Home Forums Hardware Mac Desktops & Notebooks Stuck DVD AND unable to boot

I am acting as a conduit for someone with the following problem,but with no other computer he can use, so will have to relay any questions and suggestions. This is the problem, as described to me.

iMac Desktop [late 2008]
Running Snow Leopard OS10.6.3
4GB RAM
500 GB HD - free space 160GB

Attached at the time the problem started :
LaCie Drive
Logitech mouse
Blue Tooth keyboard
6GB Cruiser thumb drive

Was batch downloading Apple updates > installed > computer restarted up to > dong > grey screen >Apple > spinning progress indicator > then the computer turned itself off.
Tried to restart, but got the same sequence, each time ending with the computer turning itself off.

Snow Leopard original disc has been mislaid, so tried a restart using a Leopard original disc, but was not able to boot > computer shut down again.

Using a borrowed Snow Leopard disc > ran Disk Utility disk repair > passed with no adverse comment > booted > same sequence as before > computer turned itself off with the disc still inside.

My question is: where, and what to start with? Help will be appreciated to retrieve the disc, and fix the boot problem.

A standard procedure for ejecting an optical disk is to start up while holding the mouse down. Hopefully, the startup process will go far enough to do this.

I have read of problems when batch updating software. I always install one update at a time for that reason. I can't say that that's the cause in this case but I'm mentioning it.

One possibility is to reset PRAM. It sometimes helps and it won't hurt.

Another idea is to reset SMC.

The fact you are unable to reboot from a bootable DVD leads me to believe the original shutdown after the updatess is entirely coincidental or simply triggered an incipient hardware problem that had been looking for an excuse to happen.

I had a almost identical problem with what sounds like the same model iMac. Initially letting the iMac sit powered down and idle for a day or two would result in it restarting and running until the next reboot or apps would start hanging and the system would become flakey then it would refuse to reboot again. The first trip to the Genious Desk resulted in their replacing the power supply, the video card, and the logic board (the hard drive had failed within weeks of purchase and had already been replaced). When the problem recurred three months later, since I had purchased the top of the line iMac, they replaced my problematic iMac with the current top of the line iMac which has run beautifully ever since.

the shutoff is probably an fsck-safety. boot in verbose mode by holding apple and V. you will get text when the gear would normally start. Pay close attention to the text, especially if it pauses. try to catch the last few lines before it powers off. you may have to boot up more than once to catch it.

it probably will say fsck is running, unable to repair, syncing disks, shutting down.

the optical drive problem is probably a separate issue. Boot your computer in firewire target mode and cable it up to another mac and run disk utility. it probably won't be able to repair the damage, but worth a shot. more likely to fix it if it's a newer os than is on your mac. (but since it's 10.6, not likely) You may need to run diskwarrior etc, or back up and format.

Thank you all for your replies and suggestions, this is just an update on what I posted earlier.

The stuck disc was eventually released by using the mouse key and multiple attempted start ups - after that the computer went back to grey screen> Apple > spinning progress indicator > black screen.

Using the system disc and running the Apple hardware extended tests [twice] it showed error 4HDD/11/40000000: SATA [0,0]

This is to ask what this means in terms of hardware, software, fixable?
Also to ask if it will be possible to save some files that were not been backed up - not many, but ones that will be needed in the next week or so.

Thank you all again.

As far as other testing, nothing seems to work.

Starting in Safe mode - standard & advanced methods - both resulted in the computer shutting down immediately after the grey screen appeared.

Resting PRAM : grey screen appeared, then computer shut down.

Verbose mode: this worked, the last but two lines[allowing for my scribbling the details at speed] were:

exec/sbin/fsck_dev/rdiscos2[HFS]EXITED WITH SIGNAL 8
FSCK FAILED!

The next question seems to be: is time to give up, and head for an Apple tech?

I would head for the Genious Desk at the nearest Apple Store.

Tat's a hardware problem with either the hard drive or the hard drive controller. A trip to Apple is definitely in order.

I, and the iMacs owner agree, it will be on it’s way to Apple as soon as.
Thank you for your interest, and help.
Kate

There was a brief time when those imacs shipped with a defective "sata/power" cable, that caused weird sata problems with the internal hard drive. It's NOT a fun thing to narrow down, and even less pleasant to repair. (EVERYTHING comes out to replace that cable) Make sure they test it carefully after repair. You may want to mention this possibility to them to make sure they are aware of the possibility - cable problems are pretty unusual.

Having missed your post this is to update my last post.
The computer came back as having been fixed, but showed only a blinking question mark when booted. I'm told that on return there was some comment about a b***** cable problem, but it was fixed on the spot, so maybe not.
Anyway - belated thanks for your suggestion, it has been filed for future reference.
Kate