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My iMac died . Please help me

K

kokoui

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 15, 2008
69
1
Hello , i have a 2008 iMac, my Applecare just expired on August. A couple of days ago I returned home and I noticed that my iMac was shut down , i turned it on and it stuck on the booting screen, I tried to do a restore from the recovery of Lion but nothing happened. I logon in single mode and tried a disk repair and everthing was ok. I did an Apple hardware test and everything was ok, i even replaced the ram. Then the following date i set my iMac as a target disk and connected it on a Macbook and formated it. I mananged to install leopard and then when I tried to install snow leopard the system froze again.

Then i thought it was probable a hard disk issue. I replaced my hard disk with a brand new and i inserted the cd that was shipped with my iMac. The i pressed 'c' in order to load disk utility but now I am getting a kernel panic message "You need to restart your computer". I cannot install mac os and the computer is not booting. Any ideas of what to do?

Any help will be much appreciated. Thanks
 
If the RAM was recently added and then the problems started, I'd pull the RAM and replace it with the original sticks. Doesn't sound like much else has changed based on your details. Could have been the HDD, but unless you mucked something up adding a new one, I don't see why it would have caused any issues.

Give the RAM a shot and report back.
 
RAM is a good call. I had a stick die on me in a PC after running fine for a year or so. It can happen.
 
the Ram were not recently changed. I changed them one year ago. I tried also with the original ram that the computer was shipped but still no luck:( Also the Apple hardware test didn't report any problems
 
kokoui said:
the Ram were not recently changed. I changed them one year ago. I tried also with the original ram that the computer was shipped but still no luck:( Also the Apple hardware test didn't report any problems
Click to expand...

You need to run Apple Hardware Test in Extended Mode for any meaningful results and to be really sure run it about 3x. Each pass will take 30-60 minutes so you need to be patient and persistent.
 
rkaufmann87 said:
You need to run Apple Hardware Test in Extended Mode for any meaningful results and to be really sure run it about 3x. Each pass will take 30-60 minutes so you need to be patient and persistent.
Click to expand...

Yes I ran the test according to your advice and the hardware tests were passed
 
I agree it sounds like you have a problem with the logic board. If you have a local Apple Authorised Service Provider (check on the Apple website) get your machine to them and they'll diagnose problem and quote you for any necessary work. Any work carried out by them is covered by an Apple Warranty.
 
Thanks guys for your help! Is there anything else that i can try?
 
This sounds like the exact same problem I had with the family iMac (might even be same generation). My Apple service provider was able to fix and I didn't lose any data.

Like you I was sure (happy because I'd get me a new one?) it was dead, but voila.. they did the voodoo that they doo soo wellllll!
 
Well I took it to an apple authorized technician and they told me that it was either a logic board or graphics card failure. They told me that they were going to replace the video card because the logic board was way too expensive . They replace the video card for 550 USD and the problem is fixed now. But sure is a lot of money for a graphics card that was introduced in 2008
 
Hmm if I were you I might sell the dying iMac for what it is, I know it'd be totaled and you can only get a little amount of money.

But I think it's better compared to have to pay $550 for 3 years old GPU replacement. But do you have some particular reason why you wanna stick with the old iMac? Do you have some important data left on HDD? Or does it bring some memories? :p

Yes I understand it would be expensive to totally replace your iMac, for 2011 iMac you'd have to pay another $1000 at least, or you can go down for base model 2010 iMac for $800 I think.
 
Well actually data on hdd was not an issue since I had time machine backup. The reason that I decided to give that money is that I need a computer because i am a programmer. I do not have an official apple store in my country and the cheapest imac I could get was around 1740 USD and since i have not tha amount of money now i decided to pay for repair ( i love also my 24inch screen) and the mac still is very fast even if it is 3 years old.
 
Yes it seems to be.

I had one die at the beginning of the year. Basically the screen started to just randomly go black and then eventually wouldn't come on at all but the rest of the computer was fine.

I ended up replacing the card with the 2600 pro 256mb card and everything worked fine. There are a few other threads where people have had multiple 8800gs failing so it seemed like a better option.

Andy
 
I think nVidia iGP on older iMac tend to have this problem, 8800GS or 9400M sad really .. Not all, but not a few also.

Wow you mean in your country you have to pay equal to $1700 for getting base 21.5" iMac? Seriously? Well .. quite a good reason to stick onto your old iMac. Hope everything turns out to be okay this time.
 
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