Monitor flickered and not iMAC won't boot up

My iMAC 24; purchased in late 2008, the screen started flickering recently. Top half of the screen would flicker and the bottom half is black. The only option is to do a hard book by holding the power button. Now on the reboot I get the Apple icon and than the spinning gear but about 1 minute the gear stops. On some reboots I'm able to get in and everything is fine but than soon after the flickering starts up again. The strange thing is upon the reboot after the gear stops spinning it does seems to be still be running and the screen is just frozen. I saw post about a firmware update however I can't update the firmware because I can't boot up. I've tried booting from disk but I get stuck at the same spot. I tried booting in Safe Mode, I get the black screen with a lot of white text but that's it. The only possible error I see is, BootCacheControl: Unable to open /var/db/bootCache.playlist: 2 No such file or directory, but don't know what that means.
Any ideas and/or help?

Safe Mode didn't work, just gave me lots of details with no error.
Huh? Sounds like you booted in verbose mode not safe mode. And it fully booted or didn't?

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Just ran the FREAK security update, and now iMac won't boot

Hello,
Gto major issues here after running the above security patch. I'm on the latest yosemite, on a 2007 iMac, 2.8 extreme. Anyway, the software update seemed to go ok, but, as I always do after updating software, I booted into the recovery drive and ran disk utility. This failed when checking the catalog with an error that the dick couldn't be repaired, back up and restore my files. Exit code 8 ...
when hen I rebooted, the progress bar on the grey screen gets to about a quarter of the way across, and the machine just shuts down.
starting in verbose mode tells me the volume could not be verified
localhost.com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] < Emergency> ...
kext loading now disabled
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killing all processes
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Id appreciate any suggestions.
cheers,
kev.

Hi again,
when I ran AHT yesterday ( the short version ) it said there were no problems. However, when I tried the extended test, it froze after about 20 minutes. That reminded me of a previous issue I had with this mac, when the power supply failed : very worried about my 2.8ghz 24in imac
When booting up now, the the mac gets to the grey screen with the Apple logo, and the progress bar gets to about a third of the way across before shutting down. Im now wondering if the power supply has gone, rather than the disk ...
any thoughts on how I could diagnose this one way or the other?
cheers,
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Changed startup disk and now iMac won't boot, even to CD, can't zap PRAM

So maybe I did something really bad, but I can't imagine that I've fried my logic board, right? I changed the startup disk to an external CD/DVD drive with a linux boot CD inserted. I rebooted the computer and got just a grey screen. I decided that this computer was not capable of booting from the linux CD. Forced the power off by holding down the power button. I turned the computer back on and removed the linux CD. Now my computer will not boot at all. I get a grey screen, then after a long period, the folder with a flashing question mark.
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So get this. I replaced the original keyboard on this computer and was just informed that only the original kybd will work for system startup commands. Since I no longer have the original kybd, the only was to switch the boot drive is use the IR remote that came with the computer, by holding the 'menu' button and using FF and RED buttons to make selection.

My iMac won't boot past grey screen and it didn't come with a os x disk

My iMac won't boot past grey screen with apple. I've tried booting in safemode but that didn't help and my iMac didn't come with a os x disk.

Take each of these steps that you haven't already tried. Stop when the problem is resolved.
Step 1
The first step in dealing with a startup failure is to secure the data. If you want to preserve the contents of the startup drive, and you don't already have at least one current backup, you must try to back up now, before you do anything else. It may or may not be possible. If you don't care about the data that has changed since the last backup, you can skip this step.
There are several ways to back up a Mac that is unable to start. You need an external hard drive to hold the backup data.
a. Start up from the Recovery partition, or from a local Time Machine backup volume (option key at startup.) When the OS X Utilities screen appears, launch Disk Utility and follow the instructions in this support article, under “Instructions for backing up to an external hard disk via Disk Utility.”
b. If you have access to a working Mac, and both it and the non-working Mac have FireWire or Thunderbolt ports, start the non-working Mac in target disk mode. Use the working Mac to copy the data to another drive. This technique won't work with USB, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth.
c. If the internal drive of the non-working Mac is user-replaceable, remove it and mount it in an external enclosure or drive dock. Use another Mac to copy the data.
Step 2
If the startup process stops at a blank gray screen with no Apple logo or spinning "daisy wheel," then the startup volume may be full. If you had previously seen warnings of low disk space, this is almost certainly the case. You might be able to start up in safe mode even though you can't start up normally. Otherwise, start up from an external drive, or else use either of the techniques in Steps 1b and 1c to mount the internal drive and delete some files. According to Apple documentation, you need at least 9 GB of available space on the startup volume (as shown in the Finder Info window) for normal operation.
Step 3
Sometimes a startup failure can be resolved by resetting the NVRAM.
Step 4
If you use a wireless keyboard, trackpad, or mouse, replace or recharge the batteries. The battery level shown in the Bluetooth menu item may not be accurate.
Step 5
If there's a built-in optical drive, a disc may be stuck in it. Follow these instructions to eject it.
Step 6
Press and hold the power button until the power shuts off. Disconnect all wired peripherals except those needed to start up, and remove all aftermarket expansion cards. Use a different keyboard and/or mouse, if those devices are wired. If you can start up now, one of the devices you disconnected, or a combination of them, is causing the problem. Finding out which one is a process of elimination.
Step 7
If you've started from an external storage device, make sure that the internal startup volume is selected in the Startup Disk pane of System Preferences.
Start up in safe mode. Note: If FileVault is enabled, or if a firmware password is set, or if the startup volume is a Fusion Drive or a software RAID, you can’t do this. Post for further instructions.
Safe mode is much slower to start and run than normal, and some things won’t work at all, including wireless networking on certain Macs.
The login screen appears even if you usually log in automatically. You must know the login password in order to log in. If you’ve forgotten the password, you will need to reset it before you begin.
When you start up in safe mode, it's normal to see a dark gray progress bar on a light gray background. If the progress bar gets stuck for more than a few minutes, or if the system shuts down automatically while the progress bar is displayed, the startup volume is corrupt and the drive is probably malfunctioning. In that case, go to Step 10. If you ever have another problem with the drive, replace it immediately.
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If the startup process hangs again, the problem is likely caused by a third-party system modification that you installed. Post for further instructions.
Step 8
Launch Disk Utility in Recovery mode (see Step 1.) Select the startup volume, then run Repair Disk. If any problems are found, repeat until clear. If Disk Utility reports that the volume can't be repaired, the drive has malfunctioned and should be replaced. You might choose to tolerate one such malfunction in the life of the drive. In that case, erase the volume and restore from a backup. If the same thing ever happens again, replace the drive immediately.
This is one of the rare situations in which you should also run Repair Permissions, ignoring the false warnings it may produce. Look for the line "Permissions repair complete" at the end of the output. Then restart as usual.
Step 9
Reinstall the OS. If the Mac was upgraded from an older version of OS X, you’ll need the Apple ID and password you used to upgrade.
Step 10
Do as in Step 9, but this time erase the startup volume in Disk Utility before installing. The system should automatically restart into the Setup Assistant. Follow the prompts to transfer the data from a Time Machine or other backup.
Step 11
This step applies only to models that have a logic-board ("PRAM") battery: all Mac Pro's and some others (not current models.) Both desktop and portable Macs used to have such a battery. The logic-board battery, if there is one, is separate from the main battery of a portable. A dead logic-board battery can cause a startup failure. Typically the failure will be preceded by loss of the settings for the startup disk and system clock. See the user manual for replacement instructions. You may have to take the machine to a service provider to have the battery replaced.
Step 12
If you get this far, you're probably dealing with a hardware fault. Make a "Genius" appointment at an Apple Store, or go to another authorized service provider.

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Thanks.

I tried using the disk utility on the grey disks, but
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IMac won't boot up after latest update. Any suggestions?

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Hi
Recently I've been experiencing that my intel iMac won't boot at first attempt and I have to powerdown manually and then try again. Second time it boots just fine. It's usually in the morning (been shut off for the night), but not always. I've tried disc utility from the install dvd, have repaired permissions and reset the nvram and everything seems just fine. The thing is, this has happened after the 10.4.8 update as far as I can remember. Does anyone else see this or is it a coincidence and some other problem?
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Best regards
Rico
intel iMac 20" Mac OS X (10.4.8)
intel iMac 20" Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Oups, sorry about that wrong quote - I've been reading to many discussions lately
I've done all sorts of things today and I'm kind of curious to what is going to happen tomorrow morning when I boot up the mac. To sum up, here's what I've been doing:
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http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301733
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Monitor flickered and not iMAC won't boot up

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