option key does indeed bring up a list of bootable devices. The problem arises when control is passed to the Snow Leopard disc. The Apple logo flashes, I can hear the optical drive being accessed, but then it locks up.
I should also clarify that it's not the disc that came with the iMac. I just moved and can't find the original disc, so I borrowed my neighbor's (which came from a Macbook he bought after mine (which I bought last year)). I am under the impression that Macs can't boot from discs that are older than the version of OS X that they shipped with. I wouldn't think that's the issue, here, as his came out later than mine, but I've still got a lot to learn about life in the Appleverse.
My data should be safe--I've got an up to date Time Machine backup on an external drive. The performance issues aside, I'm really looking to understand the underlying problem(s) here.
So, one option is that the RAM might be bad. I can test that by swapping out each DIMM and checking if the problem is resolved. One thing I don't understand, though, is why bad RAM would manifest as the hard drive being accessed. Is there a definitive way to test the logic board, as there is for testing RAM?
Also, I keep thinking of other little syptoms which may or may not be related.
Recap of Symptoms:
Magic Mouse occasionally loses its magic (right click, multitouch, etc.) and needs to be turned off and on.
Free disk space fluctuates by as much as eight gigs (without my intervention).
System stalls (accompanied by HD access sounds) multiple times per hour.
Can't boot from dvds (though, this could be a version problem).
**Fixed: Disk Utility Verify Disk error.
I do understand that this might be a hardware error, and I certainly know how much trouble that sort of thing is to find/fix. I'm definitely willing to open the case and swap out DIMMs and drives, but not until I've exhausted my software solution options. *crosses fingers*

Why won't my Intel iMac boot up, either from the internal hard drive or the DVD drive? It just displays a light grey screen, without any other icons, etc. The fact that it won't boot from the original system DVD is what baffles me the most. Any ideas?

Why won't my Intel iMac boot up, either from the internal hard drive or the DVD drive? It just displays a light grey screen, without any other icons, etc. The fact that it won't boot from the original system DVD is what baffles me the most. Any ideas? It uses the latest version of Mavericks. Thanks!

If the C key for Install Disc or R Command for OS X Recovery startup commands are not working, try holding the Option key for the Startup Manager.
see > Startup Manager: How to select a startup volume
If that does not work and you using a wireless keyboard, it may have become unpaired and you need to dig up a USB keyboard to invoke the startup commands.
For more on gray screen, see > Mac OS X: Gray screen appears during startup

Hi guys I'm really in need of some help. I have an IMac I3 for a while now I've been having a problem of my machine refusing it shut down , it goes to a blue screen with a spinning wheel but doesn't shut down. And now won't boot from install DvD

Please some one help me ...
A) my mac won't shut down with external HD connected (if it's been used)
B) there are disk permissions that can't be fixed SUID stuff ..
C) I have now verified the Mac HD and it tells me it's corrupt in bold red writing and to start up from install DVD
D) it won't boot from DVD so I cannot run the repair , initially the machine was spitting it out on start up , now it appears to be attempting to boot off DVD , well it sounds like it is .... BUT it's hanging with the Mac Logo and a wheel ... For um .... 30min now...
E) weirdly when OSX is booted off the hard drive , it won't recognise the Install DvD or the applications one... It just spits them out....
I had an old PPC 17" and it was a beaut .... Never had a single problem with it ...
I bought this one December 2010 and it's been nothing but issues for a computer in excess of £1000 I'm extremely disappointed ... And weirdly the shutting down issue started when it was a week out of warrantee ... I feel conned and am almost at the point of throwing it at a wall and buying a PC

Ok so I've done what you said and this is what it's come back ....
I don't know that these are the errors , but they're the things which don't look right ...
Throughout the shut down there is a recurring line ;
It says ;
Com.apple.launchd 1 0x100600e70.anonymous.unmount 301 PID still valid
Then there are 2 more which I think are related ;
Com.apple.securityd 29 PID job has I overstayed its welcome , forcing removal.
Then the same with fseventd 48 and diskarbitrationd 13
Oh and on Launchd1 : System : stray anonymous job at shut down : PID 301 PPID13 PGID 13 unmount...
Then the last process says "about to call: reboot (RB_AUTOBOOT).
Continuing...
And stops ...
Hope this means something to you ... Thanks again for your help so far :-)

IMac G5 hangs on startup, won't boot from disc

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