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A thread dedicated to my questions (1st time Mac user)

M

morgothaod

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 26, 2009
188
0
I literally just got my Macbook Pro! Now I have some questions. I'll keep posting in here so stay tuned :p.

1. How do I look at my system specs? (I want to make sure the right macbook pro was sent to me lol)
2. How do I maximize a window?
3. How can I find out what OS I have?
 
Congratulations! I think you'll be very happy with your purchase, feel free to post back with anything you need to know. As for your first questions,

1. To see your BASIC system specs (including what kind of OS you have) click on the Apple in the top left of the screen, then go to "About this Mac". That should show your CPU, RAM, and OS version info. If you require more information click on "More info" and you can get a lot more info about all part of your Mac.

2. Click the green button in the top left of any window. Red to close, green to maximinze, yellow to minimize.
 
How do I charge my macbook? lol

I got Mac OS X version 10.5.7 is that the latest?

the green square made the window a little bit bigger but its still not covering the whole screen. so i dragged the bottom right corner. i still see the dock, is that normal? can i hide the dock?
 
The green button does not maximize completely with most applications- it might just widen or lengthen.

Google right zoom if you want every app to maximize completely.
 
I also received a Snow Leopard disk and an OS X disc. Do I need to put these in?
 
and to answer your other question, you can hide the dock by taking a visit to dock preferences. (right click/ctrl click on the dock)
 
I just plugged in a mouse and it causes the cursor to move across the screen real slow. How can I fix this?
 
Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6) is the latest version of the OS. Install it, then go to the :apple: > Software Update and it will prompt you to download 10.6.1 (an update that was released today), then you will be completely up to date.

To change your mouse speed, go to System Preferences (the icon with the gears in the dock), then choose mouse and adjust the speed.
 
Ok I put Snow Leopard in and now I must wait an hour. I'm still confused about having another "OS X" CD (its gray) and I have an applications CD as well. My mac already came with a few programs on it. Are these different applications? I plugged the charger into my mac, is that how I charge the battery? That is, does it charge up when the mac is open or must I turn it off and then put the charger in?

What happened?

I put in Snow Leopard and followed the instructions. The bar said 45 minutes left and all of a sudden my mac made a noise and it appeared to have shut down. It started back up again and now the screen is black. When I touch the track pad, nothing happens. I still hear the cd rom drive scanning the disc. What happened? I had the power cord hooked up to it.
 
It charges with the comptuer on or off, makes no difference, as long as it is plugged in.

As for your CD's, your comptuer shippped with OS X 10.5.7, and the grey CD is just that, the Snow Leopard disk is Mac OS 10.6. Each major release of Mac OS is a by-purchase-only product, and goes 10.0, 10.1, 10.2 etc. etc. so 10.6 is the next major release. It hit the market about 2 weeks ago. I would put this in and install it immediatly, its much easier to be able to just wipe your comptuer and "start fresh" before you start putting documents on it and such, because then you'll have to back those up before installing.

Also your "applications CD", I don't think it will have anything different on it. . . anyone else know what might be on the CD? Your other option is just to put it in and see what it has.


Sounds to me like something went bad, I honestly don't know what. If I were you I would PLUG IN the laptop, (make sure the cable is plugged into the laptop and the wall), then start the installation over, tell it to erase and to a clean install on the HD.
 
I turned it off and turned it back on. It loaded a gray screen with the apple icon in the back and a loading glass. it shows it loading and then the screen turns black after a minute.
 
Put the CD in and then restart it, while its rebooting hold down the option key, it should come up with a list of things you can boot off of, choose the CD and continue on.
 
Tower-Union said:
Put the CD in and then restart it, while its rebooting hold down the option key, it should come up with a list of things you can boot off of, choose the CD and continue on.
Click to expand...

How do I get the CD out? edit nm I'll do what u said

It's still screwed up. It looks like I'll have to see a Genius. It seems like I'm not the only one who is experiencing this problem. I'm so frustrated and mad right now. I thought I was going to really like my Mac too.
 
morgothaod said:
I turned it off and turned it back on. It loaded a gray screen with the apple icon in the back and a loading glass. it shows it loading and then the screen turns black after a minute.
Click to expand...

Did you turn it off while it was installing Snow Leopard? :eek:

I am asking because you said you'd have an hour wait when you went to install SL and then 40 minutes later posted that you turned it off and back on (probably while it was finishing the install).

And what do you mean "screwed up"?
 
I reset the PRAM and now I got back to the install Leopard screen. I just noticed that the screen was black but this time it went back to the installation bar after i touched the track pad. It is also on 43 minutes. So I'm praying it'll install!

It seems to be stuck at 39 minutes. I read that others are having the install bar stick on them too. One guy said it took him 8 hours to install. I'll leave my computer on and see if it'll be installed when I wake up.

It finally installed and everything seems to be ok. Thank God lol
 
There is an issue where some computer systems will appear to display no video while 10.6 is installing. This is due to the change in the display gamma profile from 1.8 to 2.2, and also to the brightness not being set at the maximum before beginning the install of 10.6. You can identify immediately if your unit is affected by this by pointing a flashlight at the display to simulate the backlight functionality. If you can see faintly that the install appears to be progressing, and you let it proceed, you should be fine. Assuming you hadn't backed out of the install your system has probably finished the install by this point and restarted normally.
 
morgothaod said:
I'm still confused about having another "OS X" CD (its gray) and I have an applications CD as well. My mac already came with a few programs on it. Are these different applications?
Click to expand...
The grey OS X CD is the original version of Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) that was installed on your laptop. The reason yours came with both the grey 10.5 and the new 10.6 discs is that you purchased it shortly after the release of OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) - for Apple computers purchased this recently after a major OS upgrade, the latest version of OS X is added as a drop-in upgrade DVD, for the user to install upon receiving the computer.

The Applications disc includes the applications that are already installed on your computer, in case you ever need to reinstall them. The most notable on that disc is likely the iLife suite (Garage Band, iDVD, iMovie, iPhoto, iWeb).

morgothaod said:
I plugged the charger into my mac, is that how I charge the battery? That is, does it charge up when the mac is open or must I turn it off and then put the charger in?
Click to expand...
Yes, that is how to charge the battery. It should charge as long as it is plugged in, no matter if the computer is on or off. It may charge slightly faster when the computer is off, since the computer won't need any of that power to continue running, but the difference is likely negligible.
 
Is it possible for me to set it up so I must enter a password each time I turn on my computer to use it? (for security purposes, so no one can just turn on my computer and run programs on it). I know I can turn the computer on and then log off, but I would rather have it work the other way.
 
morgothaod said:
Is it possible for me to set it up so I must enter a password each time I turn on my computer to use it? (for security purposes, so no one can just turn on my computer and run programs on it). I know I can turn the computer on and then log off, but I would rather have it work the other way.
Click to expand...

I hope the System Preferences options are the same on Snow Leopard and Leopard.

System Preferences > security > check "require password to wake this computer from sleep or screensaver"

For all accounts > "disable automatic login"

Incidentally I always found the "help" options on Windows to be a pain (I haven't used it since XP though, it could well be better now), but it's quite good on mac. It'll tell you most things like how to set up passwords etc

This might also be useful for you:

http://www.apple.com/support/switch101/
 
I reset the pram and then hit some key at start up to boot the cd up. Snow Leopard finally installed.
 
I installed Open Office and MSN, but they don't appear on the dock when I start up my laptop. How can I make these 2 programs stay in the dock? It's annoying having to search for them (and I want to keep my desktop free of icons).
 
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