Well, I tried the Leopard disk with c and it doesn't do anything except make alot of noise and now I can't get it to boot from the hard disk. I heard it start up and tried combinations of command-f5, vo-f5, vo-ctrl-f5 and vo-ctrl-command-f5 and I couldn't get it to talk. Whenever I try to hit eject it just slows down the drive. When I hold it down it stops it, but as soon as I let go, it starts again. I should've tried that pram thing first, whatever that is. Now I don't even know if I can still do it if it's booting off of that cd. I'm sick of feeling like I need to be some kind of technician or scientist just to use my computer. I've never seen anything more frustrating in my life than this machine. I just want my stuff off and saved, the refirbished model and then a quick trip to ebay. Btw, I don't blame you guys, so do forgive my anger. You're all extremely wonderful and helpful. This is just driving me crazy, particularly since I now have no choice but to keep leaving my apartment and coming downstairs every time I want to use the desktop, since my netbook is still being repaired and my DOS machines didn't come in yet.
On 23/12/2009, Esther <mori...@mac.com> wrote: > Hi Eleni, > > Yes, you can use your the first of your Leopard Startup disks to book > up your system if you hold down the "c" key when it starts up. I > thought that was what you were trying to do when you said you inserted > the Leopard installation disk and the machine made a strange sound > like a buzzing, but didn't do anything else. That will let you boot > up from the CD or DVD instead of your hard drive. You can also use > disk utility to repair permissions. I think that after you boot from > the install disk, you listen until the disk stops spinning and then > use VO-F5 (or VO-Fn-F5) to start up speech. Then you VO-M to the menu > bar and arrow over to Disk Utilities and press enter. Then you can > select your hard drive and repair permissions, in case things were > left in an odd state by your shutdown. Somebody else may be able to > walk you through this because it's been a long time since I did a boot > from startup disks. See whether your machine boots up normally after > your repair permissions. You may have to select your startup disk as > your hard drive before you reboot. > > Anne gave some nice instructions about how to reset the PRAM in the > archives that give more details than my description: > > http://www.mail-archive.com/macvisionaries%40googlegroups.com/msg08901.html > > You still might have to reset the PRAM if you get no sound whatsoever > (from speakers or headphones). > > Target disk mode should work even in some circumstances where you > can't manage to boot your MacBook up -- it can still get recognized as > a temporary hard drive of the other Mac to which you connect via > Firewire. Make sure you eject the drive (Command-E) from the other > Computer before you power your MacBook down again. > > That's most of what I can think of, since I may be off for a bit. On > the extension cords to the power adapters, the idea is to give you the > flexibility to either carry the brick with the shorter cable (for > compactness) or the combination with longer (and thicker therefore > heavier) extension cable. At home, I leave the extension cord > plugged in to the power adapter. I don't think that Apple sells the > extension cable separately, although they include it with every power > adapter you buy. I know they include it in the AirPort Express Stereo > Connection Kit along with the cables that can connect to your stereo > system, but that's still something like $40. > > Here's a site that sells the extension cords separately for $14.77 > (from a Google search): > http://www.mac-pro.com/Extension-Cord-PB-G4-iBook-AC-Adapter > > Although it's listed as for a G4 PowerBook, they not that it will work > for a MacBook. (And I use the extension cords for my old PowerBook and > my MacBook interchangeably). > > HTH > > Cheers, > > Esther > > Tiffany D wrote: > >> My external hard drive stopped working and nothing at all was done to >> it to cause it to break. I'm getting a compact flash card or two with >> a usb reader for the desktops, netbook etc. and a pcmcia >> adapter/reader for the laptops and Braille Note. I feel alot more >> secure with those. I just want to make sure that it's DOS and >> Windows-compatible first. I only use about 20gb on any given machine >> and that's giving myself several gigs of extra space, so I don't need >> a huge drive/card. The other Mac is also a Macbook, so it does have >> the port. Opa! I like this idea. I'll try it if nothing else works. >> In the meantime, I've also heard that I can insert the first Leopard >> disk and hit c or d and that might get it to work. I'll have to see. >> Assuming that I can get VoiceOver working, I know I can get some usb >> sticks to use temporarily so I can retrieve my info and put it on my >> XP machine. I'll have to check my Mac bag now. I no longer have the >> original box, so hopefully, I put it in the bag. I never even >> realised it came with an extention cord. I'm used to the cords on >> laptops being a decent length so one of these isn't necessary, but >> it'll certainly make my life easier. >> >> Esther wrote: >>> Hi Elen and Chris, >>> >>> Did you check whether you can hear VoiceOver through your headphones? >>> One possibility is that you damaged the speaker connection and can >>> still get VoiceOver if you plug in headphones. If it's simply a case >>> of not hearing sound, you can try resetting the PRAM, since this >>> module contains information about initial volume settings and also >>> the >>> startup disk selection. You'll have to reboot your computer and hold >>> down the Control, Option, P, and R keys simultaneously as outlined in >>> this Apple Support document about resetting your Mac's PRAM: >>> http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379 >>> >>> Chris, I'm not sure that she has a fully working system to back up, >>> since she's talking about connecting the MacBook to another Mac to >>> get >>> the files off. Eleni, here's what I think may work: get a firewire >>> cable and plug it in between your MacBook and the other Mac. (I'm >>> assuming that the Desktop Mac has a Firewire port.) Then, power up >>> your MacBook while holding down the "T" key. This lets you boot up >>> into target disk mode. What happens is that the laptop's hard drive >>> shows up as a second drive of the desktop Mac (but probably also >>> named >>> "Macintosh HD") under the devices in the sidebar of Finder. The >>> first >>> "Macintosh HD" will be the hard drive for the desktop Mac. The >>> second >>> one (VO-Down arrow) in the sidebar will be the drive of your MacBook. >>> You should be able to access the files you want in Finder and copy >>> them over to the Desktop Mac or to other hard drives or peripherals >>> attached to the Desktop Mac. I've never had to do this kind of file >>> recovery -- usually I have a cloned drive of my laptop to recover >>> files from -- but I just tried booting my 5+some years old Powerbook >>> up in target disk mode connected to my MacBook. Basically, you >>> should >>> be able to boot your machine in target disk mode to another machine >>> under circumstances where you can't get your system to fully boot up >>> by itself. However, I would first try resetting the PRAM since it's >>> possible that might fix the boot up and/or VoiceOver speaking >>> problem. >>> >>> Here's the Apple support document on how to use Target Disk mode: >>> http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1661 >>> >>> You should have your MacBook connected to AC power if you're going to >>> be using it in this mode for any extended period (e.g. for copying >>> files). >>> >>> Finally, I'm puzzled by something you mentioned in one of your >>> earlier >>> posts (on converting movies -- something I'm not familiar with) >>> >>> Tiffany D wrote: >>>> It's bad enough that this is a large machine and that >>>> the charger cord is so short it's laughable, but when I can't do my >>>> work and ordinary things, it really gets on my nerves. >>> It sounds as though you're not using the extension cord that came >>> with >>> your computer. Each Mac comes with a power adapter whose corner >>> has a >>> plug attachment whose prongs (for U.S. power plugs) can simply flip >>> down and be plugged into an AC outlet. That corner piece can also be >>> unplugged and the power plug for a different country inserted. >>> However, for all the U.S. Macs, there's also an extension plug that >>> comes with the power adapter. That's a heavier cable that ends in a >>> three-prong plug and whose other end can be plugged into the corner >>> of >>> the power adapter when you pull off the plug attachment. Aren't you >>> using this? I normally keep this cord plus my Mac power adapter >>> unless I want to carry less, or if I don't have any outlets available >>> that can accept the third prong. The extension cord is usually >>> packed >>> in with the cables that come with the MacBook. Assuming that you had >>> the same box that I did, this was in the rectangular bay in the foam >>> at the front of the box. You shouldn't have any problems with the >>> cord length if you're using the extension cord. >>> >>> HTH >>> >>> Cheers, >>> >>> Esther >>> >>> >>> Chris Blouch wrote: >>> >>>> Sounds like you got a dud, which happens on all computers of all >>>> brands >>>> from time to time. Still doesn't make it a pleasant experience. My >>>> wife's MacBook has been shipped to AppleCare twice now with a dead >>>> motherboad (the first time) and a dead hard drive (the second time). >>>> Since I convinced her to switch from her Dell I got to hear about >>>> it. Of >>>> course the Dell had already had its share of failures hardware and >>>> otherwise so it wasn't a huge armtwist. She does like it when it >>>> works. >>>> >>>> That said, as far as a backup goes, you could just plug in an >>>> external >>>> hard drive and copy to it anything you care about. Time machine also >>>> works well and will do an incremental backup every 60 minutes. The >>>> UI >>>> isn't very accessible but if you had to reinstall things there is a >>>> step >>>> in the setup where you can restore from a timeMachine backup, so if >>>> things really went pear shaped you could at least get your files >>>> back. >>>> The time machine backup is organized so you could go to >>>> DriveName/ComputerName/Latest/YourDriveName and find everything that >>>> it >>>> backed up from your drive, so you don't have to use their GUI at all >>>> once it's turned on. I'd get an external drive roughly 2x the size >>>> of >>>> the drive you want to back up. That way you'll have room for a full >>>> backup and lots of incrementals. >>>> >>>> Hope this helps. >>>> >>>> CB >>>> >>>> Eleni Vamvakari wrote: >>>>> So the Mac quit on me again, no more than two weeks after I got it >>>>> back from Apple. I was trying to use that converter program and it >>>>> just sat there and did nothing, as I've said in another post. >>>>> Then, >>>>> it just disappeared. One minute it was open and the next it was >>>>> gone. >>>>> When I reloaded it, I couldn't get into it's menus. I could only >>>>> get >>>>> into the Apple and other menus by hitting VO-m twice. Now I was >>>>> really annoyed, so I did two bad things. First, I pounded my >>>>> hand on >>>>> the computer and second, I shut it off with the power button >>>>> instead >>>>> of going through the normal shut-down process. As a result, the >>>>> hyphin key came up a little (don't ask how, since I wasn't anywhere >>>>> near it) and when I turned it back on, I got no speech. No matter >>>>> what I did, I couldn't get VoiceOver to start. >>>>> >>>>> Two days ago, Mom came up to try to help me but with no success. >>>>> When she turned it on, she only saw an apple going around and >>>>> around >>>>> and then a blank screen. We tried the tech tool cd but when we put >>>>> it >>>>> in, nothing happened. So we tried the Leopard installation disk. >>>>> This time, the cd drive made a bit of a strange sound (sort of >>>>> like a >>>>> buzzing) but did nothing else either good or bad. I heard the >>>>> drive >>>>> sound getting louder, as it usually does and then it went quiet. >>>>> Yesterday, I hooked up the external keyboard but that didn't work >>>>> either. The machine turns on, makes the start-up sound and I know >>>>> the >>>>> hard disk is doing something, But I can't get it to talk. If >>>>> anyone >>>>> can offer me a suggestion as to what I can do, I'd sincerely >>>>> appreciate it. >>>>> >>>>> In the meantime, we called Apple. They said they'd give us a >>>>> refirbished model, but now I have to wait for someone to bring me >>>>> and/or it to the store. I know that I misused the Mac but it still >>>>> shouldn't be acting like this. It's not like I spilled a whole cup >>>>> of >>>>> coffee in the keyboard and threw it out the window. I seriously >>>>> can't >>>>> take this anymore. Yes, Leopard does have some advantages over >>>>> Windows. But what is the advantage of having a $2,000 machine when >>>>> it >>>>> always breaks down and when a cheaper one works just as well? My >>>>> AppleCare is about to expire, and when it does, I can't keep >>>>> shelling >>>>> out money every time this thing decides to break down. >>>>> >>>>> Anyway, I asked a friend about how I can save my files and get them >>>>> off of there and he suggested I hook up my Mac and the household >>>>> Mac >>>>> via a fire wire connection and use Migration Assistant. How does >>>>> that >>>>> work? I can't ask Joanie, cause she barely uses it and only for >>>>> very >>>>> basic things, and Mom's just learning how to use a computer. >>>>> Please, >>>>> can anyone help me so that I don't mess up the other machine? >>>>> Can I >>>>> transfer files to a cd or usb stick with this program and is it >>>>> possible for me to delete the ones off of my machine with it? Btw, >>>>> I've never used Time Machine, if that's required to use Migration >>>>> Assistant. >>>>> >>>>> Thanks, >>>>> Eleni >>>>> > > -- > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "MacVisionaries" group. > To post to this group, send email to macvisionar...@googlegroups.com. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. > > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. 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