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Late 2009 27” iMac stuck on loading bar at startup

missfoxfire

missfoxfire

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 2, 2018
4
0
Australia
Hello wise Mac Rumors users! I desperately seek your counsel for my borked late 2009 iMac. I believe I have tried everything possible and may have to finally write my vintage iMac off but with the absence of a spare $4k, I still hold the hope of an easy fix!

I was using chrome on my mac, and suddenly it froze and was unresponsive except for being able to move the cursor, so I manually shut down for the night. Next day i started up and it froze again the same way on my desktop, so I did another manual shut down and restarted, then it got stuck at about 65% (now sometimes 50% sometimes 40% or so) on the loading bar and progressed no further, and I can not get past this again for a few days now.

It DOES load recovery and safe modes sucessfully, internet connection is working. It will NOT load the hardware test with either D or Opt+D. I did the High Sierra update only about 2-3 months ago after avoiding it for a while.

I have tried:

-First aid in disk utility in recovery mode

-Reinstall of OS in recovery mode

-PRAM reset

-SMC reset

-Complete format/erase of my hard drive and reinstall of OS in recovery mode and with a High Sierra bootable USB

-Going to the Apple store and having them run diagnostic which was successful except for it being slightly confused about my aftermarket ram (which had worked the last 5 yrs).

I believe Apple have replaced the hard drive a few years ago due to a defective hard drive in this particular model. No issues with that until now.

Thank you so very much to my personal hero’s who offer advice on this, even if to remind me that 2009 was almost 10 years ago :D
 
It would sure help if you told us WHICH VERSION of the OS you're using.

You said you can boot into safe mode?
Can you log in that way, and get to the finder?
Once there, do things work ok?
Apps launch, etc.?

If you can, that suggests that the problem is not with the drive, but with some software in your regular account.

Here's what I'd try:
1. boot into safe mode, get to the finder
2. open system preferences and go to "users and groups"
3. click the lock icon and enter your password
4. now (above the lock), click the "+" to add a NEW account
5. MAKE SURE it has administrative privileges. Give it a simple name and a simple password
6. Once the new account is created, log out of your existing account and log into the new one.
7. now, shut down (all the way off)
8. press the power-on button and see if you can get to the account log in screen. Can you get there?
9. try logging into the new account. Can you get there?
10. If this works, again, it points to something in your "regular" account.

IF the above works, I'd try downloading and running MalwareBytes:
https://www.malwarebytes.com/mac/

It's a free download.
It will prompt you to "pay for the upgrade", but YOU DO NOT NEED TO DO THIS, EVER.
Just run it in free mode.

Run Malwarebytes (while logged into your "second account") and see if it finds anything.

Do all this, and get back to us.
 
Fishrrman said:
It would sure help if you told us WHICH VERSION of the OS you're using.

You said you can boot into safe mode?
Can you log in that way, and get to the finder?
Once there, do things work ok?
Apps launch, etc.?

If you can, that suggests that the problem is not with the drive, but with some software in your regular account.

Here's what I'd try:
1. boot into safe mode, get to the finder
2. open system preferences and go to "users and groups"
3. click the lock icon and enter your password
4. now (above the lock), click the "+" to add a NEW account
5. MAKE SURE it has administrative privileges. Give it a simple name and a simple password
6. Once the new account is created, log out of your existing account and log into the new one.
7. now, shut down (all the way off)
8. press the power-on button and see if you can get to the account log in screen. Can you get there?
9. try logging into the new account. Can you get there?
10. If this works, again, it points to something in your "regular" account.

IF the above works, I'd try downloading and running MalwareBytes:
https://www.malwarebytes.com/mac/

It's a free download.
It will prompt you to "pay for the upgrade", but YOU DO NOT NEED TO DO THIS, EVER.
Just run it in free mode.

Run Malwarebytes (while logged into your "second account") and see if it finds anything.

Do all this, and get back to us.
Click to expand...

Fishrrman thank you so so much for taking the time to reply and help me out, it is very much appreciated!

I said how I used a High Sierra bootable USB to reinstall my OS after formatting the drive. I should have mentioned it straight up sorry >.<

I have completely formatted/erased my HD 3 times so far so there wasn’t any added software remaining or possibility of malware, but the standard apps that come with the OS appear to be functioning in safe mode. I have not restored a backup so this is a blank fresh install of High Sierra.

I’ve created the new user account anyway and still have the same issue when booting up normally, it does not progress any more than 50% past the loading bar :( Is it time to write this iMac off?
[doublepost=1535947917][/doublepost]OH I just realised; version 10.13.6 of High Sierra! I’m so sorry!
 
Why go to the trouble and expense of putting a new hard drive into an iMac that is almost 10 years old?

I think it's time the OP starts considering a new (or perhaps Apple-refurbished) Mac...
 
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Reactions: missfoxfire
Hi everyone, yikes I missed so many replies I’m so sorry. Thank you to everyone who took the time to reply. I have an update which might hopefully help others someday. It turns out the hard drive is fine and it is the GPU after all Jethro! The technician who is looking at it for me is going to give the baking method a go as a last resort. Will update after this :)
 
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