Complete meltdown!

[Jcbzr]

Hello everyone,

My iMac of 6 years has finally failed on me.

As a result of sluggish performance, I decided to reformat and refresh the entire iMac by putting in the stock operating system setup CD.

All was going well. I had Leopard running flawlessly.

The big issue started when I tried to upgrade to Snow Leopard... 3/4 into the upgrade, I was given an error that indicated that the installation of the the new software crashed.

The iMac is not stuck at a boot loop, that is it does start up, it starts running, but once it reaches the grey/white apple boot screen (with a spinner loading) it shuts down after approximately 4 seconds of attempting to boot the computer.

I have tried several methods to fix this... I have removed the aftermarket RAM I purchased, and I hold the "C" key when trying to boot. Nothing is working and my computer is close to being scrapped for parts.

Any ideas? If this is a lost cause and the entire hard-drive has crashed then I will rip it apart and sell pieces as is.

All help is appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

[Stray]

Did you tru hold down the alt/option key?

[Jcbzr]

Yes, I didn't mention all the key combinations I've tried because the list was endless... But yes, I've tried all the possible key combinations when booting.

[bootloader]

did you try starting up on Leopard dics ?

[Jcbzr]

Yes, I wrote that Leopard ran flawlessly. It was Snow Leopard that crashed 3/4 into the installation. Now the computer will not boot past the grey/white screen without shutting off.

[bootloader]

well, install leopard then

[Jcbzr]

The computer will not boot. How will it read a disc if it can't even start up?

[bootloader]

does the sceen light up ?

[Jcbzr]

Yes, the screen lights up. The screen only lights up to the grey screen w/ the Apple logo. The computer will not read any discs.

[bootloader]

when the screen lights up insert leopard install cd power off computer now, we will try to boot up on the install cd,power up and hold down option key keep holding option key until you see picture of install cd then click

[Jcbzr]

The iMac isn't accepting any feed; the iMac will not pull the CD in.

[bootloader]

ok, do have second mac and a firewire to connect the to computers together ?

[Jcbzr]

I don't have a firewire, but I do have a MacBook Pro.

[bootloader]

how old is the macbook pro ?

[Jcbzr]

2-3 years.

[Jcbzr]

What process do I have to go through once I have the proper wires/cables and computer?

[bootloader]

well the first thing we will do is see if your imac will start up in target disk mode power off then power on holding down the T key till you see a big yellow firewire picture