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TICKET ARCHIVE -> Imac G5 Not Starting Up

raupp2112 - Jul 4, 2005 - 10:15 am

Hello. I am having ALOT of trouble starting up my imac g5. i THINK the trouble occurs after the computer goes to sleep, but i am not positive. after that, it wakes up, but the mouse and keyboard are not active. upon a cold shutdown, the comouter will not restart...it powers up but does not chime and the screen stays black. after dozens of restarts, it sometimes will reboot! i have tried more than a dozen fixes including: formatting the harddrive and reinstalling the system software, updating all firmware, unplugging all external devices, rebooting holding down SHIFT, rebooting to reset the PRAM. I have also unplugged the 3rd party ram chips and reinstalled the old system ram with no luck. I also opened the case and pressed the 2 lil grey buttons on the CPU as apple suggests. NOthing is working. The sleep and/or startup problems insist. PLEASE HELP. One last note: one of the only things i did not swap out is the 3rd party 250gb harddrive with the original 160GB drive that came with the mac. to date, the drive has been working great...so i dont think its the harddrive. oh yeah, and ive tried holding the power button on start for 10 seconds which sometimes will prompt a unix command to start-up machine or shutdown, but the keyboard is not responsive so i cannot type anything.

DeltaMac - Jul 4, 2005 - 11:03 am

Do you have a wireless keyboard and mouse? If so, do you have a wired USB keyboard that you can use?

If the wireless does not apply for you. You've tried a lot of things that should help, you may be having a hardware problem, and you should have a tech look at this. Get it fixed while it's still in warranty.

Have you tried the Apple Hardware Test (on the installer DVD that shipped with your iMac G5) ? Check the label for how to boot with that Test...
Let me know how it goes.

- Dale

raupp2112 - Jul 4, 2005 - 11:25 am

thank you so much for your quick response. i do NOT have a wireless keyboard or mouse...i am using the apple imac originals. i will try the apple hardware test on the dvd as you suggested. thanks again.

raupp2112 - Jul 4, 2005 - 11:49 am

hello. once again thank you for the support!!!! i just ran the Hardware Test as you suggested and it found an error:

Mass Storage : error detected
Error Code 2STF/8/3:S-ATA BUS 0-MASTER

As i stated before, this is not the HD that came with the imac, i added it the day i bought the mac 6 months ago. Any sugestions. I recently did an erase of the HD, but did not zero all the data- should i do this? Should i merely unplug the drive and check the connections? I am going to google the error now but any suggestions you have are much appreciated on this 4th of july holiday.

DeltaMac - Jul 4, 2005 - 12:01 pm

I can tell you what to try, and what the problem is.

Try reseating the cables connected to the drive, and run the test again.

If it still fails, so has your hard drive. Replace it...
I guess you still have the original Apple drive.

Good Luck!
- Dale