iMac 24" Bang!

[Barbados]

Hi One And All

It appears my iMac 24"Early 2008 has gone to Mac Heaven.
On returning from oversea's after six months i turned on my long serving and faithful
mac only to be greeted by a white screen, then after a few minutes the apple logo, Great!
Not so after a few more minutes what appeared to be a No Entry Sign, then nothing, nothing at all
off! on! nothing! off on again nothing.....Damn it!
off to the local Apple reseller, one of the disadvantages of living on a small island, only to be told some week and a half later that the Motherboard had gone and that there was nothing they could do as my beloved machine was that old Apple had stop making that part.
Question, is this really so?

Please help.

 

[macthefork]

A no entry sign usually means that it can't find the start-up disk, or OS. That could be a failed Hard Drive (likely) or the failed logic board as mentioned by Apple (less likely).

A 2008 drive, sitting for six months could very well be on it's death bed. Before giving up I would try the following.

1. When trying to start it up, push the start button, and immediately lift the iMac by each side of the the screen and twist it vertically and sharply a few times. What you're trying to do is give the vertically mounted Hard Drive a little nudge to spin. I've had this work on an old drive enough to copy/clone everything from it and then replace the drive.

2. If the above doesn't work, try booting from an external USB drive or the OS disk that came with the iMac.

3. Logic boards for various mac can be found simply by searching for one. (Google is your friend). They can usually be found on Ebay.

 

[Barbados]

Macthefork.

Thanks for getting back to me and i will take on board your advise as soon as i
get my iMac back from the shop....
Will i need any specific reference number to purchase a new Logic Board?
And is the information on the hard drive revivable in any way?
If so how?

 

[macthefork]

Since nothing happens now when the on/off button is pushed, it possible it is a logic board or power supply problem. Simply google 2008 imac logic board. On the bottom of your iMac stand there should be a number. You should be able to find one. Although, weigh the cost of repair against a possible newer iMac.

Did the Apple shop actually open the iMac? When you get it home, it would be time to open it up, clean any dust, and check (wiggle) all connectors to be sure they're making good contact. I have opened a mac and found so much dust I was surprised it worked as long as it did. (the person had a lot of dogs, birds, and cats, though)

I've brought back to life quite a few older HDs with that hard twist method that had been sitting a while. Of course, if it is a logic board or power supply problem, the hard drive might be fine. The reason I mention Power supply is because if the HD actually refused to spin up, which is what you first described with the "no entry" sign, it can place an extended and unusual load on it and the logic board.

If the HD is spinning, then you likely can save the data that's on it. If the twist technique described above happens to work, don't shut the iMac down, but do turn off Hard Drive sleep in System Preferences. Keep it spinning until you've saved all the data.

The best method would be to transfer data to another drive is to clone it as soon as possible to another drive. (Carbon Copy Cloner, which has a free trial would work) Then you can install that drive into the iMac and you'll be back to normal. (the 2008 is quite easy to replace the drive in... I've replaced drives in a few 2008s with an SSD so they are quite fast when done.

If the HD is dead and you can't get it spinning, the data is lost without using an expensive data recovery company.

 

[h9826790]

Just in case you need a need / want a new logic board.

http://www.dvwarehouse.com/iMac-Intel-Early-2008-Logic-Board-c-5482.html