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Excellence-!
Jun 4, 2009, 06:23 PM
Okay, i have a problem with installing Windows (tried multiple versions) on my iMac.

The specs on my iMac are 24" Early 2008 Intel Core 2 Duo 2.8GHz, ATi Mobility Radeon 2600 Pro and 4GB of RAM

What happens is I try to boot the Windows (even a Ubuntu disc) from start up and then the screen turns into black with the Underscore in the corner flashing continuously but with white parts to it as well (pictures featured below).

I've used the procedure where as i use bootcamp to partition the drive, and i've also used the Disk Utility to partition the drives again but the problem still persists.

I'm using genuine Windows XP SP2 disc and a Vista SP1 disc with the exceptions of Ubuntu and Windows 7 RC being on a DVD-R disc.

I've also tried leaving it for a while to see if it may work or not but no go.

The strangest thing i saw when trying this was i booted up from the windows disc and saw the same thing but with text written across the screen in a very random order and very random colours. It seemed to change every half a second, it even had symbols like smilies and chinese mandarin.

Please, anything that could help would be helpful!

Thanks for your time!


Bengt77
Jun 4, 2009, 07:36 PM
Maybe your Mac's EFI is screwed? I have no clue; never seen this before. Well, something is wrong...
Excellence-!
Jun 5, 2009, 07:33 AM
Maybe your Mac's EFI is screwed? I have no clue; never seen this before. Well, something is wrong...

Yeah I was thinking that was the problem. Is there a way to update or renew the EFI? Or is that out of the question?
wrldwzrd89
Jun 5, 2009, 08:04 AM
Odds are there's a firmware update available for your Mac that you haven't installed yet. These tend to NOT show up in Software Update, unfortunately.

EDIT: Found the firmware update, here: http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/apple/firmware_hardware/imacefifirmwareupdate13.html
Excellence-!
Jun 5, 2009, 08:17 AM
Odds are there's a firmware update available for your Mac that you haven't installed yet. These tend to NOT show up in Software Update, unfortunately.

EDIT: Found the firmware update, here: http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/apple/firmware_hardware/imacefifirmwareupdate13.html

Thanks for the link, but OS X keeps telling me i don't need this :S i tried a graphics card update too, still no go. Is there a way to reinstall EFI drivers? If so can you tell me how? Much appreciated.
wrldwzrd89
Jun 5, 2009, 08:22 AM
What do you mean, EFI drivers? This wouldn't help you anyway... as any drivers would be specific to Mac OS X, and not even be seen by other operating systems.

That said, have a look here: http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/apple/firmware_hardware/
I may have linked you to the wrong update for your Mac.
Excellence-!
Jun 5, 2009, 09:12 AM
What do you mean, EFI drivers? This wouldn't help you anyway... as any drivers would be specific to Mac OS X, and not even be seen by other operating systems.

That said, have a look here: http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/apple/firmware_hardware/
I may have linked you to the wrong update for your Mac.

Sorry, i did mean reinstall the EFI firmware or something like that, maybe that would help it.
I couldn't find anything i haven't tried what you linked me to, i think everythings up to date on this but it's probably just an EFI problem. Not too sure.
wrldwzrd89
Jun 5, 2009, 09:21 AM
Sorry, i did mean reinstall the EFI firmware or something like that, maybe that would help it.
I couldn't find anything i haven't tried what you linked me to, i think everythings up to date on this but it's probably just an EFI problem. Not too sure.
There is a 1.4 update on that site for iMacs. Not sure if it applies to your iMac though - it says it fixes issues on Macs with a different ATI card than the one you have.
Excellence-!
Jun 5, 2009, 09:22 AM
There is a 1.4 update on that site for iMacs. Not sure if it applies to your iMac though - it says it fixes issues on Macs with a different ATI card than the one you have.

Do you think i should try it anyway? I mean if it doesn't recognise my iMac as a newer one it won't let me install it right?
wrldwzrd89
Jun 5, 2009, 09:24 AM
Do you think i should try it anyway? I mean if it doesn't recognise my iMac as a newer one it won't let me install it right?
This is correct. Shouldn't hurt to try.
Excellence-!
Jun 5, 2009, 10:30 AM
This is correct. Shouldn't hurt to try.

Tried and failed, OS X says it doesn't need it.

I think this Mac's overdue for a repair, it's got another problem as well as this (screen burn, mentioned in another forum post "few problems with iMac"). So i think I should get it repaired while it's still under warranty.

Thanks for all your help.
JediMeister
Jun 6, 2009, 12:44 AM
Try this (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2807) to get rid of the burned in image before bringing it in for repair. No ideas to offer on not being able to boot to any other disc though...
Griffter
Jun 6, 2009, 01:33 AM
This is really interesting, this is what happens with hackintosh's when they are updated to 10.5.7. It was found that this was due to a corruption of the kext (driver) files.
Have you tried:
1. Resetting the PRAM
2. Booting in 'Safe Boot' ? (it should do this if it boots the OSX disk)

There's a list of startup commands here: http://homepage.mac.com/frakes/MOSXPT/content/keyboard.html
Excellence-!
Jun 7, 2009, 05:42 PM
Okay, I've tried to reset the PRAM but I'm not too sure whether I had boot into safe boot when i started up. Kept shift down at start up but couldn't tell if i started safe boot.

And i managed to successfully install windows with the help of a family member, but stupidly, I put too much 'crap' on my C:/ drive so formatted it thinking i could put windows back on myself without any trouble.

That's what i thought, but I'm now again back to square one.

Will post details on how to fix this problem... when i get it fixed again :rolleyes: