Hello Ben, Well there are a few troubleshooting steps you may of done already though you can follow these steps and get back to see where you are to your device i have several here in my school and do this every once in a while and when I perform these tasks those processes our Macs power back on, but lets see what happens. 1. Verify AC power source plug another device to wall outlet or plug 2. Disconnect all peripherals and press and hold power button for 15 seconds, this is performing an SMC Reset. 3. Verify user's power cord and have one available to replace if helps 4. Determine if computer is in power-on state by checking all of the following : (When i do this i press the power button a good second and then wait for a good 30 seconds and it turns on. Caps Lock LED on wired keyboard Fan spinning sound startup sound hard drive spin (if hard drive present) optical drive reset/disc detect seek display backlight on or flash external display activity, if available Thunderbolt disk mode operation (on newer...

Hello, So there are a few things more you can try before replacing a hard drive, unless prior to having these problems was base on replacing a Mac part or hard drive? Take your time in doing this the more it is forced to shutdown you are shocking the drive and board and make more things fail. 1st - unplug all devices and press and hold power button for 15 seconds yea longer than a window pc power flush. Above process is performing an SMC Reset this is not a PRAM or NVRAM Reset those are different functions. 2nd - power in just the basic Display port, power cable, usb keyboard and usb mice preferably usb cord if possible. 3rd - Hold down cmd+S then press power button keep holding these keys until you see the loading bar you will notice the bar will be thinner than normal once it has loaded 25 percent of the way you can let go of the keys. This will place you in Single user mode in a non gui view, which is similar to Recovery mode utility. Now there are many cmd's here you can type help and a list of items...

Hello so i have tried this on a several mac and ran into an issue with logic board that does not compensate the balance of power to the LCD, and burns it out. I'm Apple Certified and came across that it is related to logic board, once i had it replaced and the internal lcd worked as normal as well with external no speed of fans. Though in a school education working in they had the means of replacing the boards as an indiviual would suggest to save money and find another comparable in price to buy a newer model as more issue may arise in which it does in time to get that computer going longer. I have a few 2009 models and they are going strong til now 2017 but first the Hard drive needs replacement, then normally the hard drive cable and then logic board - related to power to unit or over powered and Finally LCD Issues. Thanks www.MacOSGenius.com

Hi Curt, just to clarify since it is possibly a 2009 make it will not have internet recovery, so performing an time machine would be ideal if you have it. You can try all processes below, except it may be wise to reopen device and check all connections as if you were prompted with same error message could be the cable it self and not the drive as i replace many Mac and high possibility it is the hard drive or reseating the cable. Performing the cmd+r - will boot you into the utility menu and select time machine when it appears Though you can also press and hold the option key when your external drive is connected and be patient as it takes a bit longer than newer units. while holding the Option key only you will see three drives if any appear New hard drive, recovery drive (if any) and your external boot drive. I have a few 2009 iMacs here and works but takes a good 30-50 seconds sometimes longer depending how much ram you may have for performance. Finally if you have another mac or a friend with a mac you...