My New iMac G5 doesn't work

[tvcke]

greetings from Belgium
After years on PC , I finally took the step and ordered the new G5 iMac that arrived today...
I just unpacked it, set it up, typed in all the necessary stuff like name , identity and stuff... the blue screen appears, the dock and look what happens next...

the screen becomes grey and a black square appears that tells me in four languages to restart my computer ...
I allready did that about 25-30 times now...
sometimes the mac blocks during start up, sometimes after 1-5 minutes...and everytime that restart screen appears, the fan begins to make noise like a hurricane...
I cannot imagine i did something wrong during the set up, what can you do wrong by typing your name ??

I'm now typing on my pc laptop again...talking about a cold shower...
Has anyone experienced this ???

Tom

 

[earthtoandy]

dont worry.. its just a lemon. call up apple, send it back, and get a brand new one

 

[Josh]

kernel panic

have you installed any additional ram or anything like that?

 

[tvcke]

have you installed any additional ram or anything like that?

yes, they installed an extra 256 ram card...
( i did not open the mac , yet , should I look ? )

 

[Mord]

i'd reinstall OS X sometime you get a random error that just screws things up

 

[earthtoandy]

no if you havent installed anything it should be fine. dont open it up. just call apple now and have them send out a box to ship it back.

unless its an OS problem... but will your computer work at all? Or was it just the one crash?

 

[bousozoku]

Sorry to hear that your first experience is so bad.

You might try the diagnostic disk that came with the package. It should say something like "hold the C key while booting". It may provide extra information or even locate the problem.

Also, you may want to run Disk Utility (First Aid), which should be on the first System Restore disk.

It's extra work that you should not have to do with a new machine, but it may save you a trip or two.

 

[Dont Hurt Me]

Anyone say made in China? anyways sorry to hear of your problems. nothing sucks worse then a new machine that doesnt work.

 

[pncc]

greetings from Belgium
After years on PC , I finally took the step and ordered the new G5 iMac that arrived today...
I just unpacked it, set it up, typed in all the necessary stuff like name , identity and stuff... the blue screen appears, the dock and look what happens next...

the screen becomes grey and a black square appears that tells me in four languages to restart my computer ...
I allready did that about 25-30 times now...
sometimes the mac blocks during start up, sometimes after 1-5 minutes...and everytime that restart screen appears, the fan begins to make noise like a hurricane...
I cannot imagine i did something wrong during the set up, what can you do wrong by typing your name ??

I'm now typing on my pc laptop again...talking about a cold shower...
Has anyone experienced this ???

Tom

What you got is called a kernel panic. it is like a blue screen of death.

I would NOT send it back to Apple YET. It will take weeks to get a replacement. See if it is something easy first.

Like others have suggested, try the utility disk and hold down the C key until the computer is starting up. Run diagnostics and see what you get.

If that fails to boot or you get the gray screen, turn it off and open the back. Look at the RAM chips. remove them and reinsert them to be sure they are in snug. replace the cover and try booting from the Utility disk again. If it still fails, call Apple and get it returned.

If the utility disk says all is well, but you still can't boot it from the internal drive OS, put in the restore DVD and wipe out and install the whole OS and all Applications again. You will get it back to the original factory condition and start over like it was new.

 

[emw]

I hate it when a new switcher has a bad first experience - sours the whole thing.

Anyway, since you were able to start up the first time, I have a hard time believing it's a RAM issue, but reseating the RAM is pretty simple.

It's probably worth doing a software restore before you send it back, just in case it works and all is well. But I wouldn't spend a lot of time trying to fix it since you don't want to bandage it until you get a bunch of stuff on it for it to break again. If you can't get it to work with a couple of the suggestions people have made, call Apple and arrange for a new one.

 

[jfw]

Because most people buy a Mac because they don't want to have to dork around with the insides of their computer, I'd side with those who suggest returning for repair or replacement (or having an onsite repairman show up if that's an option).

However, those who point out that it could take many weeks are also correct, so if you feel like doing some preliminary poking around:

Because there's an added DIMM, and because bad RAM is a rich source of kernel panics, that's what I'd suspect right off the bat. I think the iMac should have come with a hardware diagnostic CD; if so, boot from that (pop it in, reboot and hold C on the keyboard until it starts booting). Of course, memory tests are no longer as effective as they once were, it's possible the RAM test will pass even with flaky RAM. If the RAM test passes, you can open the back of the iMac and remove one of the two DIMMs, then turn the power on and see if it still panics; then swap with the other DIMM and try again. If it panics with one DIMM and not the other, you have your culprit. If it panics with either DIMM, either both DIMMs are bad or the motherboard is bad. It might also not panic at all with just one DIMM (either one); that could still be a problem with a DIMM which doesn't show up if the electrical load on the bus lines is light, or a timing problem on a DIMM (because the iMac will use them slightly differently if they appear to be a matched pair), or it could be a problem on the motherboard.

As for whether "has anyone else experienced this", I had a Performa arrive dead many years back (blinking question mark at powerup), and called up Apple who dispatched an in-home technician right away. Well, "right away" in the sense of "a couple of weeks later". It turned out that the disk cable came loose in shipping because they hadn't properly screwed down the disk carrier in the first place; alas, the Performa was built in the "no user serviceable parts" era of Mac design, else I could easily have discovered that myself. (Actually, once you know the trick, it wasn't too hard to open, but they didn't encourage people doing so.)

 

[jane doe]

Remove the added ram, run the apple hardware test. see if that finds anything.

you can have apple send you all the replacement parts you need (if any)

 

[Phat_Pat]

call apple and talk to them. Hopefully they'll walk you through it. They are nice people

 

[wowser]

...especially at the Irish Apple centre! I had a lovely sounding girl ring me up every so often to check everything was going well!

 

[kwajaln]

a lovely sounding girl ring me up

Ever see that Aerosmith video (Sweet Emotion?) that shows the guy calling the girlie-phone line and she sounds sweeeeet, and looks great in his mind, but at the end she's really a 300 pounder sweating in her kitchen while ironing a shirt.....

 

[MacSA]

I hope you get your new computer sorted out and working soon, please keep updated on how things work out

 

[caveman_uk]

...especially at the Irish Apple centre! I had a lovely sounding girl ring me up every so often to check everything was going well!

I've had people from the Irish Apple centre ring me back to check things were OK and tell me stuff. I was actually quite surprised to get people that actually DO ring you back


Sadly a lot of the calls to Applecare from the UK get routed to India and they obviously haven't trained them properly because I doubt they've ever even seen a mac. The two I've dealt with were a complete waste of time. Rarely have I been less inspired. I've taken to hanging up when I hear that long connection pause and trying another time when the Irish are taking calls

 

[tvcke]

I hope you get your new computer sorted out and working soon, please keep updated on how things work out

So, I went to our local Apple store this morning, luckily we have one here ... they said they were gonna call me back a few hours later...
They actually did , the iMac was ok...the problem was the Ram card , they put in a new one ( 1 of 512 ) and said the computer worked ok !

I have it here now ( at work, can't plug it on the net , that's for tonight ) but everything seems to work perfect now !!

 

[floatingspirit]

I have it here now ( at work, can't plug it on the net , that's for tonight ) but everything seems to work perfect now !!

Fantastic and congratulations on your first Mac!!!

 

[emw]

So, I went to our local Apple store this morning, luckily we have one here ... they said they were gonna call me back a few hours later...
They actually did , the iMac was ok...the problem was the Ram card , they put in a new one ( 1 of 512 ) and said the computer worked ok !

I have it here now ( at work, can't plug it on the net , that's for tonight ) but everything seems to work perfect now !!

Whew! Hopefully you will be all set for a wonderful Mac experience from here on out!

 

[belair]

Nice one!
Hope you get to enjoy the full mac experience tonight.
Be shure to sit down when starting it up.
Did the apple store upgrade your ram from 512 to 768? That would have been very cool on their behalf.
Anyway.
Make shure to post your first impressions here.

cheers

 

[DocB]

did you just call the apple store and make an appointment? My G5 should be here within a week (just left Shanghai) and if I have difficulties I'd like to know which direction to head (there's an Apple store a few hours away).

 

[varmit]

So, I went to our local Apple store this morning, luckily we have one here ... they said they were gonna call me back a few hours later...
They actually did , the iMac was ok...the problem was the Ram card , they put in a new one ( 1 of 512 ) and said the computer worked ok !

I have it here now ( at work, can't plug it on the net , that's for tonight ) but everything seems to work perfect now !!

Thats good to hear its working again. Don't be suprised that they called you back, Apple is good to their customers. Thats why they get the highest rating for their hardware and support. Everything else should go smoothly for you now. Give us a hello from home when you get it up on the net.

 

[whooleytoo]

Ever see that Aerosmith video (Sweet Emotion?) that shows the guy calling the girlie-phone line and she sounds sweeeeet, and looks great in his mind, but at the end she's really a 300 pounder sweating in her kitchen while ironing a shirt.....

heheh.. having worked in Apple Cork, trust me, the majority of call centre girls are FAAAAAAAR from 300 pounders. They're quite possibly the thing I miss most about working there !

 

[wowser]

even if they just existed as voices, i would be happy!