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iMac Freezing Up - Please Help *EDITED*

A friend of mine has an old iBook that experiences similar problems. Tiger installs fine and runs in safe mode, but starting up in normal mode causes the computer to stop loading at the blue screen before login. He still hasn't managed to fix the problem.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/366105/

I googled the process to replace the hard drive in an iBook G3 and it's absolutely horrendous. Let us know if you get your G5 working nicely again.

horrorfan1986 said:
I know of only one other person who owns a mac. But he only has the one mac, so obviously I can't take their HD lol. I'm assuming computer shops won't just give away old HD's.

I assume old PC hard drives wouldn't work right? Mid 90's ones.
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According to the specs of your computer that you gave, you should be able to use any SATA hard drive. SATA is what computers currently use. You won't be able to use a PATA/IDE hard drive. Macs and PCs use the same kind of drives.
 
nigrunze said:
According to the specs of your computer that you gave, you should be able to use any SATA hard drive. SATA is what computers currently use. You won't be able to use a PATA/IDE hard drive. Macs and PCs use the same kind of drives.
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i didnt know g5 used sata or imac atleast and lots of computers still use ide? but i only have one sata and its an external which is 230gb
 
MacHappytjg said:
i didnt know g5 used sata or imac atleast and lots of computers still use ide? but i only have one sata and its an external which is 230gb
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When in doubt for anything Mac related, I use Mactracker. There's a downloadable version for Windows(slightly outdated database), Mac OS X 10.2(outdated database), and 10.3 - 10.5(Most up to date). There's also an online version for the iPhone/iPod touch.

I meant that computers which are currently available to buy use SATA hard drives. I don't know of any new computers that come with an IDE hard drive.
 
I hate to say it, but it sounds like you'll have to take it in somewhere, try to find a good authorized apple repair shop in your area. Ask them what they'd charge just to test your mac by booting it from an external firewire drive.

You could give the Apple forums a try too, I'm sure there are people there that know more than I.

Good luck and let us know how it turns out.
 
You said you were able to run Disk Utility in Safe Mode. What was the result? Were any errors found? Were any repairs successfully completed, or unsuccessful?

And as we've heard so many times, trying to reinstall OSX to repair a Mac with an obviously serious issue rarely helps, and often makes the situation worse, as it has here.
 
IJ Reilly said:
You said you were able to run Disk Utility in Safe Mode. What was the result? Were any errors found? Were any repairs successfully completed, or unsuccessful?
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There didn't seem to be any errors found. All repairs or permissions repairs seemed to go well.

I'm going to try to see what a couple other boards say before I lay down any money.
 
Try installing OSX onto an external firewire drive first if you or a friend have one to check whether the problem actually is the hard drive and not something else in your computer.
 
I bought a copy of TechTool Pro 4 yesterday. I did the basic and intermediate tests. Both times, everything passed. There were a couple of tests that came back as Unsupported. I'm not sure whether that means it failed or not.

Let me know if you need the reports.
 
If it is HD failure, you could try picking up a cheap IDE drive, size wouldn't matter. You can probably find used ones at flea markets or even computer repair shops. I can't imagine a used 20 gig drive would cost much these days.
 
ihabime said:
If it is HD failure, you could try picking up a cheap IDE drive, size wouldn't matter. You can probably find used ones at flea markets or even computer repair shops. I can't imagine a used 20 gig drive would cost much these days.
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But according to nigrunze, IDE drives won't work on iMacs.
 
Have you done a visual inspection of the logic board yet? Some of the iMac G5s has a problem where the capacitors would expand and cause all sorts of problems. To check, just lay the unit down on a table, unscrew the three screws on the bottom and lift the back off. The capacitors are the big coke bottle shaped things all over the board. If the tops are bulging out or, even worse, stuff is leaking out of any of them, then you've found the cause of your issue.

Fortunately, apple has a repair extension program for this issue: http://www.apple.com/support/exchange_repair/imac.html. Check your serial number and, if it falls within the correct range, head to the nearest apple store and you'll probably be able to get it fixed for free.

Good luck!
 
jhck said:
Have you done a visual inspection of the logic board yet? Some of the iMac G5s has a problem where the capacitors would expand and cause all sorts of problems. To check, just lay the unit down on a table, unscrew the three screws on the bottom and lift the back off. The capacitors are the big coke bottle shaped things all over the board. If the tops are bulging out or, even worse, stuff is leaking out of any of them, then you've found the cause of your issue.

Fortunately, apple has a repair extension program for this issue: http://www.apple.com/support/exchange_repair/imac.html. Check your serial number and, if it falls within the correct range, head to the nearest apple store and you'll probably be able to get it fixed for free.

Good luck!
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They all looked to be in good shape. All the tops were still on and there wasn't any leaking. I did notice a little dust in the machine especially in the larger fan. I used a soft cloth that you use for eyeglasses to remove it. But when I turned it back on, it went back to the blue screen.
 
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