2008 iMac Issues

[TribeFan1]

I have a 2008 iMac that is having problem. It is the 4GB RAM and 500GB hard drive model with the 2.66 GHz processor. When the computer goes to sleep it almost always locks up when you wake it up. It locks up when restarting and has more recently starts up directly to the restore from backup or start as new screen. One time it started and froze with black and white vertical bars and has started with the flashing X file a couple times. What might be going wrong? I also understand it is a 6 year old computer that has had constant use for those 6 years so age could be a factor. Thanks!

 

[Weaselboy]

That sounds very much like a hard drive ready to die. Start Disk Utility and do a verify disk and what do you see?

That question mark at startup is a big sign a bad drive.

I am assuming here you have not recently installed anything or tinkered with settings that would have caused this.

 

[TribeFan1]

That sounds very much like a hard drive ready to die. Start Disk Utility and do a verify disk and what do you see?

That question mark at startup is a big sign a bad drive.

I am assuming here you have not recently installed anything or tinkered with settings that would have caused this.

The most recent installation was mavericks, although some of the issues began before this. After running disk utility everything came back fine

 

[Brian33]

Hopefully it is the hard drive as Weaselboy mentions.

You could also run the Apple Hardware Tests for your machine, assuming you can find the original discs that came with it. Find "Mac OS X Install Disc 1", insert it, and "To use Apple Hardware Test, hold down the D key as the computer starts up."

If it is the HDD, they are really not too hard to replace -- I've done it on my 24" Early 2008 iMac 2.8 with no problems. The ifixit.com guides really help. While you're at it, you could put in a SSD, for a nice performance boost.