Early-2006 Intel iMac A1173 doesn't start up

[Mike Sharrard]

Hi all Mac users, I have an early-2006 Intel iMac A1173 (EMC 2104, with the Intel Core Duo T2400 1.83GHz processor). Until recently it worked fine, but a couple of weeks ago I started getting the dreaded flashing question mark on startup. I managed to start up from its OSX install disk 1 (via a plug-in optical disk drive) at least as far as initiating the installation process, but the program could not find a hard drive to install to. I acquired a replacement hard drive and put it into the machine, only to find that it would now not start up at all - no chime, black screen, with only the whirring of the fans and the flashing of the power-on light to show there was power to the machine. I tried putting the original HD back in with no success. Clearly a fault in the logic board, I thought, got a replacement via eBay and put it in (with the new HD) - the only change was that the power light now glows steadily. I’ve tried plugging the two hard drives into other macs via a SATA-to-USB cable but neither is recognised, while a HD taken out of a MacBook Pro reads through this cable without problems. Any suggestions? Many thanks if you can come up with something that doesn’t involve trashing either the mac or my bank account!

 

[pigoo3]

In some Apple computers (not all)...if the PRAM battery is dead it will not run properly. Unless you know this iMac's PRAM battery is good...I would replace it. They are cheap & easy to find almost anywhere.

Here's what you need:

3V Lithium Coin Battery For Select Mac's & Apple Remotes

A 2nd possible issue with your 2006 iMac is the power supply may have failed completely (given it's age & possible high use hours)...or it is too weak to start up the iMac. The solution here is to replace the power supply.

HTH,

- Nick

 

[Mike Sharrard]

In some Apple computers (not all)...if the PRAM battery is dead it will not run properly. Unless you know this iMac's PRAM battery is good...I would replace it. They are cheap & easy to find almost anywhere.

Here's what you need:

3V Lithium Coin Battery For Select Mac's & Apple Remotes

A 2nd possible issue with your 2006 iMac is the power supply may have failed completely (given it's age & possible high use hours)...or it is too weak to start up the iMac. The solution here is to replace the power supply.

HTH,

- Nick

Many thanks Nick, I'll give those suggestions a go!

 

[Mike Sharrard]

Well, I replaced the PRAM battery and the power supply, and nothing has changed - just the fans operating and the power-on light shining steadily, no chime and a black screen. To recap, it's got a new logic board, hard drive (though this may be defective, as it's not recognised by my other mac), power supply and PRAM battery. There's not much more to replace before, like the Ship of Theseus, I shall have a new computer, which would be OK if it would work. Any ideas on what to do next?

 

[jasongoldworthy]

hi mike


are you sure the logic board that's been changed is working ?


also is the video card removable ?

if so it could be a bad video card / logic board