The school has just been donated an Imac we know nothing about them. Unfortunately, you guessed it, its broke. All we have is a flashing smily kind of face on a folder in the middle of the screen. I have been informed that it looks like the finder file icon. We have booted it up a few times and occaisionally we have heard a metallic sound from with in that suggests to us pc guys something is amiss. Can any one point us in a good direction? I must add...we have no discks or documentation of any sort!!! (Nothing new there then is there?)

First, you need to get install disks. You can boot from an install disk by holding the C key. If it boots okay from that, then the machine is okay and you can try formatting and installing the system. If the hard drive is bad, you won't be able to install. Metallic sound could be a bad hard drive.

try also booting without extensions on, holding down (Shift) key, try also removing hard drive and turn upsidedown check wires and chips on board, or while still hooked up reboot and listen, check to see if light on front of drive is flashing and what is making noise, if drive may need to be replaced or could be jammed(arms for tracking) need to be gently joilted sideways, (if attached), also check keyboard and mouse and other ports are correctly set, check cd and disk s drives to be clear as well,...:)

Thanks for the help guys...I have had it apart and the H/D seems ok it spins and doesnt seem bad. However occaisionally we can still hear a metallic noise that may be coming from the cd area? As originally stated no disks have come with the machine and as yet not one of my pc mates knows of another mac user! Can I download a system disk from anywhere or can they be purchased cheaply at e.g. a computer fair? Keep it coming if you can please.... Moriarty