White Intel iMac wont boot.

[Retrospectic]

Hi guys, just wonder'd if any of you have heard of this problem before.. a while ago now, my white intel iMac (i believe it's 7,1 but not sure) stopped booting, i believe it is running 10.6.2, when i press the power button i head the start up chime and also the sleep light on the front comes on as usual, the only problem is it dosent turn off then the screen wont turn on, a few times late in the day i have tried it in curiosity, and it chimed, and the sleep light went off, and it boots fine and works fine, so im wondering if it is a software problem? also if i leave it for the usual amount of time it takes to start up, and press the volume up or down button, it does make the little pop sound that happens when you press it. so that leads me to believe it may be hardware.. so has anyone heard of this? anyone know how to fix this?

Alex

 

[spinnerlys]

Mac doesn't boot

Btw, a bit of formatting your post, maybe breaks or paragraphs, would enhance the readability of it.

 

[Retrospectic]

Thanks, thats worked..
Sorry for the lack of formatting, crappy vaio laptop. I think it was either pram or the safe boot; just repairing disk permissions just as a precaution, but this came up.. could this be the problem?

Warning: SUID file "System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/Contents/MacOS/ARDAgent" has been modified and will not be repaired.

 

[Hellhammer]

Thanks, thats worked..
Sorry for the lack of formatting, crappy vaio laptop. I think it was either pram or the safe boot; just repairing disk permissions just as a precaution, but this came up.. could this be the problem?

Warning: SUID file "System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/Contents/MacOS/ARDAgent" has been modified and will not be repaired.

Don't worry about it, Disk Utility will always show something like that, it's normal

 

[Retrospectic]

Hey guys, i just tried to boot the iMac again and it done the same thing as normal, i ran throught the SMC reset, PRAM reset and then tried safe mode and none worked.. advice?

 

[Hellhammer]

Hey guys, i just tried to boot the iMac again and it done the same thing as normal, i ran throught the SMC reset, PRAM reset and then tried safe mode and none worked.. advice?

Sounds like your HD is busted. Don't worry, new one costs only 50$ and installing isn't that hard

 

[Retrospectic]

My only problem is with that is that if it isnt the HD then im $50 out of hand.. is there any way too tell for sure? i dont really wanna fork out any more in a rush as i just bought a magic mouse and bluetooth keyboard.. :/

 

[Paulywauly]

I'm sure most maintenance software for Mac has the ability to check the SMART status of your hard disc, i think Onyx does it? It should tell you if your hard disc is healthy.
I had an iMac from the same generation as yourself and it came with something called Tech Tool Deluxe. It runs tests on all of your hardware, if your iMac has it run all of the Hard Disc tests. If it helps, when my hard disc died the surface scan test had ALOT of errors.

 

[666sheep]

Wait, wait.
OP, your iMac sometimes won't turn on screen (no picture at all) and refuses to boot, sometimes starts normally, correct?
It has nothing to do with HDD, it's deeper hardware problem.
If HDD would be damaged, screen would turn on everytime, for sure.

If it's iMac from your sig, it could be PSU or logic board. But except Hardware Test (or Apple Service Diagnostics if you'll find one somewhere), not much you can do by yourself to diagnose where problem is.

 

[Hellhammer]

Wait, wait.
OP, your iMac sometimes won't turn on screen (no picture at all) and refuses to boot, sometimes starts normally, correct?
It has nothing to do with HDD, it's deeper hardware problem.
If HDD would be damaged, screen would turn on everytime, for sure.

If it's iMac from your sig, it could be PSU or logic board. But except Hardware Test (or Apple Service Diagnostics if you'll find one somewhere), not much you can do by yourself to diagnose where problem is.

I agree, my reply was bad, porbs thought this is other thread. If it doesn't boot at all, it's likely PSU but could be logic board, GPU or the screen itself, only Apple can fix it

 

[666sheep]

^ In fact, not only them, but you need to have access to working parts such as listed.

OP, you can do one more test: set up your iMac to VNC server (with "start server when open program" - or like this - option, screen sharing will be good too) and if issue happens, try to access it via VNC client from iBook.
Test connection when iMac will be working and add VNC server to Login items on your default user account. If it will connect when issue happens, it's pointing display. If will be no connection - logic board or PSU.

 

[Retrospectic]

Wait, wait.
OP, your iMac sometimes won't turn on screen (no picture at all) and refuses to boot, sometimes starts normally, correct?.

Yep, thats right, sometimes does, sometimes dont.

It has nothing to do with HDD, it's deeper hardware problem.
If HDD would be damaged, screen would turn on everytime, for sure.

If it's iMac from your sig, it could be PSU or logic board. But except Hardware Test (or Apple Service Diagnostics if you'll find one somewhere), not much you can do by yourself to diagnose where problem is.

and again, yes. It is the iMac from my sig; and if it is t'is the second logic board ive had go :/ if i take it to the apple store will they be able to repair it? if so how much? i dont have any applecare.

OP, you can do one more test: set up your iMac to VNC server (with "start server when open program" - or like this - option, screen sharing will be good too) and if issue happens, try to access it via VNC client from iBook.
Test connection when iMac will be working and add VNC server to Login items on your default user account. If it will connect when issue happens, it's pointing display. If will be no connection - logic board or PSU.

i would try this, but the iBook has a bit of a logic board problem so :/

Thanks