Help. computer froze while installing iwork08

Question

Hi
I'm really new to mac computers and I don't know how to fix a frozen imac. I bought it a few weeks ago and today i installed iwork08. I went to view the iwork tour and my computer froze and went to this dark screen with a gray box in the middle with the apple logo in the middle of this box. I don't know how to get out of this as nothing i do gets me out of this. I have no clue how to deal with this and help would be much appreciated! thanks

Answer 1

Hi and welcome to Apple Discussions!
The screen display you describe is not a common one,
and I'm not sure why the computer did that; but for a
start, you could see if starting the computer up from
off (press power button until the computer shuts off)
and after the start tone, hold the Shift key down; &
keep holding it down until after you get a screen with
your login window. This should say SafeBoot, in it too.
Login, and let the computer desktop continue to form;
and then choose GO in the Finder menu bar, click on
Utilities folder, and when that opens, find Disk Utility,
and open it. Choose in Disk Utility the click on item
'repair disk permissions' and let it run through until
done, then quit Disk Utility. Restart the computer from
the menu beneath the blue Apple, and hope it boots.
You may have to use the OS X software disc1 that
came with the computer (a DVD) and start the Mac
from that system boot disc, to try and use a different
version of Disk Utility accessed in a menu bar option
beneath the Installer's menu bar once that disc boots
the computer. To boot from this system disc, you'd
need to hold the C key down on startup. Do not run
the Installer itself, the optional items are in a menu
that drops down from the main Installer header if
you click on the words along the top. Disk Utility is
among the options there. (To exit D.U., after running
'repair disk' - and also - 'repair disk permissions' you
would choose startup disk from a menu option.)
...If you have a wireless bluetooth keyboard, this may
not be possible. A USB keyboard is the best tool in
using keyboard commands on bootup or to run these
kinds of things. If you have a BT keyboard, get a USB.
{There is a way to run some system items from behind
the GUI by using something called 'single user mode'
but that is a bit deep for a first time user and better
looked into before you have an issue, to learn about it.}
I'm not sure all of what could've been behind this issue,
or the resulting screen; and there may be something else
going on there. Most of that is uncharacteristic of Mac
OSX. There are preventative maintenance routines that
should become a second nature to using this system;
and they will come with time. They forgo some issues.
In most cases, before and after installing software and
also when installing updates or upgrades to the system,
you would 'repair disk permissions' using the computer's
installed Disk Utility as found in the Applications folder
and inside that, the Utilities Folder. (To use GO is faster.)
If this works, to boot into SafeBoot, run Disk Utility's
repair disk permissions, and restart normally, that'd be
good. Otherwise, you could try several other things.
Including attempting to boot from the system installer
disc1 and choose Disk Utility from that Installer's menu
bar (drop down menu options) the use 'repair disk' and
also after that is run, use 'repair disk permissions.'
If there is a report of an error note that and run the
same choice one more time, to get a clear report.
When those are done, and if there are no bad things
in the resulting report window (just stuff fixed, etc)
then choose to restart from startup disk in the Mac's
own system, and see what happens...
To post here, what computer did you use? A Mac?
A helpful tool to have and use as part of a preventative
routine is free, and accesses the system's own tools
to run them from a nicer user interface; the one I like
runs free and is called OnyX. Titanium Software's site
has links to download the correct version for your OSX.
I have mine set to automatically restart after running a
selection I make from that tool's Automation section.
The preferences in there can be customized, also.
Good luck & happy computing!