Anyone ever see something similar to this? I turned on the ole iMac on Sunday and was not able to boot and this is what was displayed on the screenIMG_2019.jpg
It does boot in safe mode though. I reset the PRAM, SMC, etc....tried to reinstall the OS, no luck. It will not boot, except in safe mode.
It's an old computer to say the least, but just wanted to solicit feedback.
Bad video card (or possibly, but unlikely, the screen). Depending on the model, you may be able to replace it separately - but it would cost more than the machine is worth IMO.
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Plug in an external monitor to see if the issue persists externally to determine if the video card (logic board) or display is the problem. Can it boot from another volume fine? If so, try - if your data is backed up - reformatting and reinstalling, instead of just reinstalling. Do you get the same video problems when booted from the install disc? If the issue occurs only when booting from the internal drive, the drive/software/OS may be the issue.
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Plug in an external monitor to see if the issue persists externally to determine if the video card (logic board) or display is the problem. Can it boot from another volume fine? If so, try - if your data is backed up - reformatting and reinstalling, instead of just reinstalling. Do you get the same video problems when booted from the install disc? If the issue occurs only when booting from the internal drive, the drive/software/OS may be the issue.
I unfortunately don't have access to a 2nd display at this time. I'll see what I can do to get one.
I tried to boot from a clone I made last year when I upgraded the hard drive, but it would not boot from that.
The only thing it could boot from was by original Tiger discs that shipped with the iMac (I also have a Leopard and Snow leopard DVD's, but couldn't boot from these). So what I did was make a small partition on my drive and install Tiger on that. I was able to go through the install process with both discs, but I was not able to boot into that partition on a shutdown/restart. However, I did not get the attached screen image above, only a blue screen when trying to boot into the Tiger partition.
or (more likely) that the problem is hardware and is related to the GPU as john suggested above.
safe mode doesnt load quartz/anything 3D etc...many machines with video cards that are on their way out will boot fine in safe mode and not normally. also, if it were strictly an OS problem it should boot from his clone (assuming the clone is in working condition)
best way to test would be to plug it into an external as suggested above
That is correct. It boots in safe mode and everything seems to work fine. However, there are many things that are disabled in safe mode.
That seems to confirm what broad said and I didn't realize that SL 10.6.x does use and need such needed Quartz load things with a normal boot that a Leopard OS X 10.5.x boot sometimes and often bypassed that I finally discovered and confirmed when doing some Apple kb article checking.
The Genius concurred. It's the video card. Since the card is integrated into the logic board, the whole thing needs to be replaced. He tried to look up the part, but said they don't sell/make them anymore. Oh well. At least everything was backed up to TM and it still works in safe mode. That will do for the time being until the new iMacs come out.
Linear Mode
