1st gen 24" iMac, locking up, need advice

[Razorhog]

I recently sold my 24" first generation polycarbonate iMac to a friend. It worked for me for nearly 5 years and after he had it for 3 months it has started to give the beachball of death. It might happen after 5 minutes of use or 1 hour. I thought it might be a heat issue but SMC fan control has been installed and speeding up the fans does not help. It has a fresh install of 10.5.8. I was thinking RAM, but it won't boot with just one stick (has 2 1gb sticks in it now, factory installed) so it is hard to test the RAM. When it becomes unresponsive, you can still move the beachball around but no programs respond. I would suspect hard drive or RAM, but is there a way I can test to find out which? Any suggestions?

 

[AlphaDogg]

There's a 90% chance it's the HDD. Have him back up all of his data ASAP.

 

[Razorhog]

Thanks for the reply, I'll see about getting a new hard drive.

 

[Razorhog]

Trying a fresh install of OS X. If that doesn't fix the problem, I'll try a different hard drive. Is it the standard 3.5" hard drive? The invoice from when I bought it says 500GB Serial ATA Drive 065-6447. Is it hard to get to the hard drive in the plastic imacs like this?
Could we try installing OS X on an external drive and running it from there to make sure the problem lies with the internal drive?

 

[AlphaDogg]

Trying a fresh install of OS X. If that doesn't fix the problem, I'll try a different hard drive. Is it the standard 3.5" hard drive? The invoice from when I bought it says 500GB Serial ATA Drive 065-6447.

You can get any 3.5" SATA hard drive. You can get one with up to 3TB of storage.

Is it hard to get to the hard drive in the plastic imacs like this?

http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Repair/...4-Inch-EMC-2111-Hard-Drive-Replacement/5211/1

Could we try installing OS X on an external drive and running it from there to make sure the problem lies with the internal drive?

Sure. Just make sure the external HDD is formated Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and is partitioned with the GUID Partition Table.

 

[Razorhog]

You can get any 3.5" SATA hard drive. You can get one with up to 3TB of storage.



http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Repair/...4-Inch-EMC-2111-Hard-Drive-Replacement/5211/1



Sure. Just make sure the external HDD is formated Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and is partitioned with the GUID Partition Table.

Thank you for the great reply.

 

[AlphaDogg]

Thank you for the great reply.

That's what I'm here for. You're welcome .

 

[Razorhog]

The install of OS X seemed to work. However, it did not resolve the problem and now there are a lot of graphic glitches. Lines in the screen, speckles, background not showing through, etc. This is happening right after boot, and not during any graphical intense use, so it probably isn't a heat issue.

Does the additional symptom of graphic problems change the diagnosis?

 

[clyde2801]

Can you put in an install cd and try the apple hardware test?

 

[Razorhog]

Didn't even know there was such a thing as the apple hardware test. Will try asp. http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1509

 

[Razorhog]

Replaced the hard drive and the problem persists. Turns out it is the video card. Looks like it can be replaced, but costs about $300, and is a difficult fix. Anyone want to buy this thing?