Older pink iMac

F

Friendfrom47

Registered
My friend’s computer is a pink iMac. She doesn’t understand “computer-ese” but can use it for word processing and do things online to a point. I know a little about Macs, but not a whole lot. She considers me a computer genius and asked me to fix it for her. Here is the problem:

I press the power button to start it up (is there any difference between the power button on the keyboard and the one on the computer itself?). It appears to start up normally, but after a LONG time of the black circling circle, the screen goes blue and will flicker just a little bit every now and then. You can hear "tickings" going on in the CPU, and you can move the mouse, and the cursor will move. But clicking or doing any key combinations don’t appear to make any difference. The screen just stays blue.

Here is what I have done so far: I have used Disk Warrior, Norton, and Tech Tools as start-up disks. I run the diagnostic programs and everything appears hunky-dory. The software is not detecting any problems.

Then I tried to install OS 10.2 (which I BELIEVE is what she had on her computer before this freeze-up problem. The screen said that it has 9.6 GB (5.1 GB free). "Cannot Install."

I tried again with clicking on "Archive and Install," to preserve users & network settings. This install requires 1.9 GH space. The install took about 1-1/2 hours and it self-started with the same identical problem.

On the next install it says it has 9.6 GB (4 GB free). I installed it a total of 4 times (thinking maybe something would somehow work), but to no avail. Each time I installed OS 10.2 it said it was successfully installed.

When I started the computer with the Norton disk, I can see all her files (although I cannot open them because the software isn’t available). The Norton disk is starting up in OS 9.

Any and all help would be GREATLY appreciated!
 
Friendfrom47 said:
My friend’s computer is a pink iMac. She doesn’t understand “computer-ese” but can use it for word processing and do things online to a point. I know a little about Macs, but not a whole lot. She considers me a computer genius and asked me to fix it for her. Here is the problem:

I press the power button to start it up (is there any difference between the power button on the keyboard and the one on the computer itself?). It appears to start up normally, but after a LONG time of the black circling circle, the screen goes blue and will flicker just a little bit every now and then. You can hear "tickings" going on in the CPU, and you can move the mouse, and the cursor will move. But clicking or doing any key combinations don’t appear to make any difference. The screen just stays blue.

Any and all help would be GREATLY appreciated!
Click to expand...

If you hear ticking, there is a great change the harddrive is bad (which very well can cause the startup of the mac to fail).

Try starting from a cd and run the harddrive utility to check the harddrive and have it replace when it turns out bad.


Good luck, Kees
 
I've already done that (starting from a CD and test the harddrive) and everything came out fine. It did not show any problems with the hard drive.
 
If your friend's iMac has turned pink, something is very, very, wrong.

But the clicking sounds really do suggest a failing HD.

On a bright note, replacing the original HD with a new one can really speed up system performance!
 
I third the answers here. A constant, metronomic clicking sound indicates that the hard drive has physically failed.
 
No, it's not a constant, metronomic clicking sound. It just makes the usual ticking noises that a HD makes when it starts up.
 
A thought popped into my head. Can I connect my iMac (OS Tiger) to her pink iMac? If it's possible, I could copy her documents, pictures, etc. to a CD for her.
 
Well, I was unable to get her computer going, but at least I downloaded her data by using the target mode. Thank you very much!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top