My cousin, about 6 years ago received a used, out-of-box blue iMAC for a from his girlfriend who had just graduated from college and didn't need it anymore. It worked well for a while, then about 3 years ago he called me because I am pretty good with computers. At the time, I was living in Chicago and he in the Philly area, so he described the problem to me and I tried to see what I could do. But, since he is not to good with computers he didn't describe it too well and I couldn't find anything. He ended up getting a new computer and he put the iMAC in the storage closet.
A couple of months ago, my mother asked my family if they had any old computers to donate to some kids at the local high school and my cousin reminded us of the old iMAC and said he would donate it but it needed to be fixed. Since I had finally moved to the Philly area I thought I could get a better look at the computer. I am good with computers using Windows 9x/Me/NT/2000/XP/etc but the MAC was a totally different story. Anyway the story goes as follows:
I turned on the iMAC and it acted like it was going to load up and a little folder icon with a blinking smiley face and a question mark showed up. I didn't know what that meant (but it was totally different than the problem my cousin described when I was in chicago). I search countless hours over the internet and the same general thing came up saying this meant that it couldn't find the mac folder. OK! That is understandable, but they all gave several different fixes including, zapping some things by holding down a combo of buttons, etc... And I tried the mac website and it said that I should try that and then use the OS disc.
I call my cousin up and ask him if he has the OS disc, he says he never got an OS disc, just the computer. Now Im in a jam. I don't have an OS disc, he doesn't have one, and I don't have a pot to piss in let alone money to buy another one or any fix discs available. I call Mac help line and they tell me it is going to cost me $49 to get extended help on this old computer. I hung up screaming that the computer wasn't worth $49.
Anyway, my question is: I don't have an OS/setup/fix disc or the money to buy one(especially since the computer is 7 years old) and this blinking icon is showing up, and I want to donate this computer to a student who needs it. How can I fix it without taking to a service shop. I've worked in shops and I've seen people do 2 seconds of work and charge people $700, and if I get charged over $10 - well, I'm not paying that...
A couple of months ago, my mother asked my family if they had any old computers to donate to some kids at the local high school and my cousin reminded us of the old iMAC and said he would donate it but it needed to be fixed. Since I had finally moved to the Philly area I thought I could get a better look at the computer. I am good with computers using Windows 9x/Me/NT/2000/XP/etc but the MAC was a totally different story. Anyway the story goes as follows:
I turned on the iMAC and it acted like it was going to load up and a little folder icon with a blinking smiley face and a question mark showed up. I didn't know what that meant (but it was totally different than the problem my cousin described when I was in chicago). I search countless hours over the internet and the same general thing came up saying this meant that it couldn't find the mac folder. OK! That is understandable, but they all gave several different fixes including, zapping some things by holding down a combo of buttons, etc... And I tried the mac website and it said that I should try that and then use the OS disc.
I call my cousin up and ask him if he has the OS disc, he says he never got an OS disc, just the computer. Now Im in a jam. I don't have an OS disc, he doesn't have one, and I don't have a pot to piss in let alone money to buy another one or any fix discs available. I call Mac help line and they tell me it is going to cost me $49 to get extended help on this old computer. I hung up screaming that the computer wasn't worth $49.
Anyway, my question is: I don't have an OS/setup/fix disc or the money to buy one(especially since the computer is 7 years old) and this blinking icon is showing up, and I want to donate this computer to a student who needs it. How can I fix it without taking to a service shop. I've worked in shops and I've seen people do 2 seconds of work and charge people $700, and if I get charged over $10 - well, I'm not paying that...
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