# iMac blinking question mark...



## murrfinn (May 4, 2003)

Hi! I am having serious trouble with a G3/350 iMac at work. 

It was running OS 9.2 fine until the other day. According to a coworker, it suddenly became unable to open any programs or do much of anything. Now, on startup, it flashes the question mark alternating with a happy Mac. 

Here's what I've done so far that hasn't worked:

Started up from a system CD. It recognizes the OS 10 CD, but not 9.04 or 8.6 (We don't have 9.2 CDs). I installed System 10 but it was pretty useless once I got to the desktop, since everything we have is Classic-compatible and the Classic environment won't start up.

Run Disk Doctor. According to DD, the drive's fine. 

Run Apple Hardware Test CD. Ditto.

Swapped hard drives. I put the iMac's hard drive into another iMac, wiped it and reinstalled System 9.04, and it worked just fine. Put it back in the old machine only to see that it didn't affect a thing.

Checked all the internal connections. Nada.

We just got this computer (used) and can't afford to get another one. Any ideas would be GREATLY appreciated! Thanks so much.

Susanna
Arlington, Va.


----------



## ahhoe (Dec 31, 2001)

if you want to use the s/w in OS9. Its best to install OS9 first, then follow by OSX. Or there will be a lot of problem later down the road. From your description, its seems to me that theres something wrong with your system files. Or it could be that someone have played around with the extensions manager b4 shutting down the system.


----------



## JetPrincess (May 7, 2003)

Consider initializing your hard drive (that is supposing that you can afford to lose anything that wasn't backed up) and reinstalling OS9. Upgrade OS 9 from there but leave out OSX as you said that everything you do only runs in Classic mode.


----------



## Guest (May 12, 2003)

This happens when Finder in your System Folder is curropt or missing, or even deleted. I don't know that much about Macs but I'm pretty sure there's a way for you to reinstall MacOS 9 although I don't know how.

Good Luck,

HexStar


----------



## JuicyFruit (May 17, 2003)

HELP 
I have a Macintosh Performa 6116 CD Power PC, Kids use to play games and do there homework on it, I dont know what they did to it but one day it made a car crashing noise and it went blank, now when I turn it on all I see is a floppy disk with a (?) question mark blinking in it. What do I do now!!!!!!
 please help me anyone.

I dont know anything about COMPUTERS.. so any info would be greatly appreciated

Thank You ~~ juicyfruit ~~
you can also email me with any info: [email protected]


----------



## JetPrincess (May 7, 2003)

What you need to do is this. If you happen to have the installation software that came with it, insert the CD and restart so that you can reinstall the operating system. You can also run the utility to see if there are any fixable errors using the startup CD. Most likely though...you will need to reinstall the operating system. If this computer is online, you may want to update your OS to the highest available OS that it can handle. My kids love the Mac...they work on it all the time. If I were in your shoes, I'd consider looking for a used IMac G3 or something more up to date that is relatively inexpensive. I know that there is a place local to me with wonderful prices (and they ship).

http://www.macattic.com


----------

