Imac (2005) will not start

[martino910]

Hello, I have an old 2005 or 2006 imac desktop. I am not sure the year, but it is exactly the same design model in this link: https://www.pcmag.com/news/apple-store-briefly-lists-2006-imac-for-999

In the summer on 2016, my family and I moved city and we transported our mac in our car by ourselves. When arriving to the new house, I plugged in the imac as usual, but it will not start up, black screen. It was working perfectly before the move at the old house. My father and I tried to order a new memory card to see if that would work, but nothing still. We then forgot about the imac because we have a new one. Until yesterday, when i was checking the closet and I found the imac again. I tried again starting it, put it will not work. I noticed that there is a small ticking noise behind and inside the computer, about 3-4 ticks a second. I think that during the move, it may have been shaking up in the car.

Does anyone know how to fix it or know anyone that know how to fix it? I very much appreciate the help.

 

[Fishrrman]

15 year-old iMac?

 

[Longkeg]

Or, as Monty Python might say:

Your iMac is no more! He has ceased to be! 'E's expired and gone to meet 'is maker! 'E's a stiff! Bereft of life, 'e rests in peace! He’s pushing up the daisies! 'Is metabolic processes are now 'istory! 'E's off the twig! 'E's kicked the bucket, 'e's shuffled off 'is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisible!!

Seriously though. It could be a bad power supply. Unplug it as it’s a possible fire hazard. Recycle it and say goodbye. It's not worth fixing

 

[ApfelKuchen]

A little more seriously... If you don't hear the startup sound/chord then the Mac is failing the power-on self-test. There's a fairly long list of items that are tested, so there's a fairly long list of things that may not be working. Trying to guess which of them it may be (and spending money replacing them on a guess) is a fool's errand.

While a loose wire is a possibility, computers and other electronics are designed to take a lot of vibration during manufacturing and shipping - getting bumped around a little during a house move is not likely to cause a failure. It seems more likely that a component that was already in the process of failing before the move got one final insult during the move.

The logical place to turn for service would be an Apple-authorized service provider, but you have to be prepared to spend more than the Mac is worth. You may end up spending money for diagnosis only to learn they can't get the replacement part(s) - parts will often have to be salvaged from other Macs of the same model.

If there's data on the hard drive that is worth the investment a shop could remove that hard drive, connect it to another computer, and copy the data. Of course, it's possible that the hard drive itself has failed, in which case you might try spending even more money on a data recovery service that may (or may not) be able to get the drive working long enough to extract the data.

If you'd like to get it working for sentimental reasons and you have the money, someone will be happy to take your money. If you'd like to get it working because it seems wasteful to toss out... consider whether it will be useful enough to be worth the investment. Depending on the model, the maximum version of OS X you can run will be either Snow Leopard 10.6.8 or Lion 10.7.5. There are lots of web sites that will not connect to computers running those OSes due to outdated security. The apps that are installed will still work, but newer apps/updates are going to be very hard to come by...