Help I need a Mac computer expert - Page 4

Thanks guys, LOL

And thanks for the , Ninja.    

I'm just going to go bake some Valentine cupcakes, now, that I know I can do with some success, LOL

I made some phone calls and found an Apple Service provider, and decided to pay the $99/hr diagnostics fee to see if they can fix it. I had to leave it with them. So I guess I'm going to hold off on using it for target practice.... for the moment. 

First time ever, I will have to pay somebody to fix my Mac. I'm really hating this. 

Well, it's not a hardware problem, and they are still working on it. They are hopeful it will be resurrected, but I'll see if they can be more specific later,  when they are done. They are very vague about my questions at the moment.

They are very vague about my questions at the moment.

Translation: It's still on the shelf and they haven't even started yet. LOL

If it's DOA let me know and I'll put my flag at half mast.

LOL@Ninja! You are probably right!

And something else just occurred to me... what if son isn't telling all? What if he attempted some kind of hack and is playing innocent? And dumb mom just believes everything he says, lol. I remember he snuck a Pokemon onto my DH's PC laptop screensaver. It really ticked off the DH, LOL We all took bets to see how long it would take for him to notice!

Bee,

The only one who knows the truth is in your avatar picture, and he ain't talking. LOL

They just called and said it is fixed. They reinstalled the system. They have no idea what was wrong. They are only charging me the 100 dollars!!! I think I must now consider myself lucky. Or my son, is very lucky! I'll pick it up tomorrow. That probably means I'll have to spend half a day setting up mail and internet and whatever. 

So, GSD, you were right: Software problem!

I had a feeling but I could not understand it not recognizing the set up disk. I am guessing, you never found the right disk.

BTW, I would be surprised to find out this was caused by an update to flash. I would guess virus of some sort.

Okay, I have my machine back, and the good news is, all I had to do is plug it in, everything is still there, connected and just plain working. Hip Horray!

Now, GSD, I need to address just two small possible misconceptions. One regarding Macs and virus's, and the other my disc booting abilities, lol.

First off, I admit I said the wrong system... this older one is running 10.6 (snow leopard, please forgive me for mixing up my big cats!) but the first disc I tried to boot from was the 10.6 disc even if I thought it was the wrong system. (Follow me?) !  And the tech kid confirmed, yes, I had a set-up disc boot problem, too, it wasn't me being incompetent with the wrong disc!

I also mentioned my "PC friend," lol,  thought it could be a virus, and he just said, point blank. NO. NO VIRUS. And that's what I thought! That is one reason why we love our Macs: No viruses!  Now I do know there can be mal ware and spy ware... but technically speaking they are not the same... yes?

Now you ask what did he say he thought happened? Interesting that when asked that, the first thing he asks me is, "Is it possible your son might have been downloading systems that maybe aren't legal? And. ... it's okay, really, because we all do that...."  LOL  The answer to his question is yes, and entirely probable.

So, we are blaming it on the kid screwing up the system. I recall seeing a lightbulb go off over his head when I said to him while trying to figure this stuff out, "I don't know if you know this, but when you upgrade a system, you usually want to uninstall the old one, first". 

He, said, "OH maybe that's why my such and such isn't working after I did.............!!!!!!"

The end. Let's hope, LOL

Beetree,

I am not there watching so just wanted to make sure the right disk was being used. Macs are not immune to viruses, it is just the fact most people use PCs and there are a lot more of those to attack. There are Mac viruses but most only infect certain versions.

I have both XP and win7 installed on this machine. I could also install any number of operating systems along with these. When my computer starts it asks me which operating system I want to use.

I am glad nothing was lost and your son has his computer back.

What did you need to do to get the set up disk to work?