iBook Emergency! very little is working! please help!

[agirlwithadream]

Hello!

a few of you guys helped me out about what type of internet service ect to put on my computer a while back. I had already bought an iBook g4 off of ebay. I just got it in the mail today. Its outside appearance is good and has a very clear screen. I tried out cds and dvds in it and they worked fine. Here is the PROBLEM

well there are several. First Adobe 7.0 wont even open up. I click on it and its like it freezes completely and only a portion of it will open. Mabe it was not installed correctly?

The DATE on the computer reads 1969 lol . I tried to change this and did and pressed save but the date did not save it stayed 1969. WHy would this be? The computer every time you open it says that computer might not fuction propers since date is before 2001. I hope the date is what is causing all of this. What do you think!?

Another problem. When you open up Excel the page only fits half of the screen. How do you get the page to be bigger?! I tried zooming in and that doesnt work. Also tried to click on the red plus sighn at the top left but that only makes it a small amount bigger. I want the page to fit the whole screen and I want to be able to read the words. They are so tiny and if I make the font bigger then the page is swallowed up by the letters because its so small!

Microsoft word is having the exact same problems!!

Another big issue. When I go into like Excel and I click on newsletters and it shows me all the different formats and I choose one. Then the news letter will come up to work with. however there is no way to go back to the starting page that I know of. If I click off of the newsletter then im back to the main screen. However the dock has a little black arrow next to the Excel icon at the bottom showing that its still open...yet there is no way to get back to it. At the top of the screen there is a bar that says Excel. If I click on that a drop down screen will go down and i can click on quit Excel. Yet there is no way really to GET to it even though i click on quit. Does that make sense?!

Photoshop CS2 was pre installed as well ..there are no disks for these programs just the OS X service. I clicked on that but there is no background screen for it. there is like a editorial and then if u close that there are some other icons you can click on like toolbars but no background and no where for ur pictures to go that I can see!? was this program installed wrong?

I have no idea what to do now. I mean ive worked with this thing for like 4 hrs well pretty much all day to get it to do SOMETHING. best ive been able to do is change the back ground and play a dvd and cd in it. Everything else isnt right. Like things such as safari I know require internet and again that is not on there yet . But shoudnt I be able to use the main programs like Excel and Photoshop that have nothing to do with the internet? and shoudnt the screen be MUCH bigger to where I can see it?

I emailed the guy back who sold it to me . he was a very nice guy and we talked a LONG time before I bought this computer. It sounded great and he had very good feedback so I thought this was going to be a good thing. So far ive been able to do nothing with the iBook. I have thought of taking it to someone to look at . There might be a possibility they want to clean it out and install everything else back on right. meaning id lose those programs that were preinstalled. ugh.. even though I payed 1000 for this I still really want it to put an internet on so I can do online courses on it...and also for the photoshop but I might end up re buying this if for whatever reasons these programs on the computer are crap. Again I could probably send it back but I had heard these were such good laptops?!? and this one is almost brand new! what could be wrong!

thanks sooooooo much guys for your help again. would appreciate any and all info

 

[reh]

Quoted so it's a legible color...

Hello!

a few of you guys helped me out about what type of internet service ect to put on my computer a while back. I had already bought an iBook g4 off of ebay. I just got it in the mail today. Its outside appearance is good and has a very clear screen. I tried out cds and dvds in it and they worked fine. Here is the PROBLEM

well there are several. First Adobe 7.0 wont even open up. I click on it and its like it freezes completely and only a portion of it will open. Mabe it was not installed correctly?

The DATE on the computer reads 1969 lol . I tried to change this and did and pressed save but the date did not save it stayed 1969. WHy would this be? The computer every time you open it says that computer might not fuction propers since date is before 2001. I hope the date is what is causing all of this. What do you think!?

Another problem. When you open up Excel the page only fits half of the screen. How do you get the page to be bigger?! I tried zooming in and that doesnt work. Also tried to click on the red plus sighn at the top left but that only makes it a small amount bigger. I want the page to fit the whole screen and I want to be able to read the words. They are so tiny and if I make the font bigger then the page is swallowed up by the letters because its so small!

Microsoft word is having the exact same problems!!

Another big issue. When I go into like Excel and I click on newsletters and it shows me all the different formats and I choose one. Then the news letter will come up to work with. however there is no way to go back to the starting page that I know of. If I click off of the newsletter then im back to the main screen. However the dock has a little black arrow next to the Excel icon at the bottom showing that its still open...yet there is no way to get back to it. At the top of the screen there is a bar that says Excel. If I click on that a drop down screen will go down and i can click on quit Excel. Yet there is no way really to GET to it even though i click on quit. Does that make sense?!

Photoshop CS2 was pre installed as well ..there are no disks for these programs just the OS X service. I clicked on that but there is no background screen for it. there is like a editorial and then if u close that there are some other icons you can click on like toolbars but no background and no where for ur pictures to go that I can see!? was this program installed wrong?

I have no idea what to do now. I mean ive worked with this thing for like 4 hrs well pretty much all day to get it to do SOMETHING. best ive been able to do is change the back ground and play a dvd and cd in it. Everything else isnt right. Like things such as safari I know require internet and again that is not on there yet . But shoudnt I be able to use the main programs like Excel and Photoshop that have nothing to do with the internet? and shoudnt the screen be MUCH bigger to where I can see it?

I emailed the guy back who sold it to me . he was a very nice guy and we talked a LONG time before I bought this computer. It sounded great and he had very good feedback so I thought this was going to be a good thing. So far ive been able to do nothing with the iBook. I have thought of taking it to someone to look at . There might be a possibility they want to clean it out and install everything else back on right. meaning id lose those programs that were preinstalled. ugh.. even though I payed 1000 for this I still really want it to put an internet on so I can do online courses on it...and also for the photoshop but I might end up re buying this if for whatever reasons these programs on the computer are crap. Again I could probably send it back but I had heard these were such good laptops?!? and this one is almost brand new! what could be wrong!

thanks sooooooo much guys for your help again. would appreciate any and all info

 

[Shadow]

So much is busted, I'd do a clean install. Try getting the CS2 disks from him/her if you can-you can't just backup the Photoshop folder in Applications.

EDIT: Re-read the post, yeah, its just how OS X is ment to be.

 

[breakfastcrew]

why didn't you just get a macbook from macmall......1000 dollars for an ibook?

 

[reh]

For most of these, I think it's just a matter of learning to use OS X. I don't think there are very many real problems here.

For Excel and Word, drag the lower-right corner of the window to make it bigger. Or push the green button in the upper-left corner.

For excel again... When Excel is active, go to the file menu and click on new workbook.

 

[agirlwithadream]

Hey sorry color was to bright. umm I didnt get one from the place they sell macs because they dont have a store around here anywhere my friend bought one on ebay and i had heard alot of people had success so I just did. what should I do ? i do not have a CS2 disk to back that program up at all. is it worth it to try and send it back and get money for it or should i take it to someone and have them look at it and possibly re install the softwear? is any or those things i listed normal?

 

[reh]

$1000 for that laptop AND Photoshop AND MS Office would probably be a halfway decent deal. But you did not get a valid license to Photoshop or Office, so the deal is significantly worse. As I mentioned earlier, most of your problems are not really problems. The date thing is really the only main problem. If you're able, I'd return it and buy a new MacBook from Apple for about the same money.

 

[agirlwithadream]

Hey reh thanks for what u said. my bf told me that mabe i coudnt fix the date because it has some sort of virus. Like ill set it to say one thing but it wont save even though I click save. I am going to try and return it I think. I put alot of money into this computer so it has to work! I need it for school. any other advice ? if I cant return it

 

[reh]

Hey reh thanks for what u said. my bf told me that mabe i coudnt fix the date because it has some sort of virus. Like ill set it to say one thing but it wont save even though I click save. I am going to try and return it I think. I put alot of money into this computer so it has to work! I need it for school. any other advice ? if I cant return it

It's not a virus. If the date is not saving, then the small internal battery is probably dead. I'm not a 100% sure, but I believe the laptops have those as well. No idea how to change it though. Just to be sure, you are going to System Preferences -> Date & Time to change the time right? You can check the box to have the clock set automatically (preferred, but be sure your time zone is set correctly under the Time Zone tab).

If you can't return the laptop, then I would just do a clean install of OS X. Then you'll be all squeaky clean and staring fresh.

 

[agirlwithadream]

Hey! the date finally changed thankfully but time did not still working on that. as for everything else though its still the same . just hate that if I do have all this stuff cleaned off and put back on that I lose half of the programs I thought I was paying for. Might honestly try to send this back. i shoudnt have to pay to fix something I payed so much for right! I think its alittle crazy. not sure why he sold this to me because he gave me his phone number and all and we talked so I dont get it. Will call him though if he doesnt answer email!