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Imac g4 boot problems - Solved + Pic

K

knucles

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 8, 2006
125
0
Portugal
Hi, i am a new wave mac lover (2006) and a couple of months ago i bought a used imac g4 simply to sit and look at me at my bedroom.

But the imac sometimes boots, sometimes don't, and the light of the screen turns on and nothing happens...... It is a g4 800mhz with 750mb of ram any ideas ? faulty hdd?

It came with tiger 4.11 pre-installed, should i format it ?

Very stange sounds as soon as i hit the power button and no chime....
 
K

knucles

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 8, 2006
125
0
Portugal
I noticed that when the computer is cold i can boot but it can not restart nor start after shut down.

Can this be due to a faulty battery?

I need some help here guys...
 
Intell

Intell

macrumors P6
Jan 24, 2010
18,955
509
Inside
If it only boots when it is cold, then it may be having overheating problems. If you are good with computers, you can try opening it to clean it out. Just remember, if you open it, you must replace the thermal paste on the contact points between the two halves.
 
raysfan81

raysfan81

macrumors 6502a
Oct 6, 2009
598
2
Intell said:
If it only boots when it is cold, then it may be having overheating problems. If you are good with computers, you can try opening it to clean it out. Just remember, if you open it, you must replace the thermal paste on the contact points between the two halves.
Click to expand...

Its always good to clean out the insides of any computer to prevent overheating. As you can see in the post by machamster the insides of the iMac G4 can get quite dusty. https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=11104644#post11104644
 
K

knucles

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 8, 2006
125
0
Portugal
Its always good to clean out the insides of any computer to prevent overheating. As you can see in the post by machamster the insides of the iMac G4 can get quite dusty. https://forums.macrumors.com/showthre...4#post11104644
Click to expand...


So i opened it and cleaned it nice, changed the internal battery and nothing.......

Sometimes it boots, sometimes it doesn't, it's a very moody imac, any ideas?

Reformat? Faulty hard drive?

The weird thing is that when it boots works nicely and everything is as fast as any g4......

ideas?
 
666sheep

666sheep

macrumors 68040
Dec 7, 2009
3,686
291
Poland
I've had one of them (1.0 GHz one) with similar issue. From cold start it booted without probs. It worked fine until I wanted to restart it. I had toforce shut down it. After some time (when it got cooled) it booted normally. I've found the culprit later, it was physically damaged coil (see picture). One of them had broken cover (inside is scrolled copper wire).



Examine your logic board for any visual damages then (coils, capacitors). Second what comes to my mind is dying PSU.
 
K

knucles

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 8, 2006
125
0
Portugal
It is working .............for now....

IT turned on!!!!!!!!!!!! i tried the shift key when i was pushing the power button and it turned on in safe mode

Now i am afraid of turning it off..... should i do something?

Usually when it boots like this as soon as i restart it gets moody and stop working, should i fresh install tiger now?
 
T

themaccoder

macrumors newbie
Jun 16, 2010
20
0
Louisiana
knucles said:
IT turned on!!!!!!!!!!!! i tried the shift key when i was pushing the power button and it turned on in safe mode

Now i am afraid of turning it off..... should i do something?

Usually when it boots like this as soon as i restart it gets moody and stop working, should i fresh install tiger now?
Click to expand...

A fresh install might help
 
K

knucles

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 8, 2006
125
0
Portugal
Good new- problem solved

IT works!!!!!!!

After trying to boot like 40 times i managed to do it and inserted the install disk, ereased it - partition - fresh install.....

After the new fresh install everything is working, tested it with several restarts and shut downs. everything working fine, after a week of cleaning and troubleshooting my "new" imac g4 i am finally happy with this classic

sd1s0n.png
 
VanneDC

VanneDC

macrumors 6502a
Jun 5, 2010
860
92
Dubai, UAE
Freaking sweet bro. Congrats on the solve job.

Btw, looks like Midnight Oil in the background, but I know it ain't...:)
 
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