Is my Mac mini broken?

Hi, Ive been trying to get my audio working with ichat and imovie to no avail.
I hook up my camera with a firewire cable, In ichat the video signal comes through fine but no audio. If I go to system preferences and choose the audio device it works there, but NOT in ichat. I then open imovie and can get video but no audio. So then I pull out my old ibook , plug in the firewire , open imovie and wahlah, everything works. This is how I remember apple to be, EASY. Is my Mac Mini BROKEN? Are there more steps I am missing?
Help Kevin

Hello Kevin,
Don't mean to jump in here, but, I've been around Mac's since 1984 and have only re-installed a system on one occasion when I knew I messed it up with an optimizing program that crashed before it was done.
Are you having any other issues with you system than you are describing above? Although it may resolve your problem you will not know why. As Andy-O once described it, it is like taking a "sludge-hammer" to solve the problem.
If you are not having other issues with your system then insuring that your preferences for those programs are set properly and that the camera is compatible with the OS and hardware in the Mini ( I don't know what you have on the portable) - it could be you may need a driver for it to work.
[WARNING: a little levity : so before you add any fluid to your headlights ( http://www.joe-ks.com/MultiMedia/LowHeadlightFluid.asf ) look to the simple things]
Mini 1.42GHzG4/512/80/SD/Radeon9200/56 Mac OS X (10.3.9)

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bonjour.
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ps. I added (long) to topic subject, not to phish, but to save others' time, as it's quite a long and boring post

thanks for your advice, however this is all but impossible as i have a wireless keyboard which doesn't permit me boot into anything but the OS, as the keyboard and bluetooth drivers don't load early enough in the boot process.
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Hi,
In Summary:
==========
I have Mac Mini (late 2009) which does not boot anymore and I need to install Snow Leopard using retail DVD (version 10.6). The OS/installer from the DVD does not seem to boot either. I always very much appreciate the efforts of true geeks. So please, any casual beginner, please do not demoralize with something like "cannot be done" etc.
The complete story:
==================
The start of the problem:
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>> Looks like most of my problems are due to the fact that I have Mac-Mini which does not allow eject/replace of DVD from command prompt / out side of Mac-OS-X.
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Things available right now:
==========================
A. Genuine Mac-Mini (Late 2009) who lost it's ability to boot either from its HDD or Mac-bootable DVDs (TechTools Pro, Mac OS X retail DVD)
B. Mac OS X 10.6 Retail DVD
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I had a similar discussion recently with another user.
Your Mac mini (late 2009) originally came with Mac OS X 10.6.2 build 10A432 or build 10C2234 see http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1159 it would have come with an original install disc specific to your model of Mac which you could use to run Disk Utility from or to do a complete reinstall.
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Connect an empty external GUID partitioned hard disk to this other Mac
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Boot the Mac mini in FireWire Target Disk Mode (see http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1661 )
Connect the Mac mini as an external hard disk to the other older Mac
Boot from the retail Snow Leopard installer
Install on to the external disk
Once the install is complete, update it using the combo update not the one via Software Update to Mac OS X 10.6.8. This will add all the newer drivers needed to allow it to work on your newer Mac mini. You can download this combo update from here http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1399
You can now disconnect the Mac mini and boot from it as normal
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If you don't have a suitable second Mac you may have to either borrow someone else's, or get the help of an Apple Store if one is in your area.

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Is my Mac mini broken?

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