Old style iMac - Startup Problems

[damiany2j]

First time poster, and I am posting for one of my elderly relatives who has this iMac, so I am not that knowledgeable about Macs, so please bear with me.

Basically, he has an old style iMac (about 5 or 6 years old), running Mac OS 8.6, upgraded from 8.5. It has been running fine, until about a month ago, when it started taking longer to load up - about 2 minutes to load up, compared to 30-45 seconds previously. Then, the machine started freezing at random points, and when doing different tasks, so it was difficult to pinpoint why. As I am familiar with PCs, I had heard that sometimes machines freeze due to the processor getting too hot after being on for hours on end, but I don't know if Macs are the same, and anyway, it was freezing at different times - maybe after 5 minutes one time, and after 5 hours the next time, etc.

Then, the problem started getting worse. To turn the machine on, he has the press the button on the monitor, and then it goes green, and a light on the keyboard goes green as well. However, suddenly, when pressing the button on the monitor - it goes green as normal, but the keyboard doesn't, and the machine doesn't start up. You have to press the monitor button about 4 or 5 times for it to finally start up.

Then, a couple of days ago, it refused to start up completely. It's like there's no power, so I changed the fuse in the mains plug, but to no avail. Pressing the monitor button does absolutely nothing.

I asked a few friends, and they weren't sure, but some guessed that the cathode ray tube may have blown or got damaged or something, and some guessed there was an internal component fault, stopping it from starting up. There is no guarantee left on the machine, so if it would help to open the machine up and have a look at things, I could do that - if someone on here could instruct me what to look at.

Has anyone got any ideas of what the problem could be, or what I could do to find out - any advise at all would be appreciated.

Thanks.

[Steven.Bentley]

Sounding like it could be a dead power supply unit, however one thing to try is resetting the Parameter RAM (roughly equivalent to the CMOS on a PC) by holding down apple-alt/option-P-R as it boots up.

Opening up iMacs isn't something I'd recommend, they're an absolute sod to get back together and there are high voltages in the screen even when switched off.

[damiany2j]

I can't press those buttons as the machine doesn't boot up. No green lights indicating startup appear, and it's as if there is no power from the mains, but there is.

I probably will advise my relative to get a new machine, but I was just wondering what caused this problem so I can avoid it in future. Do things just die after a certain time?

[Buzz]

It could also simply be a bad internal battery.

[damiany2j]

How can I check if it is that, and what can I do if it is?

I would take it to an Apple Centre, or PC World (if they'll take it), but they might charge a lot, and it might not be worth it.

[macman]

ok Dude, I'm also a mac user , I have a few of them . If its the one im thinking about i had the same 1 , with the same problem running Mac OS 8.6 . It was decent until it started doing that , and i did the same thing by taking it apart and looking it over , however i didnt not find the problem, but i didnt really care bc its 8.6 and its not worth the fix ,b ut thats up 2 u . I think you really need to let the mac go , u can use it as a paper weight er somthin ,lol But ya need to get a newer system , somthin with at least Mac Os 9.2 or even better the legenday Mac OS X 10.3 . If ur really in need of a computer , please DO NOT choose PC , there freakin garbage. U can get a nice new all in 1 shiny E-mac with 1.25GHZ and 256 MB ram 17" screen fer a lil over a grand , and that will last longer then the energizer bunny. and u can alot with it . Even a 350MHZ imac with mac os 9 on it would be cool , but most mac users dont want to give up there machines for 1 simple reason "There Proud" neway , good luck with the mac, any questions ask me here:

wally50@gmail.com

[bluseychris]

I'm in agreement with Mac man. From what you've said its an A or B revision iMac (the bondi blue/turquoise original ones). At the end of the day its either a Power Supply or Motherboard problem. In the first case, if you really want to, you could get a new power supply. However if its the second, then you'd be waisting money getting it fixed. I've had the same slowdown problem, and thats mostly to do with added software/updated OS which gives the computer more to deal with when booting up. My advice would be get a new system.

PC's are not completely rubbish. It just depends what Operating System you use and how much you spend on the parts. Buy cheap kit and it'll break like fragile china and crash like a drunken driver.

The best Operating System as far as windows goes as Windows 2000. Once you've installed the updates and Service Packs its solid as a rock. Problem is its damn expensive (£120 in the UK). XP is cheaper and stable but it takes twice as much memory to do things, its slow (i saw a snail move faster) and holds few benefits.

If you want speed and stability at low cost, then I would sugest a copy of Linux Mandrake from somewhere like PC World and comes bundled with Star Office, which will open and save various forein file types (Word documents, Excell, Claris/Apple Works). You also have the benefit of a massive Linux community behind you, with its mix of helpful techeads and expanding developers. On the downside you may get hardware compatibility issues. In a nutshell, although there are lots of different bits to have on your PC from sound cards to modems, you may have problems using them With linux due to the fact most companies only supply drivers for windows. However there are lots of 3rd party drivers developed to get around this, hardware from a reputed name will almost certainly work with it and researching this area carefully could give you one of the most brilliant systems you will ever use.

Personaly I would get either a refubished G3 (I know its old but it looks nice and they're cheap), a G4 Tower (my dad has one) or a new G4 iMac.