Imac trouble

[Guest_imported]

I bought a new Imac for my daughter this past Christmas. Three times it has froze up and forced her to restart the computer. On boot the folder with the question mark flashed. I was able to finally get it up and running but I need to know what could be happening. The last time this happened I booted from the Hardware test CD and it did not even detect the hard drive. After trying it two more times, like magic it was back and everything is fine for now. This mac came loaded with OS 9.2 and OS X. She was using OS 9.2 each time this happened. Thank you for any ideas.

Dixie

 

[PTmon]

Run disk firstaid from your start-up cd. It will probably find errors. It should fix them. If it can't, you'll need a more robust tool such as Norton Utilities or TechTool.

Also go to your control panels--->startup disk and select your hard drive there. That will save you a few moments at startup where you see the folder, basically your mac has to stop and look for system folders at each boot.
best of luck,
PT

http://mahon.homeip.net/remember

 

[Ecaboodle]

Do you rebuild the desktop at all??

This should be done once a week, from startup hold done the Option (Alt) + Apple (Command) key when you start the machine up. If you can't fix it in 20 call someone who can.

 

[macgeneral]

I'd need to know a bit more aout your configuration there. Something about the Drive and RAm on that machine. What's the processor speed.

But most importantly, what peripherals are you using (printer, scanner, digital camera, etc) and what third party softwre have you installed???

MacGeneral

 

[Guest_imported]

If you have run a disk utility(Norton, Disk warrior, or DiskFirstAid) and the imac still ocasionally freezes and displays the ? on reboot, the problem could be in the Bios, try downloading and installing the latest Firmware. Frequent freezes were one of the big reasons I switched to OS-X. My Mac has been up and running(as a server) since Dec. Even on my laptop I hate to boot back into 9. Three freezes since Christmas shouldn't be alarming, but the questionmark and problems w/hardware diagnostic would be