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Bobby Boy

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 26, 2015
5
1
Cheshire
I have and love my very old 2007 iMac 20” 1Gb Ram Intel core duo, but now after boot up it will only allow me to click once, then the dreaded wheel of death, the cursor only works to move windows about the desktop. Can you help me please?
 
I going to assume here you made no hardware changes and did not install any software that started this? If that is the case and this just started all on its own, what you are describing sounds like a bad hard drive.

Do you have any kind of external USB key or disk you could boot to to test the drive?
 
I going to assume here you made no hardware changes and did not install any software that started this? If that is the case and this just started all on its own, what you are describing sounds like a bad hard drive.

Do you have any kind of external USB key or disk you could boot to to test the drive?

Many thanks for you replay.
I have suspected my HDD was tired for some time now, so I purchased a 250Gb SSD and a 4Gb Ram upgrade from 'Crucial'. The idea was to upgrade the Ram to 4Gb then download EC then install it on the new SSD that would be external,copy the programs and folders I wanted, once completed I would install the new SSD into my iMac. It was when EC was downloading that this problem started. I did install the 4gb Ram as EC would not be able to download with only 1 Gb of Ram.
 
Sorry forgot to say I only have the Snow Leopard disk and did not know if I could eject it if things didn't work out
 
Sorry forgot to say I only have the Snow Leopard disk and did not know if I could eject it if things didn't work out
Can you boot to the Snow Leopard DVD (hold the C key at startup)?

You could install the SSD, then boot to the Snow Leoapard DVD and from there format the new SSD and install Snow Leopard. Then after you get SL on the SSD, boot to that and run software update to get to 10.6.8 so you have the App Store. Then from there update to El Capitan.
 
Can you boot to the Snow Leopard DVD (hold the C key at startup)?

You could install the SSD, then boot to the Snow Leoapard DVD and from there format the new SSD and install Snow Leopard. Then after you get SL on the SSD, boot to that and run software update to get to 10.6.8 so you have the App Store. Then from there update to El Capitan.
Thanks for giving me some of you Christmas time, I'll try that and come back to you if I may.

Regards
Bob
 
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Update:
I ended up having a network diagnostic scan of my iMac at Apple, it showed all was well until the logic board was scanned. This told us that out of the 15 sensors on there, 10 were faulty. In other words I need to replace the logic board or bin the computer. I have found an advertised new board on the net, but is it worth repairing for £90, any advice would be welcome.

Bob
 
Hummm it depends on how much you want to hold on to the past. It's just like an aging car. Here is your first major repair, how long until the second?? Do you want to continue to sink in more money for something which is undoubtedly on its way out?? The choice is yours.....
 
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