[hemanthmreddy]

A month ago I got my first mac. An intel imac. It's a beautiful machine with some amazing speed and I have nothing but praise for the switch from pc to mac.

Me and my imac were having fun when...

I came home last night to find my mac turned off, I asked my brother who told me there was some kind of electrical failure and that the lights went out and came back rather quickly (this is rare around here). I tried to turn on the computer and everything seemed ok I heard the start up music then I saw the grey apple and the spinning gear and the little window announcing that OSX is starting appeared, then... nothing, just a blue screen. No window to enter my password, just the cursor and the blue lingo *sigh*

If anyone can help this poor noob, I'd really appreciate it. I'm stuck having to use my old compaq and it's making me miss my imac already.

[Big Mac]

This may not help, but it's worth a try:

1. Startup in Single User Mode by holding down command+s at startup (command = Apple key)

2. When you get to the prompt, type fsck -yf and press return

3. After it's finished, it will likely say FILESYSTEM MODIFIED. Run it again (and possibly a third time) until it reports HD OK

4. Type exit and press return.

If that does not get your account up and running again, there are other procedures.

[hemanthmreddy]

Originally Posted by Big Mac

This may not help, but it's worth a try:

1. Startup in Single User Mode by holding down command+s at startup (command = Apple key)

2. When you get to the prompt, type fsck -yf and press return

3. After it's finished, it will likely say FILESYSTEM MODIFIED. Run it again (and possibly a third time) until it reports HD OK

4. Type exit and press return.

If that does not get your account up and running again, there are other procedures.

Thanks Big Mac, that was a lightning fast reply

OK I went to single user and followed your instructions. It never gave me the "FILESYSTEM MODIFIED", the first time I ran it it gave me "** The volume Macintosh HD appears to be OK" so I typed exit hit return and... went back to the blue screen. Persistent isn't she?

[Nai no Kami]

This may not help either, but here are my suggestions.

a) Restart and immediately after hearing the chime, press the Shift key to do a safe boot. However unlikely, the power outage could make a critical file go whacky.

b) Reset the PRAM by restarting while holding Command (Apple) + Option + P + R keys.

c) Run the Apple Hardware Test following this steps (copied from the Read Me; Apple Hardware Test is usually located inside the Mac OS X Install disc 1):

1. If your computer has no internal hard drive or optical drive (selected configurations
only), you must connect an AppleCare approved external FireWire optical drive to a
FireWire port on your computer in order to run Apple Hardware Test.

2. Restart your computer with the media containing Apple Hardware Test. This should
be the same media this document resides on. Hold down the Option key while the
computer restarts. Continue to hold down the Option key until a list of available
bootable devices appears.

3. Select Apple Hardware Test and click the right arrow. The Loading icon then
appears.

4. When the Apple Hardware Test language chooser screen appears, select the
language appropriate for your locale, and press the Return key or Go button. The
Loading icon then appears.

5. If your computer is not supported by this version of Apple Hardware Test, an error
dialog will be displayed. You should Shut Down the computer, locate the correct media
containing Apple Hardware Test for this computer, and repeat the above steps.

6. When the Apple Hardware Test main screen appears, follow the onscreen
instructions.

[hemanthmreddy]

Originally Posted by Nai no Kami

This may not help either, but here are my suggestions.

a) Restart and immediately after hearing the chime, press the Shift key to do a safe boot. However unlikely, the power outage could make a critical file go whacky.

b) Reset the PRAM by restarting while holding Command (Apple) + Option + P + R keys.

c) Run the Apple Hardware Test following this steps (copied from the Read Me; Apple Hardware Test is usually located inside the Mac OS X Install disc 1):

1. If your computer has no internal hard drive or optical drive (selected configurations
only), you must connect an AppleCare approved external FireWire optical drive to a
FireWire port on your computer in order to run Apple Hardware Test.

2. Restart your computer with the media containing Apple Hardware Test. This should
be the same media this document resides on. Hold down the Option key while the
computer restarts. Continue to hold down the Option key until a list of available
bootable devices appears.

3. Select Apple Hardware Test and click the right arrow. The Loading icon then
appears.

4. When the Apple Hardware Test language chooser screen appears, select the
language appropriate for your locale, and press the Return key or Go button. The
Loading icon then appears.

5. If your computer is not supported by this version of Apple Hardware Test, an error
dialog will be displayed. You should Shut Down the computer, locate the correct media
containing Apple Hardware Test for this computer, and repeat the above steps.

6. When the Apple Hardware Test main screen appears, follow the onscreen
instructions.

Thanks Nai no Kami, I ran the Apple Hardware Test and everything was ok, I tried to reset the PRAM but that didn't work.
I'll try your first suggestion next and startup in safe mode, except I don't know what I should do once I enter safe mode, is there a test I should run or something I should try to delete. Is the safe mode on a mac similar to the windows safe mode?

Thanks again, you guys are great!

[Nai no Kami]

If you can do a safe boot (which is indeed similar to Windows Safe Mode) you will at least be able to login and then run another diagnostics software or, if necessary, do a backup and reinstall.

Have you tried to boot from the Installation Disc to see what happens?

[hemanthmreddy]

Originally Posted by Nai no Kami

If you can do a safe boot (which is indeed similar to Windows Safe Mode) you will at least be able to login and then run another diagnostics software or, if necessary, do a backup and reinstall.

Have you tried to boot from the Installation Disc to see what happens?

I used the installation disk to run the Hardware Test but the only other thing I could think of doing with it was to re-install the OS and I didn't want to loose my files. Is there something else I could do with it?

If there isn't, I'll try the safe mode, see what I can do from there and backup everything.

[vmarks]

Reinstalling will not lose your files if you choose Archive and Install from the options button in the installer where it asks you to choose which hard drive destination to install on.