Preferences Error - Could not load Network

Question

My dad just bought me a (used)) iBook g4 to replace my old one. It's running 10.3.9. It didn't come with a wireless card, so I ordered an Airport Extreme and installed it. I'm pretty sure I installed it correctly, I heard all the right clicks.
It booted up afterwards and the first thing I did was to run system update and try to get everything up to date. There were a ton. After it restarted, it no longer was connecting to our wirelesss network. I tried to go to System Preferences > Network and it responds with the error message "Preferences Error - Could Not Load Network" and nothing opens. Not to mention my DVD Player no longer works!
I have no idea what's at fault here- the airport extreme card, a bad update... And no idea how to fix it! Any help would be appreciated!

Answer 1

That it is not recognizing the retail (thanks cornelius) Leopard DVD is a problem indeed.
It should be plugged into the mains power, as the CD/DVD drive uses a lot of power when it is spinning.
Back to your About this Mac, does it mention that your optical drive can read DVDs?
On mine this info is located down the list under ATA which will have mentioned, CD
and in detail in the lower window
eg. Drive type: CD - RW/ DVD - ROM
if it shows the DVD-ROM part, that indicates it can read DVDs.
If it should be able to, then I wonder if the iBook's optical drive is OK. I could suggest loading another DVD into it, but you say DVD Player.app is missing.
What you could try is buying from a computer shop a CD drive cleaning kit, and following the instructions, run that through it. That is a fairy inexpensive exercise.
If it still does not recognize the DVD, and you had another Mac that you could connect by Firewire Target Disk mode, you could try installing leopard on it that way. But before that rather complex arrangement, try the disk cleaner. It might be a quick fix.