Oh dear, my iMac just died

have no idea how it looks on mac when GPU dies but on PC it just looks as PC is dead...CPU fan works and thats it...
 
I had issues with my GPU a while back. The apple logo was fine on start, and so was the screen for a bit, until suddenly loads of lines came through it and got worse until the screen was unreadable. After some googling, the solution I found was a small program that speeds up the fans inside and cooled the GPU, which as it turns out was overheating and causing the problem.

If you can find some way of getting into the OS, this may help, but sounds unlikely.
 
Also make sure the vents are clean as mine used to overheat and wouldn't start up properly. It went off suddenly and wouldn't restart. Did have apple care and they mentioned the vents.... hadn't noticed there was loads of dust on the one underneath and the one at the back. Cleaned them both off, did the octopus reset and it was fine! That was before I had the temp monitor istat menu installed which lets me keep an eye on temperatures.
 
I would rather run naked through siberia than buy a Mac. Costs are an issue, especially when things go belly up!
 
Gigabyte said:
I would rather run naked through siberia than buy a Mac. Costs are an issue, especially when things go belly up!
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Mac go wrong much less than Microsoft. And try going into PC world with something broken. Apple care is the obvious solution, and one that I have on my products. Hope you get it sorted Joe - my old 13' did a similar thing in the summer, but it was just replaced so no idea what the actual problem was. :/
 
Have you tried holding down your wallet then pressing Cmd+Alt+Cash? :whistling:

£600 for anything in any computer is ripping the arse out of it..... :lol:

Sorry mate.... :wave:

Edit: I've just found out that a logic board is what Apple call a motherboard.... even funnier now....

I'm not laughing at your misfortune, Joe, just at the cheek and audacity of Apple to think that a motherboard is worth anything remotely close to what they want for it, but hopefully that isn't what's up with yours....
 
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neil_g said:
comparing hardware with software? :thinking:

but being less pedantic, i actually find theyre equally as good/bad as each other in reliability stakes working in IT support..
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Yes, I probably was! Microsoft/Windows/PC do amazing things, as do Mac, I was just annoyed with Tony's post.
 
pressed the icash button but it said i didn't have enough money in my account!!!

ok done the backup, the hard drive is fine because i can boot up my macbook with it straight from the imac target disk mode.

I can't boot the imac using the external backup disc though.

I have the imac connected now and can see the system log, is there any clue in this log to say what the issue was? it's a foreign language to me
 
srichards said:
Could you cut and paste the system log here? It might have some clues.
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its massive, but this part repeats itself around the time of the crash

Nov 16 08:49:12 joe-scrivenss-imac-3 com.apple.launchd[1] (com.displaylink.usbnivolistener32921): posix_spawn("/System/Library/Extensions/DisplayLinkDriver.kext/DisplayLinkAgent/USBNivoListener", ...): No such file or directory
Nov 16 08:49:12 joe-scrivenss-imac-3 com.apple.launchd[1] (com.displaylink.usbnivolistener32921): Exited with exit code: 1
Nov 16 08:49:12 joe-scrivenss-imac-3 com.apple.launchd[1] (com.displaylink.usbnivolistener): Throttling respawn: Will start in 5 seconds
Nov 16 08:49:12 joe-scrivenss-imac-3 com.apple.launchd.peruser.501484 (com.displaylink.useragent32923): Bug: launchd_core_logic.c:4194 (24108):2
 
I just googled your error codes.

2 results. One on here one on the apple support forum from some geezer called joe scrivens or something... :lol:
 
/System/Library/Extensions/DisplayLinkDriver.kext
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That's a 3rd party driver for an external monitor running off the USB port. Not part of the standard OS libraries.

e.g. http://www.appletell.com/apple/comment/appletell-reviews-the-doublesight-smart-usb-monitor-ds-70u/

Do you have such a thing attached?

Have you tried unplugging all USB devices from your iMac and then rebooting? I have seen faulty USB hardware cause a Mac to not be able to start up properly in the past (very rare, but possible) which might explain why you can get at it in target disk mode (which suggests the logic board may not entirely dead, or it wouldn't do that).
 
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srichards said:
There are quite a few. Sounds potentially like a software issue. Did you change anything at all?

Some more stuff here:

http://www.displaylink.org/forum/showthread.php?t=43
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thats one thing i know it isn't.

imac in target disk mode boots my macbook
imac doesn't boot from dvd
imac doesn't boot in safe mode
imac doesn't boot from external drive.

hardware issue is the one thing i know for sure that it is
 
joescrivens said:
thats one thing i know it isn't.

imac in target disk mode boots my macbook
imac doesn't boot from dvd
imac doesn't boot in safe mode
imac doesn't boot from external drive.

hardware issue is the one thing i know for sure that it is
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That repeated error must be a spurious one that's unrelated then. If you check older system logs it may be there from previously.
 
Musicman said:
That's a 3rd party driver for an external monitor running off the USB port. Not part of the standard OS libraries.

e.g. http://www.appletell.com/apple/comment/appletell-reviews-the-doublesight-smart-usb-monitor-ds-70u/

Do you have such a thing attached?

Have you tried unplugging all USB devices from your iMac and then rebooting? I have seen faulty USB hardware cause a Mac to not be able to start up properly in the past (very rare, but possible) which might explain why you can get at it in target disk mode (which suggests the logic board may not entirely dead, or it wouldn't do that).
Click to expand...

i have had one connected in the past but i havent used it for months and it wasnt connected when i got the error.

Yes I have disconnected everything whilst trying to boot, no joy
 
ok i just tried booting from the disk again and this time it went to the grey kernal panic screen of death instead of freezing. thats a bit new and weird since before it would just freeze on the spinning disc and fans kick into overdrive.

just as a final test before i take it to apple store tomorrow am going to reinstall osx from my macbook to the hd in target disk mode see if that does anything
 
I was going to ask if you had any USB devices fitted as sometimes mine hangs on my hub, disconnect & it boots fine.

Booting from the DVD does take sometime in fact up to 5mins I have read. Have you got the original disks? Try those first
 
I think the only option open to you is to take it to an Apple store so that it can be checked etc. Obviously you are an avid Mac user so expect to pay some, and more!
 
Gigabyte said:
I think the only option open to you is to take it to an Apple store so that it can be checked etc. Obviously you are an avid Mac user so expect to pay some, and more!
Click to expand...

yep am going there now, diagnostics they can run in store are free so hopefully they'll be able to tell me if its the logic board before sending it away as if its that then i'll be selling it on ebay for parts
 
If it the cost is eye watering then check out those people in Burslem/Tunstall. You should be able to ask them what it would cost straight out as you'll know from the apple store what is wrong. But apple may relent and pay a chunk as a 3 year old imac shouldn't die with normal use. With a premium price paid I'd expect 5 years fault free use out of one. Casually mention you consider it not being of merchantable quality as you bought apple because they were supposed to be more reliable and the hardware was high quality and none of your cheapo pcs have died like this within 3 years :) Make like you might sue the retailer for some or all of the cost of repair and see whether they badger apple for you.
 
Sounds like you are partly using it as an excuse to buy a lovely, new shiny toy! Sounds like a good one to me, too. ;)
 
For the future I have read many times that it is a good idea to shut your computers down regularly, so even if you do it once a week it helps to reset it all. Mine goes off every night to save energy :)
 
menthel said:
Sounds like you are partly using it as an excuse to buy a lovely, new shiny toy! Sounds like a good one to me, too. ;)
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oops, you caught me.

had a diagnostic and it is either the logic board or the display that got screwed basically minimum £500 max £1100.

So to cut a long story short I'm now typing this on a shiny new i5 quad core :eek:

Also learnt my lesson and bought apple care with this one.

and before the pc boys say it ...... I'll say it for you

Looks like you didn't learn your lesson, you bought another mac, guffaw, guffaw

:D

Anyone want to buy a 24 inch imac for spare parts? :)
 
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