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Cory Bauer · Jan 24, 2005, 06:53 PM

Hey All,

My parents have an iMac DV Special Edition, 400Mhz G3, 384 MB of RAM, 13 GB Hard Drive, DVD-ROM. About three years ago I replaced the stock hard drive with a 40 GB Maxtor drive. A few months ago, the Maxtor drive died so I put the original 13 GB drive back in - erasing it clean and installing Panther fresh. Now, the iMac will not boot unless you open up the bottom hatch and press the motherboard reset switch. After doing so, it will boot up and run just fine. If you should it down though, you must repeat the process of hitting the reset switch.

To explain the "will not boot" in more detail, the monitor comes up grey (no apple logo) and the system will not respond to any keyboard prompts, such as zapping the PRAM, booting into the command line, booting from a CD, etc.

For the time being I've just been having them put it to sleep all the time. But obviously my question is - what's wrong and how do I permanently fix it? Busted firmware? Problematic motherboard battery? I can't expect my parents to bust open their iMac and press the motherboard reset switch every time someone accidentally shuts it down, or needs to move it, or they have a power outage.

Thanks in advance for your replies!

Cory Bauer · Feb 24, 2005, 12:43 AM

Just wanted to bump this back up in hopes that someone would offer advice/answers. Thanks.

P · Feb 24, 2005, 02:01 PM

Well...

First try replacing the mothebroard battery. There was a problem with one of the firmware updaters on that model that caused the battery to drain - it happened to me. That can result in all sorts of funny stuff happening at boot time.

If that won't work, then:

* Try reinstalling the latest Firmware update
* Try booting into Open Firmware (hold cmd-option-O-F) and checking that it's set to autoboot into Mac OS.
* Check that the startup drive is set to the main HD (in System Preferences) and not the old one or volume check or netboot or something.
* Check that the HD is jumpered to spin up at startup.
* Check all internal connections.

P · Feb 24, 2005, 02:19 PM

Well...

First try replacing the mothebroard battery. There was a problem with one of the firmware updaters on that model that caused the battery to drain - it happened to me. That can result in all sorts of funny stuff happening at boot time.

If that won't work, then:

* Try reinstalling the latest Firmware update
* Try booting into Open Firmware (hold cmd-option-O-F) and checking that it's set to autoboot into Mac OS.
* Check that the startup drive is set to the main HD (in System Preferences) and not the old one or volume check or netboot or something.
* Check that the HD is jumpered to spin up at startup.
* Check all internal connections.

Krusty · Feb 25, 2005, 01:20 AM

I'll echo P's remarks ... especially the battery. I will add two thoughts:

I had the EXACT same model, and a problem booting into X because of a wonky firewire port. I gave that machine away to a friend nearly 3 years ago and it still works just fine with OS 9, but no X. If you have the original OS 9 boot CD, try booting from it and see if your problem goes away. If so, you may have a hardware problem (OS X is a LOT more strict about hardware).

Next, as a stop-gap, there is a "programmer's button" on the side of that generation of iMac. I could usually get mine to reboot by holding that switch in for several seconds .. not really a "fix" but it may save them from having to pop open the case each time.

Best of Luck.

Cory Bauer · Feb 25, 2005, 03:33 AM

Hey thanks guys!

Krusty, do you hold down the programmer's switch while it's running, after the bong, or what? I'll have my parents try that, as I don't have the computer in front of me now so I can't trouble shoot it.

Krusty · Feb 25, 2005, 09:18 PM

Originally posted by Cory Bauer:
Hey thanks guys!

Krusty, do you hold down the programmer's switch while it's running, after the bong, or what? I'll have my parents try that, as I don't have the computer in front of me now so I can't trouble shoot it.

Man, I don't really remember. I think what you do is hold it down (usually with a paper clip or something small enough) as it boots. There will be a delay and a rapid beeping, after the beeping you release and allow it to boot. Again .. stop-gap, you may want to research it a bit more ... its been 3 years since I had to do that.