imac g5 powering on problem please help

[winstonfilmer]

so i go to turn my imac on tonight and it makes the normal noise when it always turns on but the screen stays blank(light blue)....after about 2 minutes this little picture of a folder with a question mark shows up in the middle of the screen. it keeps making this clicking noise as well. ive tried unplugging everything and restarting it but still no luck. if anyone has anything they can tell me please do. thanks

here is a pic of what the thing that pop ups looks like
http://michaelzanussi.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/mac_issues.jpg

[zackkmac]

The question mark means there is no OS installed, and the clicking HD sounds like a dying one, sorry. It's happened to me before. From what details you provided it sounds like your hard drive has been corrupted. Have you tried the diagnostics test?

[winstonfilmer]

no OS is installed?
ughh i dont understand how one day it works then randomly it stops
it did this 2 nights ago but i was able to get it back on but now it just wont turn on no matter what...
how do i do a diagnostics test ...

[spork183]

boot off your install DVD and try running the diagnostics on it. You can boot from the DVD by popping it into your drive and holding down the C key on the keyboard while it boots up. It does sound like the drive is dying, but I've also had corrupted drives that sounded like that as they repeatedly tried to access.

[winstonfilmer]

ahh
the thing is i had a house fire and lost all my stuff that the mac came with
we were able to save the mac ...

[zackkmac]

no OS is installed?
ughh i dont understand how one day it works then randomly it stops
it did this 2 nights ago but i was able to get it back on but now it just wont turn on no matter what...
how do i do a diagnostics test ...


Hmm...if you were able to get it back on, there might just be something in there messing with your OS X files, or so it seems coming from a Windows user.

A diagnostics test is done with a provided disc, someone else here with more knowledge about Macs can provide you with details about how to use it and what not. I just do a lottttt of reading here. If you have your original discs that came with your iMac it should be with them. If you can't get it to work again, I'd suggest a Mac OS X re-install, or better yet a new hard drive.

Edit: Just read your post. Sorry about your house, I had the same exact happen to me in 1998. :o

[Dave00]

I bet I know what the problem is. This actually happened to me as well, starts behaving flakey, then won't sleep without crashing, then will crash on startup or won't turn on. The motherboard has had some issues in iMac G5's, and it can look like a hard drive problem. Here's how to tell:

Open up your imac and look at the circuit board capacitors (these large cylinders.) The tops should be nice and sunken down. If they're bowed out, it's a problem. Fortunately, they're good about replacing it, since it's a known issue. I've had it completely replaced on my 4-year-old machine - at no charge.

Worth a shot.

Dave

[spork183]

If you have any mac friends and can dig up a copy of diskwarrior, it might be just the ticket to fix software issues. Alternately, you could use a firewire cable to connect to a friend's mac and boot up in target firewire mode to see if the problem is mechanical. If your drive comes up in firewire mode, it is likely just file corruption. If it doesn't come up in firewire mode, then likely a toasted drive.

If you don't have any friends with macs, you need new friends...

[winstonfilmer]

yeah dudeeee it sucks...but we claimed the mac under insurance so i might just have to get a new one