another IT problem

my flatmates Mac just packed up. starts up and goes straight into a white screen and a “?” pops up. that’s it. nothing else. 5yr old Apple Mac

any solutions other than binning it?:smiley:

Did he type google into google?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqxLmLUT-qc

[quote]
Alex Gold (08/09/2011)

Did he type google into google?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqxLmLUT-qc[/quote]
lol. she’s so serious :hehe:

The folder with ? mark means your mates computer can´t find a valid System on the computer.

Have you installed any 3rd party RAM? If so, remove it and try again.

make sure you have no external units attached via USB.
Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys as you start up. (You must press this key combination before the gray screen appears.)
Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
Release the keys.

this will zapp the parameter RAM (PRAM):

p.s. i’m limited on Mac’s mate but see if this works…

btw…ive given it a big font as your a thick **** :D.

smiled.

If the above fails then just Simply hold the alt key with yopur systemdisk in the cdrom

smiled.

have you never seen this before?

fail

just googled it and it seems 90% hdd failiure. might just get a new drive and ask our IT guys to try and recover the info… that’s the best option :pinch:

@Smiled DUDE WTF. I’m stoopid not blind. normal text will do :stuck_out_tongue:

perhaps you’re too stupid to read regular font?

This is debatable :smiley:

Ons sal sien

:w00t:

you naai! :stuck_out_tongue:

:smiley: :smiley: :laugh:

Hold T during startup to see if it can boot in target disk mode, that way you can recover the data and even wipe the drive and stick a new OS on it.

You’d need to connect it to another PC or MAC via firewire and it appears as an external drive in target disk mode

Failing that:

Stick the first CD that the mac came with in it and boot up holding D
This should open the Apple Hardware Test utility. Run it to see if there is any hardware damage eg. dodgy main board etc…