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ILikeTurtles

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 17, 2010
320
2
The hard drive on my 24" iMac died a few weeks ago, and I was able to get a new one installed (no Apple Care) on my own.

I inserted the OS X (Snow Leopard) DVD that came with the iMac, so I can install the OS. I hold down the "C" key when I press the power button (I've also tried holding down the Command key) and the iMac reads the CD for a few minutes, then the screen fades out to a dark gray, with the following message (see attached photo):

"You need to restart your computer. Hold down the power button until it turns off, then press the power button again."

I've gone though this process about 4 times, and each time the same error message displays on screen.

Any ideas what's going on here?

Thanks much in advance.
 

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What kind of DVD do you have, the grey Restore or Upgrade/Retail DVD?
And when exactly did you buy the iMac?

Do you also have a backed up bootable Mac OS X clone on an external HDD?

Btw, did you make sure to reconnect all five cables after you connected the HDD?
 
Duff-Man says...yes, double check that you've got the drive connected properly and also check that while working inside the computer that the ram didn't get dislodged a bit - take it out and reseat it. Also, try disconnected any other peripherals you may have attached - printers, external drives etc etc and see if that's creating a problem...oh yeah!
 
I believe it's a white retail DVD.

No I don't have an external backup.....I know...I know.

I can only assume the drive's cables are all connected. The person who did it for me is very experienced in doing such things. I could hear/feel the drive spin until the CD drive took over.
 
Last night I tried both the gray DVD that came with the iMac and the Snow Leopard DVD Retail that I purchased, and neither one of those DVDs worked.
 
Last night I tried both the gray DVD that came with the iMac and the Snow Leopard DVD Retail that I purchased, and neither one of those DVDs worked.

Did you actually format the drive? (OSX Extended Journaled)

If I were putting a HDD in a computer for somebody I would format it, but then again I would have installed the OS
 
Did you actually format the drive? (OSX Extended Journaled)

If I were putting a HDD in a computer for somebody I would format it, but then again I would have installed the OS

No I have not formatted the drive. I'm "assuming" that when I inserted the OS X install DVD, it would format the drive. Am I wrong? If so, what am I to do?
 
Well I can't format the HDD because I can't even get the iMac to boot from the DVD.

I was able to get it to boot up the hardware test, and ran the extensive test option, and that came back with no reported problems.

I did a single user mode, which looked OK to me.....didn't see any reported problems there.

I was not able to boot up in Verbose mode for whatever reason.

I've hit a brick wall. Only thing I have not tried yet, it target mode, because I don't have a firewire cable.
 
Now that's odd! The kernel panic on boot problem can indicate a number of things are going wrong. FireWire (or Thunderbolt) target mode is one of the best ways to diagnose this... if the Mac's internal HDD/SSD is bootable and formatted. If it isn't, which is your case, the only solution I can think of, to try and figure out what's leading up to the crash, is this:

Rather than booting your Mac from the DVD directly, hold down Alt/Option on boot, so that the boot manager comes up. Select the DVD as normal, THEN try a Verbose Boot.
 
Now that's odd! The kernel panic on boot problem can indicate a number of things are going wrong. FireWire (or Thunderbolt) target mode is one of the best ways to diagnose this... if the Mac's internal HDD/SSD is bootable and formatted. If it isn't, which is your case, the only solution I can think of, to try and figure out what's leading up to the crash, is this:

Rather than booting your Mac from the DVD directly, hold down Alt/Option on boot, so that the boot manager comes up. Select the DVD as normal, THEN try a Verbose Boot.

Ok thanks. I will try that tonight. Fingers crossed.
 
Last night I was able to format the new HDD and install Snow Leopard on my iMac after putting it in Target Mode with my dad's iMac. Installed the OS X via target mode. The installation went fine - I was able to get through the setup and see the desktop.

However, once I disconnected from Target Mode, and tried to startup my iMac on it's own volition - suddenly now my screen won't work. After the startup chime, the screen never turns on. This is now a new issue that wasn't a problem prior to installing the OS.

What fun! This iMac is only 3 years old and now it's useless.
 
Try resetting the SMC

Shut down the computer.
Unplug the computer's power cord.
Wait fifteen seconds.
Attach the computer's power cord.
Wait five seconds, then press the power button to turn on the computer.
 
Try resetting the SMC

Shut down the computer.
Unplug the computer's power cord.
Wait fifteen seconds.
Attach the computer's power cord.
Wait five seconds, then press the power button to turn on the computer.

Thanks but I've tried that too. I'm done playing around with this thing. It's officially a door stop now. Moving on.
 
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