iMac won't boot up

[Cue]

Hi there...

I usually leave my iMac turned on with just the monitor switched off.
That was also the case when I left yesterday for a day trip.

Coming back today, I noticed that it was shutdown.

Pressing the power button, I can hear the familiar "ding" of boot up, the fans running, the usual dvd drive sound and after that it just shuts down. Not even the monitor will power on.

Before I start panicking since various thoughts are crossing my mind, is there anything that I can try to possible identify what's wrong?

Thanks in advance...

 

[SaSaSushi]

Will the machine boot to your OS X disc? Put the disc in the drive and try holding down the 'C' key as you boot up.

If it boots to the OS X disc I guess the next thing I'd try would be to run Disk Utility for starters.

 

[panzer06]

Hi there...

I usually leave my iMac turned on with just the monitor switched off.
That was also the case when I left yesterday for a day trip.

Coming back today, I noticed that it was shutdown.

Pressing the power button, I can hear the familiar "ding" of boot up, the fans running, the usual dvd drive sound and after that it just shuts down. Not even the monitor will power on.

Before I start panicking since various thoughts are crossing my mind, is there anything that I can try to possible identify what's wrong?

Thanks in advance...

If this is one of the white iMacs, we did see a bit of this at work. In most cases it was either the power supply or the logic board. Of course, hopefully it's just a dead or dying HD.

Cheers,

 

[Cue]

It won't reach to the point to boot from a CD.

I unplugged it from the power cord for a couple of minutes.
Put it back on, press power and this time the screen lit, only to shutdown again...

This time when I power it on, It won't even get to the "ding" sound.

 

[SaSaSushi]

It won't reach to the point to boot from a CD.

I unplugged it from the power cord for a couple of minutes.
Put it back on, press power and this time the screen lit, only to shutdown again...

This time when I power it on, It won't even get to the "ding" sound.

That doesn't sound good at all, Cue.

Like Panzer06 said above, I also had a white 20" Core Duo iMac that had a bad logic board. It began showing graphical artifacting and locking up in OS X and eventually refused to boot at all. At the time I had not purchased Applecare and the machine was 6 weeks out of the one year warranty. I ended up paying $550 (US) to replace the logic board. Such problems are in no way exclusive to the white iMacs though. All Macs are susceptible.

I am assuming you don't have any coverage on the machine at this point?

If it won't even get to the point to boot the OS X disc one starts to consider more serious hardware issues...

 

[Sun Baked]

Running a line conditioning UPS?

Power could have flickered while you were gone, or the machine simply died.

 

[Cue]

It's actually an aluminium one....

It began showing graphical artifacting and locking up in OS X and eventually refused to boot at all.

That reminds me of this one time...

Actually it's still under warranty, I only have it for 9 months.
It's not on UPS, I'm not sure whether it was a power "flickr", but since I was away I can't really tell.

It's the data that I'm most concerned with tbh..

Thanks for your support so far.

 

[SaSaSushi]

It's actually an aluminium one....



That reminds me of this one time...

Ouch! That looks familiar...

Actually it's still under warranty, I only have it for 9 months.

I'm glad to hear that! I think you should definitely send it in for service.

It's the data that I'm most concerned with tbh...

That really looks like it might be a bad logic board. Apple will probably replace it and send it right back to you with your current HD (and all your data) intact. I know they never guarantee that but I got mine back with my HD and all data safe.

Now I regularly back up with Time Machine AND SuperDuper to a Firewire 800 external HD as well.

Good luck and let us know how that works out.

 

[Tudeski]

If this is one of the white iMacs, we did see a bit of this at work. In most cases it was either the power supply or the logic board. Of course, hopefully it's just a dead or dying HD.

Cheers,

Was this fixed in the transition to the latest revisions of the imacs?

 

[ucla95]

Was this fixed in the transition to the latest revisions of the imacs?

Happened to me on a very recent iMac so I guess it isn't fixed.

 

[IJ Reilly]

Doesn't sound good, but it's worth trying to start it in Single User Mode and running fsck:

Restart with the cmd-s keys held down, until you see a black screen with white characters. After the text stops scrolling, at the command prompt, type:

fsck -f [including the space, return]

If any repairs are reported, run fsck again until none are reported. Then, at the command prompt, type:

reboot [return]

 

[Salmar]

Despite all the many users that leave their computers running all the time, I shut down every night and start her up in the morning and haven't had any problems! During thunderstorms or the potential of storms during the night I pull the plug out of the wall. I've been shutting down my pc's every night for the past twelve years with never a problem. I can't see the justification for leaving the computer on day and night. It's not a question of saving electricity, for me it's just common sense! This is my first Mac and I've had it for 14 months and I have been shutting it down every night before bed without a problem. Say what you will, but I know I am doing the right thing. It avoids problems of trying to wake a computer from sleep or whatever. Maybe it's the snoring that affects the computer during sleep. <G>

 

[SaSaSushi]

I've been shutting down my pc's every night for the past twelve years with never a problem. I can't see the justification for leaving the computer on day and night. It's not a question of saving electricity, for me it's just common sense! This is my first Mac and I've had it for 14 months and I have been shutting it down every night before bed without a problem. Say what you will, but I know I am doing the right thing. It avoids problems of trying to wake a computer from sleep or whatever. Maybe it's the snoring that affects the computer during sleep. <G>

OK, I'll say what I will.

Obviously you should disconnect the Mac from the power during electrical storms. However, I put my iMac into sleep mode overnights or when I am going to be away from the machine for any extended period of time. The hard disks spin down, the video output shuts off and the CPU goes into low-power mode. In 19 months with this Mac I have yet to experience any problems waking it. I seriously doubt that even running the machine 24/7 significantly contributes to failure rate. It's solid state electronics. If there's a defect it's either going to fail or not.

I am not talking about running a machine excessively hot. That's a different story.

 

[Cue]

A heads up on the matter.

I just received a call from the authorized service provider here in Greece (we don't have an Apple Store) and they mentioned that the problem was a faulty "monitor cable" that got replaced and everything is up and running now.

I should pick it up on Monday.

I am a bit surprised to be honest, since I've been reading a lot about faulty PSUs, motherboard(s) and graphics cards...

edit...
They just called me again, saying that there was a communication error and that it hasn't been fixed yet. They'll let me know...

 

[Cue]

Just to put an end to this for future reference.
I did actually get my iMac today. That is after 4 working days which isn't that bad considering there is no Apple store here in Greece.

As I mentioned on my previous message, it was a case of a faulty cable (see attached)

It cost me nothing since I wasn't past the 1 year warranty.

 

[IJ Reilly]

I think your Mac was taken over by space aliens.