eMac freezing after boot

[Sepultura]

Putting my eMac for sale, I figured I should test it out before I show it to anyone... Well I booted it up and all seemed good until I moved the mouse towards System Preferences and it froze. I rebooted and tried again, it froze after maybe 30 seconds. Tried a third time, attempting to change the clock and it froze once again.

It looks like a GPU issue because there are some faint horizontal lines in the top right of the screen. They don't cover the whole screen, they are just in one area; Same color as the desktop, some a little blurry and pixelated. The first two times, I couldn't move the mouse after it froze, right now I can, though I cannot open or close anything.

Any ideas? The computer hasn't been powered on in four years. This was the first boot since then. Last thing I did was format, install Panther, and put it on a shelf.

 

[128keaton]

Putting my eMac for sale, I figured I should test it out before I show it to anyone... Well I booted it up and all seemed good until I moved the mouse towards System Preferences and it froze. I rebooted and tried again, it froze after maybe 30 seconds. Tried a third time, attempting to change the clock and it froze once again.

It looks like a GPU issue because there are some faint horizontal lines in the top right of the screen. They don't cover the whole screen, they are just in one area; Same color as the desktop, some a little blurry and pixelated. The first two times, I couldn't move the mouse after it froze, right now I can, though I cannot open or close anything.

Any ideas? The computer hasn't been powered on in four years. This was the first boot since then. Last thing I did was format, install Panther, and put it on a shelf.

I had this issue with mine. Ended up being a RAM issue. Also, you might want to look at replacing the Hard drive, which is involved. The RAM is easy.

 

[Sepultura]

I had this issue with mine. Ended up being a RAM issue. Also, you might want to look at replacing the Hard drive, which is involved. The RAM is easy.

I don't see how the ram could go bad as the computer hasn't been powered on for four years. I was looking online and people said it could be capacitor problem. Apparently it affected the 1.25 GHz model which is what I have. That said, the computer was used nearly everyday from it's purchase until 2011. The capacitors seemed to go bad after 1 year.

Taking these eMac's apart is not easy and pretty dangerous because of the CRT.

Anyone else have any idea?

 

[Dronecatcher]

You could try booting from an install disk - if that works and you can click around etc it will indicate the hard drive is at fault. If that is case, from the install disk, go to Disk Utility and erase the HD using the zero out option - this will isolate any bad sectors - then do a fresh install.

 

[DeltaMac]

I have replaced many logic boards on those 1.25 GHz eMacs, maybe 350. I used to be able to replace an eMac logic board in my sleep (or it felt like it after doing dozens in a day )
The freezing, and the video corruption are normal symptoms of the failing caps.
If you open the RAM door on the bottom, you will usually see the swelling caps. There's a few (6 or 7?) there. You have to pull the cover off, and remove the metal shield over the logic board to see the rest. You almost never see any without some swelling. But worse is when they leak that brown goo from inside the caps. There's kits that you can find on the 'net to replace the caps, and you need to have some basic soldering skills to do that.

 

[Sepultura]

I pulled off the ram cover and I can only see 2 capacitors and the PRAM battery. All look brand new, just like the computer.

 

[havokalien]

Doesnt mean they are not leaking, along with age is useable life. So may hours and they do not hold a charge like intended, even without swelling they may leak at the legs and not work. No real way to test, you could try the blow dryer trick works sometimes.

CRT is not dangerous since the mac SE had an auto discharge on it. But if your worried you can manually check with insulated screwdriver and ground it to earth then stick it under the cap on the tube to discharge.

 

[DeltaMac]

If you shine a light through the metal shield, on the battery side of the RAM opening, you can see two more caps.
You have to remove the back cover, and the bottom shield to see the rest of the caps. There's about ten more than can give issues.