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Restart Leads to Major Malfunction

SteveAbootman

SteveAbootman

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
May 12, 2008
618
96
This doesn't look good...

My 2008 Dual Core iMac that's had no previous hardware issues has apparently reached the end of it's life. I restarted it last night and was greeted with something that reminded me of the 8 bit Nintendo days. Wondering if anyone else has encountered a similar looking screen and what steps I might take to fix this, or at least recover some of my files. Most are backed up but I'd really like a working computer again.

Things I've thought might be able to fix the problem that I'm planning on trying when I get home:

1) Swapping out the upgraded RAM I put in about 3 months ago with the stock RAM that came with the machine.
2) Figuring out a way to run a Boot CD (is there a Mac equivalent to Knoppix?) and try to recover the Hard Drive
3) Pray

Anything I could be missing here? If not, looks like I'm in the market for a new Mac.

(Note: The error message just says I need to restart the computer, which obviously doesn't solve the problem. The message is then repeated in different languages.)
 

Attachments

  • Computer Malfunction.jpg
    Computer Malfunction.jpg
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GGJstudios

GGJstudios

macrumors Westmere
May 16, 2008
44,545
943
SteveAbootman said:
This doesn't look good...

My 2008 Dual Core iMac that's had no previous hardware issues has apparently reached the end of it's life. I restarted it last night and was greeted with something that reminded me of the 8 bit Nintendo days. Wondering if anyone else has encountered a similar looking screen and what steps I might take to fix this, or at least recover some of my files. Most are backed up but I'd really like a working computer again.

Things I've thought might be able to fix the problem that I'm planning on trying when I get home:

1) Swapping out the upgraded RAM I put in about 3 months ago with the stock RAM that came with the machine.
2) Figuring out a way to run a Boot CD (is there a Mac equivalent to Knoppix?) and try to recover the Hard Drive
3) Pray

Anything I could be missing here? If not, looks like I'm in the market for a new Mac.

(Note: The error message just says I need to restart the computer, which obviously doesn't solve the problem. The message is then repeated in different languages.)
Click to expand...
Have you tried simply restarting it again? If you get a screen that looks like this:
TS3742_01_KP-001-en.jpg
It's called a kernel panic. If it doesn't happen again, or very infrequently, you don't need to worry about it.
In most cases, kernel panics are not caused by an issue with your Mac. They are most likely caused by an issue external to your Mac. If the kernel panic doesn't happen again within a few weeks, you don't need to troubleshoot further.
Click to expand...
If it does happen again, this may help:
 
SteveAbootman

SteveAbootman

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
May 12, 2008
618
96
GGJstudios said:
Have you tried simply restarting it again? If you get a screen that looks like this:
TS3742_01_KP-001-en.jpg
It's called a kernel panic. If it doesn't happen again, or very infrequently, you don't need to worry about it.

If it does happen again, this may help:
Click to expand...

Looks like some good resources. I'll check them out. Thanks!

I tried restarting 3 times last night, each time with the same unfortunate result which led me to believe the hard drive became corrupted. On 2 of the 3 restarts I unplugged all peripherals I had plugged into the machine as well to see if that made a difference.
 
Fishrrman

Fishrrman

macrumors Penryn
Feb 20, 2009
28,326
12,448
"Swapping out the upgraded RAM I put in about 3 months ago with the stock RAM that came with the machine."

DO THIS FIRST.

What happens next?
 
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