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My iMac is a worthless piece of garbage!

rkphoto

rkphoto

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 1, 2005
100
0
BROOKLYN
Sorry. I've tried to be as positive as possible but this computer has given me nothing but problems since day 1 (I've had it for almost 2 months). At this point I would like to find a really tall building and drop it off. I have given up, it is an utterly worthless machine. It's a 20" G5 iMac for details see my signature.

Today it decided that it wasn't going to let me print from any of my programs, I can't open any files in Photoshop or Quark, I can't send any emails, I can open documents in InDesign but it won't let me print. the "Print & Fax" option in System Preferences won't open.

I've "repaired permissions", reinstalled my printer driver (for my Epson 2200), Restarted and shut down at least a dozen times, unplugged all peripherals and then re plugged them. I tried switching user accounts which didn't allieviate any of my problems. If anybody has any idea what could be wrong please let me know. Right now all I can do with my $2500 computer is play Return to Castle Wolfenstein and surf the internet, not a good use of time for a small business owner. Thanks.



rk
 
Hi, well I may not know alot but one Q is I see you have an external HDD.
So did you clone your system on that or is it just for backing up? I ask because if you hade cloned your system you could start up from that and see if you get the same results. If not then I'm really not sure except did you check the printer setup util.? Maybe for some reason something isn't selected in there for printing. Not sure if this really helps :eek:
 
Call Apple. Go to apple store. Applecare is there for problems like this. I would also try a reinstall of OS X just to make sure it is the iMac and not just a screw up on the installation of OS X when they loaded it on the HD.
 
Well, you could run the hardware test cd that came with the iMac and see what that tells you. If everything checks out OK, then you could try doing a clean install of the system. That has solved problems for me before, but it is a pain in the hind parts.
 
Thanks for the help. I've been trying not to have to reinstall the system because I don't want to lose all my emails, calendar, bookmarks, address book, etc. I have most everything backed up on the external drive. Is this a case where "Archive and Install" is a viable option and will that save my info? Thanks again. Really appreciate it. I think I'm going to call Applecare right now. Anyway any input is greatly appreciated.

RK
 
rkphoto said:
Today it decided that it wasn't going to let me print from any of my programs, I can't open any files in Photoshop or Quark, I can't send any emails, I can open documents in InDesign but it won't let me print. the "Print & Fax" option in System Preferences won't open.

rk
Click to expand...
Classic apps or OS X?
 
at this point you're covered by the warranty, so just call them or take it in to the store. I'd probably do the later if possible...back up everything first, of course!

sorry you're having problems.
 
The "Archive and install" will preserve your user account, emails, settings etc. Ons small note: It may not 100% solve your problem if part of it is due to settings or fonts or some corrupted file(s) that re left behind in your User area which is automatically reimported by the Archive and install.

It does sound like something is fubar'd in your OSX installation. Go for the Archive & Install.

The Epson 2200 printer driver is wonky. It all of a sudden decides to "Stop" a print job as soon as you send it. You can Resume and it'll just "Stop" again. This is an Epson problem. Delete the Epson printer drive and any Epson plist files. Then download and reinstall the latest drive from Epson.

You may need to call Epson, or experiment with the exact method of Adding the printer. I seem to recall that you shouldn't add the printer from te Print Center but from an applications Print dialogs. You might try searching this forum and the Mac help sites for more info.
 
Try to safe boot...

But as long as you try to preserve your user account, you run the risk of not getting rid of the problem.

Remember to run repair permissions from the HD, but it also sounds like there could be some general file system problems (if it isn't a borked kext file) -- so running fsck could be worth a shot.
 
Not being able to open a file in photoshop or the system preferences is not a hardware problem. The first thing you should have done when you got your Mac is reinstalled OS X (as in erase your hard drive completely and install a fresh copy). There's a lot of crap your computer comes with that you don't need, so it makes sense to get rid of it and also any problems that might be lurking. You have that nice external drive, so it shouldn't be a problem to back up your home directory.
 
jamdr said:
Not being able to open a file in photoshop or the system preferences is not a hardware problem. The first thing you should have done when you got your Mac is reinstalled OS X (as in erase your hard drive completely and install a fresh copy). There's a lot of crap your computer comes with that you don't need, so it makes sense to get rid of it and also any problems that might be lurking. You have that nice external drive, so it shouldn't be a problem to back up your home directory.
Click to expand...

Well this isn't windows and any nonApple App in the Applications folder not opened yet can be deleted without any other files left behind.

To me, it sounds like a font issue
 
7on said:
To me, it sounds like a font issue
Click to expand...

Honest question. Not being a smarty pants... Are you serious? Or is this a funny sarcastic remark? The reason I ask is that I have seen that comment in various places and never really knew if the person is serious. Can fonts jack up your system, or am I out of the joke loop? :confused:
 
Solved

I did an "Archive and Install" installation which allowed me to keep all of my settings and info and everything is working fine again. I think my problem may have stemmed from doing a transfer from my old iMac when I bought my new iMac (hooking the two computers up via firewire). I don't recommend it as it seems like I transfered over the bugginess of the old iMac as well. Also of note, the printer driver seems to be completely different since I reloaded the system. It seems like I've reverted to the last generation driver which was actually much better than the newer driver. I had been having a really hard time with Color Management on this machine but this has solved my problems and my prints are matching my screen once again. I don't know if they "improved" the Epson driver in the 10.3.8 upgrade but it caused me many problems. I'm running 10.3.6 now and am hesitant to run the upgrade for fear of upsetting my ability to print with accurate color. Anybody have similar situation/ experience?

Anyway thanks for all of your help. Much appreciated.

rk
 
RAM issue. Font issue. Or just a buggy OS install. In cases like these, I'll pull out the RAM and do a complete wipe of the HD and re-install the OS and all apps from scratch. Then slowly build up the system by only adding the necessary fonts, etc, until you know you have a stable system.
 
I am not totally new, but have had so few problems over the past six years with my older iMac that I would be in need of direction when doing a clean install. Does anyone have a location on this site, or the web, where someone can go to find out the best way to do a clean instal? AND, for some of us who don't know the meaning of it, what is a clean install ... or better (perhaps more fun?) What does it mean to you? Thanx...


P.S. I am running the factory installation of Panther on mynew iMac, so a clean install is likely in my not too distant future...
 
When you go to install OS X, you can select one of several options for installing it. The "clean install" option will wipe your hard drive completely and reinstall the OS. There's also an "archive install" which will set aside your old system folder (saving things like email and address book settings) and reinstall a new system folder. This can be a good option if you don't want to format your hard drive. Finally there's the upgrade install, which only works if you have an older version of OS X and want to upgrade it to a newer version. So if you have 10.2 installed and want to upgrade to 10.3, one of the options is to just upgrade your old 10.2 system folder to become a 10.3 one. The problem with that option is that it tends to leave some crap behind, especially if you do it many times in a row.
 
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