Question

iMac a1224 boot problems

Asked by: bta-guy

A client has an iMac 17 inch a1224 that stopped booting last week. The problem is a  hardware problem with the hard drive. I tried recovering with Disk Warrior and Disk Utility, but it is clearly a hardware problem. So... I removed the drive and put in a new blank hard drive. I am now trying to boot to the Snow Leopard installation DVD to run the installation, but keep getting the flashing question mark folder. The DVD spins, but is never seen as bootable by the system, so it never boots and begins the install.

I have tried resetting the pram, checked all connectors, everything seems to be fine. It just won't boot to the dvd.

Any ideas?

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Asked On
2009-09-10 at 04:55:45ID24720988
Tags

os x

Topics

Mac OS 10.5 (Leopard)

,

Snow Leopard (OS 10.6)

Participating Experts
3
Points
500
Comments
18

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Answers

 

by: strungPosted on 2009-09-10 at 05:08:38ID: 25299351

Are you holding down the c key while booting?

Have you tried booting while holding down the option key?

 

by: strungPosted on 2009-09-10 at 05:09:36ID: 25299359

Also, do you have the jumpers set right on the new drive? If you don't the Mac potential might not recognize the optical drive either.

 

by: bta-guyPosted on 2009-09-10 at 05:12:39ID: 25299376

Tried C key, tried option key, still same result of flashing ?.  It's a Scada drive, jumpers are correct. Good thoughts though.

 

by: strungPosted on 2009-09-10 at 05:16:53ID: 25299401

By the way, I assume this is an Intel chip iMac, and not the older iMac G5? Snow Leopard is Intel only.

 

by: roylongPosted on 2009-09-10 at 05:18:45ID: 25299412

Have you checked that your iMac is supported by the Snow Leopard DVD you have?

If the Snow Leopard DVD came with another Macintosh (i.e. shipped with a Mac as opposed to Retail box) then it may only boot the system that it came with (or at least only the latest models).

 

by: strungPosted on 2009-09-10 at 05:20:29ID: 25299422

What is a "Scada" drive? Is that a brand name? Recent iMacs  all use SATA drives.

 

by: bta-guyPosted on 2009-09-10 at 05:24:31ID: 25299446

sorry, caught up in another project using scada devices. meant SATA.

I'll check on the compatibility issue, I just assumed that the machine was new enough, but I will check. Thanks.

 

by: bta-guyPosted on 2009-09-15 at 14:20:21ID: 31627026

Thanks! Took me awhile to find a basic 10.5 disk, but it booted off of it right away. Sorry for the delay, but thanks for your help!

 

by: pyrotechacPosted on 2010-02-21 at 21:29:12ID: 26818493

I have the identical problem.  Put a new drive in, tried to boot from the Snow Leopard DVD (bought at Best Buy), just won't boot from disk.  Tried C, D, reset PRAM, Option, etc, etc.  Never shows the Cd as a boot device, sometimes i get the clock for a while and a few seeks on the DVD but no booting.  This is an Intel iMac 24".  I can't even seem to get the DVD to eject at power-on either.  Quite a pain!

 

by: bta-guyPosted on 2010-02-22 at 05:44:26ID: 26820708

pyro- looks like it is the same problem as I had. Do you know what OS level the machine originally came with? THat's what you need to get it to boot, then you can upgrade to Snow Leopard from there.  Its a pain, I was just happy to get it working in the end.

 

by: pyrotechacPosted on 2010-02-22 at 07:49:33ID: 26822150

Hmmmm, don't know what version it originally had.  Maybe 10.2 or 10.4.  It wasn't my machine oringinally.  I sort of inherited it.  Why would it make a difference?

 

by: strungPosted on 2010-02-22 at 08:00:57ID: 26822259

You can get the DVD to eject by holding down the mouse button while rebooting.

What happens if you boot holding down the option key? That should bring up the boot picker and show the DVD as a bootable disk. If it does not, I would suspect a defective DVD drive.

If you have another Mac and an 8 Gig USB thumbdrive, it is possible to make the thumb drive bootable and do your install from it.

http://www.maciverse.com/install-os-x-snow-leopard-from-usb-flash-drive.html

 

by: pyrotechacPosted on 2010-02-22 at 08:21:27ID: 26822486

I've tried the mouse button on boot and it doesn't work either.  

Using the option key gets me two icons, a go-back arrow and a next arrow.  I also get a clock in the upper left corner while it does a few seeks on the DVD and then it goes back to a mouse pointer.  

Unfortunately no other Mac around.

 

by: strungPosted on 2010-02-22 at 08:30:30ID: 26822585

When you hold down the mouse button on reboot, can you hear the DVD drive mechanism trying to eject the DVD? If not, you either have a defective DVD drive or a problem with the mouse and/or keyboard.

Are the mouse and keyboard connected to the computer by USB or are they wireless? If the latter, that may be your problem. You may need a wired keyboard and mouse.

 

by: strungPosted on 2010-02-22 at 08:31:50ID: 26822600

Is there any possibility that when you removed and replaced the HD, you did not reconnect all the cables properly? Particularly the cable to the DVD drive?

 

by: pyrotechacPosted on 2010-02-22 at 09:24:34ID: 26823086

I'm pretty careful about cables and such.  It's tough to goof up SATA cables.  The mouse is wireless and I've resynced it to the base a couple of times.  I'll scrounge up a wired mouse and see what happens.

 

by: bta-guyPosted on 2010-02-22 at 10:25:48ID: 26823670

Can't tell you why, I was never able to figure that out, it just would not boot with a newer version.  Luckily I have a decent library of installation disks going several versions back and found one quickly that worked.

 

by: bta-guyPosted on 2010-02-22 at 10:37:06ID: 26823742

What model number is the iMac?

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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