[livelarg]

All right, this is my first post, and it's a bad one.

I just bought my first Imac. It is the first time I have owned an Apple. It is the silver neck model. I bought it used.
When I first looked at it, it worked perfectly. When I picked it up, I started it again, and the Apple logo was whirrling in the middle ( I assume it is supposed to) then it started up and worked perfectly again.
Then drove home and connected it. Now it does not want to boot up. When I turn it on, a startup sound/music plays for a second, then the screen turns on, but it is blank and never completely boots up. The screen is just bright and blank, it almost looks like a screen that has the contrast set too low. Is there a contrast on these things?


Since I know nothing about this computer, I have no idea whats going on. I hate to think it broke from the time I bought it and the time I got it home. That would really hack me off.
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks
Kent

[mintcake]

I don't have one of those iMacs so hopefully someone who does will come on and give you some advice soon, but in the meantime, perhaps you can give a couple of extra details?

Where did you buy the computer? Can they not offer support/aftersales/refund if necessary? Not quite sure what you mean by 'whirling Apple logo' at startup - if I remember rightly (without restarting now myself) you should get a grey apple logo, followed by a spinning dial (not the apple logo, rather a set of solid bars in a circle), followed by a loading bar, then the login screen. You are running OSX, right?

It sounds like it might be something straightforward and hardware related - a loose connection to the monitor or something - but I hope you can get it sorted quickly! If it was Windows I'd suspect a virus, but... it's not. I assume you've tried the basics? See also here.

Good luck. I'd hate for your first experience to be spoiled.

[f1000]

Originally posted by livelarg:
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!

Run Hardware Test from your Boot disk. That'll help narrow down your problem.

[Goldie]

Sometimes when I restart mine the brightness gets knocked down to the lowest level, but I can still see the screen. Also, do you have any peripherals attached. I had a prob where it would start up but the screen would remain black because of a dvd drive I had hooked up. After disconnecting and restart I was back to normal. Hopefully you have the boot disk as f1000 suggested.

[livelarg]

Well i took in the Imac to the shop today, Ended up needing to be cleared and having the OS set up again. Just a bad coincidence that it happened just as i brough it home.
He said i should have years of problem free service out of it.

Thanks for all the help.
Kent