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iMac 27" won't start up after power outage.

V

Vuccappella

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 10, 2014
9
0
So, the fuse in my house blew up over night while my computer was on.The fuse is now fixed but my computer won't turn on properly.

It starts up normally but as soon as it gets to the white screen with the apple a "progress bar" appears and a spinning wheel. After a few seconds of "thinking" the computer just turns it's self off.

I still have apple care (im in the UK) but I have never used it till now. So I'll look in to how how I can use it (If someone can help me out with that too, it would be great!).

I've already checked out several topics on this forum about similar issues but in all the other cases the computers didn't turn on at all, could this be just a small issue :confused: Are there any things I could try to maybe start it up properly? I've already tried different plugs and test the plug that the computer was in and they are functioning normally.


My iMac is the late 2012 new model.
 
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incomplete restart

Try resetting the PRAM. It is a finger twister. Hold down the command, option, and shift keys and at the exact same time letter keys "P" and "R. " I think these are correct. Now turn on your Mac and wait for it to chime twice. Then you can let up the keys.

You can phone Apple Care and set up an appointment with repair. Apple Care is the best.
 
Your best bet is to try to take it in to an Apple Store there in the UK:

http://www.apple.com/uk/retail/storelist/

There area number of things that can cause the computer to attempt to boot into Safe Mode (the progress bar display on boot is an indication of this) but that it fails to do so is an indication of a possibly major issue, especially if it occured after a power-related incident. My advice as a former Genius is don't waste time trying to fix it just get it in for proper diagnosis and repair. If you don't you may end up with major and costly repairs down the road because you though this one was no big deal.

Power surges can do major damage to an unprotected machine but they can also do interesting things to a protected one.
 
Before you contact Apple try to reset the SMC. This usually can help when the power is lost like that.

To reset SMC:
Shut down the computer.
Unplug the computer's power cord and ALL peripherals.
Wait 15 seconds.
Attach the computers power cable.
Wait another 5 seconds and press the power button to turn on the computer.
 
Hey guys. Thanks for all your replies. I called up Apple Support and the guys there made me do pretty much the same things as you suggested .

Reseting the SMC, PRAM and so on. I managed to start up disk utility and it turns out there is a problem with my hard drive and It couldn't be repaired from the disk utility so I will have to bring the computer to a local store. I just hope that they can recover my data. Funny thing is, I bought a Apple Time Capsule today before the electricity in my house blew up so I can transfer my data as it's been 1 year since I bought the computer and I was like, well I think it's time to save everything as I had no chance to do so before (I'm a student and I'm buying all my equipment myself) , so finally I saved some money for an external hard drive...and this happens right before I save everything :( I just hope it's a good sign that It detects my drive and the computer starts. :(
 
Man bad move! Always back up with whatever you can use even if it's on DVD disc, thumb drive, sd card heck anything if you don't have a external. Why wouldn't you at least buy a cheap external hdd under $50 just to back up. I realize time capsule is nice and shiney but now your probably s.o.l. Even if you bought a cheap external hdd and saved for a time capsule when you got your time capsule now you could do 2 backups. Store your things that you can't replace (pics etc) at another house for worst case situation.

Do people really never back up? Heck anytime I add a new file that I worked on I click back up now. Guess I'm old school where if you didn't click save you're work was gone. People are to spoiled now days and never plan for failure. Take this as a lesson learned.
 
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Actually I have a 500gb hard drive and I had previously transfered some of the projects i had (music and video and programing) but since my mac is 3tb in capacity and almost 2.5tb full, i couldn't store everything with a small drive. And I have no CD-DVD in the computer cause new macs :) :confused: . It's my fault don't get me wrong, but it's tough.
 
Vuccappella said:
Actually I have a 500gb hard drive and I had previously transfered some of the projects i had (music and video and programing) but since my mac is 3tb in capacity and almost 2.5tb full, i couldn't store everything with a small drive. And I have no CD-DVD in the computer cause new macs :) :confused: . It's my fault don't get me wrong, but it's tough.
Click to expand...

Well if I were in your shoes I would have bought a 3tb hdd then backed up ASAP instead of holding off pressing your luck to get a time capsule. I hope they can save your hdd. If not take the lesson and learn from it. Most 3tb externals are 1/3 the cost of time capsule.
 
I absolutely agree with your advice! That would've been the right choice. :(

As for the disk utility. The computer does boot to a point but then it turns itself of, if that makes sense, i tried explaining it on the main post. The computer boots up to the point where the apple logo appears and the loading bar but then after around 10 seconds it just shuts down, thus displaying some kind of fault. Today I spent the whole day going around trying to fix it and I'll post what happened as I need advice on what to do , in a separate topic as this has nothing to do with hardware/software issues, so it should be in a other subforum. I'll post a link here to follow up as well.

EDIT:https://forums.macrumors.com/newthread.php?do=newthread&f=78
 
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Bruno, that is how i accessed disk utility. Thing is, as mentioned before I did not have a Backup. So at the moment I can't do anything from there (meaning i can't reinstall) because I would loose my data.
 
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I had a look at your other post in the Mac Basics forum. If your Mac is still covered under AppleCare then Apple will replace the HD for you free of charge but they will not back up your data and will very clearly tell you that by doing the replacement you are going to lose any and all data on the failed drive. They will advise you to back up all data on your own.

Therefore, if the drive is indeed accessible to remove data, but just no longer bootable as would be indicated by the fact that the repair service tech was able to view the data after booting to an external drive connected to your machine, you will want to get that data off before going to Apple.

My advice to you would be to wait until you get the external drive you've ordered before going to Apple. You could install OS X to that drive (assuming it's bootable) and then back up/clone what over what you can. I wouldn't pay the tech all that money for doing the backup. It's really not that difficult.

Finally, I think you realize this now but I would strongly advise you to back up your data in future once you've (hopefully) recovered from this disaster.
 
So how do I go on about installing OS X to a external hard drive then booting that drive from my mac and then migrating all my data to it :confused:

Is it just a case of having a big enough drive. Formatting that drive trough disk utility to Mac OS Extended Journal type. Installing OS X on that drive (same version as my iMac) , which I have no Idea how to do, is it free to download still? Can I do it if my mac isn't running ? Would the people in the apple store help me with that if I don't know how to do it ? And then running disk utility on my iMac with the connected and formated hard drive and some how backing up all my data? How do I do that ? (If I ever get to that point). Do I just start up the computer from the external hard drive with OS X and then both my computer and the external hard drive will appear, So I'll need to copy everything manually from my drive to the external one or do I do a backup with time machine (which I don't know how to do, what are my options ?)
 
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You clearly have a recovery partition, since you were able to access Disk Utility. You also clearly have an Internet connection so you will be able to reinstall OS X. If your Mac is a Late 2012, I would assume it is Mountain Lion. Anyway, there are instructions here for Internet Recovery. Just make sure to point the installer to the external hard disk.

I would boot to the new installation of OS X and then attempt to copy over whatever data you can get from the failed HD. I wouldn't attempt to migrate or clone from it.
 
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