This morning our iMac won't start. Again.
I've attached a photo of what the screen shows. I would be most appreciative if any of your kool aid drinkers could decript this most descriptive message from Apple.
Chip,
Sorry I didn't see this sooner - Spike told me about it on the phone last night, so here I am. (Feel free to call me (on my iPhone
) directly if you have any Mac problems!)
The alternating flashing folder/question mark means that the machine can't find a valid system folder. There could be several reasons for this:
1) Mouse button is stuck. Holding the mouse button down at startup on the Mac has, since the dawn of time or January 24th 1984 whichever is later, been a signal to the Mac to spit out all removable disks and pretty much reject anything that's connected, thus waiting for you to connect another drive. Used for troubleshooting purposes, but if someone spilled their Pepsi on the mouse and the button sticks, well... So, try unplugging the mouse and try to boot again.
2) The Mac has "forgotten" its startup disk for some reason. This is stored in PRAM/NVRAM. If it's corrupted, you can "zap" it by holding down command-option-P-R immediately after pressing the power button. Hold it until you hear the startup chime again, and keep holding it until you hear the startup chime another time or two for good measure. Alternatively, your PRAM battery may be toast if you're using an older machine, especially one that's unplugged for long periods of time. I think most of the newer machines use a big capacitor instead, tho.
If the PRAM zap doesn't do the trick, try putting one of your original system CD's in the drive and boot off that. If the machine doesn't see the CD for some reason, power off and back on and hold the "C" key which will force the computer to boot off the CD. Once you boot up, check the system clock. If it shows the year as being 1970 or something else absurd, that would indicate that the PRAM is not being properly stored and you need a new battery.
Otherwise, you should be able to go into System Preferences under the Apple menu and click on "Startup Disk". Select the hard drive and you should be good to go. If it doesn't appear in the list, then maybe...
3) Something has caused you to not have a valid system folder. Giving grandma the administrator password or your kid playing around with deleting random files can cause this. If this is the case, a reinstall is in order (choose the "Archive and install" option).
Call me if this doesn't solve it or you need any other iHelp.
