Old iMac was sluggish and now won't go past blue screen.

We have a pretty old iMac, it will be 7 years old next month. I totally expect for it to slow down and have issues being that old, but was hoping I could maybe get a few more years out of it for my in-laws. We gave it to them 2 years ago and now it's going downhill. It has been sluggish for quite awhile and now will not turn on past the blue screen. No spinning wheel, just a blue screen and an arrow.
Is there anything we can do? Could we perhaps completely wipe the computer as there is nothing important saved on there? Would that even help? We are probably at the end of it's life here, but just thought I'd come for suggestions first.

I suspec the machine has had a hardware failure. If you can run Apple's Hardware Test, you will need the original install discs that shipped with the computer to do this. Run the test in Extended Mode at least 2-3 times back to back. The reason to run it multiple times is AHT is not 100% reliable however if it detects an error the error is correct. If you get an error that means a trip to the local Apple Store or AASP for repair, based on the vintage of the machine I woudl recommend an AASP. If you are aware of AHT then please click Apple's instructions located at:
Using Apple Hardware Test
Good luck!

Similar Messages

2009 iMac was overheating and now won't boot

I would post more info but I do not have it as the computer will not start.
It is an 21" iMac bought in 2010. I think around September just before the update came out.
It was overheating I noticed last week. ( i do not use this computer, my wife and children do or I would have noticed this sooner ).
3 days ago it decided not to boot up and only gives the spinning gears on the white screen.
I reset the pram, unplugged the power cord, all peripherals etc.. still no boot.
I did at one point get it to load up the recover I think it is called where you have the option to reinstall Lion and few other options.
I ran disk check, repaired the drive and tried to reboot. No luck.. same issue.
One thing when I did reset the PRAM I believe it was, the fan came on full speed and dust came flying out of the top of the iMac.
It did this while it was on and running the disk check. Once I rebooted the fan did not come back on.. or it is but on very quiet.
As I want to try to recover any files on the iMac I did not choose to reinstall LION yet.
I am not sure if it would do a new install or overwrite the existing and all files on the Hard Drive.
Any help is appreciated.
Thank you

Hi pbx77,
I am experiencing exactly the same situation as yours now.
Mine is iMac 27" was bought around 2010 also.
It was overheating almost everyday for a few weeks, and today it just hang and after we turn it off it won't boot anymore and stuck at the apple logo with rotating wheel which does rotate.
Interestingly it will heat up very fast even when we wait for this screen only about 15-20 minutes.
What happened with yours and have you resolved it and how did you resolve it?
Was your hard drive and data okay?
Thanks!

I have an ipad mini that won't power on. It was turned off to charge overnight. In the morning it was warm and now won't turn on no matter what I do. I've tried resetting using the power / home button combination and nothing works.

I have an ipad mini that won't power on. It was turned off to charge overnight. In the morning it was warm and now won't turn on no matter what I do. I've tried resetting using the power / home button combination and nothing works.

If you have owned the device, as in purchased from Apple, less than a year then there will be no charge to repair, or most likely, replace the device. If you have had the device more than a year you will be charged an out of warranty cost for replacement ($219 I think) and that is much cheaper than a new device. If you have Applecare+ then you have an additional year of coverage and the replacement will be $49 or $79 depending on when you got the Applecare.

I downloaded adobe photoshop and it crashed my computer and now I have a frozen blue screen. Please advise.

I downloaded adobe photoshop and it crashed my computer and now I have a frozen blue screen. Please advise.

Due to the current unavailability of clairvoyants and mind-readers in the forum, we respectfully request you supply sensible, complete details.
BOILERPLATE TEXT:
Note that this is boilerplate text.
If you give complete and detailed information about your setup and the issue at hand,
such as your platform (Mac or Win),
exact versions of your OS, of Photoshop (not just "CS6", but something like CS6v.13.0.6) and of Bridge,
your settings in Photoshop > Preference > Performance
the type of file you were working on,
machine specs, such as total installed RAM, scratch file HDs, total available HD space, video card specs, including total VRAM installed,
what troubleshooting steps you have taken so far,
what error message(s) you receive,
if having issues opening raw files also the exact camera make and model that generated them,
if you're having printing issues, indicate the exact make and model of your printer, paper size, image dimensions in pixels (so many pixels wide by so many pixels high). if going through a RIP, specify that too.
etc.,
someone may be able to help you (not necessarily this poster, who is not a Windows user).
a screen shot of your settings or of the image could be very helpful too.
Please read this FAQ for advice on how to ask your questions correctly for quicker and better answers:
http://forums.adobe.com/thread/419981?tstart=0
Thanks!

I migrated my old IMac to new and Aperture won't let me import from camera

I migrated old iMac to new and Aperture will not let me import from camera from. Migrating created two users and I get an error message saying I do not have permission write. I have gone to get info and it says I have read and write permissions.
iMac 10.7.5 Aperture 3.4.5

nopriors wrote:
I used migration Assistant
That's the problem. Apple doesn't make it clear that you should transfer when the new Mac starts up, not later on with Migration Assistant.
which told me to enter a new name . I had the new computer and old with same name. I called the new user my name with word "old" so not the same name as old Mac.
The problem isn't the names, it's the (mostly hidden) User ID number (UID). See the pink box in Problems after using Migration Assistant for an explanation of what happened.
Your best bet is to use one of the workarounds (probably #4) in the green box there, to re-transfer your account. It will have exactly the same name and permissions as before.
If you want to change the name, you can, but it takes a minor finagle. Post back if you want to do that.

14" iBook won't boot past Blue Screen?

Hi,
I have in my possession my Sisters 14" iBook G4. It boots with the grey Apple logo but then freezes at the blue screen. I'm guessing it's either the hard drive or logic board, does anyone have a procedure to follow to diagnose the fault? I don't have the original discs but do have a 10.5 retail box.
Thanks in advance.

Spudnuty - I think you might want to hear this...
I just bought an ibook G4 1.2Ghz "Late 2004" model off of ebay, had the blue screen problem. I bought it because I thought it might have been the OS (freeze at login) and the previous owner didn't know, but it was an actual freeze... actually froze a few times while at the spinning wheel at startup, and would randomly display a dark blue screen sometimes at startup.
I am an ACMT, I decided to disassemble the machine as per the service manual and get it down to basically the logic board, even pulled off the top display entirely. Ran an external monitor via mini-VGA, external HD via Firewire... still froze at blue screen. So I decided something similar to your suggestion - I pulled off the heat sink, only to discover that the conventional way of cooling a cpu/gpu (heating compound directly under heat sink) had been abandoned on this model for some crappy adhesive pads. The pads had a bit of thickness to them, so I decided to cut of a small section of the top shield, fold it into a nice square and flatten it. I then put some heat sink compound on both the cpu and gpu, put the metal "shim" on the gpu and tightened down the heat sink. Guess what? Started up in a jiffy. I put a fresh install of Tiger on it, have been playing multiple Quicktime vids looped for a while now... machine is going strong.
All that to say, shimming works on these later ibook G4 models that get the blue screen, I've confirmed it. Just remove the adhesive pads, shim with something heat conductive (maybe even aluminum foil!), add heat compound and run it for a while.

IMac Clean install and now won't install Lion 10.7.5

My mid 2007 iMac was haveing trouble connecting to the internet via a browser and I took it into the Genius Bar and their only suggestion was to do a clean install and then see what happens. I wiped the computer and tried a clean install. It wouldn't install OS X 10.7 Lion (which this computer was previously running). I took it back into the Genius Bar and they had to install 10.6 Snow Leopard. And now it won't upgrade to Lion (that it used to run till it started having problems).
What's going on?
Now, 3 weeks later, on our other mid 2007 iMac is starting to have the same issues.
Is there something wrong with the OS? I go to network diagnostics and it says it is connecting to the internet just fine. But it won't connect via a browser or do software updates.
I go to Airport Utilities and it wants me to forget the AirPort Extreme. Exact thing happened on the other iMac and I couldn't ever recover (or discover) the Extreme.
Help !!!!!!!!

You mean 2011 or do you mean Mountain Lion? Lion came out in mid 2011 and ML in 2012. And yes, 7,1 is the model identifier. Here is something I found on running the current OS:
From this site:
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/imac/specs/imac-core-2-duo-2.0-20-inch-alu minum-specs.html
Did you try recovery?
Not sure if your machine would be able to qualify for the recovery disk assistant (since yours would need the assistant to create a recovery partition)
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1433
If that works, you should try using the recovery option (hit Command + Option + R during restart) to connect to Apple's servers and reinstall Lion.

IMac was freezing and now wont start?

My iMac was running a little slow the past 2 days, and whenever i tried to type something in safari it would bring up the loading wheel and take forever just to type something. I installed google chrome and it kept happening so it's not safari. Next my mac started freezing and i would have to just turn it off and restart it. Turning it back on it would load sometimes but take awhile, sometimes it wouldnt load so i'd turn it off and try again until it worked.
now when i turn it on the gray/white screen comes up with the apple, but no loading thing comes up under that. after a few minutes the apple gets replaced with a circle with a line through it. After about 5 minutes of not starting, a blinking folder with a question mark starts flashing and it does this until i turn off the computer.
soooo, what is wrong? how do i fix this? is there another way to start the computer?

i put in my snow leopard install disk and then restarted using my internal hard drive and it worked fine for a few hours. Then it crashed again and now it's doing it again and cant find my internal hard drive. I have most my stuff stored on an external hard drive but does this mean i have to buy a new computer? or a new internal hard drive? how much would that be and for them to install it? stupid macs, i thought they were supposed to work better than PC's. Or is your hypothesis wrong since it did start up after you said it was dead.
It does sound like your hard drive is failing and needs to be replaced. Mac hard drives are the same products as they are in PCs and they ALL fail, on average a HD should last 3-5 years however some last months and some last 6-8 years. So there isn't any reason to be angry at Apple. Make sure you are backed up and make an appointment at your local Apple Store or AASP. A replacement hard drive will probably run in the $200-$300 range including labor.

My IMac got unplugged and now I only get a white screen.

My IMac got unplugged and not I can only get a white screen.

Zap the PRAM and Reset the SMC; then, try again.

Mac won't start past blue screen, tried booting in single user mode said HD was ok, tried changing start up permission still no desktop

Followed this:
http://macs.about.com/od/MacTroubleshootingTips/qt/Troubleshooting-Mac-Startup-P roblems-Stuck-At-The-Blue-Screen.htm
And this:
http://macs.about.com/od/faq1/f/emergencystart.htm
Still no luck, I have an external ready to transfer to free up disk space, can I use command prompt to transfer to external or is there easier way ?
Thanks

Since not one else is jumping in, I’ll give some suggestions.
Try
Mac OS X 10.6: If you see a blue screen at startup - Support - Apple
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH7212
OS X Mountain Lion: If you see a blue screen at startup
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH11043
Troubleshooting Startup and Login Items
http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/startupitems.html
You can always seek free help at an Apple store of for a fee at an Apple Authorized Service Provider.
Genius reservation http://www.apple.com/retail/geniusbar/ .
or find an Apple Authorized Service Provider https://locate.apple.com/country

PowerBook G4 won't boot past blue screen

I've read a couple of posts with similar problems. The jist is, I did a security update/restart earlier and now my laptop won't boot past the blue screen after the white screen with the gray apple. I think I'm on Mac OS 10.4.11 but I had it on auto-update so that could be incorrect.
I've booted from the install disk and run a diagnostic from the First Aid bit in the Disk Utility. It says that there are no errors found and the S.M.A.R.T. status says "verified" as well. It won't let me boot into Safe Mode (although, I could be doing that wrong as I'm not exactly clear on how to do it - pressing S doesn't seem to do anything, but if I press Command + S it takes me to a text listy thing and I've run the "fsck -f" system check (which seems like the same as the disk utility check?) from there and also gotten the "volume is ok" message. There was also a suggestion to run some kind of diagnostic after booting with the D key from the install disk, but I was never able to get the disk to boot from the D key, only the C key.
I'm sure that this is kind of the "same song, different verse," kind of post, but I've not read about volumes registering as okay. I'm a little wary of a archive-and-reinstall as I've not ever done that before (so, if that's the suggestion you have, I would really appreciate loads of specifics on how that works so I don't mess up!)
I've read in several instances suspicion of a hard drive problem but I've not had any slow downs or any crashing. I did travel to the UK for about 10 days, but I didn't even change the time zone on my laptop while there, so I don't think that's it (but I suppose it could be.)
Lastly, I did recently replace my keyboard. A few keys had become non-responsive so I replaced it and have had the new keyboard for a bit over a month.
Suggestions? Ideas? Sorry if it's a repeat post -- just felt like the circumstance was a teensy bit different. And also, thanks very much for any info you can give.

Linsey:
If you can boot your computer into Firewire Target Disk Mode and you have access to a second Mac that supports firewire, you may be able to back up items that have not been backed up previously.
If you are able to back everything up successfully, and you have tested your backup to be sure it is sound, then we can proceed with re-installation of the OS. The best option is to completely reformat and erase the HDD and then install the OS from disk. (I will post complete step by step directions). This will enable you to start with a clean slate/HDD. Your other option would be to use the Archive and Install option. Think it over and let me know how you want to proceed.
cornelius

Mid 2010 MacBook Pro won't boot past blue screen

I've been having problems booting up my MacBook. I can't get past the blue screen. It went from booting slow at the grey apple logo screen to not booting up at all. Is it a problem with my hard drive? I also have boot camp running as well, but I can still see the boot camp drive for windows and my OS X drive, as well as my installation disk when I have it inserted when I hold the option key at start up.
I'm still able to run windows on it without any problems when I pick the windows drive. I tried different methods from different forums but I'm just not getting through. I tried holding 'c' to boot up from cd and I let it run over night but it never got past the grey apple screen with the gradient wheel (still spinning). I had already used time machine to back everything up before this happened since I was able to boot up properly (but slowly). Can anyone help? It's driving me nuts, and I can't remember what os/firmware version I'm running.

n your signature you said you are running 10.6.3. So let’s assume you are running Snow Leopard.
It sounds like your diagnosis of disk problems is correct. The OS X partition may be corrupt.
Try booting in Safe Mode.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1564
Try again to boot in normal mode.
If it will boot in Safe Mode but not in normal mode then you could have some 3rd-party software preventing the boot or you could have a corrupt disk or OS.
Boot as from the startup manager (Boot - option) and then select the installation disk.
Hopefully that will work better than starting with the Boot-C option.
Then try to repair the system disk.
Start the Disk Utility.
Perform the steps in http://support.apple.com/kb/PH5836.
If it repairs OK but still won’t boot reinstall OS X.
Installing Mac OS X 10.6 SnowLeopard
http://kb.iu.edu/data/akav.html

MAC DUO won't go past BLUE SCREEN on start-up.

Please help!
My mac duo has crashed after a mac software update. Now it won't logon past the blue screen!
I've tried everything online like DISK UTILITY on Mac os x disc and SAFE MODE but no joy whatsoever.
SAFE MODE won't work now after doing it three times. Is this typical?
Should I re-install the MAC OS X using the option to copy existing files and applications?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

There are two major problems out there right now. That is also part of the problem. We are not used to two problems in our domain.
I own 20 Mac's in my office, and I only did the latest updates on my MacBook Pro 17-inch portable and my G5 Dual 2.3 GHz desktop that has two 30-inch Cinema Displays. Both machines had the Adobe CS 2 Professional Suite with Acrobat Professional.
I had both of the prevailing update problems on my MacBook Pro—1) unable to restart and 2) Acrobat crashing the system.
On the G5, I only had the 1) unable to restart problem.
I won't update the other machines until these problems are resolved by the OEMs.
1) Unable to Restart. Of the two major hiccups out there, the link below indicates Quicktime's update is the source of the 1) unable to restart problem, fixed by deleting startup items, I believe. Again, I had this 1) unable to restart problem on both operating systems (PPC and Intel versions). Recovery of the 1) unable to restart problem is done in in Safe Mode by holding down the Shift key when restarting. This may take a long time to reboot, so keep holding down the shift key until the grey screen and startup wheel is seen. Then delete all startup items and Adobe Version Cue if you have it. (Use Version Cue Uninstaller.)
http://www.macworld.com/news/2006/05/24/cs2quicktime/index.php
2) Acrobat Crashing the System. Acrobat's freezing the entire OS 10.4.6 system is a result of the Security Update 2006-003, fixed by rolling back to a pre-Security Update state using Archive & Install for re-installation of the OS. Archive & Install does not erase your files or network settings. Printers may need to be re-added.
Apple has released two products (QT 7.1 and SU 2006-003) that fouled these systems. Bad Quality Assurance, I think. I am not sure if the Security Update problem is an Apple or an Adobe software problem, i.e., Adobe may have not followed some software guidance from Apple in Acrobat 7.07 or earlier versions. I am certain both companies are aware of the problem, but I am uncertain of the fix for Acrobat. We probably do need to update for security, but I can't live without Acrobat. So I will wait it out sans Security Update 2006-003.

Hp dv6t won't go past blue screen blinking cursor

Hello,
Please help me figure this out! I have looked at the boards for days and weeks but cannot solve my problem. No matter what i have tried so far, I cannot get past the blue screen with blinking cursor. A couple months ago I was out of town and blue screen came up i was able to hit F4 rapidly and eventually get it to work several different times that trip. Now however, I cannot get anything but blue screen and blinking cursor. Thanks in advance for any help! Heidi

Hi @heididmn1800000,
Welcome to the HP Support Forums!
I am sorry to hear that you cannot get passed a blue screen on your HP dv6t PC. I will try my best to help you with this. To better guide you, could you please tell me the full model or product number of your computer and the operating system that is running on it. Here are some guides for How Do I Find My Model Number or Product Number? and Which Windows operating system am I running?.
In the meantime, here is a document for Troubleshooting Error Messages on a Blue Screen that may Occur During Startup or Boot, that may have a solution for you.
I hope this helps, please let me know how it goes.
Thank you and have a great day!
I worked on behalf of HP.

MAC DUO won't go past BLUE SCREEN!

Please help!
My mac duo has crashed after a mac software update. Now it won't logon past the blue screen!
I've tried everything online like DISK UTILITY on Mac os x disc and SAFE MODE but no joy whatsoever.
SAFE MODE won't work now after doing it three times. Is this typical?
Should I re-install the MAC OS X using the option to copy existing files and applications?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Please don't post the same question to multiple forums. Answered in your other post.

Old iMac was sluggish and now won't go past blue screen.

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for