My imac takes 20 min to boot

since I've installed lion and ios5 my imac takes 20-30 mins to boot! help!

ios5 has nothing to do with your boot time on your Mac. So 20-30 minutes. Have you tried installing the 10.7.2 combo updater?
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1459

Similar Messages

  • Imac takes 10 min to boot. (most of the times it dosnt even boot!!!)

    Yesterday night my imac took 10 min to boot getting stuck at each phase !! left it for the night and turned it on in the morning to find it booting in less than 30 sec !! after which in the afternoon it took 10 min again nd then failed to even boot ,getting stuck either at the apple logo or at the blue screen.
    So i tried disk utility from the installation disk nd it said it had an incorrect count of blocks for a file.
    repaired it nd it still didnt work. so i tried safe boot which leads to the same prb( stuck at blue screen). nd then verbose boot, it said Disk0s2 I/O error gose on but still dosnt boot. tried disk utility again nd this time it had an incorrect block count error for another file . i shut it down nd left it for an hour after which it booted in 2 min.
    Am now backing up all my data.
    Kindly help in solving this issue.
    P.S have windows installed on bootcamp which is working perfectly. have run the hardware test which says everything is fine and the S.M.A.R.T status is also fine.
    Message was edited by: akash_rao94

    akash_rao94 wrote:
    Disk0s2 I/O error
    you could try if DiskWarrior can fix it.
    JGG

  • Imac takes 5-6 minutes to boot up

    Hello
    My 2011 Imac takes 5-6 minutes to boot up. Once it boots up the computer seems to run fine. I have tried several things to try and fix the issue but have had no luck. Any advice would be great.
    Thank you
    Richard

    RAM is not the problem. If you refuse to reinstall as suggested, then:
    Things You Can Do To Keep Your Computer From Slowing Down
    If your computer seems to be running slower here are some things you can do:
    Boot into Safe Mode then repair your hard drive and permissions:
    Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions Pre-Lion
    Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list.  In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive.  If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer.
    If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
    Repair the Hard Drive - Lion
    Boot from your Lion Recovery HD. When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list.  In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive.  If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported, then click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the main menu. Select Restart from the Apple menu.
    Boot to the Recovery HD:
    Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
    Restart your computer normally and see if this has helped any. Next do some maintenance:
    Suggestions for OS X Maintenance
    For situations Disk Utility cannot handle the best third-party utility is Disk Warrior;  DW only fixes problems with the disk directory, but most disk problems are caused by directory corruption; Disk Warrior 4.x is now Intel Mac compatible.
    OS X performs certain maintenance functions that are scheduled to occur on a daily, weekly, or monthly period. The maintenance scripts run in the early AM only if the computer is turned on 24/7 (no sleep.) If this isn't the case, then an excellent solution is to download and install a shareware utility such as Macaroni, JAW PseudoAnacron, or Anacron that will automate the maintenance activity regardless of whether the computer is turned off or asleep.  Dependence upon third-party utilities to run the periodic maintenance scripts was significantly reduced since Tiger.  These utilities have limited or no functionality with Snow Leopard or Lion and should not be installed.
    OS X automatically defragments files less than 20 MBs in size, so unless you have a disk full of very large files there's little need for defragmenting the hard drive. As for virus protection there are few if any such animals affecting OS X. You can protect the computer easily using the freeware Open Source virus protection software ClamXAV. Personally I would avoid most commercial anti-virus software because of their potential for causing problems. For more about malware see Macintosh Virus Guide.
    I would also recommend downloading a utility such as TinkerTool System, OnyX 2.4.3, or Cocktail 5.1.1 that you can use for periodic maintenance such as removing old log files and archives, clearing caches, etc.
    For emergency repairs install the freeware utility Applejack.  If you cannot start up in OS X, you may be able to start in single-user mode from which you can run Applejack to do a whole set of repair and maintenance routines from the command line.  Note that AppleJack 1.5 is required for Leopard. AppleJack 1.6 is compatible with Snow Leopard. There is no confirmation that this version also works with Lion.
    When you install any new system software or updates be sure to repair the hard drive and permissions beforehand.
    Get an external Firewire drive at least equal in size to the internal hard drive and make (and maintain) a bootable clone/backup. You can make a bootable clone using the Restore option of Disk Utility. You can also make and maintain clones with good backup software. My personal recommendations are (order is not significant):
      1. Carbon Copy Cloner
      2. Data Backup
      3. Deja Vu
      4. SuperDuper!
      5. SyncTwoFolders
      6. Synk Pro
      7. Synk Standard
      8. Tri-Backup
    Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQs on maintenance, optimization, virus protection, and backup and restore.
    Additional suggestions will be found in Mac maintenance Quick Assist.
    Referenced software can be found at CNet Downloads or MacUpdate.
    Additional Hints
    Be sure you have an adequate amount of RAM installed for the number of applications you run concurrently. Be sure you leave a minimum of 10% of the hard drive's capacity as free space.
    Add more RAM. If your computer has less than 2 GBs of RAM and you are using OS X Leopard or later, then you can do with more RAM. Snow Leopard and Lion work much better with 4 GBs of RAM than their system minimums. The more concurrent applications you tend to use the more RAM you should have.
    Always maintain at least 15 GBs or 10% of your hard drive's capacity as free space, whichever is greater. OS X is frequently accessing your hard drive, so providing adequate free space will keep things from slowing down.
    Check for applications that may be hogging the CPU:
    Open Activity Monitor in the Utilities folder.  Select All Processes from the Processes dropdown menu.  Click twice on the CPU% column header to display in descending order.  If you find a process using a large amount of CPU time, then select the process and click on the Quit icon in the toolbar.  Click on the Force Quit button to kill the process.  See if that helps.  Be sure to note the name of the runaway process so you can track down the cause of the problem.
    Often this problem occurs because of a corrupted cache or preferences file or an attempt to write to a corrupted log file.

  • Computer takes 15 min to boot up

    Hello,
    I just installed Oracle 10g on my computer here at home and now my computer takes almost 15 min. to boot up. There was also a power outage here in town at the same time so I'm not sure if it has to do with the Oracle installation or the power outage. However, does anyone know if Oracle makes Windows start some sort of Oracle service at start up, which would cause the computer to launch the service when it boots up? If so, how can I disable it? I checked my Windows startup folder but there are no Oracle icons there.
    Thanks,
    Peter

    Peter,
    Oracle services start on windows startup as a background services that's why you won't see anything in the windows startup.
    And the only time Oracle slows down a startup is when you don't have sufficient memory or a slow processor.
    You can do waht was suggested in the previous post, and more you can create a batch file (*.bat) do start and stop Oracle just by double clicks.
    visit this thread to get a sample of the batch file.
    Slow windows xp startup
    Regards,
    Tony Garabedian

  • My 2008 imac takes 10 minutes to boot up as far as  Blurtooth Setup Assistant it then tries to find my  Bluetooth keyboard, mouse and trackpad - and fails! How can I get over this problem?

    My 2008 iMac takes 10 minutes to boot up as far as Bluetooth setup assistant. It then tries to find my Bluetooth keyboard, trackpad and mouse. (they are all fully charged. it  continues to try to find these items. what do I do next?
    from Brian Dowling.

    Post an EtreCheck report of your computer and we can look for obvious issues.

  • New I7 quad-core takes longer to boot up than old imac?

    Just got my new I7 quad-core last night. (Looks gorgeous, by the way.) Transferred everything over from my old 24" 2.33GHz iMac.... all is well, only had one app hiccup so far (had to reinstall iTunes for some reason).
    Anyway, did a side-by-side startup this morning, and the old iMac basically kicked the new one's butt - it started up about 50% faster.
    Does this seem right? Is there a reason the new iMac, running basically the same exact system with same apps, preferences, etc, would take longer to boot up?

    i think the new one was rebooting from a bootable backup i had created. changed that in startup disc settings... seems faster rebooting now.
    and i transferred everything over via migration assistant (allowed it to move everything upon my first startup when it asked if i wanted to transfer data from another mac)....

  • Lenovo H420 Desktop takes over 5 mins to boot up

    Hi,
    We have a Lenovo H420 desktop that takes over 3 mins to boot up. After you switch it on, the monitor displays a black screen with 'Lenovo' in white writing and remains with this screen for minutes on end seemingly doing nothing (hard drive  cannot be heard working and it's activity light doesn't flash). After about 3 minutes Windows 7 suddenly loads in a matter of seconds.
    Any ideas what is wrong? Is this normal?
    We've only had this computer for about 3 months and it has been doing it since we bought it. We reset the computer back to its factory settings but that hasn't changed anything. Bios doesn't seem to be accessible as no startup screen saying press del for setup etc shows.
    Kaspersky and Malwarebytes doesn't show any nasties.
    Thanks
    Solved!
    Go to Solution.

    Hello and welcome,
    Here's the current version of the manual:  Lenovo H4 Series Hardware Maintenance Manual V1.0
    And the user's guide: Lenovo H4 Series User Guide V3.0
    For future reference, these are available by going to SUPPORT (above ) -> QuickPath (enter model or machine type) -> Guides and Manuals
    Z.
    The large print: please read the Community Participation Rules before posting. Include as much information as possible: model, machine type, operating system, and a descriptive subject line. Do not include personal information: serial number, telephone number, email address, etc.  The fine print: I do not work for, nor do I speak for Lenovo. Unsolicited private messages will be ignored. ... GeezBlog
    English Community   Deutsche Community   Comunidad en Español   Русскоязычное Сообщество

  • My iMac takes 20 minutes to boot and is very slow. I get messages that system disk is low but it shows 600 gb of 1000. Thanks.

    As above. Takes forever to boot, Painfully slow, low HD message despite showing over 600 GB available. Thanks.

    Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
    ☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
    ☞ In the Finder, press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
    ☞ If you’re running Mac OS X 10.7 or later, open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the page that opens.
    Step 1
    Select "system.log" from the file list. Enter "BOOT_TIME" (without the quotes) in the search box. Note the times of the log messages referring to boot times. Now clear the search box and scroll back in the log to the time of the most recent boot when you had the problem. Post the messages logged during the time when you had the problem – the text, please, not a screenshot. For example, if the problem is a slow startup taking three minutes, post the messages timestamped within three minutes after the boot time. If the problem is a crash or a shutdown hang, post the messages from before the boot time, when the system was about to crash or was failing to shut down.
    Edit out excessive repeats and personal information, if any.
    If the log doesn't go back far enough in time, scroll down in the Console file list to /private/var/log/system.log.0.bz2. Search the archived log, and if necessary the older ones below them, for the same information.
    Step 2
    Do the same with kernel.log.
    Step 3
    Still in Console, look under System Diagnostic Reports for crash or panic logs, and post the most recent one, if any. For privacy’s sake, I suggest you edit out the “Anonymous UUID,” a long string of letters, numbers, and dashes in the header of the report, if present (it may not be.) Please do not post shutdownStall or hang logs – they're very long and not helpful.

  • I'm not crying. Is there a way to install Mountain Lion on a bootable disk on latest iMac cuz mine shipped without an OS?

    I could cry right now. After decades of being an Apple fan, something is happening for the worse and issues with every Apple product I own 2 iphones, 2 iMacs, 15" Macbook Pro, and iPad Mini (no issues here, just slow connecting to App Store and can never seem to download updates)  has left me disenchanted. I do have a question about Mountain Lion but just airing out grievances.
    Ok, to the point. I have the new 27" iMac that was just released. Was delivered and opened the box, turned it on, and there was a flashing folder icon. No OS, wonderful. I live in Brooklyn and not trying to lug a 27" computer onto the train nor should I have to pay for a cab to resolve this. Anyway, I tried to go into Recovery but it started doing an Internet Recovery with a download time of 9 hours. Um, no thanks. So I downloaded the latest version of Mountain Lion from the App store on my old iMac and made a boot disk onto an external via Apples instructions. Plugged it into new iMac lemon, go into recovery mode, see the bootable drive, click on it to reinstall and it gives me a crossed out circle icon and shuts down.
    What am I doing wrong? I have pretty decent broadband and did start the internet recovery process now until I find a better solution online. After 5 hours, Internet recovery finished and clicked on Reinstall Mountain Lion to which it's asking me to download the OS again and with a 13 hour download time!!!! What's going on here? What was the purpose of internet recovery taking 5 hours only to download it again at another 13 hours???
    Question is, is there something I should be doing differently? Is there a way to install Mountain Lion from a bootable disk? This is mind blowingly the dumbest thing I've encountered with Apple. Got a problem with your OS? No problem, just download a 4.4GB file every incident.
    Thank you.

    You can't grab a installer from another Mac and expect it to run. The newer Macs have newer hardware which requires special drivers. If the version that boots the iMac is a special build, it won't work any other way than Internet Recovery.
    If it was me, I'd take it right back. You have no idea if the OS is just corrupted, the hard drive is dead, or what. I wouldn't take my chances with it.

  • LEOPARD SEEMS TO TAKE LONG TO BOOT UP???

    I am new to MacIntosh. I was a former PC user that converted to a MacIntosh iMac 24" Screen. When I purchased the iMac, it came with Tiger OS. I recently purchased Leopard from Apple On-Line and I installed Leopard but it seems to take longer to boot up than Tiger did. Is that normal or did I do something wrong installing Leopard? Any suggestions would be appreciated.
    Thanks in advance.
    relaxed

    I've noticed the longer boot times as well. I first upgraded from Tiger and then bought a brand new hard drive and did a clean install. Both drives have a boot time about twice as long as Tiger did (40 seconds compared to 20 seconds).
    I don't think you did anything wrong but it never hurts to run the disk repair options available to you. Rest assured that there have been many posts and mentions of the longer boot time and that it seems to be normal even with the .5.2 updates.
    I guess there's nothing to worry about except being more relaxed for the 40 seconds? You can also just put the computer to sleep as opposed to shutting it off. Apple does a much better of 'hibernating' than MS did with Windows. But, from my own non-scientific experience, riding on a bus or car with hibernating Mac notebook could do something to the hard drive which I'd only had for 3 months. Mine died not too long after I started taking the rough-riding bus to work and had it in sleep mode. Don't know if there's a correlation, but there could be so I'm just throwing it out there.
    Hope some of this helps!

  • Please Help :( iMac 20" refuses to boot up with anymore than 1gb ram?

    Please Help iMac 20" refuses to boot up with anymore than 1gb ram?  It was fine 4 days ago and had been working with a 1gb stick in one slot and a 2gb stick, which had replaced the orignal 1gb stick that I got it with, in the other and it had shown 3gb of ram and was working just fine with that since November?  It went to sleep briefly 4 days ago while I was waiting on a customer and I came back to try to wake it up and it never would forcing me to hard boot it.  When I did that it would only go to a black screen with a solid white light on the power indicator.  Over and over again and same thing.  I read and tried every suggestion I could possibly find in this and a few other mac forums to no avail.
    I finally after reading about RAM issues etc.  I decided to power off and take out the ram sticks and try them one at a time in each slot.  So I took out the 2gb stick and did the SMC reset and it would boot up and work just fine with the 1 gb of ram.  So then I went through the same process with the 2gb stick and it would not boot up only go to a black screen with white solid light again (NOT flashing).  So then I tried the other original 1gb I had replaced with the 2gb and it worked just find like the other 1gb.  So then I tried just 1gb stick in the other ram slot (back facing one) and with just the 1gb strip it booted up and worked fine.  Tried it with the other 1gb stick and once again that one too worked just fine.  So I determined it wasn't the slot itself I thought?  I then tried the 2gb in the back slot and it would not boot only go to the black screen white solid light deal like before.  So I thought well ok it's obviously the 2gb ram must have somehow went bad (even though I have only had it since November) and I thought well I will just use the (2) 1gb sticks in each slot and then that will at least give me 2gb because only 1gb really ***** LOL.  So I proceeded to go through the same shut down process installed both sticks (I always push them to I feel them click and my fingers have a nice indention on them) reset the SMC and turned the power one and.... It would only go to the black screen with white solid light on power indicator????  I went through the same above process at least 3 times and again today a few times and I can't figure it out and I tried to search and search and I couldn't find anything like what I am experiencing.....What happened?  Please help this slow Imac is killing me.  It will work with 1gb ram only nothing more?  Here are the specifics of my Imac.
    It is a 20" Late 2006 Intel Core 2 Duo 2.16 ATI Radeon X1600 256 MB graphics card and Ram with now only 1gb (did have 3gb) and I am running OSX Lion 10.7.5
    When I go to system report and go under memory it shows this:
    BANK 0/DIMM0:
      Size:          1 GB
      Type:          DDR2 SDRAM
      Speed:          667 MHz
      Status:          OK
      Manufacturer:          0xCE00000000000000
      Part Number:          0x4D342037305432393533435A332D43453620
    BANK 1/DIMM1:
      Size:          Empty
      Type:          Empty
      Speed:          Empty
      Status:          Empty
      Manufacturer:          Empty
      Part Number:          Empty
      Serial Number:          Empty
    Any help I can get would really be appreciated.  Thanks in advance
    ALSO...Here is also a pic of the system log right before it happened.  It even changed the date to 07/2014????
    I have some more if needed??????????????? 
    <Personal Information Edited by Host>

    The Memtest just completed and came back like this?  It only test the single 1gb chip because anything more in this computer it won't go past the black screen with solid white power light. 
    Memtest version 4.22 (64-bit)
    Copyright (C) 2004 Charles Cazabon
    Copyright (C) 2004-2008 Tony Scaminaci (Macintosh port)
    Licensed under the GNU General Public License version 2 only
    NOTE: No command-line arguments have been specified
    Using defaults: Test all available memory, one test pass, no logfile
    Mac OS X 10.7.5 (11G63) running in multiuser mode
    Memory Page Size: 4096
    System has 2 Intel core(s) with SSE
    Requested memory: 250MB (263086080 bytes)
    Available memory: 250MB (263086080 bytes)
    Allocated memory: 250MB (263086080 bytes) at local address 0x0000000101000000
    Attempting memory lock... locked successfully
    Partitioning memory into 2 comparison buffers...
    Buffer A: 125MB (131543040 bytes) starts at local address 0x0000000101000000
    Buffer B: 125MB (131543040 bytes) starts at local address 0x0000000108d73000
    Running 1 test sequence... (CTRL-C to quit)
    Test sequence 1 of 1:
    Running tests on full 250MB region...
      Stuck Address       : ok             
      Linear PRN          : ok             
    Running comparison tests using 125MB buffers...
      Random Value        : ok
      Compare XOR         : ok
      Compare SUB         : ok
      Compare MUL         : ok
      Compare DIV         : ok
      Compare OR          : ok
      Compare AND         : ok
      Sequential Increment: ok
      Solid Bits          : ok             
      Block Sequential    : ok                
      Checkerboard        : ok             
      Bit Spread          : ok               
      Bit Flip            : ok               
      Walking Ones        : ok               
      Walking Zeroes      : ok               
    All tests passed!  Execution time: 362 seconds.
    logout
    [Process completed]
    Seems Okay I guess?

  • Mac mini not booting up with 8GB memory after 10.7.2 update

    My mac mini is not booting up with 8GB of memory after the 10.7.2 update. It just keeps on beeping and flashing the led.
    If I take out the upper DIMM (Bank 1) It boots just fine, and it does so with either one of the 4GB DIMMs in Bank 0, so the DIMMs are fine. It also boots up fine with two 1GB DIMMs installed simultaneously, so the Bank 1 seems to be somehow working as well.
    This trouble started right after the Lion recovery update, meaning the mini has never booted with the full 8GB installed after the update.
    It worked just fine before that, with the full 8GB of memory installed.
    Anyone else having similar problems?
    Cheers, Otto.

    I have upgraded my 2011 Macbook Pro and my 2011 Mini Server
    to 8 gig with Corsair RAM and have had no issues
    (CMSA8GX3M2A1333C9).  What brand RAM was used?
    There have been issues in the past with some RAM
    brands.
    Something to try is a PRAM reset with the 8 gig installed.
    http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.7/en/mh26871.html
    Also, make sure the Minis are booting into 64 bit mode.
    Open Applications->Utilities->System Information
    On the left side click the software heading.  There should be a line
      64-bit Kernel and Extensions:          Yes
    This should be the default for 2010 and 2011, but something could
    have got hosed.

  • I have built sites on my imac, mac mini and MBA all in iweb09

    i have built sites on my imac, mac mini and MBA all in iweb09 is there anyway to get them all on the same machine ? (i use mobile me)

    Here's what worked for me,
    I have two sites, one I mad on my macbook and one I made on my iMac.
    First go into the "Library" Folder. In there you will find a folder labeled application support.
    Go into that folder and you will find another call iWeb. Your site is in there.
    So I took the file for the site out of the iWeb folder on my macbook, and copied it to my
    iMac.
    I keep them separately. If i put the file from my Macbook into the iWeb folder on my iMac, it would replace the file that is already there. When you start iWeb it will automatically open from that folder.
    SO to keep them separate and organized, and to open the one you want there is a little trick.
    First copy them all to the machine you want them on.
    Take all your site's files and keep them in their own folders in the location you choose.
    Make sure that on the machine you are using there is nothing in the iWeb folder native to that machine. Just move that file to another location where you wont lose it.
    Now, start iWeb. When you do, iWeb will prompt you to either create a new site or allow you to choose one from a location of your choice. Tada! That is when you can choose whichever site you want to work on from the location where you are keeping them.
    Good luck.
    What is your site by the way?
    mine are www.kloran.com and www.myenglishimages.com

  • 10.6.7 Update No sound   5 mins to boot!

    Updated from 10.6.6 to 10.6.7 last week and lost sound.
    There's now no input or output options in the sound control panel and the Mute checkbox is greyed out but 'Mute' in checked. 
    It's as if the OS sees no sound drivers or no sound hardware now
    Can anyone shed any light on this?
    In addition my machine now takes a good 5 mins to boot, seems to run fine once it's underway  - apart from no sound.
    This initial boot up screen looks OK, but then it sits on a blue screen for 5 mins - then boots
    Mac Tower
    2 x 2.66 Ghx Duel Core Intel Xeon
    8GB RAM

    Firstly to try to cure the slow startup go to System Preferences>Startup Disk. Click on 'Macintosh OS X, 10.6.7 on Macintosh HD' and restart. Hopefully it'll start up at normal speed.
    To try and fix the sound issue you could try downloading the combo updater (if you haven't already): Mac OS X v10.6.7 Update Combo
    and reapply the update.
    Often re-applying the update using the combo fixes unexplained problems.
    If this helps you may need to repeat step one again as it seems that sometimes the Mac seems to struggle to find a startup disk, often after new installs/updates.
    Before and after doing the update I'd also suggest repairing disk permissions: Utilities>Disk Utility, select Macintosh HD, click 'repair permissions'.

  • IMac will only safe boot (blue screen when not safe booting).

    A buddy asked me to help with his Intel based iMac. It was giving a blue screen when trying to boot up (and an odd cursor along with the blue screen). The cursor moves around the blue screen but looks like two cursors. One cursor is a normal arrow pointer, the second is a rectangle about .25 inch wide and 1 inch tall made up of about 10 horizontal lines.
    I'm very familiar with Macs and OS X and was sure it was probably a messed up preference file (most likely login preference). It wasn't.
    Here's the odd circumstances:
    I have an intel macbook that if I use firewire target disk mode I can boot just fine off his iMac.
    His computer will not boot off my Macbook that is in firewire target disk mode.
    We cloned his hard drive to an external firewire hard drive (using Carbon Copy Cloner), my Macbook boots off it just fine, his iMac will not.
    He's been wanting to go to Leopard so we upgraded his computer (did basic upgrade), but it still blue screened (with odd cursor).
    Then we did an erase and install. Still no difference in behavior.
    I would almost be convinced that it's a hardware failure, but it will safe boot every time.
    Here's what happened when it died. His son was playing a Star Wars game (I'm not sure which one). The kid was in the middle of the game and paused it when it was time for dinner. When the kid went back to play, the computer was frozen. They tried everything to unfreeze it and ended up powering it down. Started the blue screen ever since.
    He's going to contact Apple (it's barely still under it's warranty) but I was hoping someone here has another idea what it could be.

    I found this topic while trying to find an answer to my problem. It seems we have a similar thing going on with our imacs (although mine is a much older crt imac). I'll copy and paste my original post from the imac board :
    Hi
    I received a free imac snow (G3 500mhz) from someone. He told me it was broke, and someone told him the logic board needed to be replaced.
    I brought it home and tried to start it up. It gave the '?' folder icon. I started up from an OS 9.1 cd - Success! Except there was no HD. I opened it up and discovered that the HD wasn't connect to the ATA cable. I was able to start up to a previously installed Tiger. Except once it booted it would quickly freeze - the mouse pointer would turn into a scrambled beach ball (very strange) and wouldn't move.
    I did some research and found about the potential problem with OS X and the imac's firmware. I restarted from the 9.1 CD and installed that OS. Everything seemed fine and was running ok (from my limited time on it). I then DL'd the latest firmware for the imac (4.1.9.) and tried to run it. Except the message came up that the latest firmware had already been installed. So i guess thats a good thing. I don't have to worry about firmware being a problem.
    So i did a zero out wipe on the HD and installed tiger from the dvd. But on the first restart after installation (where i should go to the set up assistant) I get the scrambled beach ball and it freezes.
    I thought perhaps the HD is faulty and ran disk utility on it - it came back as fine. I doubled checked to make sure it was set to 'master'. it sure was. I decided to swap out the HD anyways since i can't see what else could be the problem and put in a different 30gb IDE drive. I once again zeroed out the drive and did a fresh install of tiger. On restart i get the same scrambled beach ball and the freeze.
    I guess i should describe the scrambled beach ball. It's seems like the beach ball icon, except the bits that make it up are out of order and glitched out.. perhaps a video problem?
    Could this really be a logic board problem? It was working in OS 9.1 fine. It starts up from system CDs and DVDs fine. Wouldn't a logic board exhibit the same problems on those systems?
    Anyone have any idea?
    Update - starting in Safe mode (restart with shift held down) works, and i was able to update to the latest version of Tiger, but once i restart with the full system i get the same problem.
    This seems to me that it ISN'T a logic board problem, but more of a system software problem. Now my question is how do i isolate and fix the problem in Tiger?
    I guess i'll post this question in the Tiger forum, but if anyone has any ideas please let me know.
    Thanks

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