Cannot boot CD or mac: how can I restore the original bootloader?

[Projekt]

I've been tasked with fixing a Mac Mini that was meant to function as a dual Mac/Windows machine, but somewhere along the road something went horribly wrong.

The machine always boots to windows, whether or not the option key is held down.

In addition, booting from ANY CD, be it a windows install disc or the Snow Leopard disc, brings up a "grub" prompt with the message "Minimal BASH-like line editing is supported...". I've never seen anything like it.

I suspect a problem with the bootloader? Is it possible to restore it without harming the other partitions on the disc? How can I at least get access to booting to CDs?

Any help is appreciated!

 

[Intell]

Pressing the option key at startup should always bring up the startup selection menu. There isn't really a bootloader on Intell Macs. You need to start up from the Mac OS X disc and reformat the hard drive.

 

[53kyle]

Is your keyboard bluetooth (no cord)? If so, those typically take a bit to connect to the machine. If not, try inserting an install disk into the Mac and boot holding the "c" key

EDIT: Oops, I didn't see that you already tried that, but again even holding the c key on the Bluetooth keyboard won't work due to delay with some keyboards

 

[Projekt]

Thanks for the responses guys, but I did manage to figure it out. The grub "bootloader" or whatever it was that was messing with the regular EFI of the system was zapped by clearing the PRAM and also by connecting the computer to another through TDM and applying a partition change in disc utility (even without making any changes to the scheme.)