Resetting PRAM on an iMac

My iMac won't recognize anything, and since yesterday, not even Norton Utilities startup disk?
Joe wrote on :

This is further to the battery situation.

Now..........

I can't remember how to do this.

My iMac won't recognize anything, and since yesterday, not even Norton Utilities startup disk?

I have Panther Systen installation disks and it won't recognize them either.

Any thought? Should I reset the PRAM - is there anything else that comes to mind?

Thanks Joe

tacit replied on :

In article betabeta-597E95.09443014122005@redacted.invalid, Joe betabeta@redacted.invalid wrote:

I can't remember how to do this.

My iMac won't recognize anything, and since yesterday, not even Norton Utilities startup disk?

I have Panther Systen installation disks and it won't recognize them either.

You reset PRAM by holding down COMMAND-OPTION-P-R when you start up.

What do you mean the computer won't "recognize" anything? It's not clear what problem you are having. Do you mean the computer will not start from a CD?

If that is so, there are several reasons why this might be. The first and most obvious is that you are not using any CD that is capable of starting that particular computer. (I have watched clients go through a whole pile of startup discs trying to boot a Mac, and end up frustrated and enraged, and I'll look at the stack of fifteen startup CDs and every single one of them is either too old or came with a different computer. Have you tried the install CD that shipped with your Mac? A CD that shipped with a different Mac may not work. An old Norton CD may not work.)

It's also possible, especially if oyu have a tray-loading iMac, that the laser lens in your CD-ROM drive is dirty. This was a big problem with the tray-loading iMacs because the lens is exposed when the drive is open.

As an aside, do not trust Norton; it is an extremely buggy piece of garbageware that may actually cause far more damage than it fixes. Once upon a time, it was the king of disk-repair programs, but that time is long, long gone. Nowadays, it is so bad that even Symantec has discontinued it rather than spend the money it would take to fix the bugs.

Fred McKenzie replied on :

In article betabeta-597E95.09443014122005@redacted.invalid, Joe betabeta@redacted.invalid wrote:

I can't remember how to do this.

My iMac won't recognize anything, and since yesterday, not even Norton Utilities startup disk?

Joe-

You reset the PRAM by booting while holding down the Command+Option+P+R keys, until the startup bong has sounded at least twice. (The Command key has the Apple outline.)

This is worth a try, but the problem of not starting from a CD that it used to start from, is a discouraging symptom. There could be a more serious problem.

Is it easy to get to the RAM? If so, you might try re-seating the modules. If there are two modules, try removing one and then swapping if that doesn't help.

Fred