Mac Experience

[slicksterproductions]

i was just given a mac loaded with software and I NEED HELP. I have little to no mac experience and i already have a problem. Someone please pm me if you can help.

[Conquest10]

you might want to provide some info. what is going wrong?

[slicksterproductions]

Ok sry about that. Excuse me if i say anything stupid i dont have any mac knowledge. Ok so i got the computer, its a G3 and i wanted to install some software that i was given. I installed edit DV although whenever i rebooted after installing it would freeze the computer. So i called the guy i got the mac from and he said that i couldn't install that yet untill i got a firewire card.( i had no idea i needed a card to just tryout the software) So he told me to get rid of evertying that i installed.

So i went it and sent everything to the trash bin, at least i think i did, and then rebooted the system. I than started up and it didn't freeze although i got an error message sayign there was an error with an application called finder, it than tells me to reboot.

I really dont know the answer to this and would appreciate any help.

[g_shocker182]

Where art thou tgpo? :P

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For the Apple users:

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=9

[Conquest10]

finder is the mac's version of explorer. don't know what else to tell you.

[Faustus]

Ok sry about that. Excuse me if i say anything stupid i dont have any mac knowledge. Ok so i got the computer, its a G3 and i wanted to install some software that i was given. I installed edit DV although whenever i rebooted after installing it would freeze the computer. So i called the guy i got the mac from and he said that i couldn't install that yet untill i got a firewire card.( i had no idea i needed a card to just tryout the software) So he told me to get rid of evertying that i installed.

So i went it and sent everything to the trash bin, at least i think i did, and then rebooted the system. I than started up and it didn't freeze although i got an error message sayign there was an error with an application called finder, it than tells me to reboot.

I really dont know the answer to this and would appreciate any help.

I do mac support for a living. But we really need more info. OS9 I'm assuming correct? Or OSX? Also whats the specific error, it makes ALOT of difference.

[tgpo]

Yeah, I'd bet this is OS 9. Installing software without a firewire card shouldn't crash it, regardless. More info is still needed. Have you started up without extentions? Have you wiped the systems since you got it to remove anything the previous owner may have installed that is causing conflicts?

[slicksterproductions]

OK once again i appologize for the lack of info. Im using OS 8.5.1. Now i cant even tell you the exact message becuase now when i start up it freezes again, its not even getting into the main screen. I must of deleted something important while getting rid of the other stuff i intalled.

Also how do you do a fresh wipe of the system? Do you need discs or somethign like pc's? That would fix the problem. If you need discs than im out of luck, because i wasn't given any of that stuff.

Any suggestions and also let me know if you need any more info.

[Faustus]

No disc? Thats a tight spot. Try this. Start the comuter then hold down the shift key as its starts up.

After it starts up, click the apple, then control panels. When control panels opens open the extention manager. Under selected set select "Mac OS All" (might have your version number in there also) Then click duplicate set and give it a name and click restart.

This in SHOULD give you at least fairly fresh extentions without alot of unknown crap in there, if you still cannot start normally then likely you are going to need software disc to fix the problem.

[galactica]

Maybe i missed it, but what are the specs of this comptuer?

Mhz?
Memory?
Hd Space?
Model? (Imac, blue and white tower? etc?)

If you really want to do anything! you need a system disc *you can get them cheap off ebay
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2753154021&category=171
brand new OS9 still in box
or you can get OSX if you know the specs of the computer and it can run OSX

2nd, id follow the adivce already given. Except rather than MAC OS ALL, id choose the NONE option. It will start up with only CORE OS, like a "safe mode" in windows. If this doesnt start up you definately trashed something important

Either way its just diagnostic to see whats going on and you will need to get a system disk/s from somewhere/somebody

What you REALLY want to do is start up from something other than your HD.

System CD's will allow you this as you put the cd in, restart and hold C down and it loads off the cd and you are running the system on teh cd.

You can then click once on the HD image, on the desktop, and using the file menus erase and/or intialize the HD.

NOW you will then want to install the system again new, so that will mean you need the CD to install it.

I do mac techsupport so hopefully between the other comments we can get you straightened out.

One other thing to remember, PRE OSX systems SUCK for the mac. You really want to get OSX on there if it meets the specs
I think the lowest you can go is G3 processor with 256megs memory so hopefully your comptuer can handle OSX. You really want to get that on there if you can. I checked ebay, its about 20 dollars for an OSX install disks (or if you know someone who has them get them!)

Stuff like this doesnt happen in OSX