Hi everyone, Im baack!!
I just wanted to drop by and let you know that everythings okay now, and to thank yall for your help and support!
I did take it in to the Apple repair center (we dont have an Apple subsidiary here yet, so no pretty Apple Store or Genius bar for us!), and they just did what a few of you had suggested, and I had tried before once without any luck: they kept the mouse button down while starting up. Apparently, it worked the first time--I could have don eit myself if I hadnt been so panicked! But I would still have taken it in, to check for any damage, so it doesnt matter that I brought it in with the cd inside still. But I was so glad they didnt even need to open it up! I handed it in Wednesday noon, and had an answer before 6 the same day--I didnt reply until now because I had to get it yesterday since reception shuts at 2pm and they were already shut when they notified me it was ok.
They looked at the cd and didnt see any scratches or other physical deformation that could have caused the macbook to panic, so they told me their best guess was that it was a case of the burn process not having been done properly, having been only half-done, which makes sense since if it had been complete, wed have been able to use it, and if it hadnt been written at all, surely it would have shown up as a blank cd, wouldnt it?
anyway, by Wednesday morning, after having pulled a worried all-nighter, I was in such a state of pissed-off upset that I asked my mom if I could come along to the beginning of the committee meeting, so that when she raised the matter of the cd not working, I could have the satisfaction of seing the guy get cnfused and putting in my two-cents in person. She was going to bring it up anyway because the guy was due to be designated the resident It and computing guy for the committee (hes not an IT pro, hes just suposed to be a bit knowledgeable, and the other committee members are kind of on the old side so theyre wary of computers. My mom, at 50, is by far the second youngest!). and she already was having a bad feeling about his fitness for that, because shed caught him saying stuff even she knew was nonsense, as well as bragging about how there was no need to budget for a copy of word and Excel for the committee laptop since he can get those on the sly no probs, har har, and then picking up the laptop by the lid and hauling it up, yanking a flash drive without ejecting, those kinds of things. So I met him, and frankly he didnt strike me as the sharpest tool in the box, either. My own impression added to my mothers make it rather easy to imagine the guy getting sloppy and cutting corners to look clever; the deadly combo of too much confidence and not enough skill!
I wanted to thank yall for the support; even if it didnt result in the problem being fixed immediately, lots of you came up with just the same thing the repair technicians did, and besides, even the hand-holding was just what I needed as I got a bit panicky there for a bit, lol. See without this computer, I dont have entertainment (I watch movies and tv series, offline and on SurfTheChannel, until I can get higher quality itunes rentals!), news, communicating with friends (I know practically no one here, all my mates live far), shopping since I buy most of the non-supermarket stuff I need on eBay and Etsy--I cant even get organized properly as my contacts and calendar are on here (Ill be sticking those on my ipod once I get one after the upcoming update, though, for better portability).
So, it feels great to be back!! I really missed it, especially mac OS X!! I had to work on my moms windows xp laptop, and I realize how many things there are in Leopard that Ive come to rely on--hot corners, neat menus, easy ways to pull up an application (spotlight anyone? just g and return gets me Grab, and sys and return gives me system preferences!). Most of all though I missed the one button mouse--its so much more restful to use as I use my whole hand to press on the shell of the MM, not just the ends of my fingers like with other mice, and if I need a right-click, I still have it! Be nice if apple made the MM useable with windows, I think it would make a killing eventually, once people got over their prejudice for having two separate buttons! But the entire OS felt so great to use, win xp felt clunky and ancient to me, even though Im not a fanboy who will say, oh its crap, after all it did serve me well for so many years!
Isn't that something? I just found out about them yesterday. Their logo caught my eye. And then I started reading and came to much the same conclusion you did. "They seem like a sensible, humane lot, which is what I often feel is missing these days across much of the political spectrum." I signed up for their email list today and hope to learn much more about them. Here's a poem I just wrote for the politicians:
Red or blue,
Just be true.
Stick to what you say you'll do.
I'm held accountable and so are you!
Ok, so it's
not Shakespeare.
Maybe not, but it gets the point across
Basically, they seem to have a unifying message, and that tends to make me sit up and take notice, because a lot of modern western politics tends toward emphasizing and cultivating difference between citizens, at the same time as it encourages a globalized economy and universal solutions to local problems. and Id best shut up here it occurs to me, as this isnt the politics etc. forum!
Rosin and Mac:
did it work? or are you unable to respond because your MB is now a $1000.00 brick?
Gawd, man, dont even jest about it!!
Have you tried (if it shows up in disk utility)
Open Disk Utility (in the Utilities folder in the Applications folder), select the disc, and choose File > Eject.
good luck
It even froze disk utility for my efforts! scary huh?
Hope we hear from the OP soon with good news.
Once or twice I've had similar things happen but the disc has always come out.
Once I restarted and just had to constantly press the eject button over and over - the disc came out, but I sweated a bit.
What happened to the manual eject button - is there one on the MB - I can't see a sign of one. I almost used to enjoy using a straightened out paper clip.
some of the later slot drives (like my trusty ole PBG4 800) didn't have the 'pinhole' for ejecting the disc, but there was some sort of pad or lever inside the slot that you could push with a paperclip. But I must admit I don't think I EVER got it to work. Do the new slot drives have this? I don't want to stick a paperclip into my new MBP to find out!
My MB is my first Apple laptop - I was remembering my first two iMacs.
Me too - don't think I want to push a paperclip in unless I know there is an eject button.
My honest opinion is if anyone's putting a paper clip in my computer, it's going to be someone that knows what they are doing
. Take it to the Genius Bar, and if it isn't under warranty, see how much it will cost to fix. For all we know, the may just stick in a paper clip and take it out there and then.
Yeah, even if Id been sure there was such a thing, I wouldnt have dared try it myself! Im with you guys there.
Also, is this a non-standard size disk, and/or does it have a label stuck on it? Both are no-no's in a slot-loading drive.
Naw, none of these, I already knew about that. and besides, I never use such disks anyway, not even with my sturdy old micro hi-fi--dont see the point of them honestly!
That said, when I was picking up the 'puter yesterday from the repair center, another guy was there saying hed tried just that with his own machine, and he was complaining too! Honestly!!! I wanted to slap him for mistreating macbooks!
My discussion about paperclips is purely motivated by the fact that on some Macs in the past (even slot loaders) there used to be a little hole at the end of the drive that you could put a straightened out paperclip in and eject a disc from the drive.
You weren't putting it into the drive.
A useful little feature - obviously gone and forgotten.
So, a bit like the reset button you used to have on some electronics, maybe still do? that would have been neat, I agree. Not unsightly or too easy too press accidentally like on some windows laptops, but still there if you need it. Although maybe thats what the eject button on the keyboard is supposed to be there for?
