IMac practically bricked

About a month ago, my iMac started having erratic kernel panics. I thought they were just a glitch after upgrading to 10.5.6, but it persisted for about a week. The panics started getting worse and worse and before you knew it the iMac wouldn't even reach the login screen. It would freeze right there and force me into a shutdown loop. So I took it to the apple store and they looked at it, couldn't figure it out so they signed it in. After about 2 days they call me and say they couldn't find the problem. They were either going to ship it to factory for $900 USD or I take it back.
I've had no luck fixing it myself, but perhaps someone who's experienced this can give me some real advice.
Thanks.
Oh, ~3 days before all this happened I installed an HP driver which crashed halfway through the installation.
I've erased my HD and tried to reinstall using the backup discs, but it keeps crashing or freezing up.

Obviously hardware. We can't help you.

Similar Messages

Computer shuts down with restart message-iMac practically unusable

Hey,
I have a problem with my iMac. Every time I login, I can browse the internet and use the computer fine, however it will show this gray screen with a large symbol of the power button and a message in about three different languages saying that I have to restart my computer. It does this very often now, in fact a lot of times I can't even login because the computer freezes right after I turn it on. I recently installed the new Leopard to see if maybe that would help fix the problem, but it didn't seem to make a difference. I'm not sure what to do at this point. My computer is basically unusable since it shuts down every 5 minutes, or even RIGHT after it has been restarted from a freeze.
When it freezes, it usually takes a while too. For example, the seconds on the clock stop, then I get the spinning color wheel. After a few more seconds or minutes, the gray screen with the power button shows and says to restart. Any ideas? I'm pretty sure I have the latest updates installed.
Thanks in advance

Installing a new operating system to fix errors such as these usually does not fix such problems. New operating systems typically just add features. If you erase and installed the operating system, and you get a 4 language error message like this, you have a hardware issue. If you installed additional software, it is trickier to figure out if it is a hardware or software issue. This 4 language error is known as a kernel panic. Essentially what has happened is some driver, which is a communication peripheral communications software, or basic operating system command has become unusable due to data corruption or incompatibility. Tell us what you have connected to your Mac that is not factory standard, and what you have installed.

Waking up a Mac; Harmful to computer?

I have an iMac, practically brand new, and I was wondering, is it bad to keep waking up a Mac from sleep? Im trying to save energy, but I don't know if I'm harming my computer by putting it to sleep every time I'm done using it, and then waking it back up in like an hour.
Also, I have the settings on energy saver set so the computers displays go to sleep before the computer itself goes to sleep, but it never actually goes to sleep. When the displays turn off, I can still hear the HD running. Should I just make the computer go to sleep before the display?
Thanks a ton everyone! =D

Spin-Ups do add extra wear on the drive, but heck, drives are cheap and using them consumes them one way or another anyway. Nobody knows (probably differs with a manufacturer) if it's better to spin it down/up or let it run for let's say a break of an hour.
I'd just not worry about it and replace the drive when/if it happens (and if you have Apple Care, then worry even less). You just need a backup (but you'll need that anyway) and you'll be fine ... think of HDs like tyres or bakes on your car, to use them means to gradually destroy them.

Does shutting down and starting up wear out the hard drive faster?

does anyone know if shutting down and starting up the imac repeatedly wear out the hard drive faster? I had heard that repeated shutting down and starting up of the hard drive will wear out the hard drive faster. If this is true, is it better to put the imac to sleep and shut down only when you absolutely have to or when you will be gone for a while? (e.g., going on vacation or when moving the imac). The imac manual suggests that if you are going to use the imac within a few days to put it to sleep and shut it down if you are not going to use it for a few days. Is this advice just to save you time since you don't have to reboot or will this help prolong the life of the hard drive? Of course, keeping the imac on all the time might waste energy (not sure if sleep mode saves energy). But since I use the imac practically everyday it may make sense to put it to sleep, especially if this will prolong the life of the hard drive. thanks

Good Morning,
In my experience there shouldn't be any unnecessary wear and tear on your hard drive from shutting down your computer unless you are doing an EXTREME amount of startup/shutdown cycles.
The average user should not put enough strain on the drive to even be noticed from normal startup/shutdown cycles.
Hope this helps! 
David

Best Practices for new iMac

I posted a few days ago re failing HDD on mid-2007 iMac. Long story short, took it into Apple store, Genius worked on it for 45 mins before decreeing it in need of new HDD. After considering the expenses of adding memory, new drive, hardware and installation costs, I got a brand new iMac entry level (21.5" screen,
2.7 GHz Intel Core i5, 8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3 memory, 1TB HDD running Mavericks). Also got a Superdrive. I am not needing to migrate anything from the old iMac.
I was surprised that a physical disc for the OS was not included. So I am looking for any Best Practices for setting up this iMac, specifically in the area of backup and recovery. Do I need to make a boot DVD? Would that be in addition to making a Time Machine full backup (using external G-drive)? I have searched this community and the Help topics on Apple Support and have not found any "checklist" of recommended actions. I realize the value of everyone's time, so any feedback is very appreciated.

OS X has not been officially issued on physical media since OS X 10.6 (arguably 10.7 was issued on some USB drives, but this was a non-standard approach for purchasing and installing it).
To reinstall the OS, your system comes with a recovery partition that can be booted to by holding the Command-R keys immediately after hearing the boot chimes sound. This partition boots to the OS X tools window, where you can select options to restore from backup or reinstall the OS. If you choose the option to reinstall, then the OS installation files will be downloaded from Apple's servers.
If for some reason your entire hard drive is damaged and even the recovery partition is not accessible, then your system supports the ability to use Internet Recovery, which is the same thing except instead of accessing the recovery boot drive from your hard drive, the system will download it as a disk image (again from Apple's servers) and then boot from that image.
Both of these options will require you have broadband internet access, as you will ultimately need to download several gigabytes of installation data to proceed with the reinstallation.
There are some options available for creating your own boot and installation DVD or external hard drive, but for most intents and purposes this is not necessary.
The only "checklist" option I would recommend for anyone with a new Mac system, is to get a 1TB external drive (or a drive that is at least as big as your internal boot drive) and set it up as a Time Machine backup. This will ensure you have a fully restorable backup of your entire system, which you can access via the recovery partition for restoring if needed, or for migrating data to a fresh OS installation.

I want to move a selection (a person) into an image of a brick wall and have it look like the person was painted on the wall. Can it be done? Using CC on iMac. Thanks

I want to move a selection (a person) into an image of a brick wall and have it look like the person was painted on the wall. Can it be done? Using CC on iMac. Thanks

Yes of course its Photoshop. Cut the person out copy to clipboard paste onto toe brick wall document and texture the layer using a displacement map for the brick wall. Look for Photoshop tutorials on using a displacement map.

Assassin's Creed and Boot Camp bricked my iMac!

Okay, so it is not quite bricked, but it is very close, and I am at a loss. For the first time I have exhausted my knowledge and a series of Google searches and have come up short. Hopefully one of you guys can help. Sorry about how long this is, but I wanted to be as detailed as possible
First, the hardware:
27" iMac; OS X 10.6.2; 2.16GHz Core 2 Duo; 2GB RAM; GeForce 7600 (the $75 upgrade, if it maters)
The Circumstances:
I have had Boot Camp installed with Windows XP for a about a year now, though I have had to reinstall Windows a number of times. Frequently this seems to have corresponded with playing Assassin's Creed, though this is maybe just a coincidence.
Most recently, (about a week ago) I installed Windows XP Black Edition, hoping it might fair a bit better, and everything ran well. Two days ago I booted up Assassin's Creed, and everything was fine until today. I was playing the game, paused it, got up, and when I came back the computer was frozen with a mess of garbled checkers displayed on the screen.
The Problem:
I rebooted into Windows, and it locked up on a similar checkered screen.
I booted into Mac and it locked up during the grey apple logo.
I booted to the INSTALL DISC and it STILL froze during the grey apple logo.
HOWEVER, it will allow my to hold down option and pick which start disc I want it to freeze in, so it CAN access the firmware, but it CAN NOT get at either hard drive partition or the optical drive? All because it locked up during some game? Weird.
What I Have Tried:
I have tried booting from multiple install discs (see above)
I have tried resetting the PRAM several times
I have unplugged every peripheral other than my keyboard and mouse
I have tried booting in Safe Mode
I have tried booting into Single User Mode (it WILL boot into this mode) and running the fsck -fy command
I have tried booting into Target Disk Mode (boots) and connecting it to my laptop, from which I ran a repair in Disk Utility: It completed successfully and said there were no issues.
Other Clues:
It pretty much freezes up at the same point every time, right in the middle of the spinning wheel under the grey apple logo.
If I leave the computer the grey logo and pinwheel will disappear, leaving a just a grey screen.
Once it gave me the Kernel Panic screen instead of just locking up
If I boot in Verbose Mode the last couple lines before it freezes are:
Warning - com.apple.driver.InternalModemSupport declares no kernel dependencies; using com.apple.kernel.6.0.
PeerGuardian log entries: 731 (40960)
However, sometimes verbose mode will switch to a blank grey screen rather than stick on those lines
Anyone got any ideas? Please? I hope.

Quick correction: It's a 24" iMac, not a 27". I've been daydreaming I guess.

How do I prepare my iMac for sale? And best practice for transferring media to a new system.

This is my first time posting in a forum, so I will apologize in advance if I'm doing something wrong. I've tried to search for a very clear answer to my questions in the existing discussions, but have not had much luck.
I ordered a Macbook Pro today and would like to sell my current iMac to supplement some of the cost. I purchased my iMac in March of 2011 with OS X Snow Leopard preinstalled. I've since updated to Mountain Lion. When my computer came in it did not have OS DVDs, so I am not sure exactly how to take it back to factory default and remove ALL of my information safely in order to prepare it for sale. I'm afraid to tell it to format if I am going to need a boot disc/drive to reinstall the OS. I've been trying to research all day and have learned that I will not be able to sell it with the current OS, only the one that came with the computer at the time of purchase (to the best of my understanding).
Secondary to all of this, I have a question about backing up info and porting it to my new system. I have run the Time Machine backup to my external hard drive. However, I DO NOT want to port it to my new MBP as an image of my past machine. I did that when I got my iMac from my old MBP and my iMac thinks it is a MBP (MBP EFI/SMC Firmware Update Icons in my system utilities folder as well as identified as a Macbook Pro on my network). I've never been able to get all of these things to go away and I feel like it's chewing up hard drive space for no purpose whatsoever. I also worry that it could create system issues that I'm just not savy enough to catch before they are beyond control. That being said, I'd like to begin fresh with my new MBP. What is the best method of bringing my photos from iPhoto and music/movies/books/etc from iTunes to my new system? My word documents are easy enough...I keep 3 flash drives updated with them at all times.
Thanks in advance!

Whoever said you can't sell you iMac with the current Mac OS X is wrong, I believe.
Unfortunately, it is not wrong.
Any OS purchased/obtained at the app store - as is the case here - is not transferable. The license is tied forever to the Apple ID used to obtain it. The SLA states that the seller needs to erase the drive and reinstall the original system.
@ Kamikazwe:
You can call Apple and give them your serial number and they will send you copies of your original disks at a nominal charge.
You do need to use your original Snow Leopard disk, boot from it, erase the drive, and reinstall Snow Leopard. The buyer of the machine will need to purchase his/her own copy of Lion or Mountain Lion with their own Apple ID or they will never be able to reinstall or update the OS.
SLA Excerpt:
3. Transfer.
A. If you obtained the Apple Software preinstalled on Apple-branded hardware, you may make a one-time permanent transfer of all of your license rights to the Apple Software (in its original form as provided by Apple) to another party, provided that: the Apple Software is transferred
together with your Apple-branded hardware; (ii) the transfer must include all of the Apple Software, including all its component parts, printed materials and this License; (iii) you do not retain any copies of the Apple Software, full or partial, including copies stored on a computer or
other storage device; and (iv) the party receiving the Apple Software accepts the terms andcconditions of this License. For purposes of this License, if Apple provides an update (e.g., version 10.8 to 10.8.1) to the Apple Software, the update is considered part of the Apple
Software and may not be transferred separately from the pre-update version of the Apple Software.
B. If you obtained your license to the Apple Software from the Mac App Store, it is not transferable. If you sell your Apple-branded hardware to a third party, you must remove the Apple Software from the Apple-branded hardware before doing so, and you may restore your system to the version of the Apple operating system software that originally came with your Apple hardware (the “Original Apple OS”) and permanently transfer the Original Apple OS together with your Apple hardware, provided that: the transfer must include all of the Original
Apple OS, including all its component parts, printed materials and its license; (ii) you do not retain any copies of the Original Apple OS, full or partial, including copies stored on a computer or other storage device; and (iii) the party receiving the Original Apple OS reads and agrees to
accept the terms and conditions of the Original Apple OS license.

Best practices for moving from my iMac to my new MacBook Pro without carrying along a lot of junk?

Some suggestions are welcome!
I have been using an iMac late 2009 21.5" for the last few years. Recently I received a new MacBook Pro. The MacBook Pro has better specs (better cpu, more RAM, SSD drive) and is overall faster. I got an external 27" IPS monitor to hook up to the HDMI port and going forward I would like to use the new MBP with external monitor as my main desktop computer and keep my iMac as a backup machine if the MBP ever needs repairs.
Anyway, I have two backups of my iMac: (1) Time Machine, which does its usual incremental backup, but excludes some things, like Parallels VMs and (2) A CCC bootable clone that runs every night at 3:30 am while I'm asleep. And as I'm writing this I'm updating that clone copy.
The thing is, I don't want to move everything over to my new MBP. Over the years I've accumulated a lot of junk, and currently am using about 450 GB of the 512 GB disk space. My new MBP also has 512 GB of space, but I figure why not just bring over what I think is necessary and later on, if I'm missing something, I can get it from the CCC backup or the Time Machine backup. (I will get new backup drives for the MBP). My guess is I don't really need even half of what I've currently got on my iMac HD.
So I don't think I want to use the Time Machine migration assistant. And I don't want to restore the new computer from the CCC clone. But I do want to add in enough applications and documents and settings so I can continue running much like I am running on my iMac. I'd like my installed software (BBEdit, Office, Parallels, CCC, etc.) to be licensed and avoid a new install of each app if possible. I'd like the apps with open documents to remember which docs were open, and when I start them again have things open up like they did on my iMac.
Are there some strategies people can recommend for this? Like for each application, copy over the application, and related preference files from ~/Library? Or are there some applications which just plain have to be re-installed to work right?
If what I'm thinking of doing is too complicated, the alternative would be to do a complete restore to the MBP and then try an extensive hash-and-slash and attempt to delete old, unneeded things.
But I have old preference files going back years and I figure why not start afresh, since everything is so incredibly speedy on my new MBP.
What do people here usually do when they get a new computer that will replace the old one?
Thanks,
Doug

Well, I've been trying this for a while. By my calculations, at this rate, installing all the applications one by one and trying to restore all the data manually will take me about six years. I would finished just in time for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
The main problem is, I don't know where all the bodies are buried. Just one example, I'm using Cornerstone for an svn client. I have working copies of multiple repositories on my computer. I really don't want to set them all up again, and I can't figure out where the Cornerstone preferences and all settings are stored. I couldn't find them in the Library anywhere.
And that's just one case.
I haven't done much with my MacBook Pro yet, I think in retrospect the easiest course of action is to reinstall OS X as though it were new MacBook Pro, start from scratch, and use my Time Machine backup with the migration assistant and go from there.
And that's what I'm doing right now. I'm in the middle of reinstalling OS X.
Afterwords I'll use a clean app uninstaller application to get rid of all the applications that I'm not using. And I'll just hack away at directories that I know I haven't looked at for years, with the confidence that I have a backup both in Time Machine and in CCC and also on my iMac. That's three backups.
I would rather start out "light", but I can see it's just going to take forever and a day to get it done. Anyway, fortunately nothing is carved in stone, and I can always try again if I want to. But dealing with all the documents and all the applications one by one separately was just obviously going to take too much time.
I'll report back on my results. And I appreciate your suggestion.
Doug

10.6.2 Bricked my iMac

My compy ( late 2006 , Intel 17" iMac -BT) worked like a charm on 10.6.1, yesterday I upgraded to 10.6.2 and had no issue during the installation, when the computer restarted my BT keyboard and mouse would not connect ( I am stuck at "enter password" screen), that did happened before so I tried using USB mouse , and nothing USB ports are not working ( mouse works fine with my work laptop). So I tried the SMC reset, I unplugged the computer and all other peripherals for 30 sec+ and nothing, USB port still does not work. I will try today with a USB keyboard and I will try to boot from the SL DVD but I would appreciate any help or suggestions.
Thanks,

Restore the bootable backup/clone of 10.6.1 or its Time Machine backup and give the update another go. I disdain wifi input devices, so have nothing to offer on that count, but a PRAM/NVRAM reset detailed in http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379 might fix that issue.

Any best practices sharing iPhoto library between iMac and MacBook Pro

I have my iPhoto library on my iMac, but I would also like to view and edit keywords, etc on my MacBook Pro.
Any suggestions on how to do this?

Larry
There are two ways to share, depending on what you mean by 'share'.
If you want the other user to be able to see the pics, but not add to, change or alter your library, then enable Sharing in your iPhoto (Preferences -> Sharing), leave iPhoto running. On the other machine enable 'Look For Shared Libraries'. Your Library will appear in the other source pane.
Remember iPhoto must be running on both machies for this to work.
If you want the other user to have the same access to the library as you: to be able to add, edit, organise, keyword etc. then:
Quit iPhoto ion both machines.
Move the iPhoto Library Folder to an external HD set to ignore permissions
On each machine in turn: Hold down the option (or alt) key and launch iPhoto. From the resulting dialogue, select 'Choose Library' and navigate to the new library location. From that point on, this will be the default library location. Both machines will have full access to the library, in fact, both accounts will 'own' it.
However, there is a catch with this system and it is a significant one. iPhoto is not a multi-user app., it does not have the code to negotiate two users simultaneously writing to the database, and trying will cause db corruption. So only one user at a time, and back up, back up back up.
Regards
TD

10.7.5 Server - AFP Userdirectorys, one iMac & one MBA per User, practicable?

Hello,
I wanted to ask you whether someone has the title described in the constellation in operation.
So far running all local accounts access the 10.7 server resources (AFP) with the OD credentials.
As the number of employees increase, two more locations to be included and also a need for synchronized user profiles on iMac & MBA arose I wanted to know if anyone cared for a similar configuration and can perhaps tell me how well it runs.
Are there for example.
-Problems in matching/syncing the mobile user profile account with server and than to network account and back?
-Is there a way individual users folders in all three locations be present?
All client devices run10.7.5.
Maybe someone who could tell me in german, sorry for that I'll try my best if anyone could help me in english, too!
For any information, I am very grateful!

Try reindexing the mailbox. This can take awhile if you have a lot of mail.
Reindex messages.
If that doesn't work try deleting MessageUidsAlreadyDownloaded3.
Quit the application.
You need to look in your user Library. Either hold down the option key while using the Finder “Go To Folder” command and select your user Library in your home folder or use the Finder “Go To Folder” command and enter ~/Library/Mail/V2/Mail Data/MessageUidsAlreadyDownloaded3. Move the file to your desktop.
Open the application and test. If it works okay, delete the file from the desktop.
If the application is the same, return thefile to where you got it from, overwriting the newer ones.
If you prefer to make your User library permanently visible, use the Terminal command found below.
Show User Library
You might want to bookmark the command. I had to use it again after I installed 10.8.5. I have also been informed that if you drag the user library to Finder it will remain visible.

Updating to OSX 10.7.3 bricked my iMac.

While working on my iMac tonight it asked to reboot to install the OSX 10.7.3 update. I clicked reboot and after a few minutes it came up with a message that it needed a forced reboot as it was unable to install the update. I forced rebooted it exactly as it told me to do. Holding down the power button til it shut off and then to hit power again to start up the computer.
On reboot it got to the white screen with the gray logo and pinwheel and won't go any further. I left it for 3 hours to see what would happen and nothing changed. So I rebooted to the boot drive and fixed disk permissions and verified disk. It did come up with an error about catalog permissions and so I fixed the disk.
It still is sitting on the boot screen and won't go any further. This issue seems unrelated to some of other issues with the update and the MacBook Pro. I do have a backup from about 2 weeks ago but I had to unplug the external backup drive as it kept on giving me errors an flooding connection to the drive. I don't want to restore from backup if I don't have to.
Does anyone have any idea what I should do next?

I too, am no longer able to boot my MacBook Air after installing 10.7.3 via the Software Update system application.
It did install the update successfully, and prompted for a normal restart. After I restarted, I logged into my encrypted drive user account and then... long nothing. The grey circle spins and spins and eventually the Apple logo becomes a circle with a slash through it.
It appears that my only hope will be to restore from my last Time Machine backup and wait a very long time before trusting another Apple update again.

Umm....I think Apple TV just bricked my iMac :(

I was syncing my Apple TV for the first time to my iMac G5 when all of the sudden the Apple TV froze. I went to check the iMac, and found it to be tuned off. I thought that was pretty weird but just figured something odd had happened. I turned off the Apple TV and unplugged it from the network, then went and turned the iMac back on. It got up to the login window, then promptly turned itself right back off again. I'm starting to get a little worried at this point, so I change the power cord and try again. This time it let me log in, then died when the Finder loaded. I took it out of my surge protector and plugged it directly into a wall outlet. No change. I booted up in single user mode and ran fsck on it - the drive insists it's fine. I unplugged it and left it alone over night. This morning I got about 5 minutes out of it (enough time to get some recent data that I - like an idiot - hadn't backed up yet off) before it shut itself down once more.
So can anyone think of any way, shape or form Apple TV could have just killed my iMac? It's not even possible for it to have interacted with the power system management in OS X is it? If it had just hosed the hard drive inside the iMac why would it turn the power off? I thought I'd see if anyone here had any ideas before the inventible visit to my local Apple Authorized Service Provider

It could just be a coincidence. Which model do you have how to identify your iMac? Have you tried resetting the PRAM?
Please post back, depending on your model you might be eligible for either of Apple'sRev A and Rev B repair extension.
Miriam

IMac bricked after enabling CD/DVD sharing in 10.5.2

After upgrading my aluminium 24" iMac to 10.5.2 I enabled CD/DVD-sharing just for the heck of it without getting round to trying it before trouble set in.
Later in the evening, apps started freezing for whatever reason and I decided to reboot. The iMac now hangs at the grey apple with a spinning gear below. Repeated restarts, resetting PRAM and power management make no difference.
Starting from the install DVD (c held down efter chime) has the same result: Acres of grey with apple and spinning gear. So no joy there.
Starting in target mode is possible - and amazingly, the install DVD still in the iMac turned up om my other computers' desktop
Running Disk Utility on the iMac's disk returns an error: "incorrect block count for file pcscd.pub (it should be 16 instead of 17)" which DU then claims to fix.
But no luck. Back to grey.
I can start the iMac in single user mode. fsck returns the same incorrect block count error and also claims to fix it, but after mounting / and exiting it loops and keeps returning an indecipherable (to me) error message. I'm away from the iMac right now, and I can't remember what it was ...
I have good backups so I'm quite prepared to wipe the **** thing and start over. But I can't get to do that: It doesn't see the install DVD, and with the iMac in target mode, the 10.5 installer (retail version) run from my other mac won't install on the iMac.
I'm guessing it's not a disk issue but some EPROM parameter connected with the CD/DVD-sharing that's the culprit.
Any ideas?
Message was edited by: Peter Plys

You're quite right. And it would be in the spirit of the community and all do to just that and report back. But after finding that my backups - though complete - are not as well-ordered as I would have liked and at present being halfway through reestablishing a workable status quo, I'm no gonna bother . Sorry.
This way, I'll also know - if my iMac goes belly-up again - that the problem is probably caused by something else.
/P
PS: I'm kicking myself for not thinking to try safe booting before doing the big wipe.

IMac practically bricked

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