Macbook Startup and others problem

[xavier2k3]

On booting my macbook today, startup took ages and hung on a blue screen for a long while before eventually getting into os x. I thought nothing of it and tried to but up microsoft word and i get an error about a shared library. Further more, none of the office suite stuff works. ALso, all my information that would usually be on my top taskbar are not there (such as time date, battery, network) etc is not there. Only the iUalert icon is there. Is there anyway to fix this, or do i have go and get it checked out at the apple store?

regards
--marty

 

[mad jew]

How much free space do you have on your hard drive? Do you have third party RAM? What recent changes did you make to your system?

 

[xavier2k3]

I have over 40GB space left on my hard drive, probably more infact, i've made no hardware changes. My laptop has worked fine since i bought it last 2 weeks ago, all i've done is install Microsoft Office 2004 for mac.

 

[mad jew]

So the RAM is all from Apple? Maybe open Disk Utility and verify your hard drive. Tell us if it comes back with any errors.

 

[xavier2k3]

Yeh, Apple Ram.

Right, i did the verify disk and it failed due to an "invalid key length apparently. The Hard Drive volume needs to be repaired". First Aid then failed because "The underlying task reported failure on exit". "Only 1 HFS Volume was checked".

Looks like a b0rked hard drive. Better get going to the apple store.

regards
--marty

 

[deadpixels]

all i've done is install Microsoft Office 2004 for mac.

uninstall all darkside software and your machine will thank you by satrting faster no, seriously since it is the last thing you installed on it, you might want to uninstall the suite and try if it boots up faster then install again to check

 

[mad jew]

Your drive's probably fine. Just run boot from the OSX discs (hold C), open Disk Utility, repair your drive and keep repairing until it makes no changes. If you can't find your discs, then run fsck.

 

[xavier2k3]

I've already taken the Macbook back and had a brand new one given to me in exchange.

I now have another problem, however. On my last Macbook, by pressing the num lock, or brightness up, down buttons (F2-F5), they would work without having to press the function key. Now they only work if i press the function key, is there anyway to get the button working like the way it was before?

regards
--marty

 

[chendo]

I've already taken the Macbook back and had a brand new one given to me in exchange.

I now have another problem, however. On my last Macbook, by pressing the num lock, or brightness up, down buttons (F2-F5), they would work without having to press the function key. Now they only work if i press the function key, is there anyway to get the button working like the way it was before?

regards
--marty

That's an option in the Preferences. Not so sure myself (new to OSX myself), but it should be in the keyboard options.

 

[aspro]

That's an option in the Preferences. Not so sure myself (new to OSX myself), but it should be in the keyboard options.

Yeah, go into System Preferences, Keyboard and Mouse, then Keyboard and the option is in there.

 

[xavier2k3]

Thanks for your help guys, i managed to figure it out in a lecture this morning. Had a worry when my new Macbook went into a command log when i booted this morning, but a quick turn off and turn back on solved it.

regards
--marty