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2007 White iMac Problem

Charcoalwerks

Charcoalwerks

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 14, 2011
217
137
Maryland
Hi gang. My friend gave me a 2007 white iMac that was confiscated during a police raid lol.
When they gave him back the Mac, it wouldn't boot up. He bought a new one and gave me this one. It powers on, but no chime or apple logo. It's just a black screen. The LCD is on, but just shows a dark gray screen. Are there any keyboard tricks I can try, or any other way to trouble shoot it?

Edit:the LCD appears dead too
 
Last edited:
tromboneaholic said:
Try starting up holding "shift" key when you press the power button and see if you get a log in screen.
Click to expand...
Okay thank you I'll try that when I get home. Have you ever heard of a similar problem? Is there a certain test the forensic scientist run that would cause this?
[doublepost=1540241230][/doublepost]Also, when you power it up, the screen stays black but you can here the super drive start spinning real fast, then you can hear what sounds like normal iMac sounds.
[doublepost=1540241260][/doublepost]
tromboneaholic said:
Try starting up holding "shift" key when you press the power button and see if you get a log in screen.
Click to expand...
That didn't do anything ☹️
 
I'm not sure what operating system it was/is running, so it's hard to recommend many options.

One other thing I would try is to zap the pram.
Shut down your Mac, then turn it on and immediately press and hold these four keys together:
Option, Command, P, and R.

Hopefully you will hear a startup chime. Hold the keys down until the second startup chime.
 
Charcoalwerks said:
Okay thank you I'll try that when I get home. Have you ever heard of a similar problem? Is there a certain test the forensic scientist run that would cause this?
[doublepost=1540241230][/doublepost]Also, when you power it up, the screen stays black but you can here the super drive start spinning real fast, then you can hear what sounds like normal iMac sounds.
[doublepost=1540241260][/doublepost]
That didn't do anything ☹️
Click to expand...
Update: there's a disc stuck in it. Is there any way to get that sucker out?
[doublepost=1540241788][/doublepost]
tromboneaholic said:
I'm not sure what operating system it was/is running, so it's hard to recommend many options.

One other thing I would try is to zap the pram.
Shut down your Mac, then turn it on and immediately press and hold these four keys together:
Option, Command, P, and R.

Hopefully you will hear a startup chime. Hold the keys down until the second startup chime.
Click to expand...
It was running Mountain Lion I believe. It was maxed out at 2gb of ram. I have the Tiger install disks and I just tried to put one in but there is a disk stuck in the drive!
 
Charcoalwerks said:
Update: there's a disc stuck in it. Is there any way to get that sucker out?
[doublepost=1540241788][/doublepost]
It was running Mountain Lion I believe. It was maxed out at 2gb of ram. I have the Tiger install disks and I just tried to put one in but there is a disk stuck in the drive!
Click to expand...
Turn it off. Click down the mouse, hold it down, and then turn the computer on while still clicking down on the mouse.
 
Charcoalwerks said:
Okay thank you I'll try that when I get home. Have you ever heard of a similar problem? Is there a certain test the forensic scientist run that would cause this?
[doublepost=1540241230][/doublepost]Also, when you power it up, the screen stays black but you can here the super drive start spinning real fast, then you can hear what sounds like normal iMac sounds.
[doublepost=1540241260][/doublepost]
That didn't do anything ☹️
Click to expand...

A Safe Boot is what's being described. This can take a long time on an old Mac with a mechanical hard drive. A half hour or more is not unusual for the Log In screen to appear.

Try holding the Option key instead. This will show the Repair Partition (if the system was not created by cloning) and the Boot Drive if this Mac is working. It will show nothing if there's a major problem.

If you can get to the Repair Partition, you can change the password and get in (Google this). There's more than one way.

What do you mean by "black screen"? Is it the same as when the system's off or does the screen actually turn to black? If it turns to black, do you see anything?

Really, you need to try to boot this from a USB thumb drive or an external running OS 10.4.4 to 10.6.8 connected via USB. It may or may not boot from the Super Drive using the System Restore, Retail 10.5 or 10.6 CD — if the optical drive lens isn't too dirty (big if).

All you need to accomplish at this point is to get in—without spending money if possible. Do that and you can have fun with something like this. A 128G SSD can be had for $27 or so and the common CR2032 battery can be found in any drug store. These are easy to get into and upgrade. It will run OS 10.6.8.
 
mikehalloran said:
A Safe Boot is what's being described. This can take a long time on an old Mac with a mechanical hard drive. A half hour or more is not unusual for the Log In screen to appear.

Try holding the Option key instead. This will show the Repair Partition (if the system was not created by cloning) and the Boot Drive if this Mac is working. It will show nothing if there's a major problem.

If you can get to the Repair Partition, you can change the password and get in (Google this). There's more than one way.

What do you mean by "black screen"? Is it the same as when the system's off or does the screen actually turn to black? If it turns to black, do you see anything?

Really, you need to try to boot this from a USB thumb drive or an external running OS 10.4.4 to 10.6.8 connected via USB. It may or may not boot from the Super Drive using the System Restore, Retail 10.5 or 10.6 CD — if the optical drive lens isn't too dirty (big if).

All you need to accomplish at this point is to get in—without spending money if possible. Do that and you can have fun with something like this. A 128G SSD can be had for $27 or so and the common CR2032 battery can be found in any drug store. These are easy to get into and upgrade. It will run OS 10.6.8.
Click to expand...
Turns out it's a stuck DVD in the drive. I advised them to start it up while clicking down on the mouse.
 
If it's a late 2007, it can run 10.4.10 – 10.11.x. Check it out at EveryMac.

https://everymac.com/systems/apple/imac/index-imac.html

If that's the case, making a boot USB drive to test is easy.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372
[doublepost=1540243288][/doublepost]
tromboneaholic said:
One other thing I would try is to zap the pram
Click to expand...

tromboneaholic said:
Turns out it's a stuck DVD in the drive. I advised them to start it up while clicking down on the mouse.
Click to expand...

All good advice.
 
mikehalloran said:
If it's a late 2007, it can run 10.4.10 – 10.11.x. Check it out at EveryMac.

https://everymac.com/systems/apple/imac/index-imac.html

If that's the case, making a boot USB drive to test is easy.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372
[doublepost=1540243288][/doublepost]



All good advice.
Click to expand...
I assume they have a grey screen because it's trying to boot from the DVD but unable to and is stuck in a loop. Hopefully the old "click the mouse down during startup" routine does the trick.
 
mikehalloran said:
A Safe Boot is what's being described. This can take a long time on an old Mac with a mechanical hard drive. A half hour or more is not unusual for the Log In screen to appear.

Try holding the Option key instead. This will show the Repair Partition (if the system was not created by cloning) and the Boot Drive if this Mac is working. It will show nothing if there's a major problem.

If you can get to the Repair Partition, you can change the password and get in (Google this). There's more than one way.

What do you mean by "black screen"? Is it the same as when the system's off or does the screen actually turn to black? If it turns to black, do you see anything?

Really, you need to try to boot this from a USB thumb drive or an external running OS 10.4.4 to 10.6.8 connected via USB. It may or may not boot from the Super Drive using the System Restore, Retail 10.5 or 10.6 CD — if the optical drive lens isn't too dirty (big if).

All you need to accomplish at this point is to get in—without spending money if possible. Do that and you can have fun with something like this. A 128G SSD can be had for $27 or so and the common CR2032 battery can be found in any drug store. These are easy to get into and upgrade. It will run OS 10.6.8.
Click to expand...
Here's what I know so far. When you power it on, there are no chimes, no white screen or anything. The power light in the bottom corner lights up, then you can hear the SuperDrive spinning a disk really fast. The screen doesn't come on at all. I tried to insert the factory disk that came with the Mac, but it appears there is a disc already stuck in it. Maybe a disc the police used on it? Idk. At this point maybe a tear down is what it needs? Unplug and replug the LCD? Physically remove the disk from the SD?
[doublepost=1540243701][/doublepost]
tromboneaholic said:
I assume they have a grey screen because it's trying to boot from the DVD but unable to and is stuck in a loop. Hopefully the old "click the mouse down during startup" routine does the trick.
Click to expand...
I was wrong, there is no screen at all. It stays off but you can hear the internals doing their thing
[doublepost=1540243887][/doublepost]
mikehalloran said:
If it's a late 2007, it can run 10.4.10 – 10.11.x. Check it out at EveryMac.

https://everymac.com/systems/apple/imac/index-imac.html

If that's the case, making a boot USB drive to test is easy.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372
[doublepost=1540243288][/doublepost]



All good advice.
Click to expand...
It's an early 2007 white acrylic iMac. It was at one point upgraded to 2gb ram to run mt.lion

ETA: its a core2duo iMac white with 2gb ram.
His wife bought it new at Apple Store at the mall right before the aluminum iMacs debuted. It was running great before the police confiscated it.
 
Last edited:
Charcoalwerks said:
Here's what I know so far. When you power it on, there are no chimes, no white screen or anything. The power light in the bottom corner lights up, then you can hear the SuperDrive spinning a disk really fast. The screen doesn't come on at all. I tried to insert the factory disk that came with the Mac, but it appears there is a disc already stuck in it. Maybe a disc the police used on it? Idk. At this point maybe a tear down is what it needs? Unplug and replug the LCD? Physically remove the disk from the SD?
[doublepost=1540243701][/doublepost]
I was wrong, there is no screen at all. It stays off but you can hear the internals doing their thing
[doublepost=1540243887][/doublepost]
It's an early 2007 white acrylic iMac. It was at one point upgraded to 2gb ram to run mt.lion
Click to expand...
Have you tried starting it up while clicking down the mouse button?
 
tromboneaholic said:
There are some tricks only for removing a stuck disk from an iMac. I'd try one of those, but be careful as the drive is not the sturdiest.
Click to expand...
Can you tell me the tricks? I have plenty of tools. And thank you very much for replying to my thread. I really appreciate any help and I think it would be awesome if I can get this vintage piece of art operational again.
[doublepost=1540245742][/doublepost]
JoeInMilwaukee said:
The Late 2006 iMacs were the first (and only) white acrylic iMacs with Core 2 Duo processors. These can run OS X 10.4 Tiger through 10.7 Lion.
Click to expand...
Yep thank you. It was running lion apparently and pretty well until the po-lice got their hands on it. In case anyone is curious, he was suspected of selling steroids online hence the raid and confiscating computers. The iMac I'm trying to fix belonged to his wife and was given back to him in a non-working state with a disc stuck in the SuperDrive
[doublepost=1540245823][/doublepost]
tromboneaholic said:
any mouse should as long as you are pressing down and then turn of the computer
Click to expand...
So hold the button down, then power on the Mac?
 
Charcoalwerks said:
Can you tell me the tricks? I have plenty of tools. And thank you very much for replying to my thread. I really appreciate any help and I think it would be awesome if I can get this vintage piece of art operational again.
[doublepost=1540245742][/doublepost]
Yep thank you. It was running lion apparently and pretty well until the po-lice got their hands on it. In case anyone is curious, he was suspected of selling steroids online hence the raid and confiscating computers. The iMac I'm trying to fix belonged to his wife and was given back to him in a non-working state with a disc stuck in the SuperDrive
Click to expand...
Here's a whole walkthrough with the more desperate methods towards the bottom:
https://www.wired.com/2013/02/jammed-dvd-imac/
[doublepost=1540245998][/doublepost]
Charcoalwerks said:
So hold the button down, then power on the Mac?
Click to expand...

Yes, and keep holding the button down.
 
It is very possible for the plastic to have distorted just enough so that the bezel is keeping the disk from ejecting. Check for that.

You can pop the optical drive out of the iMac. The right flick of the wrist will send the disk flying across the room. Aim for the curtains.
 
Well I got the disk out but still nothing happens when I power on the iMac. I can hear the internals doing something but the LCD doesn't even come on.
[doublepost=1540314635][/doublepost]
nambuccaheadsau said:
The best advice is do not go spending money on it.
Click to expand...
I'm definitely not. I just thought it would be nice to get it back to working order. Maybe give it to my daughter as a first computer.
 
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