Last night, I was investigating updating my daughter's Indigo iMac with )S X 10.3. After launching into the installer screen, I thought better of it, and decided to hold off until i was sure she had backed up her data. So I quit out of the install, which then rebooted the machine. Then, Death.
When I press the power button, the machine turns on, "Bongs", waits six seconds, and turns off. I can hear the disks spin, and the high voltage kick on the tube, which remains blank. Pressing the power button does nothing. If I unplug the unit, I can repeat the six seconds. I've checked the battery, pressed the cuda reset button, and tried every keyboard shortcut I know (C-O-P-R, C-O-N-V, C-O-O-F), to no effect or avail.
Help, please!
Is the disk (CD) still in? If so, try booting with the mouse button depressed, this should force the disk out provided you still have the original drive in vice a third-party upgrade drive.
What is the current OS on the machine? That may dictate what next steps are most appropriate.
--DDTM
I also tried that, and it didn't work. Ultimately had to take the cover off, and spent 15 min. cycling power, and pressing the magic button, to get it to spit out the CD. (It powered off before the disk even got all the way out, but it was far enough that I could ease it the rest of the way.)
Current OS is (or was?) 9.1
Apple should be shot for this problem existing in the first place.
http://www.capecodgraphics.com/imac_firmware.htm
Just booting an OS X CD is enough. As you've discovered.
If your iMac has an external VGA port, you should be able to fix it. If not, well, Google for the nasty arcane workarounds that *may* work.
--Peace
Unplug the machine, hit the CUDA, pull the battery, let it sit for about two hours, hit the CUDA again, reinsert the battery, plug 'er in, then try booting with C-O-O-F. If that works, leave it on and post back.
If that fails, hang in there, folks smarterer than me will be in later this afternoon/evening and can be more insightful on matters more complex than my experience can offer here.
--DDTM
*Don't* do that. Read the link I pointed out. This is a known problem, and screwing with your PRAM doesn't usually help.
--Peace
This same problem is how I ended up w/ my slot-load iMac 350 for $10... Follow Eudi's link, and be patient. I got mine going by doing all the troubleshooting and repairs on my own, before I found out it was a common problem and that there were guides available. Fromw hat I just skimmed through on that link, it seems quite comparable to my experience. if you can get the firmware upgraded all should be fine.
So, thrilled with having saved the cost of a new iMac, i raced home to try it. The machine had been unplugged for most of the day, and I pulled out the battery (and clip-leaded the holder terminal to speed the discharge), and went to have dinner.
Came back, couldn't figure out how to open the case to get at the video cord, so I removed the logic board instead, figuring it would disconnect it as well. turned it on, and got it to boot to the CD-ROM. Had to use the sleep/space trick to get the screen to light up. Woo-hoo!
But then... I noted that I had unplugged the HD when I removed the MLB, and not plugged it back in. So, I shut down the machine, and... It will not reboot. I'm back in the same hole. Sigh. Removing the logic board doesn't seem to help, anymore.
Got the back cover off, and tried unplugging the video cable. No Joy.
Went back and re-read the instructions. One question: for steps E & F (when the machine will not boot) what am I supposed to do with the battery? I assume it's supposed to be out while I'm waiting, right?
Also, I loaded the firmware upgrade onto the HD, and put it back in the machine, so it should start up if I can ever get it to boot again.
But that raises a question: If I cannot get it to boot reliably, how am i gonna get it to reboot and load the firmware?
Does the iMac actually switch off, as in power button goes dark?
all of the 'oops forgot to update the firmware' imacs I've seen have booted normally after the mistake/bug-occurence, except for the fact that the screen stays black.
The problem your daughter's iMac is having sounds more like the well-known A/V-Board // Flyback-transformer hardware issue that's so common on old iMacs. Possible symptoms:
no power at all
or
starts to boot, but switches off when flyback transformer kicks in to start the CRT
or
starts to boot, but switches off after a few seconds
It could very well be just a coincidence that this happened after booting into the osx cd. Isn't an old iMac supposed to not boot at all in the osx cd when the firmware is outdated instead of starting up the installer? (I mean, boot with a black screen)
The best way to save the data is to get the harddrive out and put it in another mac I guess, at least that sounds like the most reasonable thing to do if it keeps hanging somewhere in the boot process, every time it does that while using the drive could cause damage to the drive (not physically, but to the stuff on it)
good luck!