I know Microsoft would bring death to my iBook...

Thats what you get for reading spoilers .

This sounds like a stupid windows virus. What kind of mac do you have? Were you in bootcamp or parallels?

Well if your grammar didn't kill it... then I guess it was inevitable.

How long did you wait at the spinning logo screen? Wait several minutes -- it could be self-correcting disk issues.

If that doesn't work, then...

1) press and hold the sequence apple (or command) - option (or alt) - "P" - "R" while booting (e.g. find the keys, get them ready, hit the power button while it's off, and then immediately press and hold the key sequence until you actually get to the screen with the apple logo). Give the boot extra time to finish.

2) if that doesn't work, hold the power button to turn it off, and now turn it on with Cmd-S instead. It should boot into a text based mode. You will see instructions. You will type

/sbin/fsck -fy

Exactly as shown. It should give a bunch of text -- it will take several minutes -- and then eventually either tell you that it succeeded or it failed to repair / verify the disk. If it succeeded, type in

shutdown -r now

And then then let the computer try to reboot.

More details: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214

Dude, Harry Potter is a magician. He hosed your 'book, not Bill Gates.
Seriously, boot in Safe Mode, run something like Onyx, sounds like a rouge cache file.
Edit: After you do mkrishnan's advice.

Sounds like the file you opened had a Macro Virus hidden inside, something which can affect any system running a version of Microsoft Office (a flaw inside Office).

To be honest, I think that MS Office is very peripherally involved in whatever happened... I have heard hardly any stories of it bringing down the entire OS and causing such a spectacular crash. This might even be the first I've ever heard.

In terms of what happened, I have no idea why the file crashed your computer, but I suspect that (a) there are no viruses, worms, or other malware involved; (b) that Office didn't "do" anything to your computer. I think what happened is that when the computer went down, the hard drive write state was such that the logical system of the hard drive isn't healthy enough for you to boot (that's what fsck fixes). It happens occasionally on crash.

The other major possibility is that, quite by random, you stumbled onto a totally unrelated problem, like your logic board going bad, bad memory, etc. I think that's actually far more likely than the possibility that Office really has anything to do with your problem. Even macro viruses don't really do anything that dramatic. They do minor annoying things. I don't think they'd be able to affect a Mac so seriously, even from an admin account, that it would not boot.

hhmmm

Try a verbose startup to see where its hanging. You'll see a black screen with writing - read it and try make some sense of it. Little clues may emerge on what the problem is

Hold down cmd-V after you’ve hit the power button (until you see text on the screen).

F

You could always just take it to an Authorized Mac Dealer and see if they can figure it out.

TheMotif said:

You could always just take it to an Authorized Mac Dealer and see if they can figure it out.

Click to expand...

But before you do that, you should, just in case, back as much of your stuff as possible.

If you have another mac with Firewire, connect the two together with a firewire cable, then, on your broken mac, restart it holding the 'T' key. This should start it up into 'Target Disk Mode', and will appear on the other mac in a few secs.

Copy everything you can (except that Happy Potter book ), take it to a Apple Dealer, then see what happens.

Or you can do a reinstall of the OS.

mkrishnan said:

To be honest, I think that MS Office is very peripherally involved in whatever happened... I have heard hardly any stories of it bringing down the entire OS and causing such a spectacular crash. This might even be the first I've ever heard.

In terms of what happened, I have no idea why the file crashed your computer, but I suspect that (a) there are no viruses, worms, or other malware involved; (b) that Office didn't "do" anything to your computer. I think what happened is that when the computer went down, the hard drive write state was such that the logical system of the hard drive isn't healthy enough for you to boot (that's what fsck fixes). It happens occasionally on crash.

The other major possibility is that, quite by random, you stumbled onto a totally unrelated problem, like your logic board going bad, bad memory, etc. I think that's actually far more likely than the possibility that Office really has anything to do with your problem. Even macro viruses don't really do anything that dramatic. They do minor annoying things. I don't think they'd be able to affect a Mac so seriously, even from an admin account, that it would not boot.

Click to expand...

You honestly don't think any sort of malware was involved, when the offending deed was through an email that has spam written all over it. You can't picture "I HAVE READ THE HARRY POTTER BOOK, HERES THE ENDING!!!!!1!!1" in your inbox, even if it is from a trusted source? If it was a virus intended on crashing a PC through office, it very well could have messed with office on the mac, and for some strange reason, done something to his system. I mean, it isn't very likely, but it is not out of the realm of possibility. There is deffinitely something fishy about this...

Exactly the same thing has happened to this user.

Seems like something's bouncing round at the moment...

PowerFullMac said:

The only reason I even opened it was because I thought even if it was a virus it wouldnt effect the good ol' Mac.

Click to expand...

Well it shouldn't. I mean mkrishnan is probably right, it was probably a coincidence. A virus or some sort of malware is just the first thing that popped into my head, as it seems so blatantly obvious that something like this is a result of malware in spam emails.

Maybe this is a sign I have been at work with this damn xp box far too long...

Do you have a system install/restore DVD or CD from which you can boot? If so, try that (hold down c during boot to boot off it).

Otherwise, try a safe boot by holding down the shift key on boot (this was another one that was on that list)... sorry for the endless list of different key combos to hold on boot.

If that doesn't work, how much memory does your iBook have? Assuming it has a memory module in the user removable slot (under the keyboard), are you comfortable with trying to take it out and seeing if the computer will boot without it? Macs are very sensitive to bad ram, and behave very chaotically (or not at all) if they have bad ram, so the ram is often on our suspect list.

PowerFullMac said:

Cant anyone help? Do I need to take it to the Genius Bar? Will it cost to repair since I have no warranty as of 3 years ago. Will my HD need to be formatted?

Click to expand...

It sounds like you should take this to a genius bar. I don't think they will charge you much if anything just to take a look, though I could be dead wrong. This seems like it is out of your control.

If you have a genius bar, yeah, at this point, that is what I would do also. Sorry.

Before taking the computer to have someone look at it you should try to troubleshoot it. No need to go through a trip to an Apple store if it could easily be fixed.

Start up from the install disks that came with the computer and repair the drive. There may be some errors or corrupt directory that is causing the problem. A simple disk repair could solve your probem.

Also, reset PMU, PRAM, NVRAM, etc....

If it boots off the install disks with no problems, then it is likely not to be a hardware issue and no need to take it anywhere. If repairing the drive does not fix it, you could perform an archive and install and that will surely get you going again, unless of course it won't boot off install disk either. If it doesn't boot off the install disk and you have reset the PRAM, PMU, etc.... then take it in to have it looked at.

This is more than likely a software issue that can be fixed quickly if you follow what I suggested to do.

PowerFullMac said:

Thing is, my nearest Genius Bar is very long way. My uncle is coming around tomorrow and hes a Mac guru so i'll see what he says. If im lucky he'll fix it.

PS: Here is a pic

Click to expand...

That is a kernal panic. If a restart doesn't clear it up (which obviously is the case), you are going to need a mac genius.