Multiple disappointments with new Mac Mini

Question

I 'upgraded' my trusty old eMac to an Intel Mac Mini running Leopard but so far I have been very disappointed.
So far;
DSL USB modem not recognised - had to be replaced.
Umax scanner not supported - will have to be replaced
All my pre-OSX software cannot be run.
iMovie7 not backwardly compatible with my iMovies - iMovie6 is the last one that will be produced that will access my video.
My Panasonic NV-EX3 video camera is not recognised, so I can't use iMovie6 anyway.
When logging out of accounts I get a spinning clock for more than a minute.
After sleep the mouse is usually frozen, sometime requiring a reboot to get it going again.
I have trawled through these discussions and found numerous people complaining about the same or very similar issues, but very few suggestions for solutions or workarounds, and the few that I have tried have done nothing for me. For example, repairing disk permissions, and unplugging power and other connections for >20 secs.
I am getting very frustrated with this - hundreds of pounds spent to end up with loads of problems, further expense and tons of stress.

Answer 1

Sorry to jump in at this point, but did you transfer your applications from the eMac using the migration assistant? If so, that would certainly cause the poor performance since you migrated PPC-only software to your Intel machine, meaning it'll run very poorly.
If you installed your software from disks and downloads, and used any 'non-native' versions of software, then this too will slow your system. You can check for that by opening Activity Monitor and looking for processes marked as belonging to 'Rosetta' - which is the translator included in Intel versions of MacOS to allow it to run earlier (in other words non-Intel-native) software.
Either of the above will create situations where you see the spinning beachball a lot, particularly if you're trying to do a number of things at once. Thus, what software do you have installed, where did it come from, and what are you running at any given time on the system?
It is true though that some older software (the pre OS X stuff) and legacy peripherals won't be usable, simply because it is not possible to make systems fully backwards compatible without giving up significant potential performance gains or at considerable cost. A Umax scanner that is SCSI based for example will be totally incompatible with virtually any Mac built in the last 5+ years (as I well know because I have one that I have had to throw away) but at the same time, technology has moved on in that time sufficiently that the older devices are often not much worth using anyway.
I'm not clear in what way the Panasonic camcorder doesn't work however, since I can't find much information on the subject. Typically up until iMovie 7, camcorders needed to be based on miniDV tape and have firewire connectivity. If this unit has that, it should work. iMovie 7 has far wider camcorder compatibility, and if this camcorder works with that version of the software, there is nothing to prevent you using iMovie 7 in future projects. If not, then which software were you previously using with it?
The stress and frustration is understandable, but if these problems still persist, and we can break down the process you went through to do the install and set up, and the issues that remain, much should be fixable. At the heart, the mini you have os actually very powerful and fast, even if it doesn't seem so.