My iMac G5 won't boot up Mac OSX.

C

Callo

Registered
Hello!

I have a problem with my iMac G5 that I bought almost two years ago. It won't boot up Mac OSX. It started acting weird a couple of weeks ago when it wouldn't boot up when I turned it on until the second or third try. Yesterday, it wouldn't boot up and today I had the same bad luck. I don't think that it will boot up anymore unless I can fix the problem. I honestly have no idea of what the problem could be. I would guess that there is a problem with the hard-drive because, when it started acting weird, it made a very loud noise every now and then for several seconds. I don't know, maybe it was a fan that was spinning fast and making that noise. As you can see, I am clueless about this problem.

When I turn on my iMac, it starts as normal until a circulating figure appears to show that it's loading something and then a darker "curtain" falls on the screen and the "power" symbol appears and a black box with a message that says that I have to restart my computer by pussing the restart button or by holding the power button down for a few seconds. It doesn't get to the blue screen where it says that Mac OSX is booting up. I can load from a DVD. I tried to load from the installation disc that came with the computer by holding the "C" key on start up and It loads. I tried installing Mac OSX again by doing an "Archive and Install" installation and it installs it. The problem is that I have two discs and it only lets me install disc one and says it is finished and restarts the computer. When the computer is restarted by the installation, the "dark curtain" and message box telling me that I should restart it appear again.

Sorry if what I wrote didn't make too much sense. I am not in a hurry to get this fixed but I would really appreciate your help.

Thank you in advance for helping me.

Callo.
 
Update...

I still have problems with my iMac G5 1.8Ghz.

I replaced the 160GB HDD that came with the computer with a 400GB HDD (I wanted a bigger HDD anyway). I also added 512MB of RAM (this was not an attempt to fix the problem, I just wanted more RAM).

It still does the same thing when I turn on the computer. It still tells me that I need to restart my computer and it won't boot up MAC OSX. The only difference is that it now lets me do a SAFE BOOT. I can use Safari to connect to the internet and iTunes and some other programs but I don't know if I can damage it by using it in SAFE BOOT mode. Is it more limited to run a computer in SAFE BOOT mode than to run it in normal mode? In SAFE BOOT mode, the computer seems normal but when I drag any open window really fast around the screen it seems to move 'choppy' and not smooth as it used to in normal mode. That made me think that SAFE BOOT mode is slower but I am not sure.

This is what I did...

- I replaced the HDD with a new one.
- I put 512MB of RAM and I now have 1G.
- I partitioned the HDD to '1 partition' and installed 'Disc 1' of Mac OSX Version 10.4.0 (the installation disc that came with my computer when I first bought it).
- The computer finished installing 'Disc 1' and it restarted.
- When it restarted, it had the same problem with the dark curtain and the message telling me that the computer needs to be restarted.
- I then turned off and back on the computer and I held the shift key to do a SAFE BOOT and then the computer told me that it needed me to insert "Disc 2" to continue the installation.
- I inserted "Disc 2" and it was installed and the computer restarted itself when it was finished.
- Again, the dark curtain appeared and the message telling me that the computer needed to be restarted.
- I restarted the computer and did a SAFE BOOT to see if it worked and it did.
- The problem is that I can't restart or shut down the computer when I am in SAFE BOOT mode. To turn off the computer I have to hold down the power button for several seconds and it does it but from the drop-down menu it doesn't work.
- I installed the Mac OSX update Version 10.4.9 from the Apple website.
- I can now use my computer but only in SAFE BOOT mode.

Is there a way to find out what the problem is? Do you know why it does boot up in SAFE BOOT mode and not in normal mode?
 
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