Help with 2008 24" iMac Boot Issues

[ctcsoft]

I got this imac with the Flashing Folder and ?, I was told it just needed a hard drive which is usually the case in my experience or sometimes it just needs the OS reloaded.

Well I'm trying to boot with both my leopard discs and lion disc but it just hangs after several minuters. When using the leopard disc - after awhile it tells me I need to restart the imac.

When using the lion disc - it just hangs and freezes.

Any ideas? Seems to be having recurring kernel panics??

I tried to reseat the ram and I tried booting with each RAM removed .

Note the imac might not even have a hard drive installed in it - but it should still boot!!

 

[ctcsoft]

anyone? Should it not boot up atleast still? With a restore DVD.

I should atleast be able to access disk utility?

 

[umrigar]

it depends if the Leopard disc is older than the OS that shipped with the iMac.

you should ideally try a Snow Leopard DVD.

what is the "Lion disc" you mentioned - Lion never shipped on DVD. if you're using a restore DVD from another Mac, it might not work, either.

don't you know the history of the iMac? you said it "might not have a hard drive installed." that doesn't bode well.

how much RAM is installed? is it the correct RAM type for that iMac? look it up on everymac.com.

 

[ctcsoft]

it depends if the Leopard disc is older than the OS that shipped with the iMac.

you should ideally try a Snow Leopard DVD.

what is the "Lion disc" you mentioned - Lion never shipped on DVD. if you're using a restore DVD from another Mac, it might not work, either.

don't you know the history of the iMac? you said it "might not have a hard drive installed." that doesn't bode well.

how much RAM is installed? is it the correct RAM type for that iMac? look it up on everymac.com.

Well I bought the iMac on chance for $350 because it looks MINT and well taken care of. Just boots to the flashing file folder.

I was told it didn't have a hard drive and that the drive was removed because of "personal data". Otherwise I was told it worked fine.

Now from my limited experience, if the flashing file folder comes up on boot then the hard drive is failed, non-existent, or just needs OSX reloaded.

I bought one iMac - rescued it from a guy down on his luck, and he had no clue how easy it was to reload OSX. It came from a police department as a seizure item and HD was wiped so he had no clue what to do with it. In my case there with the flashing folder with ? mark, I just reloaded the OSX and all was well.

But this one I've tried leopard and a self made DVD of Lion. Starts to boot leopard, then tells me i have to restart the imac - kernel panic I've been told.

With Lion disc it just hangs after trying to boot.

Will try OSX Snow Leopard but the only Snow Leopard I have is for a 15.4" MBP.

RAM appears to be right - DDR2 4gb - I tried to reseat both sticks and I tried to boot with just 1 stick at a time. SAME RESULTS.

 

[TheStu]

Well I bought the iMac on chance for $350 because it looks MINT and well taken care of. Just boots to the flashing file folder.

I was told it didn't have a hard drive and that the drive was removed because of "personal data". Otherwise I was told it worked fine.

Now from my limited experience, if the flashing file folder comes up on boot then the hard drive is failed, non-existent, or just needs OSX reloaded.

I bought one iMac - rescued it from a guy down on his luck, and he had no clue how easy it was to reload OSX. It came from a police department as a seizure item and HD was wiped so he had no clue what to do with it. In my case there with the flashing folder with ? mark, I just reloaded the OSX and all was well.

But this one I've tried leopard and a self made DVD of Lion. Starts to boot leopard, then tells me i have to restart the imac - kernel panic I've been told.

With Lion disc it just hangs after trying to boot.

Will try OSX Snow Leopard but the only Snow Leopard I have is for a 15.4" MBP.

RAM appears to be right - DDR2 4gb - I tried to reseat both sticks and I tried to boot with just 1 stick at a time. SAME RESULTS.

If the drive is straight up missing, you may want/need to crack that sucker open (ifixit.com) to see if there is a drive there.

 

[Emulex]

You can plug in an old ipod or another mac in TARGET mode via a firewire cable or hell a firewire external drive and install o/s.

Just open it up, heat up the temperature sensor, remove the temp sensor, replace with another SSD or SATA drive, glue sensor back on, put it back together.


upgrade the ram with some matched ram.

The primary flaw in these models is the video card fries if overheated. This will cause strange screen anomalies/crashing but not a bad drive.

Go get an LION USB stick and boot it up and run disk utility.

The problem with LION is if the recovery partition is readable but the drive is not, it may still try to recover. So a partially dead drive is actually harder to deal with than a missing/fully dead drive.

That model supports standad sata drives so you should be able to afford anything to re-install SL or LION (go with lion). Flip in two 2GB or 1 2gb and 2 4gb (6gb) and a small ssd (amazon had 120gb for $60).

That will be result in a LION machine that is good as new.

Chameleon hackintosh loader can make even the oldest 64bit machines run Mountain Lion. (MAC PRO 1,1 even!). You'd be surprised!