iMac G4 "Snowball" Starts up... shuts down after ~65 seconds

[iMacG4]

During regular hard drive maintenance via the standard Mac Disk Utility, the power went down in my area - shutting off my Mac at a critical moment.



Since then, it powers on but then shuts itself back off after just over 1 minute.

I get power to the hard drive and super drive b/c can hear the hard drive searching for files, and it seems that the SD searches for a CD.

But... No chime.

Only the silent, gray screen with the 'wheel of death' sucking my hopes dry.

With the keyboard hooked up, I get no numlock light or response when I try SHIFT, OPEN (CD Drive), etc.

The RAM was upgraded today @ both slots to 1GB total, so RAM can be ruled out. Plus, there's no error beeps.

Removed Battery for 1 minute and re-installed. No change.

I honestly know a lot less about Macs than PCs, so I am wondering how the boot process works. If there is no hard drive or a corrupt hard drive, would this scenario be created by one of those?

I asked myself that if I installed a different HD, would it boot properly? I wouldn't think so, so my best guess is the logic board was damaged.

I don't want to get a logic board/base combo or board (eBay) if it's something more simple.

Thoughts?

 

[MatthewLTL]

During regular hard drive maintenance via the standard Mac Disk Utility, the power went down in my area - shutting off my Mac at a critical moment.



Since then, it powers on but then shuts itself back off after just over 1 minute.

I get power to the hard drive and super drive b/c can hear the hard drive searching for files, and it seems that the SD searches for a CD.

But... No chime.

Only the silent, gray screen with the 'wheel of death' sucking my hopes dry.

With the keyboard hooked up, I get no numlock light or response when I try SHIFT, OPEN (CD Drive), etc.

The RAM was upgraded today @ both slots to 1GB total, so RAM can be ruled out. Plus, there's no error beeps.

Removed Battery for 1 minute and re-installed. No change.

I honestly know a lot less about Macs than PCs, so I am wondering how the boot process works. If there is no hard drive or a corrupt hard drive, would this scenario be created by one of those?

I asked myself that if I installed a different HD, would it boot properly? I wouldn't think so, so my best guess is the logic board was damaged.

I don't want to get a logic board/base combo or board (eBay) if it's something more simple.

Thoughts?

not chiming does not always mean a bad thing. My eMac doesn't chime anymore at all but works just fine. Numlock lights do not light up on any macs running Mac OS. Assuming you have a apply keyboard either around or hooked to it turn on the power than immediately hold the option key down. you should get a boot menu.

 

[iMacG4]

Awesome! Now what next...?

The screen showed the option to boot from the 60GB HD with OS X on it.

Thanks! [ Of course choosing the HD shut the Mac down after 60 seconds as before.]

So I put Restore Disk 1 of 6 into the CD tray (got it open, thanks for that too), and it came up to begin the process of installing the factory HD contents.

BUT, it cannot proceed because it is reading the HD as the "Restore Image", which "cannot be erased". Just to be clear, it's not the CD, but that hard drive that it is seeing as a "Restore Image".

It's not powering down while in this process, so that was all due to the hard drive, much to my surprise.

What next?

 

[iMacG4]

Update - Need to find a pre-made .ISO online (BootDisk Mac Disk Utilities)

To restore everything back to 'factory', my next step is to check for errors and wipe the drive so that the "Restore Image" will be gone.

But I can't find an image (.ISO) online of a Mac Disk Utility Boot CD. But maybe I can use my other Mac to create one.



We'll see...

 

[Altemose]

To restore everything back to 'factory', my next step is to check for errors and wipe the drive so that the "Restore Image" will be gone.

But I can't find an image (.ISO) online of a Mac Disk Utility Boot CD. But maybe I can use my other Mac to create one.



We'll see...

There is not "Mac Disk Utility Boot CD". Disk Utility came on restore media and operating system disks.

It may not be chiming because the volume may have been muted when it was shut down. Try doing a PRAM reset and it will likely come back. I think the OS X install on the hard drive is toast with total corruption.

 

[iMacG4]

Need best way to format drive without taking it out.

There is not "Mac Disk Utility Boot CD". Disk Utility came on restore media and operating system disks.

It may not be chiming because the volume may have been muted when it was shut down. Try doing a PRAM reset and it will likely come back. I think the OS X install on the hard drive is toast with total corruption.

Thanks. The chime came back on it's own. Ya, maybe the volume was down.

I tried a PRAM reset yesterday - forgot to mention that in my intro.

Thought for sure by now someone would have created a bootable cd for Macs with hard drive utilities on it.

Tried looking into boot disks by Maxtor/Seagate, but all the ones I have found are for Windows-based computers.

Any ideas on formatting the drive via bootable CD?

NOTE: The only keyboard command that works on startup is "Option". Tried all the others.

 

[iMacG4]

Update: Finally got into "Single User Mode"

Holding Apple + S key got me into a terminal mode (Single User Mode), and now I'm trying to repair or format the drive.

http://www.everythingmacintosh.com/tech-notes/repair-your-hard-disk-in-single-user-mode/

It worked. The process [linked above] must have searched the drive for the restore files and fixed the problem. After the reboot command was typed in, the machine came right up to the log in screen.

It did not read as expected “FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED”, but something to the effect: "Volume unchanged".

 

[iMacG4]

iMac G4 - 1st Generation Disc Images (700 MHz) "Apple Hardware Test"/Restore/Boot

There is not "Mac Disk Utility Boot CD". Disk Utility came on restore media and operating system disks.

Thanks. I lost mine that came with my Tiger 10.4 loaded Mac. Perhaps these disc images that I've located online will be helpful downloads for others who are having hardware issues with their iMac G4.

Download Images: http://www.mediafire.com/?315vwcwj9tngx#267d1691pk2lu

Created with Jing: http://www.techsmith.com/download/jing/

 

[weckart]

Thought for sure by now someone would have created a bootable cd for Macs with hard drive utilities on it.

For HD system corruption you could try TechToolPro or DiskWarrior if Disk Utility on your install/restore media cannot repair it.

 

[MatthewLTL]

Thanks. I lost mine that came with my Tiger 10.4 loaded Mac. Perhaps these disc images that I've located online will be helpful downloads for others who are having hardware issues with their iMac G4.

Image

Download Images: http://www.mediafire.com/?315vwcwj9tngx#267d1691pk2lu

Created with Jing: http://www.techsmith.com/download/jing/

would those work on any other mac?