Late 2006 Intel iMac Won't Boot

[Project538]

So my Late 2006 iMac locked up while I was playing Minecraft, which is a common occurrence these days. It usually reboots just fine. However, when I attempted to reboot it this time, I was greeted with a "No" symbol (the circle with a slash through it". Another attempt at a reboot had the screen hanging at the Apple logo, and still another brought up a flashing folder with a question mark on it. What do I do?

Thanks,

-Project538

 

[Intell]

Try reinstalling the OS. If that doesn't work or you can't reinstall it, your hard drive might be dead. Press the command-V key to when starting it up to start it up in verbose mode. Tell us what lines it freezes at or repeats non-stop.

 

[Project538]

Try reinstalling the OS. If that doesn't work or you can't reinstall it, your hard drive might be dead. Press the command-V key to when starting it up to start it up in verbose mode. Tell us what lines it freezes at or repeats non-stop.

Unfortunately it's not responding to any startup key combinations, so I can't try either of those things... thoughts?

 

[Intell]

Is it a USB keyboard? What happens if you press and hold option at startup? Don't forget, you need to press and hold the command and the V key right after you hear the startup noise and continue holding them until you see the verbose startup text.

 

[Project538]

Is it a USB keyboard? What happens if you press and hold option at startup? Don't forget, you need to press and hold the command and the V key right after you hear the startup noise and continue holding them until you see the verbose startup text.

Yeah, it's a USB keyboard. How long should these things take to appear? Right now I'm trying to boot in to Lion Recovery. I've been holding the keys forever and it has stayed on the white screen. An Apple logo just showed up, but other than that it's not doing anything. I'll try the verbose mode next.

EDIT: It booted from the Snow Leopard DVD... Now what?

 

[Intell]

They don't take more than 30 seconds. You may have a hardware failure of some kind if nothing appears when holding startup keys.

 

[Project538]

Alright, I"m back up and running! Booted from a Snow Leopard disc and then told the computer to restart and boot into the hard drive. It worked, and now I'm back in to Lion. Anything I should do to prevent this from happening again?

 

[Intell]

Run Disk Utility to verify your hard drive and possibly back up your data.

 

[Project538]

Run Disk Utility to verify your hard drive and possibly back up your data.

Disk Utility says everything is fine... Somehow I doubt that. Either way, I'm running a back up right now. Thanks for your help, I really appreciate it!

 

[Beebou]

You can't run Minecraft on that thing at over 2 FPS, can you..?

 

[Project538]

You can't run Minecraft on that thing at over 2 FPS, can you..?

It runs fine most of the time. I have most of the graphics settings on "fast", and I've installed Optifine which helps as well. It lags every once in a while and crashes from time to time, but I'll make it work until I get a new computer for college. I don't have an exact FPS count for you off the top of my head, but I can get one later and post it if you're interested.

 

[MeFromHere]

That model of iMac is prone to problems in the graphics system when it gets too hot. The problem seems to get worse as the system gets older. Have you noticed any graphics glitches, especially when the system is working hard? On my system, these glitches are often followed by a hang.

Download smcFacControl, install it, and keep an eye on the system temperatures. Consider boosting the fan speeds by a moderate amount to keep the temperatures from going too high. Over time, you may be able to see about what temperatures lead to symptoms, and adjust the fans to stay out of the danger zone.

These days, my 2006 iMac needs the fans turned up enough that I hear them (in a quiet room) if I'm doing anything graphics-intensive.

 

[mindaugas1]

Hello Need help please

Try reinstalling the OS. If that doesn't work or you can't reinstall it, your hard drive might be dead. Press the command-V key to when starting it up to start it up in verbose mode. Tell us what lines it freezes at or repeats non-stop.

Cannot boot my imac 2006 grey screen with mouse pointer in the corner,
i could boot into safe mode "but now i installed some program cannot log into safe mode any more"
tried to reinstall OS no luck receive message that says "you need to restart your computer or shut down" .... in several languages.
on verbose mode
thank you.

 

[Intell]

Have you tried erasing the hard drive and reinstalling Mac OS X?

 

[mindaugas1]

Have you tried erasing the hard drive and reinstalling Mac OS X?

Hi again, I cant erase my hard drive " tried different hdd not apple one" while booting cd I receive message saying you need to restart your computer in several languages,
If im booting hard drive then it freezes to white screen and mouse pointer at top left corner, as i said before i could boot to safe mode but not any more because of that software, I disconnected hard drive and managed to boot to verbose mode and post them pictures here any advice what can it be? can it be my wireless car for any reason? Thank for your quick response