Broken iMac?

[b0redom]

Hi All,

I just got a brand new iMac. I did a clean install of Leopard, imported a couple of CDs into iTunes, and then thought I'd give Bootcamp a go.

I created the disk and the machine duly rebooted into Windows setup. As the installer couldn't see the Bootcamp partition (I was using XP without SP2). I told the installer to quit and reboot.

Now all I get is a hanging white screen when I power up my iMac. If i hold down the Alt key I get a mouse pointer which locks up after a couple of seconds and that's it.

I've tried:

- Holding down alt on bootup - this brings up a pointer which locks after about 2 seconds
- Holding down alt+C - with Leopard in the drive - nothing happens
- Zapping the PVRAM - Alt+CMD+P+R" - this had no effect
- Resetting the SMU - hold down power whilst plugging in - now all the fans are running at maximum speed
- An open firmware update as per this post:

Apple - Support - Discussions - SMU reset offers temporary fix for lost ...

Any ideas?

[Gordy]

It could be that its trying to find the windows disc, have you got a proper sp2 one to hand?

[mrt9888]

On startup hold shift and it should let you choose the startup disk, from here you can choose to go back to you leopard install.

[b0redom]

@ Gordy - I tried it with a Vista disk and it wasn't having any of it. I also tried with the XP disk which worked before, and got the same result.

@mrt9888 - I think you mean boot up with alt and that presents a pointer which locks up after about 2 secs. Booting up with shift does nothing....

[Gordy]

I would give apple a call see what they say. If its new they should be fixing it.

If you have a firewire hard drive you could install os x on that and try booting from it.

[Steve B]

try burning a linux boot disk and see if that'll run. Check the hard drive partitions to make sure you've still got an EFI partition. It should only be about 200MB big, but its vital!
I think

[stead]

Hold down "c" only with the leopard disc in the drive and it should boot and allow repairs with Disk utility - you may have to re install the OS but try repairs 1st

[b0redom]

Thanks for all the ideas guys....

Turns out it was toast. Took it back to the Apple reseller from whence it came and got a replacement. It's all working peachy now....

[Steve B]

Toast the program, or toast, as in semi-burnt bread?