iMac panic

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here's the situation: I stopped by the office tonight so I could burn some MP3 CDs before going home. I picked out eight CDs (about how many fit onto one 700mb data disc at 192kbps) and loaded up iTunes on the big data computer. so far so good, got five of them out of the way. then I get to disc one of the Tresor True Spirit comp and put it in. the computer freezes up. I wait a few minutes, it's still frozen, and then I reboot. It restarts, goes through the long rigamarole of checking for bugs, goes through a regular startup, back to the main screen...and then nothing. goes dead again, the mouse frozen, nothing on the screen opening up. I restarted it again, same thing. I have done this twelve times now, and each time it takes longer and in the last couple the mouse won't even move onscreen. I can't get the CD out of the drive (the eject button doesn't work) and I'm starting to panic--I wanted to be done and out of the office two hours ago. the tech guy (who has given me complete permission to use that computer for converting/burning) has an on-call cell but I'm loathe to wake him up at 3am on a Saturday night, especially since he's married and has a baby. I'm thinking of waiting till tomorrow, coming back in and calling him then. but if any of you can give me some advice (first and foremost I'd like to get the CD out of the drive since that seems to have been the problem, though I can't imagine why*) I'd really appreciate it. thanks.

*this kind of thing happens occasionally on there, but I've never encountered anything like this before, unless you count the time I was using a friend's ancient laptop and it crashed for good, which God knows I hope isn't what's happening here.

― M Matos (M Matos), Sunday, 21 September 2003 09:22 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm not sure how to solve your software troubles, but the instructions on how to manually eject a CD from an iMac are here:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58465

― Andrew (enneff), Sunday, 21 September 2003 10:13 (twenty-two years ago)

And in case you've one of the older iMacs, these instructions may be more relevant:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58566

― Andrew (enneff), Sunday, 21 September 2003 10:14 (twenty-two years ago)

neither of these apply. there's no eject slot on the disc opening, it's a total closed system. there's a tiny button you can push only w/a pencil tip or paperclip but all that does is derail the bug checkup.

― M Matos (M Matos), Sunday, 21 September 2003 10:23 (twenty-two years ago)

matos when i first got my imac and was using "classic platform" to move regularly between os9 and osX i sdtarted getting something similar to this, and it turned out it was really serious — i managed to save all my docs onto disc but when the apple engineer came and reinstalled everything he said that using "classic platform" was really fucking up the hard drive and just DON'T use it ever (which i haven't, since)

anyway this may not be relevant, and they may have sorted out the "classic platform" problems since then, but it scared me

― mark s (mark s), Sunday, 21 September 2003 10:25 (twenty-two years ago)

SONY rules!

― juju mayor, Sunday, 21 September 2003 10:30 (twenty-two years ago)

isn't there a combo of keys you can hold down when you restart (like apple c or alt c) which ejects a disc?

(sorry i just looked for my manual but it is misplaced: so don't try this till you get confirmed instructions)

― mark s (mark s), Sunday, 21 September 2003 10:32 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't know anything about platforms! The only two things I ever use are iTunes and Explorer.

― M Matos (M Matos), Sunday, 21 September 2003 10:33 (twenty-two years ago)

it's 4:30 in the morning here and I just want to go home and sleep. everytime I reboot it seems to deteriorate even more, and I can't eject the CD. I'm really starting to worry

― M Matos (M Matos), Sunday, 21 September 2003 10:34 (twenty-two years ago)

and it's not the first time the computer has frozen up when I've put a CD in but it's certainly the first time I haven't been able to do ANYTHING AT ALL, the mouse won't even move onscreen.

― M Matos (M Matos), Sunday, 21 September 2003 10:36 (twenty-two years ago)

if it is running os x boot it up holding down apple option s and u. This will boot it up in single user mode. it looks horrible.
lots of text. type in

fsck -y and press return

this will fix any disk errors, run it as many times as it takes to get a message that says: 'The disk appears to be OK'. now type reboot and hopefully all will be well.

I'm going to go off and try and find out what the force eject key combo is.

holding down c at startup may work as it will force the mac to reboot from cd if it can but it will hopefully spit out the cd.

― Ed (dali), Sunday, 21 September 2003 10:39 (twenty-two years ago)

i found the manual: what i was thinking of was:
"if you can't eject a CD [and other methods have failed], restart the computer then hold down the mouse button"

(ie *don't* hold down the C key, which would turn the CD into the disc you were rebooting from, which is not what you want i don't think)

― mark s (mark s), Sunday, 21 September 2003 10:44 (twenty-two years ago)

ed btw is way WAY more expert than me so i wd wait for his advice

― mark s (mark s), Sunday, 21 September 2003 10:52 (twenty-two years ago)

I've tried everything you guys have suggested and none of it works.

Ed: apple option s u doesn't do a thing. it just sits there, the mouse doesn't move and I get the mainscreen's background but nothing more. the mouse just sits in the upper left corner immobile. I have no idea what system it runs, it's not my computer! it's the tech guys' computer--they burn data cds of all the paper's archives and art and whatnot, and they let me use it to make data cds of my music collection.

Mark: doesn't work. tried it before on other suggestion earlier and no dice.

I'm trying not to have panic attacks here but I just had one fifteen minutes ago and I'm really fucking scared now.

― M Matos (M Matos), Sunday, 21 September 2003 10:52 (twenty-two years ago)

I unplugged it from the wall for five minutes a few hours ago too but same as fucking ever before

― M Matos (M Matos), Sunday, 21 September 2003 10:53 (twenty-two years ago)

Are you using OS 9 or OS X?

― Ed (dali), Sunday, 21 September 2003 10:54 (twenty-two years ago)

I DON'T KNOW! IT'S NOT MY COMPUTER!!!

― M Matos (M Matos), Sunday, 21 September 2003 10:55 (twenty-two years ago)

what does the startup screen look like, is it happy mac, or grey screen with a darker grey apple on it?

― Ed (dali), Sunday, 21 September 2003 10:58 (twenty-two years ago)

holy shit Ed I'm so fucking sorry--please please forgive me right now. I'm panicking big time here.

I just checked--rebooted it 15 mins ago, and it's got the screen up that sez. it's an OS 9.2

― M Matos (M Matos), Sunday, 21 September 2003 11:00 (twenty-two years ago)

"Mark: doesn't work"

D'you mean you can reboot it but can't get it to spit the disc out? Or you can't even reboot it? Did it reboot after you turned it off at the wall (but still not spit the disc out)?

Re panicking: MM, don't. Machines fuck up, it's one of the things they do, it's not the end of the world — it's probably nothing to do with you, even if your CD sent it over the edge it wd have happened tomorrow or next week with someone else's. You asked permission for something you've done before, they said yes.

― mark s (mark s), Sunday, 21 September 2003 11:01 (twenty-two years ago)

(sorry x-post: you can obv reboot but it's not spitting the disc out when you do)

― mark s (mark s), Sunday, 21 September 2003 11:02 (twenty-two years ago)

it's ok

have you tried the paper clip in the little hole?

― Ed (dali), Sunday, 21 September 2003 11:02 (twenty-two years ago)

the startup screen is light grey. this is really hard to do, the computer in question is about 100 feet away two rooms away and I have to keep shuttling back & forth. I should probably mention that it's not a mac monitor, it's a big Dell monitor that's plugged into a couple systems w/a toggle visual switch to go back & forth. but it's a mac hard drive.

Mark: thanks. I needed that. this job has been nonstop for first two months and then the last three weeks I've been writing my book (finished Fri. morning and am revising over weekend) and I have this constant nagging fear about it all that's starting to fucking eat at me.

― M Matos (M Matos), Sunday, 21 September 2003 11:05 (twenty-two years ago)

Ed: no little hole. on the hard drive there's an on button, below that the smaller reboot button (need a pencil eraser to push it), below that a tiny button you need to use a paperclip to push. when I push the tiny button it stalls all activity in its tracks i.e. it doesn't complete its you-didn't-properly-shut-down house-cleaning activities and instead there's a blank window in front of the usual you-didn't-properly-shut-down house-cleaning window w/some tiny symbol that I'd say was a wrench except it's been an hour since I last saw it and I didn't look that closely.

Mark: right, it didn't spit the disc out and won't under any of the circumstances I've employed (including all the suggested ones on this thread so far)

― M Matos (M Matos), Sunday, 21 September 2003 11:11 (twenty-two years ago)

at what stage is it crashing, does it start loading extensions (the little icons at the bottom of the screen)?

If it gets that far, or even if it doesn't trying starting up holding down shift, this turns off all of the extensions and is the most basic way of getting the computer up.

what about by the cd tray, anything there, also can you get round the back of the Mac and see what model it is, there ought to be a label or something that says.

― Ed (dali), Sunday, 21 September 2003 11:13 (twenty-two years ago)

it starts loading extensions and then freezes when they're loaded and the main screen comes up. the first few times I rebooted (it's been something like 20 now) the mouse moved freely for awhile and now it doesn't even do that.

thing is it takes about 20 mins (that's probably panic exaggeration) for it to go through its hard-drive-checking rigamarole so sitting there is tedious. how long do I need to hold shift down? from the get go and just hold and hold and hold? I've tried this with a few things and no results. I'll look for the model right now

― M Matos (M Matos), Sunday, 21 September 2003 11:18 (twenty-two years ago)

PowerMac G4

― M Matos (M Matos), Sunday, 21 September 2003 11:20 (twenty-two years ago)

you need to hold shift down until screen that says Mac OS 9 or whatever screen comes up saying 'extensions off'. Skip the disc check though, you don't need that, it probably solved any disc problems some time ago.

― Ed (dali), Sunday, 21 September 2003 11:25 (twenty-two years ago)

I can't skip the disc check, that's what I'm trying to tell you. it won't listen to ANY commands from either the keyboard or the mouse.

― M Matos (M Matos), Sunday, 21 September 2003 11:26 (twenty-two years ago)

there should be on the drive door itself be a little hole that you can push a paperclip into to release the CD drive tray. I'm just going to check that on the apple support site.

― Ed (dali), Sunday, 21 September 2003 11:27 (twenty-two years ago)

I skipped the disc check after the first time for about two go-rounds and after that it just stopped working altogether. I reboot and it disc checks whether I want it to or not, then it loads up and freezes when it hits the main screen. that's what I've been dealing with for FOUR FUCKING HOURS now.

and no, there isn't a drive door you can slip ANYTHING into, it's airtight

― M Matos (M Matos), Sunday, 21 September 2003 11:28 (twenty-two years ago)

These are from the apple site on manual ejects for the powermac G4 (quicksilver type)

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25345

Restart the computer and hold down the mouse button when you hear the startup sound.

Restart the computer, hold down the Option key, and use the startup manager to open the tray.

Choose a different operating system in the startup manager, and eject the CD using the steps above.

Insert a paper clip into the manual eject hole, which is located on the bottom right or left side of the drive (depending on the model), under the bezel. A paper clip inserted into this hole unlatches the drive. Next, bend the paper clip into a hook and put it under the drive's tray. You should be able to pull the tray out at this point.

During startup, press and hold the Command-Option-O-F key combination to enter Open Firmware, type "eject cd" in lower case letters, then press return.

― Ed (dali), Sunday, 21 September 2003 11:31 (twenty-two years ago)

try the final option from that list if the holding down sift thing didn't work.

― Ed (dali), Sunday, 21 September 2003 11:33 (twenty-two years ago)

OK, here's something odd. I just went in and looked, and the screen is normal. the mouse still won't move, though. do I leave it as is and hope the mouse starts working? because I think going home at this point would be good for me and the computer both.

― M Matos (M Matos), Sunday, 21 September 2003 11:34 (twenty-two years ago)

Probably a good idea, the problem may resolve itself, in any case you'll have a much clearer head when you get back to it.

― Ed (dali), Sunday, 21 September 2003 11:39 (twenty-two years ago)

leave a note for anyone else though, taped to the screen

― mark s (mark s), Sunday, 21 September 2003 11:42 (twenty-two years ago)

maybe a text message or email to the tech support guy would help as well.

― Ed (dali), Sunday, 21 September 2003 11:52 (twenty-two years ago)

and make sure the mouse is plugged in!! (he says from experience)

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Sunday, 21 September 2003 13:21 (twenty-two years ago)

Though yer probably already heading home (or there) one thought occurred to me: if you're using one of those G4s with the handles and your CD drive has the tray hidden behind the blue (or green or grey, whatever) door instead of a slot-load, you can get to that tiny pinhole by prying down that blue door, it's just spring-loaded. The edge of an exacto-knife will probably do it, or a flat-tip screwdriver. (Just do it carefully to avoid damage.) Once you have that levered down you might find that pinhole behind the door, instead.

If it's slot load, I gots no idear.

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Sunday, 21 September 2003 14:09 (twenty-two years ago)

Hm, maybe that's just the G3s though, so never mind me.

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Sunday, 21 September 2003 14:10 (twenty-two years ago)

I think the biggest thing here is, uh, technology f##cks up sometimes. that's what tech support is for. many people, in fact, come to tech support with the belligerent attitude of "why can't YOU fix this for me NOW because I never do ANYTHING WRONG.." so if you just politely explain to the tech people what you were using the machine to do & what happened, I am sure they will be glad to fix it.
even if worst-case scenario the hard drive has problems, any essential data can be certainly be recovered, and this happened through normal use, so is nobody's fault.

― daria g (daria g), Sunday, 21 September 2003 16:26 (twenty-two years ago)

just came back into office after being away and no difference in computer, unfortunately. I didn't call the tech guy till just now because it was 1am when this all started and I didn't want to wake him up--he's married and has a kid, and I thought the problem would right itself eventaully. unfortunately, it went straight to voicemail so I left a detailed message and will carry my cellphone w/me from room to room so he can reach me. yes, the mouse is plugged in. Sean, your xacto advice is ace but once the door's open it'a drawer open so I'm looking for the pinhole--no luck yet but I'll keep searching. thanks everyone.

― M Matos (M Matos), Monday, 22 September 2003 01:53 (twenty-two years ago)

Is there any sign the keyboard is working at all? Maybe you should either switch keyboards or zap the pram by holding down restart til it chimes 3 or 4 times.

― bnw (bnw), Monday, 22 September 2003 01:58 (twenty-two years ago)

Is there a possibility the disc was copy-protected, Matos? Because I've heard of those freezing up Macs...

― s1utsky (slutsky), Monday, 22 September 2003 02:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Not to make light of the problem, I mean it's definately annoying, but why the extreme panic? Can't you just retrieve the disc that's stuck in there later? Nobody needs to use the computer right at this moment anyway. I'd have no qualms about just going home.

― Sean (Sean), Monday, 22 September 2003 02:04 (twenty-two years ago)

Byron, not sure if there's another keyboard--again (and again), it's not my computer and I only use it for conversion purposes, so I'm loathe to try messing w/it too much.

Slutsky, the disc that's stuck in there is the first a three CD set, and the second disc wasn't any trouble when I copied it, so I'm doubting there's any copy protection going on here. Also, there's no warning on the label.

Sean, bother reading the posts before jumping to conclusions. I left here quite a long time ago and have since come back.

― M Matos (M Matos), Monday, 22 September 2003 02:12 (twenty-two years ago)

Hmmm. May be one of those things where the computer would've crashed no matter what you did. Wrong place wrong time kinda dealy.

― s1utsky (slutsky), Monday, 22 September 2003 02:14 (twenty-two years ago)

M, I did read that previously. I'm not trying to be nasty with you or anything! All I meant was if I were you I wouldn't sweat it.

― Sean (Sean), Monday, 22 September 2003 02:18 (twenty-two years ago)

Fine, but this is the most important computer in the office--it's what we burn all our data files to for reference, and what we put the website up on. I don't give a shit about the CD, I give a shit about potentially accidentally wrecking a piece of equipment, which I probably didn't but I didn't know that *24 hours ago when I wrote all that shit which I have since backed down from that you're asking me about now*. Capice?

― M Matos (M Matos), Monday, 22 September 2003 02:23 (twenty-two years ago)

Uh, yeah. If I'm interpreting your tone--always difficult to do in print--properly, you're annoyed with the fact I even asked the question. Maybe I didn't grasp the fact that it's the most computer in the office, but I was just trying to be helpful and nice.

― Sean (Sean), Monday, 22 September 2003 02:34 (twenty-two years ago)

I appreciate that but the panic subsided a long time ago

― M Matos (M Matos), Monday, 22 September 2003 02:53 (twenty-two years ago)

and yay, finally talked to the IT guy. he'll fix it tomorrow.

― M Matos (M Matos), Monday, 22 September 2003 04:25 (twenty-two years ago)

Happiness! And though you probably don't want to hear any more Prince right this second, check your e-mail...

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 22 September 2003 04:47 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm listening to "Let's Pretend We're Married," actually

― M Matos (M Matos), Monday, 22 September 2003 04:55 (twenty-two years ago)

:-) Well, check your e-mail anyway! And I'll get the next review in tomorrow or Tuesday.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 22 September 2003 04:57 (twenty-two years ago)

nothing in there

― M Matos (M Matos), Monday, 22 September 2003 05:01 (twenty-two years ago)

Hm, check the other address then. For that mailing list. ;-)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 22 September 2003 05:03 (twenty-two years ago)

the GRL thing? yep, saw it, need to get one

― M Matos (M Matos), Monday, 22 September 2003 05:16 (twenty-two years ago)

final update: the keyboard had come unplugged. I'm a fucking idiot. thank you all and good night (well, morning, it's 9:10am)

― M Matos (M Matos), Monday, 22 September 2003 15:15 (twenty-two years ago)

Pure class for owning up!

― suzy (suzy), Monday, 22 September 2003 15:17 (twenty-two years ago)

I figured anyone who expended any energy at all on this with me was owed it. and thanks--many many thanks!

― M Matos (M Matos), Monday, 22 September 2003 15:42 (twenty-two years ago)

matos we've all been there!!
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tho maybe for not quite so long :D

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 22 September 2003 15:44 (twenty-two years ago)

one month passes...

my ibook screen has died!!! :( :( :(

i can't use it at all (i am on someone else's computer right now)

help!!

― geeta, Sunday, 9 November 2003 02:27 (twenty-one years ago)

oh no!

― s1utsky (slutsky), Sunday, 9 November 2003 02:30 (twenty-one years ago)

1. when you say "screen" do you mean you know it's just the screen, or do you mean "I think the computer is dead"?

2. is it under warranty?

3. do you have access to another Mac with a firewire connection and do you have a firewire cable?

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Sunday, 9 November 2003 02:43 (twenty-one years ago)

is it wrong that now that matos has (ostensibly) solved his problem much of this thread is hilarious?

― ______o ____ington (dubplatestyle), Sunday, 9 November 2003 02:48 (twenty-one years ago)

i mean, panic is never funny when it's you

― ______o ____ington (dubplatestyle), Sunday, 9 November 2003 02:50 (twenty-one years ago)

(this is why you should always buy japanese)

― ______o ____ington (dubplatestyle), Sunday, 9 November 2003 02:50 (twenty-one years ago)

Jess you know I love you but your new signature is wretched

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Sunday, 9 November 2003 02:51 (twenty-one years ago)

(your ad here)

― ______o ____ington (dubplatestyle), Sunday, 9 November 2003 02:52 (twenty-one years ago)

yeah mine is just about to croak, i can tell, and its exactly a year old. DO NOT EVER BUY A MAC - DON'T BE SECDUCED THEY FUCK UP ALL THE Time and no one will fix it for you unlees you lay down about 400 quid straight off.

― jed (jed_e_3), Sunday, 9 November 2003 02:53 (twenty-one years ago)

better?

― goato mountington (dubplatestyle), Sunday, 9 November 2003 02:53 (twenty-one years ago)

superb!

― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Sunday, 9 November 2003 02:56 (twenty-one years ago)

Mine's a few years old now and chugging along fine...

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 9 November 2003 04:45 (twenty-one years ago)

I sometimes try to lie very still on the ground inhopes omeone will think I am dead. Then I begin to sing beautifully. They thinkto them selves " The dead sing well."

― Mike Hanle y (mike), Sunday, 9 November 2003 04:47 (twenty-one years ago)

My mac is an ancient g3 powerbook which can only run 8.6 from '98 or so and its still running great!

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Sunday, 9 November 2003 06:06 (twenty-one years ago)

Jess with you on my street team I cannot go wrong

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Sunday, 9 November 2003 06:12 (twenty-one years ago)

Jed, if your Mac is under a year old then isn't it still under warantee? Get the fuckers to fix it for you for free. Otherwise don't they have Apple Care in the UK?

That said I'm suspecting that Apple may indeed be coasting on their reputation and not making their computers as durable as they used to. (This is also my first time with a laptop, though, so I realize that might be different.)

That said, Geeta: Is the computer actually on (and the screen isn't dimmed all the way)? If so, force it to shut down and then start it up again. If that doesn't seem to work, shut it down, give it a few hours, start it up again. If that doesn't work, then panic.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Sunday, 9 November 2003 08:20 (twenty-one years ago)

8.6 is indestructible. A really angry and paranoid Tyrannosaurus, dripping with malice and a need for some undefined vengeance, couldn't even make a dent in that operating system. I swear.

Foolishly, I just upgraded to OS X though.

― David A. (Davant), Sunday, 9 November 2003 08:39 (twenty-one years ago)

problem has been identified: the logic board is toast.

this is a $400 repair = i am fuXoRed

― geeta, Monday, 10 November 2003 17:23 (twenty-one years ago)

: (

― goato mountington (dubplatestyle), Monday, 10 November 2003 17:25 (twenty-one years ago)

paypal fund!!

― goato mountington (dubplatestyle), Monday, 10 November 2003 17:25 (twenty-one years ago)

Yay! I'd contribute!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 10 November 2003 17:30 (twenty-one years ago)

My iBook has burned through FOUR logic boards! But it's still under warantee so it's free for me. If it ruins one more I think Apple will replace it.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Monday, 10 November 2003 17:35 (twenty-one years ago)

four?! dear god! mine's out of warranty...it's two years old. hey, if you know anyone with an extra iBook 600 logic board, lemme know!

in the meantime i am using a crumbly old PC that sounds like a lawnmower -- or maybe it is a lawnmower that sounds like a PC

― geeta, Monday, 10 November 2003 17:37 (twenty-one years ago)

geeta, charge admission for your birthday party.

:(:(

― tokyo rosemary (rosemary), Monday, 10 November 2003 17:39 (twenty-one years ago)

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