My Mac is dead

LB

I have no idea what happened, but I was on my MacBook this evening, when everything froze up. I had the Firefox, Preview, Itunes, Word, and Calendar open and I was on the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. I waited a few minutes, then tried to quit the applications but nothing would shut down. I finally forced the computer to shut down, and gave it a few minutes to recover. I turned it back on, but only a white screen came up. I managed to eject the disc that was in the player (although it hadn't been playing), and turned off the computer again. I again tried to start it up, and this time a folder with a question mark popped up, followed by a no entry sign (or perhaps the other way around). It flashed that for a few minutes and then shut itself down.

I have no idea what caused this, and no idea what to do about it. I am still under the Applecare Warranty but when I tried to call, they said they're closed for the night. I will try to call again tomorrow, but I was in the middle of some pretty important work and would like to be able to continue (unrealistic, I know, but hope springs eternal, right?). Anyone have any ideas what's wrong with my computer and how I can fix it?

CycloneRanger

LB wrote: »

I have no idea what happened, but I was on my MacBook this evening, when everything froze up. I had the Firefox, Preview, Itunes, Word, and Calendar open and I was on the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. I waited a few minutes, then tried to quit the applications but nothing would shut down. I finally forced the computer to shut down, and gave it a few minutes to recover. I turned it back on, but only a white screen came up. I managed to eject the disc that was in the player (although it hadn't been playing), and turned off the computer again. I again tried to start it up, and this time a folder with a question mark popped up, followed by a no entry sign (or perhaps the other way around). It flashed that for a few minutes and then shut itself down.

I have no idea what caused this, and no idea what to do about it. I am still under the Applecare Warranty but when I tried to call, they said they're closed for the night. I will try to call again tomorrow, but I was in the middle of some pretty important work and would like to be able to continue (unrealistic, I know, but hope springs eternal, right?). Anyone have any ideas what's wrong with my computer and how I can fix it?

The question mark means your computer can't find the files it needs to start up. This usually indicates a hardware failure (your hard drive may be toast). You might just need to reset your PRAM or something, though—I'm not an expert in Mac troubleshooting. The first thing to try is probably booting from your install disc and then running a few hardware tests from there.

RUNN1NGMAN

Are you anywhere near an Apple store? If you can go to one and hit up the Genius Bar that's probably your best bet.

It kind of sounds like a kernel panic, but usually you'll get a screen saying your kernels are all panicky.

Trentus

CycloneRanger wrote: »

The first thing to try is probably booting from your install disc and then running a few hardware tests from there.

This. If you have your OS disk handy, chuck it in, boot off it, and run up Disk Utility (which I think is in the Tools menu). Select your disk (if it shows up... if it doesn't, bugger) and try running a repair.