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Please help this has driven me insane!

L

lordsion

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 19, 2009
86
0
Australia
When i boot-up/restart the option/alt key does not work allowing me to pick a OS. Yes i have windows vista and have installed it via boot camp . The alt key allowed me to switch between Vista and Leopard twice (each on a different occasion) then suddenly it wont let me any longer. Instead i have to go to System Utilities and startup disk which is a pain and causes unnecessary start ups for the iMac.

HOWEVER my big worry is ... what if something happens to windows and it wont boot up ... then what???? am i screwed????? because i have to pick a default start up disk which has to be windows to get into vista, the thought of the imac just trying to boot into a corrupted vista is scary! cause i have no idea what to do then! (like how will i change the option to leopard).


I have a WIRED keyboard with nothing attached (mouse in USB at back).
Also when i start up in leopard an annoying "pop pop pop pop pop" sound occurs (that is what happens when a key is pressed on the keyboard for too long) and then it goes away after i press a random key on the keyboard. Maybe my keyboard is faulty? Also the eject disc and volume controls from the keyboard do not work in vista (however volume does work via infra red remote). What am i to do???
 
Sounds like perhaps a stuck key on your keyboard.

I had something like this a while back on a PC, and it turned out to be a stuck key. Press all your keys solidly and notice if any don't travel as much as they should, or if they do not return like they should.

Barring that, try a diff keyboard.

G/L
 
How did you format the disk for Vista? Fat 32 or NTFS? If I recall I tried Fat 32 with my Macbook to be able to write to the drive in MacOS but it made it a bit more difficult to try to boot to it. Sounds almost exactly like the issue I had. I fixed it by switching to NTFS.
 
If you applied a firmware password. To test this use the following command at the terminal:
Code: 
sudo nvram -p
If you see "security-mode=command" in the output, then that is what is going to be going on.
 
larkost said:
If you applied a firmware password. To test this use the following command at the terminal:
Code: 
sudo nvram -p
If you see "security-mode=command" in the output, then that is what is going to be going on.
Click to expand...

Sorry but where do i get to terminal???? sorry!

EDIT lol found it

It says "warning data loss could occur ... blah blah...." "enter password" and i did then it says "NAME's iMac" (Name being my name!)
 
wbtlevi said:
How did you format the disk for Vista? Fat 32 or NTFS? If I recall I tried Fat 32 with my Macbook to be able to write to the drive in MacOS but it made it a bit more difficult to try to boot to it. Sounds almost exactly like the issue I had. I fixed it by switching to NTFS.
Click to expand...

Mine is NTFS.
 
So i guess i ring up Apple?



ALSO sometimes when i first start up and right click on the dock icons to select a option, the blue highlight bar just goes mental and jumps all over the choices. Also it does this in the menu bar at the top.
 
lordsion said:
So i guess i ring up Apple?



ALSO sometimes when i first start up and right click on the dock icons to select a option, the blue highlight bar just goes mental and jumps all over the choices. Also it does this in the menu bar at the top.
Click to expand...

Something else sounds wrong ... unless your mouse is connected through the keyboard. I'd call Apple.
 
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