My iMac is very ill. I think I may have killed it. PLEASE help...

[dreddie]

I am the proud owner of A 24" iMac that I bought about 2 weeks ago from an Apple store in the UK (Trafford Centre, Manchester.)
Something HORRID has just happened. I think it was because I tried to install iSnip, a nice little clipboard manager that runs fine on my PowerBook.
Anyway, now when I try and turn the iMac on, I get NOTHING, and I mean NOTHING except the white power indicator light on the bottom right, which doesn't even pulse. It just sits there and glares at me.
Please don't suggest starting up in the Cmd-Alt-Shft-P-R-whatever mode, because I have a wireless keyboard, which seemed like a good idea at the time, but won't talk to my iMac at all now!

DO I really have to start all over again by sticking my CD into the machine and turning it on? Will I lose everything on the machine if I do this?

 

[CanadaRAM]

1st step - go and borrow a corded keyboard and mouse.
Post back when you have one attached.

 

[dreddie]

Any keyboard...?

Silly question (sorry!) but will any USB-corded keyboard / mouse do? My iMac has never been introduced to either, so will it even recognise them if I simply plug them in?

 

[SkyBell]

Silly question (sorry!) but will any USB-corded keyboard / mouse do? My iMac has never been introduced to either, so will it even recognise them if I simply plug them in?

Ya, it will. Even my old iMac G3 did.

 

[suneohair]

Slightly related. Can I not use a bluetooth keyboard and mouse on a Mac before OS X boots?

 

[IJ Reilly]

Slightly related. Can I not use a bluetooth keyboard and mouse on a Mac before OS X boots?

For purposes such as booting into Single User Mode, the bluetooth keyboard seems to work fine for me.

 

[dreddie]

Resurrected...!

Saved myself a trip to the store. Re-seating the RAM seems to have done the trick, although required a couple of nerve-shattering re-starts.