Broken iMac?

[fanxdam]

I'm new to the whole Mac world, I used G5 in college but never owned anything Mac before until October when I bought the iMac, so i'm very new to all this.

So now I hardly use the computer, and I think my mom leaves it on all day and night. I tried to shut it down the other day and it wouldn't do it. I clicked it, waited a bit and nothing happened. Repeated a few times, nothing happened. I tried using the Force Quit option the other day, also to no avail. Same thing; wait a bit, repeat, nothing.

I still haven't installed OSX Leopard yet, it came free with the comp but I never bothered to install it. I have some downloaded stuff on there so I'm thinking maybe it's a virus? And if so, what would you guys reccomend?

If I install OSX Leopard will it erase everything off the disk? If not, what can I do that will? I'm starting to think that's the best option right now.

 

[pilotError]

Did you try pulling the power and rebooting?

Does it work in everything else? ie. Can open the finder, launch applications, just can't shut down?

 

[ewilson6]

for your edification, ther are no known viruses on a mac...

Start up your computer, open up disk utility and repair permissions.

--Eric

 

[iApple4000]

Re : Broken iMac

Hey, I Had The Same Problems With My MacBook Sometimes, But All I Had To Do Is Install Leopard And Update The Firmware.

Yes You Have 3 Choices When Installing Mac OS X Leopard:

1 - Upgrade , This Leaves All Of You Files Alone And Only Upgrades The System.

2 - Erase And Install, I HIGHLY Recommend This Option Because It Does Wipe EVERYTHING On You Hard Drive and Installs A New OS, From My Experience It Makes The Mac Run Faster.

3 - Archive And Install, This Wipes You Hard Drive BUT Keeps All Of Your Essentials Untouched Like BookMarks, and Contacts. But Then Again I Have Never Used This Option.


Now To FORCE Shut Down The Mac, Hold The Power Button Down For Ten Seconds.

Try Resetting The PMU By Shutting Down The Mac, and Unplug EVERYTHING including Power, Ethernet, Mode, Mouse, Keyboard, Display. Then Hold The Power Button For 10 Seconds then Plug Everything Back In.

And Then Reset The PRAM by turning on the machine by pushing the power button, then QUICKLY before the apple logo appears hold down Control + Option + Command + P + R then the computer should reboot by itself and Whola!