iMac Boot Camp Grey Screen

[trevorlsciact]

I've googled this and looked here, and while there are many similar stories none are exactly the same as mine so I thought I'd post here.

So, I was going to install the Windows 7 RC on a 2006 iMac intel Core Duo, which has a dead optical drive, so I was planning on using an external like I do for everything on this machine. After the restart to install Windows, I got a folder with a question mark, and figured that the iMac couldn't do the installation from an external drive but since it was looking for a disk got confused.
I then hit the power button thinking that I'd just boot back into OS X until I found a solution, but when I hit the power again I got not even an inquisitive folder. Just a grey screen. I tried key combinations but nothing even seemed to get recognized. For example, the PRAM re-set combination did not get to a second chime, just the one chime and the grey screen. Command C did make the external drive spin (with an OS X disk in it) but nothing other then that. And Command D with the original install disk in did spin as well, but I got no further then that chime and grey screen I got every time.

I don't expect miracles of course, and I want to know how to fix this. This machine is out of warrantee, and if it needs an actual hardware repair I'd rather find out what it needs and do it myself then have someone else do it. I know I can, and it is cheaper that way. And of course if there is a simple software fix I'd much prefer that.

Thanks in advance,
Trevor

 

[JediMeister]

Can you not simply disconnect the external hard drive and boot holding option to bring up the startup manager and re-select the internal drive?

 

[trevorlsciact]

Can you not simply disconnect the external hard drive and boot holding option to bring up the startup manager and re-select the internal drive?

It's an external optical drive, and it won't recognize any key combination including holding option.

 

[-tWv-]

I've googled this and looked here, and while there are many similar stories none are exactly the same as mine so I thought I'd post here.

So, I was going to install the Windows 7 RC on a 2006 iMac intel Core Duo, which has a dead optical drive, so I was planning on using an external like I do for everything on this machine. After the restart to install Windows, I got a folder with a question mark, and figured that the iMac couldn't do the installation from an external drive but since it was looking for a disk got confused.
I then hit the power button thinking that I'd just boot back into OS X until I found a solution, but when I hit the power again I got not even an inquisitive folder. Just a grey screen. I tried key combinations but nothing even seemed to get recognized. For example, the PRAM re-set combination did not get to a second chime, just the one chime and the grey screen. Command C did make the external drive spin (with an OS X disk in it) but nothing other then that. And Command D with the original install disk in did spin as well, but I got no further then that chime and grey screen I got every time.

I don't expect miracles of course, and I want to know how to fix this. This machine is out of warrantee, and if it needs an actual hardware repair I'd rather find out what it needs and do it myself then have someone else do it. I know I can, and it is cheaper that way. And of course if there is a simple software fix I'd much prefer that.

Thanks in advance,
Trevor

So do can you not boot into leopard at all? Try holding the option/alt key after the chime on startup and select your leopard partition disk when the disks show up

EDIT: Nevermind i just read your above post, im not really sure. Wait until someone else sees this thread and maybe offers a solution

 

[trevorlsciact]

So do can you not boot into leopard at all? Try holding the option/alt key after the chime on startup and select your leopard partition disk when the disks show up

EDIT: Nevermind i just read your above post, im not really sure. Wait until someone else sees this thread and maybe offers a solution

this is really pissing me off now, i tried to boot into firewire target disk mode to look at the hard drive on another machine, and even that didn't work.