Help! Mac problems

[mattk1996]

hey,
my mac has increasing been getting worse over weeks and weeks and now i can barely ever get it to function properly. there is a long list of problems so ill try my best to explain it.

alright, so when i turn my mac on, nearly every time now, it gets to the white screen with the loading wheel (not the colourful one) and doesn't go past there for no matter how long i leave it. i have even had (only a couple of times) my computer stick to the space apple background after i type my password and it stays there.

on the rare occasion i get it to work there is often more problems.
number 1: it makes me choose my wifi even when its set to remember (which it didnt do before it stopped working)
number 2: when i click my wifi it often wont connect to internet although it tells me im connected to it and my brothers computer works when connected.
number 3: most of the time my hard drive is not accessible (finder will not work, when my mouse is on the wallpaper it is always the loading circle, itunes doesnt work properly)


please help me here it is really getting on my nerves now

not exactly sure what i have now but i know it is 21.5 inches and on the disk it says it is Mac Os version 10.6.2 (not sure how much i have updated)

thank you all

 

[harlex]

Sorry to hear about your frustrations. The first thing to do is to calm down.

I would in your case book a slot at the Genius bar and let them sort it out.

I don't know how old your iMac is, but it maybe you will have to put your operating system back on it, not a big problem. Also there are several things you can do immediately you switch on from cold.
I would reset the machine by turning it off by the button on the back and remove the plug from the rear of the computer and after 30 seconds put the power plug back in then switch on.

I know there is a diagnostic check by pressing one of the keyboard letters not sure which one I think it is N and it should do a diagnostic check, if your machine has had a lot of use it could be the HDD is slow and needs replacing.

Look up the service threads that are shown on the main Apple Store website, you will see service in the lower half of the screen.

Good luck I am sure you will sort it out.

 

[mattk1996]

thanks mate,
although i went though this
http://guides.macrumors.com/Mac_doesn't_boot
and did step 5. after i verified disk it says i have to repair disk. so i clicked that and it says,

'Error: Disk Utility can't repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files.'

only problem is, if i cant get into my computer, how do i save my important things (family videos, pictures, music)
cheers

 

[Eves apple]

I had a similar experience with an old iMac as you describe, with the white screen at start up, ended up being a failed hard drive.

 

[Wardenski]

I had very similar symptoms with my previous HD in my Mac pro. I needed to replace the GPU first but once I did, I could get to the log in screen but it was incredably slow and unusable.

I replaced the HD but some corrupted files have made it through onto my new HD (via back-up) somehow. I noticed now that when I try to back up, it gets to these files and causes the OS to hang up so I manually got rid of those.

I was able to access my dying HD in Bootcamp though and access the important files as if was ok. Maybe try and load that HD from another computer somehow to retrive cherished data.