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my buddy has a '09 iMac. Last month he updated to 10.9.4.
He had also, unfortunately, installed AVG for Mac. How he bought that hoodwink I'll never understand.
AVG was doing it's thing the other night, found some issue that it went to "repair".
And it never stopped. He shut it down before too long, but not soon enough to have a mess.
Wouldn't start up today.
Wouldn't safe boot on the wireless Apple keyboard (new batts), or pRam zap, or Recovery or etc.
His son has a Logitech G710+ gaming keyboard. He used that to boot into Startup Manager (opt/alt) and he saw Recovery from TM, re-install onto Mac HD and the DVD install disc (10.6.2). It would not boot Single, Safe or any other as before with the Apple kb.
He ran Disk Uts and repaired disc and perms. All was normal there. Tried to re-boot. Nada.
Booted into Start-up Manager again. Choose re-install this time (no TM ever done ...... of course).
It goes thru all the motions, but when it reboots, it's back to the spinning gear on the gray screen.
He doesn't have another Mac there to target with, nor any other wired USB kb.
Off course it won't start-up any more from his DVD as there was a firmware change since.
Ideas, suggestions or time for a genius?
“Art is how we decorate space.
Music is how we decorate time.”
Jean-Michel Basquiat
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make a USB installed (you need a machine runnign Mavericks and there are some terminal commands of some free utilities). Then boot from that USB stick (at least 16 GB) and repair, recover, reinstall, etc.
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space-time wrote:
make a USB installed (you need a machine runnign Mavericks and there are some terminal commands of some free utilities). Then boot from that USB stick (at least 16 GB) and repair, recover, reinstall, etc.
why should that have any different result from what he has already tried?
I have that for my MBA .... suppose I could mail him that.....
“Art is how we decorate space.
Music is how we decorate time.”
Jean-Michel Basquiat
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That's a 5-year-old machine. Is it possible that the hard drive is going belly up, and that AVG bogged down because of that?
You don't mention how long he waited on the grey screen with spinning gear after re-installing, before he presumably shuts it down by powering it off. Is it possible that he isn't allowing the process of installing to finish?
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Bluetooth isn't initialized until after the boot-chime.
Your friend may have better luck with the wireless keyboard if he waits until after that chime to hit a key.
...
Have you got a laptop to bring over to help?
I'd boot into target mode, connect to a laptop and use that laptop to clone the iMac's boot drive to an external hard drive.
Then Boot the iMac into the Recovery volume and use that to erase the iMac's internal drive and install a clean copy of the OS.
After creating a new admin account on the iMac (with a unique username not previously used on the iMac), I'd use the Migration Assistant to migrate only user accounts, network settings and applications from the backup.
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I thought about the drive and AVG dwelling on it. But I thought that since DU was able to repair disc and permissions that would be discounted.
It's possible he didn't wait long enough. I'm use to the MBA and the iMac is on a spinner. I have no idea how long that takes anymore. But I would think after the install no more than 3 mins. He said he used to see activity after 30 secs, not fully up, but see activity.
I did read about the bluetooth initialization time, he did try it after the chime. I'm thinking that maybe it lost it's paring in addition to whatever else.
He's in the wilds of eastern PA, I'm on Long Island. At that point he's better off with a genius appt, for better.
Trying to think of something that I forgot to try. Course, it's hard not actually seeing whats happening.
I wonder would booting into Target mode, should he be able to; would that prove at least that he has a drive or disprove a HW issue? Or wouldn't it prove anything either way?
“Art is how we decorate space.
Music is how we decorate time.”
Jean-Michel Basquiat
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Fritz wrote:
I thought about the drive and AVG dwelling on it. But I thought that since DU was able to repair disc and permissions that would be discounted.
It's possible he didn't wait long enough. I'm use to the MBA and the iMac is on a spinner. I have no idea how long that takes anymore. But I would think after the install no more than 3 mins. He said he used to see activity after 30 secs, not fully up, but see activity.
The first time you boot up right after an OS install, it can take longer than normal to completely start up. Doesn't matter whether it's a flash drive or not.
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ka jowct wrote:
The first time you boot up right after an OS install, it can take longer than normal to completely start up. Doesn't matter whether it's a flash drive or not.
k. I'll call him tmrw and have him try the plain vanilla boot again.
“Art is how we decorate space.
Music is how we decorate time.”
Jean-Michel Basquiat
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...
I'm having a Mavericks problem from an external. I have some fiddling around to do before deciding whether it's the disk, the enclosure or the install. Thanks in advance.
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Bot holding the Option key at the startup sound. That gives you a choice of drives. Choose the Recovery Drive. Then chose Reinstall the OS. 10.9, and wait until it starts. The OS will be downloaded and the reinstallation will begin. Takes a bit of time, but it's worth it. No data will be lost. Use that time to set up a backup program for him, one that includes cloning a bootable backup so the next time he screws up he won't have to go through this again.
Fritz wrote:
my buddy has a '09 iMac. Last month he updated to 10.9.4.
He had also, unfortunately, installed AVG for Mac. How he bought that hoodwink I'll never understand.
AVG was doing it's thing the other night, found some issue that it went to "repair".
And it never stopped. He shut it down before too long, but not soon enough to have a mess.
Wouldn't start up today.
Wouldn't safe boot on the wireless Apple keyboard (new batts), or pRam zap, or Recovery or etc.
His son has a Logitech G710+ gaming keyboard. He used that to boot into Startup Manager (opt/alt) and he saw Recovery from TM, re-install onto Mac HD and the DVD install disc (10.6.2). It would not boot Single, Safe or any other as before with the Apple kb.
He ran Disk Uts and repaired disc and perms. All was normal there. Tried to re-boot. Nada.
Booted into Start-up Manager again. Choose re-install this time (no TM ever done ...... of course).
It goes thru all the motions, but when it reboots, it's back to the spinning gear on the gray screen.
He doesn't have another Mac there to target with, nor any other wired USB kb.
Off course it won't start-up any more from his DVD as there was a firmware change since.
Ideas, suggestions or time for a genius?
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