Apple iMac (white model) won't start up anymore

defleppdeflepp
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
Hello. (post will follow, excuse me.....)



I've just replaced the harddisk on my mac and after installing leopard it won't go past the grey screen with the apple logo (without the grey circle).



It doesn't boot from cd and when going in single user mode, it tells me:



"error reading file SMU_Neo2_PlatformPlugin.kext" and freezes.



Any suggestions?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 6
    big_earsbig_ears Posts: 41member
    Try zapping your pram.



    ~Press and hold the Cmd + Option + P + R keys. You have to press this BEFORE the gray screen appears.



    ~Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time. Release the keys.
  • Reply 2 of 6
    big_earsbig_ears Posts: 41member
    before seeing the grey screen, did you try holding the ALT button and leaving the Leopard installation CD in the drive?
  • Reply 3 of 6
    defleppdeflepp Posts: 2member
    I zapped my pram already, sry for not mentioning it, thanks though,



    I got now passed this problem(removed the new harddisk), but the disk utility says that the harddisk is broken (via s.m.a.r.t.). Is there any possibility to ignore that? The HD is 100% ok, tried it with another mac now where the disk utility says the drive would be ok.

    Any terminal command perhabs?



    Thanks
  • Reply 4 of 6
    rokcet scientistrokcet scientist Posts: 962member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by deflepp View Post


    I zapped my pram already, sry for not mentioning it, thanks though,



    I got now passed this problem(removed the new harddisk), but the disk utility says that the harddisk is broken (via s.m.a.r.t.). Is there any possibility to ignore that? The HD is 100% ok, tried it with another mac now where the disk utility says the drive would be ok.



    If the HD is OK, but still can't be read by your iMac, I suspect the bus/port on the iMac's motherboard is broken...

    That would require a replacement of that motherboard.



    If so, I would seriously consider chucking that iMac and getting a new one.
  • Reply 5 of 6
    big_earsbig_ears Posts: 41member
    i was about to mention the same thing

    i hope you still have warranty on it.
  • Reply 6 of 6
    kareliakarelia Posts: 525member
    Even outside of warranty, any white Intel iMac's logic board is only going to be in the range of $449, significantly less than a new machine. If it's a G5 and turns out to me the logic board, I concur, replace it.



    However, I would be willing to place large sums of money on your hard drive being the culprit. SMART tests have failed, that's an almost sure sign that the drive is going, and a good motto for hard drives is "guilty until proven innocent". Just because one computer manages to read a drive alright doesn't mean it's fine. Sometimes a drive can be readable, but will fail when booted from.



    And frankly, the SATA busses on those boards don't fail often. Almost never, in fact. And in the case of a bad hard drive (which is easily the most common hardware issue), even a G5 is worth repairing.
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