My friend's Imac G4 won't start - Please Help!

[nickane]

My friend's iMac has bit the dust tragically after three years, and although he never had applecare, he's not sure where to turn. When he starts it up, it makes the chime and goes to a blank screen and never gets any further. He cannot open the cd drive to try the hardware test cd, as was recommended by another friend. The mouse light and the monitor light are both on, whilst he can hear the hard drive whirring continuously. Its been two days since it ever started up normally, and he's tried turning it on and off umpteen times. What should he do?

 

[aquajet]

Try resetting the PRAM.

After the boot chime, press and hold down the command-option-p-r keys (without the hyphen, that is). After several seconds, the iMac should restart again.