any mac experts here?

i have an issue with my friends imac. it crashes. the screen does a down wipe of gray and says i need to restart. no crash codes or anything. i restart, but it restarts repeatedly before it stays on. when it finally finishes booting up it's only stable for a while before it does that cycle all over again. there an external hard drive connected via firewire and all the usb ports are being used. we had been having electrical issues with the place as well. i don't know if that could contribute to this problem.

try reinstalling software

can you test the hardrive to see if it going out!

Disconnect all of that shit, see how it runs on the battery...

Its an Imac, if you disconnect the power there is no battery power.

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Originally Posted by Heath Ledger

Its an Imac, if you disconnect the power there is no battery power.

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HA HA HA HA

I'm obviously not a Mac expert...

if you have disk warrior, run it.

The symptom you are seeing where the whole screen goes black w/ white text telling you to restart sounds like a Kernel Panic. It occurs when there is a software malfunction or glitch in the system so severe, it does not know how to proceed and pretty much goes into shutdown mode.

These can be caused by a number of things including corrupted software, external devices, or even hard drive and logic board issues.

The multiple restart issue when you try to boot back up from the Kernel Panic sounds suspicious, but this is the best way to isolate things down:

I would start by removing all of those external and USB devices except the mouse and keyboard and see if the issue still occurs without those. If it does not, but then you plug them in and the issue comes back, you've isolated it down to one of those devices.

If the issue STILL occurs after you remove the devices, you will want to do some OS troubleshooting. Find the install disc for the Mac, and follow this article to boot to the disc to run a Repair Disk on the Macintosh HD.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.h...n/duh1018.html

After you do this, Quit the Install Disc and boot back to the system and test again. See if this helped resolve the issue or if it still occurs.

If the issue STILL occurs, you will want to perform an Archive & Install Preserving Users, as described here:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1544

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Archive and Install choice

This option moves existing system files to a folder named Previous System, and then installs a new copy of Mac OS X. This option is available only for volumes with Mac OS X already installed. Usually, if you select this method, you will want to also select (check) "Preserve Users and Network Settings" which imports existing user accounts, home folders, and your network settings into the new system.

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This reinstallation will NOT remove your Programs or Data; it will simply reinstall OS X around all of it and will more than likely resolve the issue. After this is done, you will need to perform your Software Updates again, and there will be a Previous Systems folder on your Desktop you can eventually trash.

If that DOESN'T fix things, get back with a reply...because beyond that, you are looking at backing up and Erase & Installing, performing an Archive & Install Not Preserving, or having to bring the unit in for service.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dex

The symptom you are seeing where the whole screen goes black w/ white text telling you to restart sounds like a Kernel Panic. It occurs when there is a software malfunction or glitch in the system so severe, it does not know how to proceed and pretty much goes into shutdown mode.

These can be caused by a number of things including corrupted software, external devices, or even hard drive and logic board issues.

The multiple restart issue when you try to boot back up from the Kernel Panic sounds suspicious, but this is the best way to isolate things down:

I would start by removing all of those external and USB devices except the mouse and keyboard and see if the issue still occurs without those. If it does not, but then you plug them in and the issue comes back, you've isolated it down to one of those devices.

If the issue STILL occurs after you remove the devices, you will want to do some OS troubleshooting. Find the install disc for the Mac, and follow this article to boot to the disc to run a Repair Disk on the Macintosh HD.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.h...n/duh1018.html

After you do this, Quit the Install Disc and boot back to the system and test again. See if this helped resolve the issue or if it still occurs.

If the issue STILL occurs, you will want to perform an Archive & Install Preserving Users, as described here:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1544



This reinstallation will NOT remove your Programs or Data; it will simply reinstall OS X around all of it and will more than likely resolve the issue. After this is done, you will need to perform your Software Updates again, and there will be a Previous Systems folder on your Desktop you can eventually trash.

If that DOESN'T fix things, get back with a reply...because beyond that, you are looking at backing up and Erase & Installing, performing an Archive & Install Not Preserving, or having to bring the unit in for service.

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thanks, dex. well my buddy took it into the apple place before i could talk to him, but i did some of what you did. i disconnected everything from it. i reset the SMC. i did verify and try to repair the disc, but the repair would always function. i dont remember the error code, but it said that 1 TFS or FHS(sorry i don't remember the acronym) could not be repair. so, my buddy took it and they said some board was fried and the os was corrupt. i'm assuming that's the logic board that you mentioned. they said the part alone was about $900. my buddy shat. luckily this guy was a musician friend of another musician friend of his and gave the part to him. hopefully they dont screw my buddy over on the labor and reinstalling the os. another question this imac is about 2 years old, but my buddy has only used it for about a year. he didn't unbox it 'til he got all of his studio equipment. is it normal for mac's to break down like this over a short period of time. also, my buddy's issue with the electrical wiring at his place. could that have fried this board?

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Originally Posted by Viva Las Espuelas

thanks, dex. well my buddy took it into the apple place before i could talk to him, but i did some of what you did. i disconnected everything from it. i reset the SMC. i did verify and try to repair the disc, but the repair would always function. i dont remember the error code, but it said that 1 TFS or FHS(sorry i don't remember the acronym) could not be repair. so, my buddy took it and they said some board was fried and the os was corrupt. i'm assuming that's the logic board that you mentioned. they said the part alone was about $900. my buddy shat. luckily this guy was a musician friend of another musician friend of his and gave the part to him. hopefully they dont screw my buddy over on the labor and reinstalling the os. another question this imac is about 2 years old, but my buddy has only used it for about a year. he didn't unbox it 'til he got all of his studio equipment. is it normal for mac's to break down like this over a short period of time. also, my buddy's issue with the electrical wiring at his place. could that have fried this board?

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Yeah, hardware failures are generally an anomaly and could happen to any computer at any time. Especially logic board failures. It could've gotten fried from the faulty wiring, or by a power surge if the unit wasn't on a protected power strip, or it could've been a freak occurrence. If your buddy has ever gotten inside the Mac or has upgraded the memory, even traces of electrostatic shock from touching the board can be enough to breed problems.

I've seen some computers fail nearly right out of the box; I've seen others go for 5-10 years before having any issues. It really is the luck of the draw, and that's why the Extended Warranty is recommended for any unit worth its price tag.

It sounds like he got a pretty solid deal. If they diagnosed it as being the logic board and he was able to pick up the part on the cheap, then the labor and troubleshooting to have it replaced/restored should be relatively cheap in comparison.

macs usually hardly break down
unless they get power surgers