Noobie who is about to return his new Imac!

[mappieclead]

I have been a lurker for about a year taking well advantage of the extensive knowledge offered here and I am quite thankful to this forum as it's helped me along the imac path. However, the lived experience has been an entirely different thing.

And so I have had a few days to assess my new Ima,c it’s the 2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
2GB memory ,320GB hard drive1, 8x double-layer SuperDrive ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO with 256MB memory in the 24 in mode and I am thinking I have made a bad choice. It's quite distressing because I had high expectations and was unfortunately seduced by the hype. The people at the apple store where quite helpful and very excited about the product and I wish I was the same; I will probably pack it back up and eat the restocking fee and move on to a Dell.
I couldn’t successfully set up the email, despite being able to receive email, I am unable to send. Yup, I went through the promps, and tutorials of Apple and my ISP, all with negative results.
Transferring my old docs from my pc has been problematic as well. I plugged my external hard drive in the IMAC just to see it would be recognized and wha la, it popped on my desk top and all looked good. Success!! I was able to see my old files which was comforting. Knowing I would transfer them at a later time, I unplugged the drive not knowing I had to eject it and it gave me an error. I plugged it back in, and now it wouldn’t show on the desktop, nor any where else. So I call customer service and talk to a guy in India who barely speaks English and he tells me I have to reload the software that came with the computer. 2 hours later, I am back where I started and my external hard drive is now readable but now I have lost the ilife bundle or I can't seem to find it. So I call customer service back and they closed at 6pm eastern. Again, this is a problem because I start work at 615AM and get home at 615 pm. (I had the day off on Friday so I could call). Fair enough, so I go back to xfering my word documents to the imac and am able to put some in place. Now I need a word processor so I decide to download the trial version of Iwork like the salesman suggested and it gives me an error and wont load on the Imac. Hmmm. I opted not to buy the Iwork because I didn’t know if I would like it and the trial version was a good way to try it on for size. I can't call customer service b/c they are closed and its Saturday so I go to bed pissed off. So here I am 3 days into the Imac experience and so far. I can receive email but can't send, I can't open my resume nor my wife's or yea and did I mention I can't send it. The photos my wife took of her pool party this weekend are not able to be edited and "created" because I lost ilife in the reboot and I can't talk to anyone at apple customer service cuz its after 6 and I am asking myself, did I move up by moving to an imac or did I step down. At this moment, I will probably pack the machine up and get my money back, go to best buy and get a Dell. Yea, I know I am probably misinformed and I am a noobee. I not a Mac basher as I don’t have $1799.00 + printer +tax = $2133.00 to throw around and yes, I did do my research and thought about it for about a year thinking it would be a good fit. My wife was/is excited with the photo and DVD platforms as she wanted to showcase our 18 month old. So far, my 7 year old Dell has shown to be a steadfast slow performer but at least, it can do the basics. So, what should I do?

 

[fredsarran]

Sad scenario

Hi,

I just read your post and I understand.

For my side, I had a lot of great experiences with Apple Mac Computers, and of course some bad moments. What I can say it is that I had better experience with Mac than a PC.

I do not want to leave a long reply but a lot of your issues does not come from your iMac but from the other parties (ISP, HDD external, etc...). I had similar issues, got a replacement and it worked (changed of ISP, issue with a LaCie HDD).

Good luck.

 

[teleromeo]

Neo office is free and comparable to microsoft office. It reads and converts to ms docs.

Sending mail should be simple to install.

iLife is on your install disks, if you cannot find it in the applications folder you can reinstall it.

 

[vandozza]

1. The iWork trial shoud be on the Leopard install DVD(s), maybe on the second one. I don't think you need to download it again.

2. If you can't send mail then I would suggest you havn't set up your SMTP outgoing server correctly. I have used Macs with about 10 different ISP's all around the world, and it would surprise me if this was not a simple configuration mistake. (IE it's not the hardware.)

3. Do you know someone locally who uses Macs, maybe you could ask them to help you with your current (and likely future) issues. Owning a Mac, or any computer for that matter, will never be without the occasional issue, and yes, you are much more likely to have these problems while you have a new machine, and are still learning your way around.

I would see if you can get some help with setting this stuff up, and give the Mac a second chance. I think most people here would agree that if you get over the teething problems then you will have a more positive computer experience than in windows land

If you send me your ISP, I may be able to help you with setting up your outgoing mail. But do try and install the iWork demo from the Leopard discs, if you get a small victory here, you might feel more positive about thinigs.

 

[martychang]

Maybe try and find a general Mac tutorial to get you acquainted with "how things work"(i.e. ejecting drives).

The best thing to do when learning a new platform is to poke around. Not necessarily try everything you see, but look at all the things you can. TextEdit, which comes with your Mac should be able to open Word files, from both Office 2003 and 2007.

NeoOffice is what I recommend for a real office suite, because it's free and totally feature comparable to (and compatible with)MS Office.

As for outgoing mail I have no idea, but I would wager misconfiguration. Otherwise, Mail.app, the mail program that comes with the Mac is quite buggy nowadays by all accounts, not a common problem among Apple's apps. See if it works in the Mac version of Mozilla Thunderbird.

 

[gehrbox]

Sorry you had a rocky start. switching to a new computer is sometimes difficult. Switching from a PC to Mac is not without it's difficulties as well.

The DVD you reinstalled Mac OS X from should have reinstalled the applications included with the Mac. Double click on the "Macintosh HD" icon on your desktop and click on the "Applications" item in the column on the left. Look for a folder named "iWork 08" in the right pane of the window. If you find it double click and look for programs named "Pages", "Numbers" and "Keynote". Those are the iWork applications.

If the folder is not there you can install it be inserting the same disk you used to reinstall the OS. When it's window appears on the screen double click on "Install Bundled Software Only" and follow the prompts. This will reinstall only the applications that shipped with your Mac.

I have both iWork and a free application named NeoOffice for editing Word and Excel files. Its hard to beat free, so give NeoOffice a shot at http://www.neooffice.org/neojava/en/download.php#download .

Your mail issue sounds like the mail account on the Mac is setup to authenticate SMTP. Most mail servers do not require authentication when you are connected to an ISP that provides the mail service. Could also be that secure sockets layer is configured and might not be required or that your ISP uses a different SMTP port number. You can correct this. The following instructions work with Bellsouth, AT&T and most ISP provided mail services.

Click on the "Mail" menu at the top of the screen and select "Preferences" from the menu that appears.

Click on the "Accounts" icon at the top of the window that appears. A list of the email accounts will be listed in the column on the left. Click on the account you are having a problem with.

About 2/3's of the way down that same window is a dropbox labeled "Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP):". Click on the name that appears in the dropbox and select "Edit server list..."

A new window will appear. The top half of this window lists your accounts. The account you previously selected should be highlighted already. In the middle of the window is a toggle control. Half of it is Labeled "Account Information" and the other half is labeled "Advanced". Click on "Advanced" to select it.

The area below advanced should now display a couple of items. Make sure "Server port" says "25" or whatever port your mail server uses and next to that make sure "Use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)" is unchecked if your mail server does not require SSL. If you don't know uncheck it.

Below that is a dropbox labeled "Authentication". "None" should be selected.

At this point click the "OK" button, close the accounts window and try sending yourself an email.

 

[mappieclead]

Still plugging away

Thank you all for your replies and giving me a comfort factor. I will give these things a try. Sounds like "garden variety" issues. I had to vent. All hope is not lost..but nearing.

 

[Muncher]

Thank you all for your replies and giving me a comfort factor. I will give these things a try. Sounds like "garden variety" issues. I had to vent. All hope is not lost..but nearing.

Good luck this time 'round.

Yeah, I've had trouble with drives before. Drag them from the desktop (they should be there) into the trash, which will turn into an eject symbol before unplugging. (I learned the hard way ).

 

[bob vansteel]

too me it just seems like you are having a hard time with osx, not your iMac....this is understandable for long time pc users, i would just recomend running bootcamp until you get the hang of things so you can still enjoy this awsome machine.

 

[harry454]

to fix send messages from mail, goto preferences and go on the accounts tab, then select the account you want to use, on the account page go on the account information page, at the very bottom is "Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP) on the drop down box select edit server list, then once on servers page, select advanced info tab and change the SSL port to 587 save and your all done , had the same problem mate, just ask anything you need help with, I'm sure one of us could help you out easily.

I know gehrbox said use port 25, use 587, because I know what problem your having, I had the same one

 

[kabunaru]

If you ever need to use Windows, don't go back to a PC. Use Boot Camp (in Applications/Utilities) on the iMac and install Windows on it. Then you will have the best of both world on one computer.

 

[gehrbox]

to fix send messages from mail, goto preferences and go on the accounts tab, then select the account you want to use, on the account page go on the account information page, at the very bottom is "Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP) on the drop down box select edit server list, then once on servers page, select advanced info tab and change the SSL port to 587 save and your all done , had the same problem mate, just ask anything you need help with, I'm sure one of us could help you out easily.

I know gehrbox said use port 25, use 587, because I know what problem your having, I had the same one

Harry454 is right it could also be your mail service provider uses an alternate port like 587 for SMTP.

 

[aristobrat]

So I call customer service and talk to a guy in India who barely speaks English and he tells me I have to reload the software that came with the computer.

Apple's Mac technical support is North American based. Whoever you talked to was either in Texas, California, or Canada. They're also open until 9:00 PM ET weeknights. I called them at about 8:50 ET the other night and got through with no issues.

 

[Jon.Stewart87]

to me it seems that a lot of common sense computer things you just failed to do.

for instance - not ejecting the external (this applies to just about anything plugged in... also goes for PC's as well.)

i don't know who you talked to, but Apple, as stated above is a North American based company and everyone i've talked to has been nothing but friendly and accommodating.. his advice to you was good advice.

 

[Chrycopsycho]

Originally Posted by mappieclead
So I call customer service and talk to a guy in India who barely speaks English and he tells me I have to reload the software that came with the computer.

Never be afraid to ask to speak with someone who speaks english...I do and always have had good luck getting them to switch operators. I've only contacted Apple tech twice and was very happy. Never had the non-english speaking problem with Apple, only MS.

 

[mappieclead]

to me it seems that a lot of common sense computer things you just failed to do.

for instance - not ejecting the external (this applies to just about anything plugged in... also goes for PC's as well.)

i don't know who you talked to, but Apple, as stated above is a North American based company and everyone i've talked to has been nothing but friendly and accommodating.. his advice to you was good advice.

Yea you are probably right about the common sence thing. With regards to the guy at customer service. He was very courteous and quite helpful in his attempt and should be commended for his effort. I just had some trouble understanding him and he was in India because I asked him and he told me he was in Mumbai. The hours of operation per the recording that I got were 6pm but I just called today and they said 9pm. (?) Anyway, good information all around. thanks in advance.

 

[vansouza]

Hi, sorry for your negative experiences; but you seem to be describing user errors and not hardware or software issues.

Good luck with Dell if you go that route.

 

[ale500]

Transferring my old docs from my pc has been problematic as well. I plugged my external hard drive in the IMAC just to see it would be recognized and wha la, it popped on my desk top and all looked good. Success!! I was able to see my old files which was comforting. Knowing I would transfer them at a later time, I unplugged the drive not knowing I had to eject it and it gave me an error. I plugged it back in, and now it wouldn’t show on the desktop, nor any where else

Not to bash (too much) but you have to unmount (safe eject) the disk on wondows (or linux) also. If you never did it before and just removed the usb/fw connector from your pc when on... well you sure had problems before... or maybe you just turned off the pc before disconnecting.
Do not blame the Mac.
I'd recommend you read the manuals, plenty of them, because many things are different, not better/worse, just different. Starting with a keyboard without an Insert key, and page up and page down keys that behave different for different programs.... plenty to learn

 

[synth3tik]

One thing that might help is to get a list together of everything you are wondering about and go to a book store, where you can sit down and flip through the book and find everything you need. There are a lot of great OS X books out there. If you feel like you would want to have one around the house just pick one up. I just go and find what I am looking for and jot it down. It's just a way to save a few bucks.

 

[Tomorrow]

These problems aren't Mac-specific.

I couldn’t successfully set up the email, despite being able to receive email, I am unable to send. Yup, I went through the promps, and tutorials of Apple and my ISP, all with negative results.

I've had problems setting up email accounts before as well, but I can assure you that the problem wasn't the OS. I've used accounts which used non-standard POP3 and SMTP ports, or which required authentication or SSL to log in. Those settings will be the same regardless of your email client, and regardless of your operating system.

...I unplugged the drive not knowing I had to eject it and it gave me an error.

I know, you had to go through a bunch of hoops to try to restore things after this gaffe, which is always frustrating; but as far as I'm aware just about every storage volume in any operating system should be unmounted before being physically removed - even Windows can corrupt a removable drive if you unplug it before "ejecting" (unmounting) it. That danger will follow you to a Dell, as well.

Don't get me wrong; if you feel like a Mac isn't for you, then it probably isn't. It's a very personal choice. But you should probably be aware that trading in the Mac for a Dell, or any other computer, isn't going to make these two problems go away.

 

[carlosbutler]

im sorry to hear what you have had to go through. when i get my iMac i hope i dont have the same problem. but if you were to get a PC, just dont get dell. the customer service might not as well exist, and when i bought one it worked perfectly fine, and i really liked it untill one tiny thing went wrong, and it went down hill from there. i had to send it back and forth from dell, then the warrenty ended and they stopped and then i just got pissed of and built my own PC. dell apparently use 'special' components, so i wasnt able to simply use the same motherboard for example.

personally i wouldnt give up straight away. good things dont normally come easy...

when you yanked out the HDD first time, did you ever restart the computer? that normally works, although the macs i have used, when i just pull out the memory stick i was able to put it back in with no problem. i think it was a bit strange that you had to reinstall OS X just for that problem:s

 

[Goldenbear]

...I couldn’t successfully set up the email, despite being able to receive email, I am unable to send. Yup, I went through the promps, and tutorials of Apple and my ISP, all with negative results...

It sounds like a matter of not understanding how to configure the settings correctly. It's confusing for non-tech people, so don't feel bad. If you move to a new computer (even a DELL), you'll have the same problem.

Does your email service have a web-based version? If so, you could just use that for now.

...I plugged my external hard drive in the IMAC just to see it would be recognized and wha la, it popped on my desk top and all looked good. Success!! I was able to see my old files which was comforting. Knowing I would transfer them at a later time, I unplugged the drive not knowing I had to eject it and it gave me an error. I plugged it back in, and now it wouldn’t show on the desktop, nor any where else. So I call customer service and talk to a guy in India who barely speaks English and he tells me I have to reload the software that came with the computer...

...but now I have lost the ilife bundle or I can't seem to find it...

First of all, you have to dismount the drive in Windows too. It's not a Mac thing.

Also, I fail to understand why you needed to reinstall the OS. That was absolutely terrible advice!

And check the installation DVD for the iLife applications.

...Now I need a word processor so I decide to download the trial version of Iwork like the salesman suggested and it gives me an error and wont load on the Imac...

iWorks is a good product, but for your needs, I'd recommend Neo Office. Best of all, it's free!

If you have an Apple Store nearby, I'd highly recommend taking your iMac to one. They're very helpful for these type of things.

 

[mappieclead]

UPDATE on my iMac

Thank you for your input and replies. I have since had a number of "wins" and its starting to come around for me. I was able to get my email working, all my files have been sucessfully imported from my external drive and I am starting to get around the different programs. I can even send pics and documents.....(duh) !! (I got it with regards to ejecting devices, lesson learned.) All in all, my first few days were miserable and now I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I took it in to the genius bar and they were nothing but helpful and patient with me and set some things up for me. At this moment, I am sorting thru the different programs and figuring out the art of import and export and the little differences that come with the mac but its becoming more managable and surprisingly intuiti. Last night, my wife created a DVD, complete with music and she did it in about 10 minutes and she immediatley saw the potential. Again, thanks for your comments and shared experiece. I am still on the learing curve and underestimated my ability to pick it up fast, but this past week I have made leaps and bounds....O yea, the Mac Stays.

 

[Consultant]

Thank you for your input and replies. I have since had a number of "wins" and its starting to come around for me. I was able to get my email working, all my files have been sucessfully imported from my external drive and I am starting to get around the different programs. I can even send pics and documents.....(duh) !! (I got it with regards to ejecting devices, lesson learned.) All in all, my first few days were miserable and now I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I took it in to the genius bar and they were nothing but helpful and patient with me and set some things up for me. At this moment, I am sorting thru the different programs and figuring out the art of import and export and the little differences that come with the mac but its becoming more managable and surprisingly intuiti. Last night, my wife created a DVD, complete with music and she did it in about 10 minutes and she immediatley saw the potential. Again, thanks for your comments and shared experiece. I am still on the learing curve and underestimated my ability to pick it up fast, but this past week I have made leaps and bounds....O yea, the Mac Stays.

Good to hear you are getting it to work.

However I cannot resist responding to your first post. Ignore the following if you are just a honest non-technical person.

I have been a lurker for about a year taking well advantage of the extensive knowledge offered here and I am quite thankful to this forum as it's helped me along the imac path. However, the lived experience has been an entirely different thing.

And so I have had a few days to assess my new Ima,c it’s the 2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
2GB memory ,320GB hard drive1, 8x double-layer SuperDrive ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO with 256MB memory in the 24 in mode and I am thinking I have made a bad choice. It's quite distressing because I had high expectations and was unfortunately seduced by the hype. The people at the apple store where quite helpful and very excited about the product and I wish I was the same; I will probably pack it back up and eat the restocking fee and move on to a Dell.
I couldn’t successfully set up the email, despite being able to receive email, I am unable to send. Yup, I went through the promps, and tutorials of Apple and my ISP, all with negative results.
Transferring my old docs from my pc has been problematic as well. I plugged my external hard drive in the IMAC just to see it would be recognized and wha la, it popped on my desk top and all looked good. Success!! I was able to see my old files which was comforting. Knowing I would transfer them at a later time, I unplugged the drive not knowing I had to eject it and it gave me an error. I plugged it back in, and now it wouldn’t show on the desktop, nor any where else. So I call customer service and talk to a guy in India who barely speaks English and he tells me I have to reload the software that came with the computer. 2 hours later, I am back where I started and my external hard drive is now readable but now I have lost the ilife bundle or I can't seem to find it. So I call customer service back and they closed at 6pm eastern. Again, this is a problem because I start work at 615AM and get home at 615 pm. (I had the day off on Friday so I could call). Fair enough, so I go back to xfering my word documents to the imac and am able to put some in place. Now I need a word processor so I decide to download the trial version of Iwork like the salesman suggested and it gives me an error and wont load on the Imac. Hmmm. I opted not to buy the Iwork because I didn’t know if I would like it and the trial version was a good way to try it on for size. I can't call customer service b/c they are closed and its Saturday so I go to bed pissed off. So here I am 3 days into the Imac experience and so far. I can receive email but can't send, I can't open my resume nor my wife's or yea and did I mention I can't send it. The photos my wife took of her pool party this weekend are not able to be edited and "created" because I lost ilife in the reboot and I can't talk to anyone at apple customer service cuz its after 6 and I am asking myself, did I move up by moving to an imac or did I step down. At this moment, I will probably pack the machine up and get my money back, go to best buy and get a Dell. Yea, I know I am probably misinformed and I am a noobee. I not a Mac basher as I don’t have $1799.00 + printer +tax = $2133.00 to throw around and yes, I did do my research and thought about it for about a year thinking it would be a good fit. My wife was/is excited with the photo and DVD platforms as she wanted to showcase our 18 month old. So far, my 7 year old Dell has shown to be a steadfast slow performer but at least, it can do the basics. So, what should I do?

Unfortunately, my BS detector is a little big high here. People might believe it if it were a HP or a Dell. Perhaps it's due to lack of technical knowledge, but I have to point out that your post is not the typical experience of most users.

Cannot set up email is ISP support error. It's not any more difficult than windows.

Unplugging hot harddrive is user error. When you drive a car on the highway, do you all of a sudden turn off the engine? Guess what? It screws up external drives in windows too if you are accessing the file and unplug it.

Customer service of which company? Apple does not outsource tech support to India. I have own quite a lot of Apple machines, I have never talked to anyone that cannot speak English.

Mac OS system restore typically install iLife along with the OS. If not, you would have gotten a prompt to install or not install iLife and other apps that comes with a Mac.

In reality, "Customer service" does not close at 6pm EST, not Apple's. Sorry. APPLE IS BASED IN THE WEST COAST, thus it's opened until 9:00 PM EST. Even Genius Bar takes appointment at 8:40pm at most loations, some locations are open later.

Not sure what your problem is with iWork, but even people who never touched a Mac before or heard of Macrumors have installed it successfully on their Mac in 10 minutes.

As to opening Office documents, there is MS Office for Mac, iWork, and other options, such as free NeoOffice, and some web based solutions.

You did not lost iLife in the reboot.

Seems like your technical skills are lower than most computer users. Yes it's different than Windows, but most of the things you mentioned above are not the typical user experience. By the way, if the learning curve for XP users going to vista is much higher than switching to Mac OS X, I suspect if you get a new computer with Vista, you would have 3 times as many problems.

To to hear that the Apple Genius Bar helped you out and you are learning quickly though.

 

[Dorfdad]

Listen I feel your pain, take a breath and and listen..

There are some Major differences in OSX than windows, the keyboard shortcuts and more. Relax go slow and look up info..

To read NTFS drives google NFTS drivers for OSX and find one you like trust.

I enjoyed OSX for a while got worried and went back to Vista for 2 weeks and now Im back for good.. Its a whole different game so you need to learn do not do 100 things convert things slowly and learn before you go crazy.,