# Problems booting up intel IMac, help please.



## rich_bell20 (May 24, 2006)

Hello everyone, 

I have a very annoying problem with my 20inch intel imac.

I shut the imac down, wake up the next morning, press the power button ont he back to boot up, everything switches on, i can hear the hard drive working, and the fan blowing but the screen does not come on and it does not play that startup sound.  It just stays this way until i have to shut it down manually by holding down the power button.  When i then try to boot up again by holding the power button down... it works!  I have to do this nearly every time i boot up now, only occasionally will it let me boot up first time.  I also have the same problems when the imac goes to sleep sometimes, it will wake from sleep ( i can hear the harddrive switching back on and the fan) but the screen will not come on.  I then have to resort to just powering down the imac by holding the power button.

hope anyone can help
cheers


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## mattsuzu (May 25, 2006)

Try...

when you restart the second time and hear the chime, you gotta be quick:

hold apple/option/P/R down together until you hear it chime a second time - if you dont hear it a second time and it boots into OS you were too slow - try again. this will reset the P Ram of the machine

Second - if that doesn;t work, pull the power cable out. hold the power button down while you plug it back in and release it after about 1/2 a second. This is more likely going to help you as it sounds like a power management issue - low and behold that process resets teh PMU so try those and let me knwo


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## trapt (May 28, 2006)

no this happened to me too and thats why im getting a new mac.  I had an emac with the same prob and u can do all that with resarting ur video card and unplugging it but the screen might only pop on for a short period.  U must have a bad video card.  Just get another, I couldnt replace mine on my other computer because of the way it was built.


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## nixgeek (May 28, 2006)

Some of the earlier iMac G5 models had issues with video.  You might have to take it to Apple to have it repaired.  They should honor it for free as this was a defect from the factory.


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## rich_bell20 (Jun 12, 2006)

thanks mattsuzu,

it seems your second solution of pulling the plug out and putting it back in to reset power has worked, i havent had the same problem since.

thanks very much


Richard


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## mattsuzu (Jun 12, 2006)

Awesome, well done! Just keep an eye on it. If it repeatedly does the same thing you may need to take it to Apple and have them swap the Logic Board - hahaha as pain in the ass as it is on an intel machine... Good old apple dont make it easy on us sometimes


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## imacthere4iam (Jun 18, 2006)

48 hours after taking my 20" intel duo iMac out of the box, it is going back inside and back to Apple.

I had the same problem - system froze, had to force power off by holding power button. Rebooting was impossible, just got a black screen, and a constant white led, gentle whirring fan and drive noises.

Apple support told me to reboot holding shift - no effect
then they said pull out all the leads and wait a while then reconnect and reboot but keep the power button pressed in- this just sent the fans into superfast mode.

Then they said please return your iMac for a replacement.

I eventually figured a way to get back in, basically power down, remove all the leads, wait 20 secs, reconnect leads, power up (keeping power button held in until white led flashes fast). then power down again, and reboot while holding down key combo apple-option-P-R, this is really quite difficult with only two hands! keep holding the keys down until a second start up chime is heard then osx starts up.
 This let me back up my files at least, however the system soom froze again! on rebooting I was back to the blank screen. 

I am only guessing but this reminds me of a pc problem when you have a flat battery on the motherboard, settings are not retained. It also reminded me of past PC problems like bad memory, start up conflicts, and bad video cards...in fact the whole experience just smelled of PC's! I hope that this is not the way macs will be in the future, I am just glad i still got my trusty G4 iMac. 

I will see what the replacment is like but have told Apple that I accept the replacement on condition that I get a full refund if the problem reoccurs in the first month.


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## mattsuzu (Jun 20, 2006)

imacthere4iam said:
			
		

> I am only guessing but this reminds me of a pc problem when you have a flat battery on the motherboard, settings are not retained. It also reminded me of past PC problems like bad memory, start up conflicts, and bad video cards...in fact the whole experience just smelled of PC's!



Its not.

It is a power management issue, which is a component of the logic board.

Not a battery(indicated by loosing date+time settings), not bad memory(indicated by beep codes or led codes at startup), not a conflict(indicated with halting at grey apple or spinning wheel screen) not a bad video card(indicated by the fact that it works after resetting the power management of the machine. it wouldn't work at all if the vbideo card was faulty).

Just so you know.


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## imacthere4iam (Jun 20, 2006)

ok points taken.maybe i am just paranoid about my macs turning into pc's. I have sent it for a replacement anyway.


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