IMac won't start due to power outage

A transformer blew here in town the other night, and we lost power. Prior to that, there were two other power outages due to weather, but my iMac recycled and turned on fine after that. Now it won't turn on at all. Yes, I have read through all of the discussions prior to adding this discussion:
1. Unplugged the cord from the surge protector, and into a wall socket, and all other cord related suggestions
2. Tried resetting the PRAM
3. No sound, no fan, nothing when I press the button
4. Unfortunately my warranty has run out
4. Should I try to reinstall the memory card or should I go ahead and take it in?
5. Any other suggestions? Help!
Thanks in advance....

After the drive is erased you will have to reinstall everything. You certainly can reinstall Tiger from the OS X installer DVD. When the OS is reinstalled, all the bundled software is also reinstalled, including Safari and iTunes.
As to whether anything can be done short of reformatting, that depends on the tools you have. A heavy duty utility may be able to repair the files and the drive. But it depends on what is wrong with the drive. If the cause is simply 'over-crowding' or bad sectors on the drive, i.e. too much stored on the drive or physical damage of the drive, it is possible to retrieve some or even all of the data. But, as you have discovered, Disk Utility cannot do this.

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Computer won't start up after power outage....

We just had a power outage when our computer was on and now that our power is back, the computer won't start up. (I'm typing this on our power book!) I hold in the button on the back, get the "bong" and then the computer whirs for a while with a black screen and then just dies. What to do??

You can, in addition to Barry's excellent suggestions, reset the SMU.

Imac will not start up after power outage

My iMac G5 will not turn on after the power went out. I can hear a clicking noise which seems to be coming from the fan/power supply area when it is plugged in. Nothing happens when the power button is pressed. Tried resetting PMU and still nothing. What do you think the problem could be? Bad power supply?
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I just went through the steps of troubleshooting with an iMac that won't turn on using the led indicators with the back taken off, the first led light lights but it seems to blink very quickly (in unison with the clicking noise), does not stay solid. After pressing the SMU and then the internal power button, nothing happens again, and the 2nd led light does not light even momentarily. So it tells me that I need a new logic board...what kind of costs are we talking about here, anybody have a ballpark idea? Thanks for the help.
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iMac won't start
Power light on front comes on,
NO chime
Some very quiet sounds for a few seconds and nothing else
I'm assuming the worst....dead hard drive?
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Hey Sheryl et al,
In the 1st gen and ALS G5 iMacs the first thing to check out is the capacitors on the logic board. If those look good and I mean absolutely pristine, then open up the power supply and check the ones in there.
Note: The diagnostic LEDs I consider to be a general indicator and not infallible.
The iSights are much more difficult to work on since opening them is much more problematic. The ones with the ATI X600 GPU chip have a high failure record due to that chip.
Also the iSight's power supply is another failure point.
As Richard notes a new power supply will run just over $100.
However a logic board swap will run $350 - $400 depending on model at DT&T services in CA.
Also Apple could/should theoretically do what's referred to as a "depot repair" on these machines for a flat $350. It would depend (as always) on the Apple Tech/service person you're dealing with.
A final note, I repair and donate these to deserving not for profits.
Harry Porterfield did a piece on me a few years ago.
http://www.vimeo.com/150591
Here's the URL to the TV station site:
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=local&id=5097319
Richard
Message was edited by: spudnuty

IMac won't start - should I reinstall OS?

Recently my iMac won't start up - it goes to screen with folder + question mark. I've run Disk Utility, repaired hard drive, but there were no reported repairs to make.
Occassionally it will start up, and everything seems normal until suddenly the beach ball appears and everything freezes. 99% of tries it won't start up (i get the ? folder). Is it worth erasing the disk and reinstalling everything to see if a fresh start will help, or is it likely that the hardware is damaged?
Don't want to bother erasing it if there's no point... any advice greatly appreciated.
Also - anyone who's had their iMac repaired - what are the costs like?

I've just suddenly had the same problem - for no apparent reason as far as I can tell. The night before last I switched off my iMac as normal, and yesterday morning switched it back on. At first it would start, but crashed as soon as I tried to start any applications. Then it wouldn't start at all, and just got as far as the gray screen with the apple on it. After trying resetting the PRAM, switching on and holding the on button for 10 seconds, it was no different...
So, I tried doing a archive-reinstall from the original leopard DVD I bought from apple. This did a successful disk verification, but then said it couldn't install mac os due to a problem with the basesystem package. After that it wouldn't let me try another archive-install and only gave the options to install as new, or erase and install. The latter I don't want to do, and the former just gives the same basesystem error... All I get now is a flashing folder with a question mark and not even the gray screen...
I have tried using the diskutility to verify/ repair the hard drive and it says all is well...
I have heard this may all be due to dodgy RAM chips, but I have never messed with them or altered them. It just seems odd they should suddenly fail when they were working fine before.....
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My iMac won't start this morning. I get the white screen with the grey apple,
and the swirling progress thing, then after a few seconds I can hear
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going off, then it just continues swirling, still with the white
screen and grey apple, then it restarts by itself. Then we go through
the same routine. Tried booting up by holding C with the Leopard disc inside but nothing happens.I have just reinstalled Leopard as Snow Leopard left too many printers and programs lifeless, so I did an erase and install a few days ago. Since then I have used the Mac fine, switched down normally last night, but this morning it doesn't want to play.
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Message was edited by: ChrisRR

Have you reset PRAM and SMC?
Do this first
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379
and then do this, if the PRAM does not help
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1543
The second one is basically disconnecting your iMac from power (and all cables), then reconnecting following a precise procedure.
If that does not help, I would restart with the Snow Leopard installation disc (insert disc and start up with the C key held down). You probably did an installation of Snow Leopard over your existing Leopard system the first time. This time, erase it completely first, then install Snow Leopard. I assume you backed up your data already.
When you get to the Installer screen (after selecting language), go up to the menu bar. Under Utilities, select to run Disk Utility. In the sidebar, select the internal DRIVE, not the volume indented under the drive. Go to the Erase tab. Name the volume +Macintosh HD+ and set the format to +Mac OS Extended (Journaled)+. Erase the drive. Since you have the drive selected in the sidebar (not the volume), it will also re-partition the drive.
It should take less than on minute to complete the process. Quit Disk Utility to go back to Installer. Run the standard installation onto the blank internal drive. Hopefully, a fresh Snow Leopard install on a reformatted/re-partitioned drive will work better for you.

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My iMac won't start. When you turn it on the apple logo comes on but it keeps trying but never turns on. I tried unplugging it and plugging it into a new power source didn't work. I tried starting it up in safe mode didn't work. Any ideas out there?

There are some good Apple Support articles about startup issues, but which one to read depends on your operating system and model.
For example, if you are running 10.1-10.4, this one is good: Resolve startup issues and perform disk maintenance with Disk Utility and fsck
Here's one for 10.4-10.6: Mac OS X: Gray screen appears during startup (I know the apple logo is showing up for you, but good things to try anyway).
If you decide to run fsck as mentioned in the first article, be sure you read this article first: Mac OS X: How to start up in single-user or verbose mode
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My iMac won't start up anymore. When I hold down the power button for 3 seconds and then let go al it does is beeps 3 times and then pauses for about 4-5 sec. , the 3 beeps and pause, and so on. Everything was working fine. I shut down the computer and now can't geitback on. Is it ruined?

Three beeps at startup indicates bad or loose RAM.
You can look up videos on how to replace RAM on your model Mac, at YouTube, or Other World Computing.

My iMac won't start normally it will start on safe boot unless I start in verbus mode single user mode or reset the pram but if I start this way it won't sleep

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Hello!
Can you tell us what happens?
I’ve offered the steps below to similar posts in the past and they helped out getting to the solution (or at least find the cause). I suggest them to you too in this case. It will take you about 30 minutes or less to do these, depending on how bad the problem on your Mac is.
The goal here is to boot your Mac to the so-called Recovery partition where you’ll have a chance to repair the disk and the disk permissions using the Disk Utility and Password Utility. This might solve your issue and even if it doesn’t- it’s still a decent maintenance step to perform. These steps won’t erase your data or reinstall your Mac in any way if you follow instructions carefully.
Here’s how:
1/ Make sure your computer is completely shut down.
2/ You’ll have to be quick next: Press the Mac’s power button. As soon as you either hear the loud chime, or see the display light up - usually after a second or 2 - on your keyboard press [cmd] + [r] Keep these keys on your keyboard pressed until you either see an Apple Logo with a loading bar or a spinning gear.
After a few minutes, you’ll be presented with a Utilities screen. This is the Recovery partition. If this step is already giving you problems, try using a USB-keyboard. It doesn’t have to be an Apple-keyboard. If you have a Windows-tailored keyboard laying around, use the “Windows-flag” key in stead of the [cmd]-key and it should also work.
3/ Choose Disk Utility and click [continue]
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4/ Once done with the verifying or repairing of your “Macintosh HD” click [repair disk permissions]
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http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203172
5/ Lastly we shall do a permissions/Access Control List repair on specifically your user’s home folder with a somewhat hidden tool in the Recovery partition. Close Disk Utility and find the menu called “utilities” in the top left corner of your computer’s display. It’s in between the menus “edit” and “window” Don’t be confused with the menu called “os x utilities”
Choose Terminal. A somewhat old-fashioned looking window will pop up, waiting for a text command from you. This is the Terminal.
After the # type: resetpassword and press return. Note that there is no space between ‘reset’ and ‘password’
What you’ll see next is an rectangular window that gives you the option to reset passwords. We are not going to that, however. Instead, click on “Macintosh HD” at the top. In the pull-down menu below that, choose your user's accountname. Skip all the rest and at the very bottom click the [reset]-button.
A spinning gear will appear and may stay on for a second or several minutes. It’s hard to predict exactly how long.
If you have multiple users on your Mac, I advise you to repeat this step for all your users.
We’re ready to reboot your Mac now. Click on the Apple Menu and choose “startup disk” Choose to boot from “Macintosh HD” Please let us know if this solved your issue, or if the steps above did not work, or could not be performed for some reason.

Early 2008 iMac won't start up. Goes to apple logo and freezes

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I work at an Authorized Apple Reseller and we are having the same problem with one of our showfloor models.
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Problem Description: When you press the power button, you hear the Apple chime and the screen turns on. Instead of booting normally, the screen shows the Apple logo, a spinning 'loading' circle (I call it a ferris wheel), and a loading bar below that. Typically the loading bar is for an EFI Firmware update, but I don't remember updating the iMac recently. Anyways, the loading bar moves once, starts over, and then the iMac shuts down.
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http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93953
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chaosdivine thanks for the idea!
Had to laugh at the comment that the USB would be wobbly after some time had gone by. Mine was broken after first attempt to even use it!
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IMac won't start due to power outage

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