[TIfstorey]

Hi all,

Having some problems with my iMac. I know there's already a few threads about this but i'm still having trouble after trying various solutions.

It crashed on me the other day whilst using Logic Pro. The music was still playing but the screen went black and i couldn't do anything.

I had to reset by holding the power button and since then it won't get past the initial grey start up screen. The spinning 'gear' goes for around a minute then just stops and nothing.

I've tried disconnecting all peripherals (including mouse & keyboard) but that hasn't worked. I've tried booting from the install disc, but that does nothing different. I've tried booting in safe mode, but nothing. I've reset the PRAM numerous times, hasn't worked. either.

There seems to be nothing i can do to get past this grey screen. The only things i've been able to do is a hardware test (both the standard and in depth) and both came back fine with no errors. I've also done a Command+V at the start which gave me a big list of code which i didn't understand.,...

I don't know anyone (easily accessible to anyway) who owns a mac so can't hook it up to salvage what i can from the HD. But can anyone recommend anything?
Got alot of projects on there i can't lose!

I've now turned it off and on by holding the power button in probably 20ish times now.. Will this be damaging it anymore at all?

Please please please, if anyone knows of any solutions/suggestions then i'd really appreciate it. I'm behind on projects now and getting really unsettled by the prospect of losing all my work.

Thanks,

Tif

[Simon]

Are you sure you aren't able to boot from the install DVD? What happens when you insert the install DVD and hold opt/alt during boot. Do you get to the boot selector? Can you select the DVD? What happens then?

[TIfstorey]

Originally Posted by Simon 

Are you sure you aren't able to boot from the install DVD? What happens when you insert the install DVD and hold opt/alt during boot. Do you get to the boot selector? Can you select the DVD? What happens then?

If i hold the opt/alt it comes up with the option of booting from the HD or the disk. No matter which i choose it starts to load up with the grey screen/apple logo and the spinning cog then crashes about 30-60seconds into it.

I can hear the drive spinning, but nothing. I've tried both the original disks i recieved with the iMac as well as the mac OS X install DVD.

[TIfstorey]

Ok, just booted off install disk again and this time it loaded up a horrible looking blue/grey screen. Looked like an fusion between the grey load up screen and the light blue log in page.

The disk was spinning and i could move the cursor around but had no options to click. I pressed enter and if i point the cursor to the centre of the screen it changes to show a typing cursor (as you see when typing text).. if that makes sense.

So, still unable to do anything but it's trying to boot up with a disk.

Anyone have any other ideas?

[Simon]

Can you boot it in FW TDM? Do you have another Mac to mount the TDM partition? I'm curious if you might have a bad disk that's corrupting traffic on the SATA bus. Have you ever opened your iMac? It would be interesting to know if the behavior changes if you simply unplug your internal HDD.

[TIfstorey]

I'm hoping so!

I have a mac at work so i'm going to take it in and hook it up, see if i can salvage my files.

So, my screen crashes when booting from the DVD. The image is built up of horizontal rectangles of grey and blue (as said, between the grey start up and light blue log in screen).

I'm not too knowledgeable on the ins and outs of computers so i don't know what area this could be affecting? I've done the more in-depth hardware test and all came back ok so could it be a cheap-software related problem? Please?

Cheers for the replies, they're much appreciated!

Tif,

[reader50]

It sounds like a GPU problem. But we need more info. What iMac model is it?

Also, when you boot in verbose mode (command-v on startup) what text does it say at the end? When the boot process hangs? Also, any error messages given along the way would be interesting as well. If you have a camera, you could take a shot of the text messages and post that.

[TIfstorey]

Cheers for the reply Reader.

The iMac model is early 2008, 24" 3.06Ghz. All standard, not changed anything internally.

Pictures to follow in the next few minutes

[TIfstorey]

Right, camera's just died on me (not having a good week....) So i'm going to type out what i see.

Update; I see alot, so i'm going to type out the parts i think are important.

BSD root Disk052, Major 14, minor 2,
GFX0: Family specific matchins fails
Matching service count 1
Matching service count 2
Matching service count 2
Matching service count 2
Matching service count 2
Matching service count 2
Matching service count 3
iMac8,1: stalling for module
Matching service count 1

Appletymaedriver: : : probe (iMac8,1)
Apple tymaedriver : : prove fails

Previous shut down cause: 3

GFX0: Family specific matchins fails
GFX0: Family specific matchins fails
GFX0: Family specific matchins fails
GFX0: Family specific matchins fails

ALF ALERT: Sockwall_cntl_updaterules CTL enqueuedata rts err 55
ALF ALERT: Sockwall_cntl_updaterules CTL enqueuedata rts err 55
ALF ALERT: Sockwall_cntl_updaterules CTL enqueuedata rts err 55
ALF ALERT: Sockwall_cntl_updaterules CTL enqueuedata rts err 55
ALF ALERT: Sockwall_cntl_updaterules CTL enqueuedata rts err 55
ALF ALERT: Sockwall_cntl_updaterules CTL enqueuedata rts err 55
ALF ALERT: Sockwall_cntl_updaterules CTL enqueuedata rts err 55
ALF ALERT: Sockwall_cntl_updaterules CTL enqueuedata rts err 55
ALF ALERT: Sockwall_cntl_updaterules CTL enqueuedata rts err 55
ALF ALERT: Sockwall_cntl_updaterules CTL enqueuedata rts err 55
ALF ALERT: Sockwall_cntl_updaterules CTL enqueuedata rts err 55
ALF ALERT: Sockwall_cntl_updaterules CTL enqueuedata rts err 55

[TIfstorey]

I got about a page of code and after about 30 seconds i got a load of extra loading up (The ALF ALERT part).

Does this mean anything to you?

[TIfstorey]

For those that might be able to help, here are a few shots of what's going on.

When booting from a cd, i get this;

Imageshack - cdbootup

And, verbose i get this (some text missing)
Imageshack - verbose
Imageshack - verbose2
http://img43.imageshack.us/i/verbosefinal.jpg/

Once again, any help is much appreciated!

[P]

Hardware error, most likely the GPU. Nothing you can fix, time to call Apple.