Hardware Problem?

[texas crude]

I've got an iMac that's about 3.5 years old (late 2009 version; 21.5 inches; 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo) and has recently been giving me problems.

The 'theme' seems to be "installing something new" / "installing phase of downloading":

About 2 years ago I upgraded to Snow Leopard and the installation wouldn't verify. I talked with tech support and they walked me through a half dozen possibilities, but ultimately I had to take the machine to the store, because it downloaded the install, began the install, but failed to complete.

More recently I tried to download Mountain Lion. Downloaded the program with no issue. At the installation phase, it'd get to ~95% then would quit because of a verification failure. Apple Support couldn't figure it out (walked me through permissions, etc).

After I recently ran an "update software", 5 items downloaded, but couldn't install (error occurred).

iTunes informed me of a software update for my iPhone 5. Crashed during the installation and I had to find another computer to restore it (everything was deleted). PITA!

I guessed it was either a RAM issue or a permissions issue. I've tried all of what I consider the obvious fixes on permissions... everything in the directory looks okay to a rookie eye. I guess I'm okay taking it to the genius bar, but our Apple Care warranty is out -- any ideas how much I'd be out of pocket? Anyone have a solution or an easy test I can do to figure this one out?

I'm assuming someone will need more information, but I'm new to this process so just let me know!

Thanks!

 

[firedept]

I've got an iMac that's about 3.5 years old (late 2009 version; 21.5 inches; 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo) and has recently been giving me problems.

The 'theme' seems to be "installing something new" / "installing phase of downloading":

About 2 years ago I upgraded to Snow Leopard and the installation wouldn't verify. I talked with tech support and they walked me through a half dozen possibilities, but ultimately I had to take the machine to the store, because it downloaded the install, began the install, but failed to complete.

More recently I tried to download Mountain Lion. Downloaded the program with no issue. At the installation phase, it'd get to ~95% then would quit because of a verification failure. Apple Support couldn't figure it out (walked me through permissions, etc).

After I recently ran an "update software", 5 items downloaded, but couldn't install (error occurred).

iTunes informed me of a software update for my iPhone 5. Crashed during the installation and I had to find another computer to restore it (everything was deleted). PITA!

I guessed it was either a RAM issue or a permissions issue. I've tried all of what I consider the obvious fixes on permissions... everything in the directory looks okay to a rookie eye. I guess I'm okay taking it to the genius bar, but our Apple Care warranty is out -- any ideas how much I'd be out of pocket? Anyone have a solution or an easy test I can do to figure this one out?

I'm assuming someone will need more information, but I'm new to this process so just let me know!

Thanks!

Went through a similar situation with a 2011 iMac I had. Upgraded to Mountain Lion, but it never completely installed. Called Apple and ran through everything with tech to no avail. Now I could no longer do any updates to anything, but now I also had an iMac that was so slow it was virtually unusable. Took it to Apple Reseller as per Apple's advice. Well it took them a week to get it working. They had to completely wipe the HDD and after several attempts finally got the OS and ML working. But it did cost me $150 to have it done even under warranty. Apple would not cover it, as they claimed it was a software issue, not hardware. Argued with them that it was their software, downloaded for their App Store, but still had to pay. Just sharing my experience and cost with you. Never did get an answer from the reseller as to what happened. The literally had no idea.

A suggestion for you though. Do you have a back up of your drive? If you do, then wipe drive and then possibly a clean install of the OS on you iMac might solve the problem. You can always upgrade everything after and migrate your files as well from the back up.

 

[justperry]

I've got an iMac that's about 3.5 years old (late 2009 version; 21.5 inches; 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo) and has recently been giving me problems.

The 'theme' seems to be "installing something new" / "installing phase of downloading":

About 2 years ago I upgraded to Snow Leopard and the installation wouldn't verify. I talked with tech support and they walked me through a half dozen possibilities, but ultimately I had to take the machine to the store, because it downloaded the install, began the install, but failed to complete.

More recently I tried to download Mountain Lion. Downloaded the program with no issue. At the installation phase, it'd get to ~95% then would quit because of a verification failure. Apple Support couldn't figure it out (walked me through permissions, etc).

After I recently ran an "update software", 5 items downloaded, but couldn't install (error occurred).

iTunes informed me of a software update for my iPhone 5. Crashed during the installation and I had to find another computer to restore it (everything was deleted). PITA!

I guessed it was either a RAM issue or a permissions issue. I've tried all of what I consider the obvious fixes on permissions... everything in the directory looks okay to a rookie eye. I guess I'm okay taking it to the genius bar, but our Apple Care warranty is out -- any ideas how much I'd be out of pocket? Anyone have a solution or an easy test I can do to figure this one out?

I'm assuming someone will need more information, but I'm new to this process so just let me know!

Thanks!

Bold, this does not make sense, if it is indeed the late 2009 model it already came with Snow leopard.

I don't think this is a permissions Error, it might be a problem with hardware, more like Identification with Hardware.
Does your iMac have a serial number, you can see this in About This Mac then click on the OS version number just under OS X.

If you have an empty External HD I would try to install Mountain Lion there, if that succeeds but not on your normal internal HD you know something is amiss with the internal.

 

[texas crude]

Bold, this does not make sense, if it is indeed the late 2009 model it already came with Snow leopard.

I don't think this is a permissions Error, it might be a problem with hardware, more like Identification with Hardware.
Does your iMac have a serial number, you can see this in About This Mac then click on the OS version number just under OS X.

If you have an empty External HD I would try to install Mountain Lion there, if that succeeds but not on your normal internal HD you know something is amiss with the internal.

You're right -- thanks for pointing that out. I had snow leopard and upgraded to Lion, which I still have. Tried to upgrade to Mountain Lion and failed.

 

[justperry]

You're right -- thanks for pointing that out. I had snow leopard and upgraded to Lion, which I still have. Tried to upgrade to Mountain Lion and failed.

You could try to Install ML as root, but you need to enable root first.

To do so follow the instructions in the link below, when it is enabled you can login from the login screen with Other.then add root as name and the password you entered before when enabling root.

Note: You have to click on Login Items in Users & Groups, the link does not say this, I could not find it in the beginning.

OS X Mountain Lion: Enable and disable the root user