Can't boot my iMac. Now what?

[nixy]

Hi,

I was doing a software update on my iMac OS X 10.6, and I believe the display firmware upgrade was in the package. I chose "Install" and after I was prompted to restart, I chose "Restart now". The system began to shut down, but as it was shutting down for the reboot, during the phase where the default "OS X Leopard galaxy/space" wallpaper is shown, the process halted and only showed the background and the spinning color wheel.

I gave it a good half an hour to complete the reboot, but nothing happened and the disk was inactive for at least 25 of those 30 minutes.

I did a hard switch-off and started the computer again. This time it froze showing the Apple logo and the spinning wheel. I tried booting in Safe mode, and the Apple logo and spinning wheel was accompanied by a gray loading bar. The loading bar would fill up halfway and then disappear, with nothing happening after.

I tried resetting the parameters and RAM by pressing CMD+OPT+P+R during boot. That worked, but the OS would still not boot.

I tried running in verbose mode and in single-user-mode, but it would only show the Apple logo and spinning wheel.

I tried booting from the install disk by holding "C" during boot. I could hear the system starting the DVD in the drive, but it soon became quiet and I would only see the Apple logo + spinning wheel.

So at this stage I am thinking... Now what?

Thanks,
Nik

 

[djackmac]

You probably should have left it alone if it was indeed doing a firmware upgrade even if it took over an hour. That's a big no-no to interrupt a firmware update.

 

[nixy]

Thanks for the very informative and helpful answer. I'll try that and see if that works...

 

[jcooke]

How old is the iMac? If it is still under warranty, I guess you could just bring it in to them and say it doesn't work and see what they do about it.