Imac g4 boot problems - Solved + Pic

[knucles]

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....

 

[knucles]

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]

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]

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.

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

 

[knucles]

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

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]

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.

 

[knucles]

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?

 

[themaccoder]

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?

A fresh install might help

 

[knucles]

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

 

[VanneDC]

Freaking sweet bro. Congrats on the solve job.

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