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iMac G3 shuts down during boot

r.j.s

r.j.s

Moderator emeritus
Original poster
Mar 7, 2007
15,026
52
Texas
I have a 700MHz iMac G3, which froze during DVD playback and it needed to be rebooted. Now it will not boot, the gray screen comes up with the loading circle, but it will just shut down after about a minute.

I have reset the PRAM, PMU and it is running 10.4

No beeps or anything when it shuts down, it just turns off.
 
Sounds like what happened to my PB just before the HD died. Can you boot with the install DVD and run disc utility? Check the SMART status of the drive.
 
rdowns said:
Sounds like what happened to my PB just before the HD died. Can you boot with the install DVD and run disc utility? Check the SMART status of the drive.
Click to expand...

I dont have the install disc for that one anymore, but I'll try my MB's.
 
Ok, tried the disc, but it just KPd on boot - while holding down C and before it starting loading from the disc.
 
MB disc won't work in another model. Do you have any Mac OS install discs that aren't machine specific?
 
I knew that, I guess you throw all logic out the window when you have a problem.

I have the Leopard retail DVD ... Will try when I find it.
 
OK, retail DVD no go. It just freezes at the Apple logo and never goes anywhere.
 
you should take it to the genius bar, i'd pay to see the look on their faces. they've probably never seen a g3 imac there before.
 
You just need a new hard drive. I've done it a thousand times on the G3 iMac.

That hard drive if it is original, is six or seven years old.

You need to get a bigger faster hard drive and you will increase the speed of your top of the line G3 iMac which is almost a collector's item, being the best of the last at 700mhz.

Make sure you've maxed out the ram to one full gig and if you get a 7200 rpm hard drive with an 8mb cache, you will be seeing even better results. Try to find a 120gb drive as your imac only will "see" 128gb of hard drive space.

Oh, but don't bother even loading Leopard. I will not boot on anything less than a g4 867mhz.
 
I may have a new drive laying around to try, but wouldn't it show a folder with a ? rather than just powering off?
 
Well, I dont have any restore discs anymore, so I'll have to wait until I can get a hold of a Panther disc to try a new drive.
 
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