Yellow Flashing Light - AppleTVs that won't boot

Strictly that should be amber I guess
Well, I've finally dismantled my 40GB AppleTv that died last year.
It basically won't boot - no startup Apple logo on screen, and constant flashing amber LED.
Amber blinking indicates "Starting Up":
http://support.apple.com/kb/TA24576
So clearly it's failing to start up for some reason as it never exits this phase.
There is no response to remote, no white flash of LED in response to remote.
Consequently, unable to use Menu and down arrow (6 sec) to reboot to diagnostics menu.
I have always suspected a logic board failure or some other catastrophic failure, as there have been posts suggesting hard drive failure or loose drive connections give a flashing '?', as well as this suggesting possible failure to boot from the drive:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TA24604?viewlocale=en_US
I guess there could be any number of faults preventing it starting, from dodgy power supply to logic board, intrinsic logic board failure, CPU failure etc etc, but having had a failed logic board in a 2006 white iMac and a 2007 Mac Mini that would be my top bet!
Anyhow I remembered I had an old 60GB portable USB drive, which fortunately had an enclosure with screws!
Removed the AppleTVs 40GB 2.5" PATA drive, hooked it up to the USB PATA enclosure, plugged it in and nearly fell off my chair when a message flashed up saying 'A USB device is drawing too much current so the hub will be deactivated".
Thought bingo, the drive must be faulty.
Using the PATA from the portable drive I verified this USB port still worked, thankfully it did.
Tried again with the AppleTV drive in the enclosure, and for some reason this time it worked and I could access it. Reinstalled into AppleTV just in case it had been kicked into life, but no go.
The AppleTv has a small CR2032 battery which I removed after unplugging, left it for a few mins, and replaced with a new one, restarted but no joy.
It will not start with a flashing ? if I disconnect the drive, nor will it start with a flashing ? with a different (effectively) unformatted PATA drive.
Unplugged the wireless card in case that was faulty, no joy.
The small fan is spinning so that hasn't failed.
So, I must conclude that it's not the hard drive at all, and most likely logic board, CPU or GPU. Could also be power supply to logic board not giving enough juice to startup properly, or some other component but not something simple to repair.
Am disinclined to open another AppleTV at this stage to swap components about to try to narrow it down, but when another unit fails, I may just try that, keeping this one for spares - at least I know I have a spare working 40GB PATA drive.

I'm having a similar problem. The other night, while i had the powerbook plugged in, it suddenly switched over to battery. I didn't really think too much of it and put it sleep. Well, it drained almost completely while sleeping and when I plugged the power back in, the green light wouldn't come on. Nothing. No booting, nothing.
I'd been in a very dusty environment, so I blew into the power socket. Well, now I get the green light on the power cable, but it's constant, and I can't tell if it's charging or not. I don't think it is, as the battery lights still flash the single LED very quickly.
I've reset the PMU and have been told to go into the open firmware, but I have to be able to boot to do that -- and obviously I can't do that.
I'm in Baghdad and can't just drop by an Apple store, so if anyone has any ideas, I'd be really, really grateful.

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http://blog.macsales.com/15619-special-note-for-adding-an-ssd-to-a-2012-mac-mini ?
http://blog.macsales.com/15619-special-note-for-adding-an-ssd-to-a-2012-mac-mini ?
http://blog.fosketts.net/2011/08/05/undocumented-corestorage-commands/
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Hi,
You mentioned a "G5 Beige Tower". The last beige Macintosh tower computer was a G3 model (http://support.apple.com/kb/sp406). Could it be this one instead?
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http://download.info.apple.com/Apple_Support_Area/Apple_Software_Updates/English -North_American/Macintosh/System/Mac_OS_8.1_Update/Disk_Tools_PPC.img.bin
http://download.info.apple.com/Apple_Support_Area/Apple_Software_Updates/English -North_American/Macintosh/Utilities/Disk_Copy/Disk_Copy_6.3.3.smi.bin
A bad logic board battery can sometimes cause startup problems. You may also want to try a PRAM reset:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1379
Another possibility would be to remove the internal hard drive (the same could be tried with the iMac). An IDE/ATA drive can be connected to an external USB adapter (such as the example below) and then read on a more modern Mac (or even a PC with the correct software).
http://www.newertech.com/products/usb3_universaldriveadap.php
If necessary, disassembly guides can be found, for example, at ifixit.com.
Jan

Mac noob has an imac g3 that won't boot

i recently got a imac g3 from a friend to play with. i've never used a mac, so i was hoping to learn a bit.
at first, it seemed to work fine... nothing wrong
later, out of curiosity, i tried to boot from an ubuntu live cd and that's where everything went wrong.
it started to boot, then hung, so i ejected the CD and rebooted the computer... and ever since, the computer won't boot at all
it makes the chime, then sits at a grey screen for a long time (i usually walk away at this point) and eventually a folder with the mac logo pops up and nothing happens from there.
booting from CD also does nothing. the CD starts to spin up, then idles.
i don't have a firewire hard drive to test firewire boot either...
i've tried appleoption+pr and it made the chime twice, but i still get the same results.
any ideas?

Sometimes if volumes don't appear in Startup Manager (what you get when you hold down the Option key at startup), you need to reset the Mac's PRAM, NVRAM, and Open ourFirmware. Shut down the Mac, then power it up, and before the screen lights up, quickly hold down the Command, Option, P, and R keys, until the Mac has chimed twice more after the powerup chime. Then, before the screen lights up, hold down Command-Option-O-F until the Open Firmware screen appears. Then enter these lines, pressing Return after each one:
reset-nvram
set-defaults
reset-all
"The reset-all command should restart your Mac. If so, you have successfully reset the Open Firmware settings."
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1812?viewlocale=en_US
How to eject a cd from the internal cd drive:
eject cd
List of devices:
devalias
List of variables:
printenv
Resetting your Mac's PRAM and NVRAM
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379
reset the PMU
http://mrjcd.com/junk/PMU.jpg
well, an external monitor did nothing
as for the firmware, it has 4.1.9f1...
That's a positive sign.
when i hold the option key on startup, i get two buttons, (a round arrow and a straight arrow) both of which i am unable to click. The firmware could not find a valid os. Should include icons for each partition or cd with a valid os. Why don't you try boot with the option key with a cd in the drive.
but is there a way i can use open firmware to redirect the boot partition?
I hadn't been able to fathom the syntax... until I listed a bunch of os's.
Used startup of system perferences to select disk/media then click on lock then
Macintosh-HD -> Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal
nvram boot-device
Now, we can guess meaning:
boot-device mac-io/ata-4@1f000/@0:12,\\:tbxi
   | | Partition/location
   | on device
   |
   0 = master
   1 = slave
   for ata internal device
Why set nvram variable? I've had open-firmware based Pegasos PPC and it simply had boot command, so instead of:
setenv boot-device ud:3,\:tbxi
should be enough to write:
boot ud:3,\:tbxi
my setup,boot my internal harddrive Tiger partition:
boot-device mac-io/ata-4@1f000/@0:12,\\:tbxi
my setup, boot my internal harddrive classic 9.2.2 partition
boot-device mac-io/ata-4@1f000/@0:10,\\:tbxi
boot from Mac OS 9 cd???
boot-device mac-io/ata-4@1f000/@1:9,\\:tbxi
boot 10.2 install cd
boot-device mac-io/ata-4@1f000/@1:9,\\:tbxi
boot hardware test cd
boot-device mac-io/ata-4@1f000/@1:9,\\:tbxi
boot from external firewire hd with Tiger installed
boot-device fw/node@1d202009c115c/sbp-2@c000/@0:10,\\:tbxi
boot from external firewire cd/dvd drive Tiger DVD
boot-device fw/node@50770500071002/sbp-2@4000/@0:3,\\:tbxi
boot from external firewire cd/dvd drive 9.2.2 install cd
boot-device fw/node@50770500071002/sbp-2@4000/@0:9,\\:tbxi
boot from external firewire cd/dvd drive Hardware test
boot-device fw/node@50770500071002/sbp-2@4000/@0:9,\\:tbxi
network startup
boot-device enet:bootp
mac $ sudo pdisk -l
Password:
Partition map (with 512 byte blocks) on '/dev/rdisk0'
#: type name length base ( size )
1: Apple_partition_map Apple 63 @ 1
2: Apple_Driver43*Macintosh 56 @ 64
3: Apple_Driver43*Macintosh 56 @ 120
4: Apple_Driver_ATA*Macintosh 56 @ 176
5: Apple_Driver_ATA*Macintosh 56 @ 232
6: Apple_FWDriver Macintosh 512 @ 288
7: Apple_Driver_IOKit Macintosh 512 @ 800
8: Apple_Patches Patch Partition 512 @ 1312
9: Apple_Free 262144 @ 1824 (128.0M)
10: Apple_HFS Apple_HFS_Untitled_1 2254440 @ 263968 ( 1.1G)
11: Apple_Free 262144 @ 2518408 (128.0M)
12: Apple_HFS Apple_HFS_Untitled_2 146538496 @ 2780552 ( 69.9G)
13: Apple_Free 6982440 @ 149319048 ( 3.3G)
Device block size=512, Number of Blocks=156301488 (74.5G)
DeviceType=0x0, DeviceId=0x0
Drivers-
1: 23 @ 64, type=0x1
2: 36 @ 120, type=0xffff
3: 21 @ 176, type=0x701
4: 34 @ 232, type=0xf8ff
pdisk: No valid block 1 on '/dev/rdisk2'
Partition map (with 512 byte blocks) on '/dev/rdisk3'
#: type name length base ( size )
1: Apple_partition_map Apple 63 @ 1
2: Apple_Driver_ATAPI*Macintosh 8 @ 64
3: Apple_HFS Mac_OS_X 5531656 @ 72 ( 2.6G)
4: Apple_Free 10 @ 5531728
Device block size=512, Number of Blocks=5531738 (2.6G)
DeviceType=0x0, DeviceId=0x0
Drivers-
1: 4 @ 64, type=0x701
mac $
why am i now unable to boot from CD as well?
See Richard's second paragraph having to boot up from the original cd to get cd reader to work again.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=5966197#5966197
i'd love to get this thing working again
Mac OS X keyboard shortcuts
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1343
Well, you could get an external firewire CD/DVD drive and use the option key to boot a cd/dvd in the drive.
thank you all for your help
-Randy
Message was edited by: rccharles

Repairing laptops that won't boot and show the blinking caps

Here's a little tutorial for all of you who have this annoying issue. It mostly applies to the 1 blink code (other codes have much simpler and straightforward solutions).
Ok, so the code says that it's caused because of a not functional CPU. That is most likely not the case. Most people who had the 1 blink code actually had a problem with the integrated video graphics card or northbridge of their laptops, not the CPU (in fact, CPU failures are quite uncommon). The problem is that these chips overheat quite often, they don't have good cooling and dissipation systems (most of the time, it is shared with the CPU which is absolutely insane), and the solder connections are of very bad quality. So with overheating, solder points start fracturing or cracking and they stop making contact, which causes all these issues, including the infamous RRoD and YLoD issues in the Xbox and Playstation consoles with their soldered video chips.
So there are two main ways of dealing with this:
1 - Reflow
This is a short-term but easy solution that simply consists of reheating the damaged component to the point of getting rid of said fractures. It has a high success rate, as many people will tell you. It worked for me always, but again, after some time the issue may come back. Still, this is a very simple solution that doesn't require too much skill or equipment and is satisfying enough for most users. This is what I'm going to show how to do in this tutorial.
2 - Reball
Reflowing doesn't always work, and when it does, it doesn't last long. Instead, reballing is a permanent solution which consists of removing the chip in its entirety and replacing all the solder contacts. Reballing requires specific equipment (a reball station), reballing stencils and leaded solder balls. It is a long procedure, which requires some skill and it only should be performed by experienced people. When a reflow won't work, you are better off sending your laptop to a reballing technician, or buying a new one (which would be a waste, in my opinion).
Ok, so how can we do a reflow? There are many ways to do this:
1) Reheating your laptop: This is a simple as it sounds. Some people call it the "blanket" method, because you can just simply turn on your laptop, wrap it with a blanket or sweater and let it run until it shuts down because of overheating. I absolutely don't recommend doing this, as there are probably many working components (particularly the hard drive holding your data) that won't benefit from the overheating. I recommend disassembling the laptop and taking out all the good parts, like the hard drive, RAM sticks and any extra PCI-e cards installed. After that you can just simply unplug the cooling fan connector from the board then turn the laptop on. This will cause it to overheat faster, so you won't have to waste hours waiting for it to get hot (using the blanket method, it can take a lot of time). Most laptops will shutdown themselves after reaching a certain threshold temperature, if yours doesn't, well, just keep an eye on it so you can turn it off before it catches fire. After it turns off, let it rest and cool for at least an hour, then connect the cooling fan again, turn the laptop on and see if it boots. If it doesn't, well, you can keep trying this until it does (not recommended after 3 tries or so), or try the next methods.
2) The oven method: This a bit tricky, but it may be more successful in some cases. First, strip down your computer until you get to the bare board holding the video chip. Remove the CPU, heatsink & fan, RAM, BIOS battery, wires, speakers, stickers, plastic sticky guards, foam spacers, absolutely everything that can be removed from the motherboard. Then preheat your household oven to approximately 200°C or 385°F. If your oven does not have a digital temperature display, perhaps use an internal oven thermometer to make sure the oven is in the right temperature range. Roll up some kitchen foil into balls, between half an inch and an inch wide, and place them on a baking tray. Place your motherboard, with CPU socket and GPU facing upwards, on top of the foil balls. It is a good idea to wrap additional foil around the more sensitive parts of the motherboard, like areas where there are capacitors and the CPU socket.
Try to wrap the rest of the motherboard in foil to protect it, leaving just the GPU exposed on both the top and bottom of the motherboard. Then place the baking tray with the laptop motherboard on it into the preheated oven.
Make sure your kitchen is well ventilated at this stage, turn on the extractor fan to full power and/or open an outside door and windows. This will help to take away any fumes. Ideally, you should leave the kitchen while any fumes are still present. A couple of times during the procedure, have a quick look through the oven door (without opening it) making sure there are no smoke or flames visible. This is unlikely to occur, but can happen if stickers were left on the motherboard. After 8 minutes, turn the oven off and open the oven door. Do not remove the motherboard from the oven at this stage, it could be very hot and it is a better idea to allow it to cool down gradually. Take care not to inhale any fumes that might be present. After 20 minutes to half an hour, remove the cool motherboard from the oven and begin rebuilding your laptop. If all has gone well, it will boot up and the problem will be fixed. If the problem remains, you could try the procedure again, leaving it in the oven for a couple of minutes longer.
After performing a reflow in an oven, I recommend cleaning the oven thoroughly, then turn it on and allow any fumes that may have built up to be completely removed. This is especially important before cooking food in the oven again.
3) The heat gun method: Probably the best way to do a reflow, it is less destructive than the previous method (as you can focus on a single place, rather than overheating the entire board), but it may be worse than the first. The first step is to test out how well your heat gun will melt the solder. Place a chunk of solder on a coin, hold the heat gun one inch above it and record how long it takes the solder to flow. Once you have the timing right, mask off the motherboard (already removed from the case) so that just the chip in question is accessible. Reflow with the same spacing and timing as you did during the coin test.
Did it work?
If your laptop works now, then you can do a couple of extra things to avoid this problem in the future:
Avoid overheating by underclocking the CPU: You can run your laptop's CPU at a lower clock speed (it will run slower, BUT not as much as you think. Undercloking by a 50% doesn't mean your laptop will perform 50% slower). It not only protects your laptop from damaging over time, it has the added benefits of making it run *much* cooler and quieter and also having longer battery life, which is awesome as well. To do this, simply (in Windows 7 and up) click the battery icon in your notification area, select More power options, then change the selected plan (like Balanced) settings (click on Change plan settings), select Change advanced power settings, scroll down and, under Processor power management, Maximum processor state, type on both 'On Battery' and 'Plugged in' a value less than 50%. Change Minimum processor state to 1% and then System cooling policy to Active.
Avoid playing heavy games and running intensive applications: Such programs very often cause the underpowered integrated graphics card and CPU to overheat, which causes all these issues. Use a desktop machine with dedicated graphics for such programs if you want your laptop to last.
Again, always take out the hard drive before any of these procedures if you don't wanna lose any data, and if you can, any other components that can get damaged in the way. Note that a reflow, particularly the oven or heat gun methods are usually last-ditch resorts because they can permanently damage your computer, in particular if performed incorrectly. DO IT AT YOUR OWN RISK. I can't be held responsible for any accidents or unwanted results that may occur after following this tutorial. If you have doubts, then you're generally better off sending your laptop to professional technicians than trying to repair these kind of issues by yourself. Unless a repair costs more than replacing your laptop, that is.
And before starting any of these procedures, try to research your issue on the Internet as much as you can. Search for your particular model, search in this exact same forum and any other as you'll be able to read about people experiencing this problem. You can search reflow on your favorite search engine and you'll find detailed tutorials and many videos which will show the procedure and help you do a better repair. Once you're very comfortable and knowledgeable with the subject, you can go ahead with the repair.

This is actually good stuff and well written but I hesitate to advise people to use either the "oven trick" or really even the heat gun method as both are notriously short-lived even if they appear effective. Your far better bet is to send the board in to one of the vendors on the internet who are set up to do a proper reball. Even those fixes are good for maybe 12-18 mos. But again, you get a high grade for spelling it out.

Recovering files from mac that won't boot?

The other night when I was reading on my Macbook Pro, it randomly started giving me the spinning-wheel-of-death. I waited for about 15 minutes, but ended up shutting it down in the end because it was still frozen. I tried restarting, but now it won't boot past the grey screen with the apple logo. I tried multiple times, and eventually it would try to boot, get to the grey screen, and then just shut off.
I got it to bring up the OS X recovery page, and tried to verify the disk (the internal hard drive), but it told me I needed to repair it. So, I tried to repair it, but it told me it had stopped and that I needed to remove my files from the drive, reformat the drive, and then put them back on.
I'm not sure what the next steps are here... I've heard that there is a way to use a firewire 800 cable and another mac book to help remove files if my computer won't boot. Is this a good option for trying to save my files, and if so, can anyone explain how to do this for me?
Is there anything else I can do that might bring my darling Macbook back to life?
Thank you so much for your time and your help! I am feeling desperate!

Will the button not restart it or even from the menu bar? And what exactly is wrong, what are the symptoms? Will it not boot up or just not restart? But ya your best bet is to boot into target mood. If you cannot turn off your computer with any button (but it does turn it on) I would say let your battery die completely or remove it. Then hook it up via firewire to another mac, plug it in, and hold T as you turn it on, this will put it in target mode and allow you to retrieve your files (assuming the hard drive isn't dead which could be a near possibility from what you described. Good luck, if you have more info as exactly what is acting up, maybe we can find a better solution for you. Otherwise good luck.

Yellow Flashing Light - AppleTVs that won't boot

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