Help with "Night of the Living Dead" Mac.

First off I know nothing about macs. My neighbor needed help installing AOL on his laptop and I offered before I knew he was using a MAC. Had I known what I was getting myself into I would have pretended I was not at home when he came knocking at the door. ;)

Here is the problem: We can't get the blasted computer to shut down! It's completely frozen, the restart button will not work. We have unplugged it from the wall. The one thing that is working beautifully is the battery!

Any other way to shut it down short of waiting for the battery to die (or taking a hammer to it?)

On my Mac there is a small button on the back of the stack which switches it off when all else fails. Mine's not the newest model, though so it may be slightly different in a newer version.

To sort out problems, you'll probably need to boot from the OS disc - put it into the CD drive, switch on the mac while holding down the C Key, I think.

If you've got a CD already stuck in a drive (most probable) you'll need a paperclip to eject the cd. again, there's a small pinhole just beside the cd tray where you can put in the straightened out paperclip!

Great fun, technology.

Margaret

Thanks Margaret. What exactly do you mean by "back of the stack?" Do you mean the back panel where the phone line, network, etc connections are?

James

> On my Mac there is a small button on the
> back of the stack which switches it off when
> all else fails. Mine's not the newest model,
> though so it may be slightly different in a
> newer version.

> To sort out problems, you'll probably need
> to boot from the OS disc - put it into the
> CD drive, switch on the mac while holding
> down the C Key, I think.

> If you've got a CD already stuck in a drive
> (most probable) you'll need a paperclip to
> eject the cd. again, there's a small pinhole
> just beside the cd tray where you can put in
> the straightened out paperclip!

> Great fun, technology.

> Margaret

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you - yes, at the back of the main computer. The button you're looking for is really small - hardly looks like a button at all. The one on mine is at the top right hand side at the back of the machine - but yours may well be different.

Good luck

Margaret

Hi James
Your friend's laptop WILL freeze again eventually, even though a Mac is more reliable than any PC.....:-)
Here's a sophisticated way to reset a slightly-later Mac than Margaret's, a G3. Hit: shift+fn+ctrl+ON (top row, right).
While you're waiting a few seconds for ACTION, contemplate the joys of getting a Mac of your very own. You'll have stunning speed, superb graphics, and weeks of joy......
At least unitil the next freeze.....
To be able to load any PC program or PC disk, grab a copy of Virtual PC V6.0 software (connectix.com). Windows NT opens in a fraction of the time a regular PC takes.
(I just hope that Dien accepts an enthusiastic Mac owner's usual disclaimers, and doesn't consider the comments blatent!)

Mike




Jim's NEW eBay secrets revealed: (Fiendishly cunning plan....)

Use the OS disk to reboot as Margaret said and use earthlink.

Hi James,

I once had a laptop which sometimes I couldn't shut down! So I looked through the manual....

The manual recommended in this situation to remove the battery. It's usually pretty easy to remove the battery in most laptops. Removing the battery did the trick! :)

After the battery was removed, you could reconnect the battery and the computer would remain off.

My laptop wasn't a Mac (I think it was a Compaq), but it might work in a Mac too. (I'm not familiar with Macs.)

- Dien Rice