[cakeman]

Hi All.. Im a 15+ year Dos/windows guy/tech etc.. with no experience in apples since my II/GS back in high school.. this apparently qualifies me to attempt to give my mother in law phone support.. so I'd appreciate any tips you can offer /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
As best I can figure her system is:
an iMac from approx '98 (or earlier, given to her by her son), with 256 mb of ram and an unknown amount of HD space, running OS 8.6. She uses it for MS Word, Excel and a bit of Outlook Express, with less than a couple hours of web surfing a month..
Lately shes been experiencing random freezing and "The application 'Finder' has unexpectedly quit" errors .. she lives in a small town of some 1500-2000 people in northern british columbia and the local apple techs only response was to try and sell her a new $1200 system that she cant afford (and really.. considering her use, doesnt require)
I know I'll wipe my HD and do a fresh install every year or so.. and its a safe bet she has never had anything similar.. the only CD's she has with the iMac are imac software install & imac software restore .. Any bets that a wipe and reinstall would fix her up? and does anyone have a FAQ or Walk-through on accomplishing this?
Thanks a ton for any help you can offer..
Brett

[Reboot]

You can first try a Clean Install of the System instead of wiping the drive, it will install a new System Folder and rename the old one and all her data will stil be there, you'll have to set up Mail and move a few fles around to get settings in mail, and bookmarks back, they'll all be in the old System Folder.

In reply to:

---

I know I'll wipe my HD and do a fresh install every year or so

---

Well yeah, you're running Windows. /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif jk

[Grant_G]

You mention that she uses Word and Excel, meaning ... probably ... that she has files she wants to keep. You'll need to copy them to some external media before doing what you propose. That said, yeah, the simplest way around everything would be to just use the System Restore Disk that came with it. Once finished, the Mac will be exactly as it was when whoever first owned it opened the box. EVERYTHING will have to be set up again from scratch.
In addition to trying Reboot's suggestion first (using the Installer CD, not the Restore CD, it is an Option that you will come to during the process of running the Installer -- look for it ["Options"] or you'll pass right by it), here are a couple of other things to try first:
1) Zap her PRAM (Parameter RAM). Do a restart, and immediately press the Command (see below), Option, 'p' and 'r' keys. It's a bit of a stretch, so you might want to practice this. Listen for the startup chimes. Continue to hold the 4 keys down until you have heard three of them, then release. You'll probably then hear another chime as the machine boots normally. This might cause you to have to reset such things a date and time, etc., the stuff the computer recalls when shut off.
2) Rebuild her desktop. Do a restart, and as soon as you hear the startup chime, hold down the Option and Command keys (command is the one with the Apple on it, or a propeller type thing). Hold them throughout the boot, and you'll get a Windows-like box asking "Are you sure you want to rebuild ..." blah blah. OK it. It takes a few minutes and might be all she needs.
Finally, the best way to run either of the two CDs is to be booted from them. With the Restore CD, that will be automatic. Just insert it, double click Restore, and you're on your way. With the Installer CD, which I agree I'd try before using Restore, insert it, do a restart, after the chime hold the letter 'c' key down until you see the smiling Mac.
Have fun!
G

[cakeman]

As Word, Excel and OE were all on the machine when she got it from her son, Im not sure about something..
Are any of these supplied on the two (and only cd's she can find) discs I mentioned above? Im skeptical of Apple providing an MS product on their discs.. but am crossing my fingers..
Thanks for the tips above.. gives me something to start with..
Brett

[Nobody]

Cakeman, freezes and Finder quitting can be cause by a lot of conflicts. The two right upfront that could cause the problem are mouse and PRAM battery conflicts. If she uses a third party mouse other than Apple's "hockey putt" mouse, you might be able to simply solve the freezing issue by connecting the mouse to the USB port on the right side of the iMac. There is another dual high power port to connect the mouse. The keyboard low power USB port probably couldn't handle the power for the mouse while in use.
The other cause could be the PRAM battery is going south on the iMac. The check for this symtom is to notice the time or clock on the iMac then shut down the iMac from the power button instead from the Special menu popup option list from the Finder menu bar and unplug for a least 5 mins to check for some time difference. Shutting down from the Special menu popup option is the ideal method for shutting down the iMac less the PRAM battery runs out fast pretty quickly and keep the iMac power cord plugged in. The clock lagging or resets to another clock setting is a sign of battery failing and eventually would sometimes not recognize USB connections.
The check for HD space is also a good idea. A nearly full HD would give an erratic system. You can check the HD space by clicking on the Apple logo and select by clicking on the Apple System Profiler. A window would come up and there would be a column listing to check on. Click on the black right pointing arrow next to the Hardware(System) and a list of the system will come to view. You'd find the Harddrive and to the right an info panel. From here, I'm not too clear about the direction. This is, maybe different from what I'm jotting down. But the idea is to click on the arrows to open more info about the system. If these don't fix it there are more that relies on software to solve the problem.

[Iamanamma]

I've still got a couple of Macs on the network which have OS 8.6 on them. OS 8.6 was notorious for Finder Preferences corruption, which makes your Mac hang and gives you that nasty "The FInder has unexpectedly quit" message. A quick easy fix is to throw away your Finder Preferences and restart. The Finder preferences rebuild from scratch when you restart, and the "Finder has unexpectedly quit" messages go away until the Finder Preferences corrupt again.
Grant's advice to rebuild the desktop is very good advice. That should always be done on a regular basis. However, the PRAM zapping and the Clean Install may not be necessary.
The best thing I ever did to make this problem go away permanently was to upgrade to OS 9. Is that an option for her? Since she's got a Mac that runs OS 8.6, I'd guess OS X is out of the question, but if she can run OS 9, she'll have fewer Finder problems. Also, Microsoft's Internet Apps for the Mac are dogs. If she could switch to something else I GUARANTEE her system would crash less and her internet experience would be more pleasant. IE is notorious for corrupted cache files (which crash your Mac), and OE can't handle what my ISP refers to as "invalid emails." This means that whenever you get some funky little bit of spam that is all of 1 MB big, it will prevent OE from retreiving any of your other mail until you can find a way to get rid of it.
So, if your could convince her to upgrade to OS 9, replace OE with say, Eudora, and drop IE in favor of Netscape, your phone support duties would most likely dry up and blow away...