Mac Startup Question

When I turn on my MBP mail opens as normal but lately a box has been poping up and going away really fast. I can tell that its one of those boxes with the yellow triangle and the exclamtion point, but its gone before I can even move my mouse to click it. Anyone have any idea what it is or how to get rid of it.

Is your Mail program a login item? So look into Console (Applications > Utilities) and paste the last lines after booting your computer.
If it is not part of your login items, open Console, then open Mail and paste the resulting last lines of console ...
marek

Similar Messages

Gray Startup Question Mark. I've tried everything!

Ok, so my Mac has been running slightly slow these past couple days, nothing I thought I should worry about, until today when I tried to restart it, it would not start up. It would come up with the gray screen and apple logo then just shut off. Then I tried the recovery mode to fix the disks. It told me to repair the HDD, which I tried; however, it couldn't be repaired. So I reformatted it, tried to reinstall Mavericks, but when that wasn't successful I tried to install Mountain Lion, but once again failed. It can't even find the startup disk.
Should I just buy a new hard drive or is there a way to fix that?
Also I don't really care about the files that were on there, most of them weren't important, and the ones that were I could easily have access to them in the future.
Help me out! Please, I need to fix my baby!

Question (?) Mark, Blinking Folder, or Gray Screen at Startup
These are related but not identical issues. Their causes are outlined in Intel-based Mac- Startup sequence and error codes, symbols. Solutions may be found in:
A flashing question mark appears when you start your Mac
Mac OS X- Gray screen appears during startup
In most cases the problems may be caused by:
Problem with the computer's PRAM - See Resetting your Mac's PRAM and NVRAM.
Boot drive's directory has been corrupted - Repair with Disk Utility.
Critical system files are damaged or deleted - Reinstall OS X.
The disk drive is physically non-functional - Replace the hard drive.
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
The main difference if you are using Lion or Mountain Lion is that you must first boot from the Recovery HD:
How to Boot From The Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Reinstall Snow Leopard Without Erasing The drive
1. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
2. Reinstall Snow Leopard
If the drive is OK then quit DU and return to the installer. Proceed with reinstalling OS X. Note that the Snow Leopard installer will not erase your drive or disturb your files. After installing a fresh copy of OS X the installer will move your Home folder, third-party applications, support items, and network preferences into the newly installed system.
Download and install Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1.
Reinstalling Lion/Mountain Lion Without Erasing The Drive
Boot to the Recovery HD: Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions: Upon startup select Disk Utility from the main menu. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions as follows.
When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion and click on the Continue button.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.

New Hard Drive: Mac Face/Question Mark on boot

I installed a new hard drive in my fathers iBook G4 1.33 GHz and installed Leopard. I instantly had problems after the installation was complete and the computer restarted. I got the Mac Face/Question Mark for a second and then it booted to the installation CD.
I used disk utilities to verify and repair the disk and permissions which both finished successfully. I tried to reboot with the same result: Mac Face/Question Mark for a second and then it booted to the installation CD. I decided to erase and reinstall Leopard. Installation complete - Restart - Mac Face/Question Mark. I decided to turn if off for the night.
I powered up in the morning with short-lived success, as I got the Leopard Welcome video. I set up the system and did some software updates, which eventually required a restart. Boom. Mac Face/Question Mark. I decided to hold the option key on my next restart to see if I could select the hard drive installation over the install CD. I was able to do so, and it booted fine to the hard drive. I continued my software updating, installed some more software like iLife '08, Firefox, Open Office, Stuffit Expander, etc. After all my installation and updating, the system operates great, except when I have to start up. I still have the Mac Face/Question Mark.
I have a theory that the hard drive jumper is set incorrectly, but I don't want to waste 45 mins. cracking the thing open to find out. Can anyone confirm? I'm open to all other theories, of course.

No jumper means Cable Select (CS). This would mean that the cable from the motherboard to the drive has a blue connector at the motherboard and a black connector on the end where the drive plugs in. The gray connector in the middle is the Slave position. Master/Slave relationship is determined by where on the cable the device is plugged in.
The CS cables and the setting was not used very often until around 2004 or 2005. Until that time all of the connectors on the cable were the same color and the Master/Slave setting was determined by the jumper on the drive.
It's very possible that you are trying to use a drive that's been setup for the newer systems as Cable Select, when actually you should force the drive to be a Master by installing a jumper on the proper pins.
Are there two deviced on the cable besides the motherboard, and are all of the connectors the same color? Or is the connector that plugs into the motherboard black? Then you are probably not looking at a CS buss.

Mac Startup Disc Keeps Reverting to Windows

I have a Mac Mini with bootcamp installed and Windows XP installed on my bootcamp partition.
In the Mac startup disc settings, I have MacOS selected as the startup disc. Even so, my machine will periodically boot into Windows XP even though I have not changed the startup disc. When this happens, in Windows I go to the Bootcamp console, select MacOS as the startup disc, restart the computer and it boots into MacOs. Within about four or five days, however, the system AGAIN reverts to Windows XP on bootup BY ITSELF. Has anyone had this problem?

More of a workaround than a solution - But when I used Boot Camp for Windows before switching to Parallels, I would occasionally get the same problem (although randomly) and I just became used to holding down the option key at startup and pressing enter after a few seconds so that I guaranteed the Mac would boot up to OS X.
Maybe try repairing disk permissions from Disk Utility? If Boot Camp has any .plist or similar files (not sure) you might want to try trashing those too.

Mac Startup Sound as Text Tone

I want to download the Mac Startup sound to use as my text ringtone. Does anyone know how this can be achieved?

Try going here, there are several to choose from.
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=618119
Neat idea!

My mac startup is very slow, it goes white for long before showing users, how do i cure this illness?

my mac startup is very slow, it goes white for long before showing user account, how do i cure this illness?

1) System Preferences > Startup Disk ...
to set your correct Stratup Disk AND
2) Run one pass of Disk Utility "Repair Disk" from another source such as by booting to Recovery_HD OR
Restart in Safe Mode (which does the "Repair Disk" as it starts up).

Mac Startup So Slow? - Mavericks

My Mac has been quite slow at starting up for a while now and it is slightly frustrating as I have multiple OS's installed and this is annoying when I am constantly needing to reboot. It normally takes around 1 min and 30 secs to boot and when I then login, it takes a futher 2 mins before I can actually use the computer without it slowing down.
It is NOT slow when using applications (ie: Chrome, iTunes, Skype and games) however the bootup and desktop loading time getting frustrating.
I have an idea that it could be the hard drive. I have a 500GB internal HDD with about 180 GB free. I also have a 1TB Seagate SSD that has quite a lot of files on it.
If anyone has any ideas or they are experiencing a slow Mac startup time, please let me know below! Thanks and hope this could get resolved!

Go step by step and test.
System Preferences > Startup Disk
Select Macintosh HD
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH13976
Repair Disk
Steps 2 through 8
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH5836
Reset PRAM.
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH4405
Best.

.mac mail question:I have an old emac without an intel chip...

.mac mail question:I have an old emac without an intel chip...I have a .mac email account, I would like to be able to have my emails automatically forwarded to a gmail account. I cannot access icloud with this old machine, any ideas? thanks! and aloha!

Hello,
But you can setup iCloud email on you old Mac!
Do not delete the old account yet. sign up for an iCloud account if you haven't.
I understand .mac mail will still come through. Do not delete the old account yet.
You cannot use .mac or MobileMe as type of Account, you have to choose IMAP when setting up, otherwise Mail is hard coded to change imap.mail.me.com to mail.me.com & smtp.mail.me.com to smtp.me.com, no matter what you try to enter.
iCloud Mail setup, do not choose .mac or MobileMe as type, but choose IMAP...
On second step where it asks "Description", it has to be a unique name, but you can still use your email address.
IMAP (Incoming Mail Server) information:
• Server name: imap.mail.me.com
• SSL Required: Yes
• Port: 993
• Username: [email protected] (use your @me.com address from your iCloud account)
• Password: Your iCloud password
SMTP (outgoing mail server) information:
• Server name: smtp.mail.me.com
• SSL Required: Yes
• Port: 587
• SMTP Authentication Required: Yes
• Username: [email protected] (use your @me.com address from your iCloud account)
• Password: Your iCloud password
Also, you must upgrade your password to meet the new criteria: 8 characters, including upper and lower case and numbers. If you have an older password that does not meet these criteria, when you try to setup mail on your mac, using all of the IMAP criteria listed above, it will still give a server error message. Go to http://appleid.apple.com then follow directions to change your password, then go back to setting up your mail using the IMAP instructions above.
Thanks to dpepper...
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3867171?tstart=0

Mac won't startup - question mark symbol

Any suggestions much appreciated.
I've got a macbook pro & last night I was using firefox on it when the machine just completely froze. So I turned it off and restarted. Instead of booting up it eventually displayed a folder-like symbol with a question mark on it. Using an alternate computer I looked up the apple support site where it told me to boot from the install CD and run the disk utility to repair the problem.
So I fished out the CD and had a go. Unfortunately when I run disc utility it gives me error messages:
Invalid note structure
Volume check failed
Error: the underlying task reported failure on exit
1 volume could not be repaired because of an error
So is there a way I can fix this?
thanks
Richard

In this case I would try reformatting the drive:
Extended Hard Drive Preparation
1. Boot from your OS X Installer Disk. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger.)
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Set the number of partitions from the dropdown menu (use 1 partition unless you wish to make more.) Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the volume(s) mount on the Desktop.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process will take 30 minutes to an hour or more depending upon the drive size.

Startup Question Mark

I'm troubleshooting someone's G4 Cube (500 MHz, 256 MB RAM, 30 GB HD) which has a startup issue. I assume the flashing question mark/folder at startup means that the CPU can't find the Startup Disk, but I can't resolve the problem. I ran the Apple Hardware Test (everything's okay), but it still won't boot. I tried the Software Restore and Software Install disks, but they won't work. I've tried restarting by holding down the "C" key (nothing) and the option key (I get the CD and arrow icons, but nothing works). I've also zapped the PRAM and let the Cube chime 4 times, still nothing. Anyone with anymore suggestions?
(I don't know what version of Mac OS is installed, I assume somewhere between 10.1 to 10.3)

Startup the computer from another boot volume, i.e. an external Firewire device. Remove any other unnecessary devices from the Computer.
It could be the drive has totally failed.
Shutdown the computer and then boot it up again, but note if you hear any HD activity at all. Make sure the room is as quiet as possible and ask the customer to listen out as they know what noises their machine makes better than anyone, so they will notice anything out of the ordinary.
If your not getting an HD icon in Startup Manager then it could be the system, directories or something is corrupt. Or the drive has failed.
Has he had this problem before? Did anything change or was installed prior to the problem occurring?

Mac security question

Hey all, I am a very security-minded person and have this question. The most critical function that malware needs to accomplish is to make itself automatically start up every time you boot. This is the act of "infecting" your computer. Because if it stops running and just sits on your hard drive like a bump on a log after you reboot, then it is a pretty lame bit of malware. In Windows, at least up to XP (I don't know much about Vista/7) a very easy and convenient way for malware to accomplish this task is by creating a registry entry to start it up at reboot. The registry is a great place for this, because it is soooo frickin' huge and difficult to understand that it is easy for a virus to hide an entry in there. The way to circumvent this in windows is to run only with a non-administrative account, which takes away privileges to write into the registry. Now, on to the Mac part of my question. As far as I can tell, there are at least two ways to make a program automatically start at boot. You can right click on the program on your dock, and select "start at login" or something like that. Another way is to go to your system preferences and select the programs to restart at boot. My question is this: is there a system file somewhere that reflects these actions, which take place graphically? And can you prevent this file from being modified? My thinking is that there has to be a file somewhere, and if a virus wanted to infect your Mac, all it needs to do is modify this file. I would like to inspect these file(s) and make sure there's nothing that is auto-starting that shouldn't be there. I also have a related question. Are only programs from your Applications folder allowed to auto-start? This would be a good security measure, because you need admin privilege to put a program in the Applications folder. And as a side note: there is one thing that Mac does wrong, following Microsoft Windows' bad example. After you install the OS, the default account has administrative privilege! Most people probably don't know/don't care enough to create a non-admin account for daily use, therefore making themselves vulnerable just like the Windows users who run in admin mode. It is because of this that I believe Macs are just as vulnerable as Windows machines, and Macs are just not targeted because virus writers are too lazy to go after the last 10% of existing computers. I am trying to close this hole on my own machines by running only in non-admin mode, but i would like to understand the auto-start mechanism to confirm that I am safe.

cubicle slave wrote:
Hey all, I am a very security-minded person and have this question. The most critical function that malware needs to accomplish is to make itself automatically start up every time you boot. This is the act of "infecting" your computer. Because if it stops running and just sits on your hard drive like a bump on a log after you reboot, then it is a pretty lame bit of malware. In Windows, at least up to XP (I don't know much about Vista/7) a very easy and convenient way for malware to accomplish this task is by creating a registry entry to start it up at reboot. The registry is a great place for this, because it is soooo frickin' huge and difficult to understand that it is easy for a virus to hide an entry in there. The way to circumvent this in windows is to run only with a non-administrative account, which takes away privileges to write into the registry.
Not really. Windows has such a lax security model that malware can easily get the privileges it needs to install and run - even if you can't.
Now, on to the Mac part of my question. As far as I can tell, there are at least two ways to make a program automatically start at boot. You can right click on the program on your dock, and select "start at login" or something like that. Another way is to go to your system preferences and select the programs to restart at boot.
There are a number of ways to start programs at boot. Except for user account login items, these methods are not accessible from System Preferences. You need to know your way around the Terminal to find them.
My question is this: is there a system file somewhere that reflects these actions, which take place graphically?
They are:
~/Library/LaunchAgents
/Library/LaunchAgents
/Library/LaunchDaemons
/Library/StartupItems
/System/Library/LaunchAgents
/System/Library/LaunchDaemons
/System/Library/StartupItems
I don't know of any graphical interface to them.
And can you prevent this file from being modified?
Only the root user can modify the most of those directories. You can modify your own ~/Library/LaunchAgents and System Preferences > Accounts > your account > Login Items. Of course, any time you give your admin password to some installer program, you are giving that installer program root privileges.
My thinking is that there has to be a file somewhere, and if a virus wanted to infect your Mac, all it needs to do is modify this file. I would like to inspect these file(s) and make sure there's nothing that is auto-starting that shouldn't be there.
That is true, but there are no Mac viruses that can do that. There are a couple of Trojan Horses that ask for your admin password and will do malicious things in those directories if you give them your admin password. Also, those directories are pretty obscure. You have to be pretty savvy with software to be able to tell who installed what.
I also have a related question. Are only programs from your Applications folder allowed to auto-start?
No. Any program can be run at startup. Most startup programs are not in the Applications folder.
And as a side note: there is one thing that Mac does wrong, following Microsoft Windows' bad example. After you install the OS, the default account has administrative privilege! Most people probably don't know/don't care enough to create a non-admin account for daily use, therefore making themselves vulnerable just like the Windows users who run in admin mode.
This is true.
It is because of this that I believe Macs are just as vulnerable as Windows machines, and Macs are just not targeted because virus writers are too lazy to go after the last 10% of existing computers.
It is more complicated than that. There are trojans on both platforms that will ask for your admin password so they can do nasty things. The difference is that a well-written Window virus doesn't need to ask for your admin password. Those viruses have more privileges than even the admin user does. The Mac has a tighter security model and no virus has yet found a way around it. There are plenty of people trying, but they just want bragging rights. It isn't really laziness per se. It isn't a good return on investment. Macs are so much more difficult to crack that true virus writers usually don't bother, only people who want publicity.
I am trying to close this hole on my own machines by running only in non-admin mode, but i would like to understand the auto-start mechanism to confirm that I am safe.
You are already in the top 10% of safe users on the top 10% of safe computers. You're fine.

Got Mac/Apple Questions? We've Got Experts! HP Expert Day – Nov 6, '13

Thank you for coming to Expert Day – the event has now concluded.
**To find out about future HP Expert Day events, check out this page**
On behalf of the Experts, I would like to thank you for coming to the Forum to connect with us. We hope you will return to the boards to share your experiences, both good and bad.
We will be holding more of these Expert Days on different topics in the months to come. We hope to see you then!
If you still have questions to ask, feel free to post them on the Forum – we always have Experts on the HP Support Forum to help you out.
On November 6, 2013, the Consumer Support Forum will host an Expert Day dedicated to answering your questions about Mac OS X, iOS and AirPrint™ for HP products and peripherals. With the introduction of Apple’s new OS X Mavericks, we’re ready to help with set-up, installation and general HP compatibility questions all day long.
Join Mac experts on the forum between 8:00am and 6:00pm Pacific Time to learn all about Mac compatibility with HP printing and peripheral solutions. No question is off-limits and the event is free for both in-and out-of warranty products.
How to Participate
To participate in Mac Expert Day, simply log into the Consumer Support forum and head to the Mac Printing & Scanning Board to post a question. Select the “Email me when someone replies” option to receive a notification when and Expert addresses your question.
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Remember to say "Thanks" by clicking the Kudos Star in the post that helped you. You can also mark the post that solves your problem as "Accepted Solution."
For more information regarding HP peripherals for Apple products visit www.hp.com/go/mac.
Looking forward to seeing you on November 6th!
I work for HP, supporting the HP Experts who volunteer their time and technical knowledge to help others.
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--Please mark the post that solves your problem as "Accepted Solution"

I had this exact same issue on a Spectre XT Pro Ultrabook.
The original SSD failed and I was sent a replacement, was fortunate enough to be able to create a Recovery USB stick using the wizard in Windows. When booting from USB I received the message "You are not able to restore this system with the media".
SOLUTION: You must NOT use the Recovery USB stick in any USB3.0 port (labelled SS). Using another USB port prevented this exact error message from appearing and I was able to complete the system restore process.
I hope this helps someone, I signed up and posted here especially for this reason!

Open Office Startup Question

Hi All -
I recently bought a new MacBook. My first Mac, so I am on these forums a lot asking questions that to long-time users likely seem silly. Thanks in advance for your assistance and patience.
When I start Open Office I see in my Doc an application called X11 start. I understand this is some sort of Windows Translator (?) or something. It opens up a small text window with "bash-3.2$" in it.
That box will 'hang' for a while. Then I get a small box saying "Command Timed Out."
I click OK, then I can see the Java start (again in the dock) and Open Office will start.
What is happening here? Can I get around this, or is this the (small) price I will have to pay to use Open Office on the Mac?
Insight / Suggestions appreciated.

Hi and welcome to Discussions,
Open Office for Mac uses X11.
X11 is a framework for building Graphical User Interfaces (GUI) and has its origin in the Unix world.
Right now it is indeed the price to paid when using Open Office.
As an alternative you can use NeoOffice http://www.neooffice.org/neojava/en/index.php which is based on the Open Office sources, but doesn't need X11.
Regards
Stefan

LOTS of Mac & Macbook Questions

Hey all,
My parents have just told me that as a birthday/xmas gift they are going to help me buy a laptop
I wanted to know a couple things:
My dad got a macbook free (SO lucky) through his work but it is the most basic 1.83Ghz with 512mb ram Core Duo version. I really wanted the Black Macbook but it is probably going to be out of my price range so I am thinking of the White one with 2.0Ghz/1Gb ram Core 2 Duo. Am I going to notice a really significant performance leap? I am only asking what would seem to be a stupid question because I was playing with a brand new Black Core 2 Duo version at a local retailer and it seemed rather sluggish when compared to the Core Duo my dad has at home. This through me for a bit of a loop so yea could someone throw out their opinion on this?
Secondly, i've had iPods for a while and I see this macbook as being in the same boat as needing protection from regular daily use. I have my eye on one of those Speck hard cases but they are not available in town (yet) so I can't actually see what one would look like. I was curious to know if anyone here has used one and is the Red really red or is it kind of a pink colour (when overtop of a white macbook)?
Also, will this hardcase scratch the macbook? I've had hard plastic cases like this for my ipod and it tended to get scratched up inside of the case...not nearly as bad as it would without it but still some damage non-the-less.
My dad's battery life is about 3hrs give or take a bit on his Core Duo ... will my Core 2 Duo have more life? And if so about how much? (I know I know it depends on usage but can it really hit close to that 6hr mark apple is advertising?)
Finally, I have never owned a laptop, or a mac, before so I am going to be leaving the old PC desktop behind and I wanted to know: I use Microsoft's OneNote for typing notes for class and I enjoy that you can draw quick diagrams (MS Paint style) and drag/drop them anywhere on the page. What I don't enjoy is that once they are in a spot they refuse to move! What is a good program on Mac to take notes and offer drag/drop picture abilities?
Also...can someone tell me any reasons, anything at all that would deter me from Mac? I would love to game but honestly my PC hasn't been able to do it for years so i'm used to it, i've got an Xbox, and my parents (logically enough) don't want to fund a gaming machine they want something I can use productively at school. So gaming isn't a major concern and i'm pretty sure Mac will handle all I need but if someone has had a bad experience do let me know.
And finally, the very last question: I love a number of features on Leopard ... but I hear it is to be released in the Spring. Thats a bit too long for me (I want to use this for next semester) so how much will Leopard cost a student AND is there any other major things/changes to the macbook that I shoudl wait for (something like their switch from Core Duo to Core 2)?
I know thats a lotta questions but now that my parents are seriously going to help me out this can happen in a week so I gotta get my facts straight haha.
Thanks a lot all!
Chris
P.S. I hadn't used my mac account for a while ... and while I was able to reset my password it forced me to change my user name from touchmyrouter to what it is now ... any suggestions on how to get my original back?
Custom Built Windows XP

Let me address your questions one at a time:
1) You'll notice a small but significant performance boost between a 1.83GHz Core Duo and a 2.0GHz Core 2 Duo. As for which is the best deal, I'd say the current 2.0GHz Core 2 Duo White, because it comes with a bigger hard drive, more RAM, a dvd-burning superdrive, and a faster processor, all for about $150 more. The DVD-R drive is great for backups, and you need at least 1GB of RAM to get decent performance anyway, so it's money well spent.
2) I don't know much about cases. For travel, I actually am currently using the soft slip-case I bought for my TiBook (Powerbook G4 15"). It's a bit big for the computer, but it works well for travel. I haven't noticed any bad scratching yet, but I haven't moved my laptop around much either.
3) The Core 2 Duo MacBook probably gets about the same battery life as the Core Duo. 3 1/2 hours per charge with Airport on and doing some light to moderate computing is about the best you can get from any laptop with current battery technology.
4) For note-taking, the MacBook comes with OmniOutliner, which is awesome for making outlines. The version that comes bundled allows you to attach documents and graphics within the outline, but I don't think it's very robust. OmniGroup also makes OmniGraffle, which allows you to make flowcharts that are graphics-heavy. I find that it's a little overly complicated at times, but I've also made some amazing stuff with it.
5) I don't know what would deter you from buying a Mac. I've had very few problems over 12 years of ownership of various Macs. They tend to be very reliable, and when things do go wrong, Apple is usually prompt and professional in fixing them.
6) Leopard is probably going to cost students about $69.00, as I seem to recall paying that as a student for every version of the Mac OS starting from 10.0 all the way through 10.4. I doubt Apple will suddenly raise the price for Leopard, though you never know.
Good luck with your new MacBook. It really is an awesome computer, despite all the flack it takes on these boards from a handful of users with defective units.
P.S. I don't know how to get back your old account.

2Part mac mini questions & thoughts of catastrophy

So it all began bout 3 days ago, as I was my mini G4 ( 512mb ram 70gb 1.2ghz I believe) the base model, one of the first to come out, it is rather old, but I really don't use it for much and its never really given me any trouble till recently. I really only use it for colloquy and the dashboard, so I was infact using colloquy when the trouble began. It was lagging a bit, and I figured I should reboot cause it had been awhile since I had restarted, I went to the menubar and quit colloquy, as I was doing that I noticed on my dock that my finder was not open, the colloquy icon quit on the dock, but the menubar stayed as colloquy, I've noticed this happened before and usually it just goes back after a few seconds. This is were the trouble began, it froze a bit, as I wondered if not having the finder open may have been to blame, idk how it closed maybe I closed it or it crashed before without me noticing. I wanted to try and force logout, as I was using my laptop with windows on it almost exclusively for the past few months I had gotten acustomed to its shortcuts, and I hit what I thought was crtlshiftesc, but what I hit on the mac keyboard was commandaltesc I believe, and at the moment the screen went black and I was in the BSD console, I've tried rebooting, loggin in as #root and rebooting, and it goes back to BSD. I tried 'exit' which I thought would go back to the aqua login screen, but no luck. I also began to try other things, like 'fsck', and '/sbin/fsck' and '-fy', '-f' I believe, but none of those did anything, and I don't mean they executed and then showed that all was good, I mean they did nothing at all, they just went to the next line, as if they meant nothing, which I find rather strange, as that should do something. ... I'm not entirely familiar with commandline Darwin/BSD, so I'm rather confused as to happened. Idk how I got into this console from osx, I think it had something to do with my finder being closed, and something may have crashed, resulting in me being forced into the text console., so I'm stuck, and I'm not sure how to get back. Also, I tried to boot into 'safe mode' and 'verbose' both just put me back into the BSD console.
That is the first part, so I've decided that I may aswell try and reinstall using the archive so I wouldnt loose anything on my hd. I had most it backed up but I had some recent writing and some music I've made that I'd like to get back. I'm without a firewire at the moment so I can't target disk mode. I inserted my install disk, and began archive installing, and it began, and as I was prompted to insert my "Mac OS X Install Disc 2" , it ejected and I put in Disc 2, and it sounded like it worked a bit, spun the disc around, and spat it out. ... So I'm wondering if somehow I can stop this, in the midst of disc two, and try and do it over, or perhaps use a new disc, or maybe a external HD. Any quick help would be so very excellent. Thank you so much! I really need help as I'm kinda stuck, and at the moment its still at Please Insert the "Mac OS X Install Disc 2" disc to continue installation.

What is the result of running Disk Utility repair volume from the Startup cd?
Print off these posts & follow. Report the results of each suggestion.
At the unix command line, no news is good news. That is command when run successfully will not report anything.
In the case of fsck, the command should take awhile & should I think report something.
You may try to recover your data by booting up an installation cd/dvd and using the terminal.
You could try getting into the Unix command line interface and copy some files or directories.
You can copy files on the Unix command line interface if you placed the flash drive the USB port before powering on your machine.
Boot up your installation CD or DVD. To do this, place to the CD or DVD its drive. Power off the the machine. Hold down the c key then power on your machine. After you specify the language you will come to the installation panel. Do not install. Go to the top of the screen and click on the tools menu item. Click on Terminal to use the command line interface.
You should verify that the files have been copied correctly by trying them in another Mac before it the deleting the original.
*Here is an overview of the commands.*
Lets assume that the problem account has a short user name of mac.
#Copy directory "/Applications/Applescript files" to
# directory "/Volumes/Spotless/Applescript files".
# "Spotless" is my flash drive.
ditto -X -rsrc /Applications/Applescript\ files /Volumes/Spotless/Applescript\ files
#cd is change directory
cd /Volumes/COPYIT/answers/
# pwd is print working directory
pwd
#the ls command is for list
# l is long
# a to show hidden files. not shown in this example.
# F is type of file where / is directory
sh-2.05b# # Please note ls is the list command. l is a lower case L
sh-2.05b# ls -lF
Here is what these commands mean:
cd is change directory
pwd is a print working directory
ls is list
sudo is Super user do
# The sudo command will ask for your administration password. No characters will appear when typing your password. Press return when done typing.
cp is copy
copy a file example:
sh-2.05b#
sh-2.05b# cd /Volumes/Macintosh-HD/Users/mac/desktop
sh-2.05b# pwd
/Volumes/Macintosh-HD/Users/mac/desktop
sh-2.05b# cp -i answers.txt /Volumes/SpotMore
Will copy the file answers.txt in the directory SpotMore.
Some files have a space in the name. You need to escape. see example:
mac $ ls -l ~/"see it"
-rw-r--r-- 1 mac staff 3171 Oct 26 23:38 /Users/mac/see it
mac $
mac $ cd /Users/mac/Desktop/ttt\ html\ copy/
Do you know about tabing? Type in a few letters of a name then press the tab key. The computer will type out the rest of the name if it is unique.
The up arrow key will retrive the previous command. You the left arror and right arror keys to move around. Use the delete key to delete a character to the left.
<eol>
*More examples and moving around*
sh-2.05b# pwd
sh-2.05b# ls /Volumes
.Trashes Classic Macintosh-HD
._.Trashes Mac OS X Install DVD SpotMore
sh-2.05b#
sh-2.05b# df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Capacity Mounted on
/dev/disk4s3 2.6G 2.5G 89M 97% /
devfs 121K 121K 0B 100% /dev
fdesc 1.0K 1.0K 0B 100% /dev
<volfs> 512K 512K 0B 100% /.vol
/dev/disk5 467K 9.0K 435K 2% /Volumes
/dev/disk6 95K 64K 27K 70% /private/var/tmp
/dev/disk7 95K 14K 77K 15% /private/var/run
/dev/disk3s1 3.7G 1.3G 2.5G 34% /Volumes/SpotMore
/dev/disk0s10 1.1G 1.1G 3.4M 100% /Volumes/Classic
/dev/disk0s12 70G 45G 25G 65% /Volumes/Macintosh-HD
sh-2.05b#
sh-2.05b# cd /Volumes/SpotMore/
sh-2.05b# pwd
/Volumes/SpotMore
sh-2.05b# # Please note ls is the list command. l is a lower case L
sh-2.05b# ls -l
total 880
-rw-r--r-- 1 unknown unknown 6148 Sep 10 2010 .DS_Store
drw------- 4 unknown unknown 136 Aug 25 2010 .Spotlight-V100
drwxrwxrwt 3 unknown unknown 102 Sep 3 2010 .TemporaryItems
d-wx-wx-wt 3 unknown unknown 102 Sep 10 2010 .Trashes
drwx------ 3 unknown unknown 102 Sep 3 2010 Desktop
-rw-r--r-- 1 unknown unknown 18944 Aug 27 2010 Desktop DB
-rw-r--r-- 1 unknown unknown 2 Jul 29 2010 Desktop DF
-rwxrwxrwx 1 unknown unknown 26281 Oct 27 2009 Warranty Information.PDF
drwxr-xr-x 13 unknown unknown 442 Aug 4 2010 backup
drwxr-xr-x 13 unknown unknown 442 Aug 4 2010 backupPrior
drwxr-xr-x 7 unknown unknown 238 Aug 27 2010 cons
drwxr-xr-x 65 unknown unknown 2210 Sep 4 2010 iMac-back
... clipped ...
sh-2.05b#
sh-2.05b# cd /Volumes/Macintosh-HD/Users/mac/desktop
sh-2.05b# pwd
/Volumes/Macintosh-HD/Users/mac/desktop
sh-2.05b# # Please note ls is the list command. l is a lower case L
sh-2.05b# ls
Z2300 iMac
.DS_Store move
.FBCIndex new Belward
.FBCLockFolder primary-comments-new copy.doc
Consolidate-rc primary-comments-new.doc
Downloads psc 1200
... clipped ...
sh-2.05b# ditto -X -rsrc iMac /Volumes/SpotMore/iMac-back
sh-2.05b#
sh-2.05b# # Please note ls is the list command. l is a lower case L
sh-2.05b# ls -h /Volumes/SpotMore/iMac-back/
total 2800
-rw-r--r-- 1 unknown unknown 24K Sep 12 2010 .DS_Store
-rw-r--r-- 1 unknown unknown 2K Apr 18 2010 Differentiate Between Models .html
... clipped ...
sh-2.05b# pwd
/Volumes/Macintosh-HD/Users/mac/desktop
sh-2.05b# ls
Z2300 iMac
.DS_Store move
.FBCIndex new Belward
.FBCLockFolder primary-comments-new copy.doc
... clipped ...
sh-2.05b#
Robert

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