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White Screen of Death

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richifie

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 4, 2009
11
0
Our family iMac has the white screen of death. Half the time it stays white. Half the time it'll show a small folder icon with a question mark.

Resetting by powering off and holding key combinations hasn't worked. It won't boot to disc to allow a reset, or even show the boot menu. Leaving it unpowered without peripherals for 3 hours had no effect.

Even when booting into target mode, other computers can't find it through a firewire.

Any ideas on getting it to work again, or even recovering our files?

Thanks, any help is appreciated :)

Specs:
iMac "Core 2 Duo" 2.4 24-Inch (Al) 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo (T7700)

Intro Date: August 7, 2007 Disc Date: April 28, 2008
Order No: MA878LL Model No: A1225 (EMC 2134)
Subfamily: Mid-2007 - 24" Model ID: iMac7,1
Std RAM: 1 GB Std VRAM: 256 MB
Std Storage: 320 GB (7200 RPM) Std Optical: 8X DL "SuperDrive"
 
R

richifie

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 4, 2009
11
0
USB Install

So it turns out the boot menu was working, but there was nothing showing because there's nothing to show; the internal hard drive is obviously gone.

Tried setting up a USB OSX Install, and that shows in the boot menu, but it won't boot to it. It still won't accept the install disc. Does this mean anything?
 
Weaselboy

Weaselboy

Moderator
Staff member
Jan 23, 2005
34,137
15,602
California
richifie said:
So it turns out the boot menu was working, but there was nothing showing because there's nothing to show; the internal hard drive is obviously gone.

Tried setting up a USB OSX Install, and that shows in the boot menu, but it won't boot to it. It still won't accept the install disc. Does this mean anything?
Click to expand...

I think you are wasting your time trying to reinstall. Drives don't just disappear like that on their own unless they are bad.
 
T

tampasteve

macrumors 6502
May 30, 2013
268
0
Tampa, Florida, North American Sector, Earth, Fron
I agree with dead HDD. Have you tried, or can you, use Target Disk to see if you can access the HDD from another Mac? It may be worth trying. Also zap the PRAM. Turn on the Mac while holding Command + Option + P + R before the gray screen and until (if) you hear the startup sound twice.
 
mmomega

mmomega

macrumors demi-god
Dec 30, 2009
3,879
2,089
DFW, TX
Again I'd agree with the HDD being on it's last legs.

Back up everything and replace with a newer HDD or SSD and then reinstall.

This should make it trouble free for another couple years with minimal investment.

I installed an SSD in my 2007 iMac and it made a world of difference in speed.
 
E

ericstjohn

macrumors newbie
Dec 17, 2010
18
0
mmomega said:
Again I'd agree with the HDD being on it's last legs.

Back up everything and replace with a newer HDD or SSD and then reinstall.

This should make it trouble free for another couple years with minimal investment.

I installed an SSD in my 2007 iMac and it made a world of difference in speed.
Click to expand...
[doublepost=1475509393][/doublepost]Please forgive me for resurrecting and hijacking this topic.
I'm having similar boot issues as described in my thread in the Mac Pro Desktops forum: "old issue new symptoms". It's unclear if richifie has resolved this or not, but I'm looking at an empty MP 1,1 white screening with my original install disc in the tray!
 
K

komatsu

macrumors 6502a
Sep 19, 2010
547
45
Of course it could be the HDD.

BUT, it could also be the GPU chip failing.
 
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