Can't start Emac, tried a few things

H

h-drums

Registered
We are not mac literate for sure, have a emac for my son that has been good for a year or so, will not start up anymore, hear start up tone,
apple sreen comes on, timer spins for 30 or so seconds, then it shuts itself off.

I have tried starting in single user, typed in fsck -fy and
it runs then at the end says

invalid sibling file
(4, 21464)
Volume check failed

can anyone help? read somewhere about replacing battery inside, could this be it?
 
Yes, it's very possible that the internal battery is low, or dead. That will not likely help your problem, however.
It's fairly common on the eMac ( and other Macs, too), that a failed, or failing hard drive will sometimes cause shutdowns such as you are experiencing. Your hard drive testing, although limited, is showing that the hard drive has problems. I suggest that you might be able to help the situation by trying some more-capable disk repair software, such as Disk Warrior. You would need to purchase that software.
The school system that I work for has hundreds of eMacs. The problem that you are seeing usually means that the hard drive needs to be replaced - the disk repair software may or may not help. Replacing the hard drive in an eMac is quite challenging, unless you have some experience with that kind of repair, you should take to an Apple service shop. Replacement hard drives are quite cheap. $50 to $80, depending on the capacity. The labor to replace the hard drive will be the most expense.
While that eMac is opened up, the shop can also check for possible swelling/leaking capacitors, which is a continuing, real problem for this model. Ask specifically about that when you take in for the hard drive replacement.
 
Thanks DeltaMac'
This emac did come from a friend in the school district, has worked well for a while, my son now tells me it's been shutting down and freezing lately, would it be worth spending money on it, I don't know? Is there a way to save files from it, videos and pics mainly?
 
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