[cenutrio]

Hi guys,

So, my sister (she lives in Spain) tells me that last night there was an storm and the electrical system up and downs did crash her iMac 400 (I gave her as a present) and now it fails when loading the system.

Basically, the system is loaded but once desktop, icons, etc are set, the computer mouse, externals, etc do not work. It sounds like an extension problem to me (I told her about starting up the system with the "shift" key to check if the start up without extension works and later open the first aid disk utility to verify and check the system.

Any additional ideas?

I hope is not hardware related.

[wackymacs]

If it was hardware related i doubt it would get that far with the startup, try starting up from a Mac OS 9 disc by pressing C at startup with the disc in and then you can reinstall Mac OS 9, this will not destroy your valuable HD data.

You may want to try zapping the PRAM, this simply resets basic settings to default and can help sometimes. Press : command+option+p+r at startup , you'll hear your normal chime, and then a SECOND startup chime which indicates the PRAM has been reset, then let go of the keys and let the machine boot.

You may also want to rebuild the desktop or run a program such as Disk First Aid, Norton Utilities or something else.

IF NOT OF THAT WORKS:
Disconnect all your USB devices, and try using another USB port...