MAC Desktop will not startup - apple sound, then gray screen and series of 3 beeps repeatedly

[Cory Cooper]

That is an iMac (Early 2008). Each of your sticks of RAM is 1 GB, so having removed one, you are running on 1 GB instead of 2. That is probably why iPhoto and iTunes are slower.

You can buy a replacement stick of RAM yourself and install it. You would need the following specs:

200-pin PC2-6400 (800MHz) DDR2 SO-DIMM

Since RAM is so cheap these days, you could probably just get a pair of 2 GB sticks for little money.

There is definitely something up with the hard drives.

-Are there one or two drives showing on your desktop?
-What does the hard drive icon look like?

To use Disk Utility:

1. Double-click Macintosh HD
2. Double-click Applications
3. Double-click Utilities folder
4. Double-click Disk Utility

Let me know what drives are listed in there.

C

 

[Bob Hurley]

Only one drive shows up on my desktop along with a time capsule drive. The Macintosh HD drive is orange. When I click it and then follow the steps that you said, I see the external hard drive (which is actually 3TB). Then under that it shows the Macintosh HD as a subset of the Seagate drive, and shows as 2TB. Time capsule is also listed under the Macintosh HD, also as a subset but with 1TB. So it almost seem like the hard drive from the actual Apple is missing.

 

[Cory Cooper]

Yes, if all the drives listed are subsets of the 3 TB "orange" drive, then they are all partitions of the external. If there isn't any other drive listed, then the internal drive isn't being recognized and probably has issue or failed. Maybe your friend simply added the external because the internal drive had failed?

Which icon does your drive look like on the desktop:

USB

FireWire

Bad thing about your current arrangement...if the external drive fails, then you lose your data and your TM backup since they are partitions of the same drive mechanism.

You could probably get the internal drive replaced for pretty short money, but that would be up to you. No need to to it, since it has been working for a while this way. I would only recommend getting another external hard drive so you could actually have the OS and all your date on one and use the second for Time Machine.

C

 

[Bob Hurley]

The drive on my screen looks like the USB one at the top. It was added to give me more memory, not because of any internal failure. My guess is that this started to fail when I was getting messages about Time Machine backup not working.
Is there a way I can diagnose the internal hard drive?

Regarding the memory, is it specific to Apple or any 200-pin PC2-6400 (800MHz) DDR2 SO-DIMM?

 

[Cory Cooper]

The only way to diagnose the internal hard drive without any additional third-party software is with Disk Utility. If the drive isn't recognized, then there isn't much you can do. If it is recognized and keeps prompting you initialize it, especially at startup, then it may be OK, but you would lose any data on it by proceeding.

I have seen two scenarios with that particular model iMac. It's either a failing hard drive or a failing hard drive cable. Both issues would require a trip to an Apple Store or service provider for repair.

As for the RAM, it's not Apple-specific...any RAM with those specs would work.

C

 

[Bob Hurley]

OK, great. Thanks Cory. I ordered 2 x 2GB RAM from Amazon, which should be here on Friday, and should speed up the machine. I appreciate all of your help in getting my machine back up and running.

 

[Cory Cooper]

Not a problem, glad it's working.

Again, I recommend getting another hard drive to use for Time Machine, but that's your call.

Let me know if you have any further questions/issues.

C

 

[Bob Hurley]

Cory,

I received my 4GB RAM kit and installed a few seconds ago. "The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer" With three buttons which say Initialize, Ignore or Eject." I ignored the message again. Is it possible that the message is referring to the internal hard drive, as there is no disc inserted in the optical drive? After choosing ignore, everything else seems to be working fine.

 

[Cory Cooper]

Yes, it is referring to the internal hard drive. That message should only show at startup, because the system searches for drives at that time.

You should see a very slight increase in speed with the additional 2 GB of RAM, not a lot, but some. Especially when you are running multiple applications.

C

 

[Bob Hurley]

Next question/issue. While everything seems to be working ok, under iTunes and movies, it shows all of my downloaded movies there, but the cover art is missing on all but 4 of them. When I click on one of them without cover art, it expands and tells about the movie, stars, plot, etc, but if I click the play button, it doesn't play that movie, it plays the next one in the list with the cover art. If I click file and about while one of the movies is opened up, it says it can't locate the movie and wants me to tell it where the movie is located. My understanding is that the movies had all been moved over to the external hard drive, so as not to take up room on the internal drive, but that may not be the case since these movies are now "missing". There are now 67 missing movies and only 4 that will play. Any ideas on how to get these back, or are they gone for good on the internal hard drive?

 

[Cory Cooper]

They may have been stored on the internal.

Right-click on the movie title and select Get Info. At the bottom of the window it will tell you the path to the movie under Where:. If the path is not the external, then it may be gone. If you purchased the movies from the iTunes Store, you can re-download them for free and iTunes will store them on the external.

C

 

[Bob Hurley]

When I click "Get Info" on a movie without the artwork, I get this message: "The movie “The Adjustment Bureau” could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?" If I go to the folder where the other movies are found, only 4 are listed and the rest are missing. The movies were all downloaded as digital copies that came with blu-rays that I purchased. Unfortunately, most of those movies had an expiration date on the download, and a single use code, so can't be downloaded again, although they ware through iTunes, so possibly there is a way to replace them.

 

[Cory Cooper]

That error message sound like they indeed were on the internal.

If they were digital copies that you entered the codes in iTunes, and not say UltraViolet, then they should show in your purchases in iTunes:

iTunes > iTunes Store > Quick Links section > Purchased > Movies

Check it out and let me know.

C

 

[Bob Hurley]

Yes, you are absolutely right. I just found them in my purchases, but still can't figure out how to re-download them. They are all on my iPad and play from the cloud on iPad.

 

[Cory Cooper]

In iTunes, on the upper right corner of the movie cover art you should see a little cloud with a down arrow in it. Just click it and it should download.

C

 

[Bob Hurley]

If I click that on the iPad, it downloads it on the iPad, but how do I download them to my MAC to replace the missing file?

For some reason, now I can't get them to come up in my purchases on the store, even though I did just a few minutes ago. I'm doing something wrong I think

 

[Cory Cooper]

On the Mac, you do it the same way, as I outlined above.

If you can't see them in iTunes, you may need to login again or authorize the iMac from the Store menu in the menu bar.

C

 

[Bob Hurley]

I tried logging in again, and also authorizing the computer. It says the computer is already authorized. When I click on purchased items, it only shows the 4 movies that are in the computer. The ones with the missing cover art don't come up under purchased, which is strange because earlier, I saw the full list under purchased. On the library pushbutton, I see all of the movies, but there is no cover art and no cloud with a down arrow on any of them to click.

 

[Cory Cooper]

Are you clicking Purchased in the list on the left side of the iTunes window, or clicking iTunes Store in the list on the left and following my path above?

C