I Need More Power Scotty!

My brother called me today, slightly frantic, but calmed. His iMac G4 wouldn’t start up. Normally, I’d recommend zapping the PRAM, resetting the Open Firmware, things like that.

The problem was, he couldn’t do those things. It wouldn’t boot at all. There wasn’t even a chime. The computer was absolutely dead silent.

Little did I realize that the flat panel iMacs also had the PMU (Power Management Unit) like my Powermac and Powerbook had. Apple even has instructions.

The instructions are great and colorful, but they’re slightly lacking in one way. When pressing down the button, it’s a good idea to hold it down for a little bit. Tyson (my bro) pressed it once quickly, but it didn’t restore booting. That scared me. He decided to try it again but hold down longer.

I was greeted soon thereafter by the dulcet tones of a Mac starting up over the phone. Victory.