[SOLVED] Dead iMac

[Haole Boy]

So, a customer brings me a 2008 (that's not a typo) iMac. Someone gave it to him and he wants to use it for Zoom meetings (he does a lot of them). I told him it's not worth putting any money into a 12 year old machine, but he wants me to try. Says the person who gave it to him told him it runs, but no one knows the password.

No need to save save anything, so I do the Command-R startup to get to the disk utility to wipe it clean and do a fresh install. Boots to the desktop instead of the recovery stuff, and all sorts of windows are opening. No mouse pointer and the keyboard is not working either (both are USB attached).

Hold power button for several seconds to shut it down. Use compressed air to blow out USB ports, and squirt some Deoxit in them to clean up connections. Now, nothing happens when I push the power button. I've tried holding it down for 20 seconds, then pushing it again. A different power cord. Nothing works.

Read several articles about how to fix an iMac that won't power on. All say to boot to safe mode (how are you going to do that if it won't power on.... oh, the article title says something about your mac not powering on, but the actual text is about how to fix a mac that powers on, but won't boot). So, I'm out of ideas. Hoping some of the mac guru's here might have a suggestion or two.

Mahalo,

Harry Z

 

[timeshifter]

PRAM reset?

By the way, I haven't tried Zoom myself on older hardware, but their system requirements state "2.5 GHz Dual Core Intel Core i5 and higher desktop CPU (single screen)". Typical processor for a 2008 iMac is Intel Core 2 Duo (E8235, E8435) ("Penryn").

 

[Haole Boy]

How? Nothing happens when I press the power button.

Good catch on the Zoom requirements. I'll check into this.

 

[Markverhyden]

"Someone gave it to him" = it's some junk that was lying around and it might work is usually more accurate.

Command + r only works if the installed OS is Lion or above.

You can remove the glass, attached with magnets, and then screen on this one. Which will let you see the diagnostic LED's. I'd try leaving unplugged over night before fiddling anymore. Link to service manual below. By the way it'll only go to macOS 10.11.

http://tim.id.au/laptops/apple/imac/imac_20_early_08.pdf

 

[Haole Boy]

"Someone gave it to him" = it's some junk that was lying around and it might work is usually more accurate.

Command + r only works if the installed OS is Lion or above.

You can remove the glass, attached with magnets, and then screen on this one. Which will let you see the diagnostic LED's. I'd try leaving unplugged over night before fiddling anymore. Link to service manual below. By the way it'll only go to macOS 10.11.

http://tim.id.au/laptops/apple/imac/imac_20_early_08.pdf

Aloha Mark. You are right on the money as usual. My customer has a friend with a business and gets his "hand-me-downs" when the friend upgrades his business computers.

Anyway, I left it unplugged all weekend and it booted right up! Whoo-hoo.

While I could boot into recovery mode, trying to reinstall macOS failed. Took waaaaaay too long to get a boot USB drive made with the El Capitan installer, but it's now up and running. Mahalo for your assistance.

PRAM reset?

By the way, I haven't tried Zoom myself on older hardware, but their system requirements state "2.5 GHz Dual Core Intel Core i5 and higher desktop CPU (single screen)". Typical processor for a 2008 iMac is Intel Core 2 Duo (E8235, E8435) ("Penryn").

This machine has a 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo processor, and I hope this is enough.

Mahalo for the responses!

Harry Z