Boot issues, slowdown, and disappearing desktop

E

ehrhoff

Registered
Intel iMac (Leopard 10.5)

--Have you run permissions yet? No, I don't know what that means
--Have you used Disk Utility from the CD to Repair Disk? No, how? Does that disk come with osx?
--What devices are connected to your machine? Keyboard, mouse, mbox


(Don't know if this is what caused my troubles but) Yesterday before turning computer off: I turned off transmission, and noticing that I only had 600 mb of free space left on my computer, I freed up 11 GB and then went to bed.

Today: Turned the computer on. Instead of booting into OSX, a flashing question-mark folder appeared, so I executed a hard reboot, same thing happened, rebooted again, and it actually booted into OSX, albeit slower than normal.

Once in OSX,
Ok this part is a bit confusing.. so, it seems that everything works as it should.. until I make the computer 'think' or load something. For example, I can navigate finder fine, going through folders etc, but if I highlight a file within finder, the computer goes into never ending beachball mode trying to preview it (the same goes for executing items on my desktop, so I do not believe it to be a finder-related problem).

A couple of times it was able to come out of beachball mode, but when that happened, all my desktop icons, and the apple-taskbar-thing disappeared, and reappeared 5 seconds later.

I am able to open safari and browse a bit, but certain websites, and the act of opening multiple tabs, will send the computer into beachball infinity. I was able to open iTunes and play a song, but after 30 seconds, it beachballed for another 20 or so, and this occurance kept repeating itself until I had to hard reboot again.

I tried resetting PRAM, but that didn't help. I also tried running DiscWarrior, but it would not work correctly, saying an error had occured (can't remember the specifics and am not at home right now to get it)

Also, I have windows on my mac, via bootcamp, and it won't boot at all, error: 'No bootable device -- insert boot disk and press any key'

Help! Thanks!
 
I'd have to question what it is you trashed clearing that 11GB of space. Was it acting like that before you cleared room on the drive? It would be helpful if you could post the error Disk Warrior came up with, but if Disk Warrior can't repair it, I'd suggest backing up what you can while you can.
 
djackmac said:
I'd have to question what it is you trashed clearing that 11GB of space. Was it acting like that before you cleared room on the drive? It would be helpful if you could post the error Disk Warrior came up with, but if Disk Warrior can't repair it, I'd suggest backing up what you can while you can.
Click to expand...

I trashed a movie and a music project, as well as whatever other little misc files were already in the bin. Come to think of it though, perhaps I cleared up space because it was acting a tad sluggish, but not even close to how it is now.

It seems that it will no longer boot osx, so I cannot view discwarriors error. Update:diskwarrior error 2903, -8902

I tried booting from osx install disk (to use disk utility) but for some reason it keeps spitting my disk out. I tried install disk two out of curiosity and it was able to boot... a blue screen.. but at least I think that means the optical drive is fine..
 
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Is it one of the aluminum iMacs? With the optical drive acting up also I'd suspect the optical drive or cable could be causing the issue. I've seen this at least a few times with the later aluminum iMacs. The only real way to tell is to take it apart and unplug the optical cable from the logic board and see if it boots normally after that.
 
djackmac said:
Is it one of the aluminum iMacs? With the optical drive acting up also I'd suspect the optical drive or cable could be causing the issue. I've seen this at least a few times with the later aluminum iMacs. The only real way to tell is to take it apart and unplug the optical cable from the logic board and see if it boots normally after that.
Click to expand...
Yes, it is an aluminum iMac.

However, when it was last able to boot, I kept hearing a series of several ticks followed by a whirring noise emitting from the back of the iMac. Coupled with the fact that it no longer boots, I guess this means that the harddrive in my iMac is toast?

I am still under warranty, so am I right in assuming that the only thing left to do is take it to an Apple Store to get my HD swapped out?

Or would the optical drive or cable effect the harddrive as well?

I am still unsure if the optical drive is failing, or if the install disk is faulty.
 
It's not unusual for a failed hard drive to block out most any attempts to boot from any device, until that hard drive is removed.

Your recent history of the flashing folder, then (maybe) booting, but very slowly, and lots of beachballs, is pretty typical of a failing/failed hard drive.
If you are in warranty, take to your favorite Apple service. Could be more than just the hard drive, but replacing the hard drive will help a lot, I bet... Just don't convince yourself that the hard drive is the ONLY fault possible.
 
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