I bought my first-ever iMac on Thursday. I've spent all Thursday evening, all day Friday till midnight and all day today till 3pm getting used to the new OS - I was on OS 9 till now - and making the wireless, printer, browser and email work.
Today I went to have a look at iWorks 08 for the first time ever. I chose the take a guided tour option first.
At that point I got a black frame, white panel with an Apple in it, not moving. Is this the dreaded FREEZE I keep reading about on this forum? I wouldn't know - it's my first iMac, my first OS X, my first iWorks. Here's what happened next. I phoned the 90-day free support helpline which came with the purchase.
The guy there said I seemed to have corrupted the OS and had to put an instal CD in, press C and restart. This only resulted in a knocking noise from the CD drive. At that point he gave up completely and told me to phone Apple.
He also said I'd lose all my settings so far; all my work of the last 48 hours.
Apple's phone number had a 15-minute queue, so while waiting I pressed the on/off button and sat there holding it in. Then I pressed C. To my amazement the iMac came back to life and recognised the CD. Uneasy about this, since it knew what I'd renamed the hard disk I went ahead with a full OS reinstal. This took over an hour.
NOW, as you can see, I'm back up and running. The iMac has not forgotten any of my work. I think the guy on the helpline didn't know what he was talking about. I think, he should have said, hold the on/off button for at least six seconds and you'll be fine.
Please, someone, reassure me that it is not usual to reinstal the entire OS after a freeze - or indeed - that that was what it was, a freeze.
By way of background, I have been using Macs for 13 years. On the old G4s there is a re-set button at the front to get out of freezes. I have never had to reinstal the entire OS on any Mac I have ever owned before, and certainly not one which is only two days old.
ps. I see the freeze fix message on the home page here. The specification does not fit what's on the box here. I have a ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT graphics card. Am I right to think it's inappropriate for me, then.
Many thanks for any and all responses, in advance.
Today I went to have a look at iWorks 08 for the first time ever. I chose the take a guided tour option first.
At that point I got a black frame, white panel with an Apple in it, not moving. Is this the dreaded FREEZE I keep reading about on this forum? I wouldn't know - it's my first iMac, my first OS X, my first iWorks. Here's what happened next. I phoned the 90-day free support helpline which came with the purchase.
The guy there said I seemed to have corrupted the OS and had to put an instal CD in, press C and restart. This only resulted in a knocking noise from the CD drive. At that point he gave up completely and told me to phone Apple.
He also said I'd lose all my settings so far; all my work of the last 48 hours.Apple's phone number had a 15-minute queue, so while waiting I pressed the on/off button and sat there holding it in. Then I pressed C. To my amazement the iMac came back to life and recognised the CD. Uneasy about this, since it knew what I'd renamed the hard disk I went ahead with a full OS reinstal. This took over an hour.
NOW, as you can see, I'm back up and running. The iMac has not forgotten any of my work. I think the guy on the helpline didn't know what he was talking about. I think, he should have said, hold the on/off button for at least six seconds and you'll be fine.
Please, someone, reassure me that it is not usual to reinstal the entire OS after a freeze - or indeed - that that was what it was, a freeze.
By way of background, I have been using Macs for 13 years. On the old G4s there is a re-set button at the front to get out of freezes. I have never had to reinstal the entire OS on any Mac I have ever owned before, and certainly not one which is only two days old.
ps. I see the freeze fix message on the home page here. The specification does not fit what's on the box here. I have a ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT graphics card. Am I right to think it's inappropriate for me, then.
Many thanks for any and all responses, in advance.
