[manyproblemspleasehelp]

Hi

I am new, I will just say ahead of time, my name says it all, I will have problems from time to time so I ask whatever help you can give would be greatly appreciated

And to start of course yes it is established I have an iMac G5

Problem 1. My blue tooth is completely gone, at the top of the screen there is an squiggly line through it, the computer acts as if it has never been installed ever, this just randomly happened I have no idea why. Have learned to live with it but still ticks me off, how can I fix my problem?

Problem 2. My internal Burner has not worked for years, had to buy an external one, no idea how to fix, learned to live with it but still ticks me off, how would I go about fixing it, would I have to take it to apple, how much would it cost, should I leave it alone?

Problem 3. My computer is slow as hell, admittedly it has 43 gig left but I was told it would be fine even at 10 gig left, it is slow when converting movies, takes forever even when other programs are not running, final cut is the same, takes forever, as well as rendering, should I learn patience or can I fix this problem, and speed it up, or can this problem be fixed in this section sorry should I move this problem to software want to make sure so I do not double post?

One other hardware problem my external burner, it's a LACIE and sometimes when I ask it to burn something in toast it does nothing and makes noises and takes forever I have no choice but to turn it off, unplug the cords, plug them back it turn it back on, or turn it off when it is not doing anything, you get the jest, should I take it to be looked at

Thanks for letting me vent a little frustration any help would be great

[adamfishercox]

What type of imac G5? 1.6 GHz? 1.8? 20" Screen? 17"? How much RAM? 256 MB? 512?

[manyproblemspleasehelp]

What type of imac G5? 1.6 GHz? 1.8? 20" Screen? 17"? How much RAM? 256 MB? 512?

Imac G5 20' screen
not too sure what GHz
ram is 1 gig (i think)

[dowNNshift]

Welcome to the 'NN

First importantly, which operating system are you using? Jaguar (10.2), Panther (10.3), or Tiger (10.4)? Makes a big difference in troubleshooting the Bluetooth. In most cases, the settings for bluetooth are found in System Preferences, but knowing which exact OS you have would be greatly helpful.

Can you read any type of media in your optical drive? CDs, DVDs? Have you tried booting while holding down the option key, then insert some bootable media and see if the Mac recognizes it? This will tell you pretty quickly if its hardware or software related. If the drive is bad, take it to an Apple Authorized Service Provider and they'll give you a quote on its part replacement. That drive is proprietary to the iMac, so budget about $275 for the part and about $190 for the labor.

As for your slow down, your drive is probably VERY fragmented and permissions are a mess. Purchase a copy of Alsoft Disk Warrior. Boot from the disk (will take about 10 min), and run a Directory rebuild. After that completely repair all your permissions and you'll be amazed with how fast your G5 will run.

If an externals are having problems, make sure they are visible in Apple System Profiler.

Look forward to your reply.

[manyproblemspleasehelp]

thanks for suggestions keep them coming,

sorry for before i am running tiger, got into system profiler (remember i am a newbie) didn't see anything saying there was a problem with external drive

is there any other program i might already have that can do what Alsoft Disk Warrior can do

for cd/dvd internal drive, put dvd in and it recognized it, but last time i used it, it kept giving me errors and never burned dvd's, cd's yes it burned haven't used it since

[dowNNshift]

Alsoft is definitely worth its weight in gold, although you can repair your permissions using Disk Utility found in Applications >> Utilities >> Disk Utility. This will check the drive permissions and repair them based upon receipts left behind every time a program was installed over the years.

Since you're running Tiger; check to see if Bluetooth shows up OK in Apple System Profiler. If yes, then in System Preferences click on Bluetooth and make sure it is turned on and Discoverable. Then from there you can scan for devices and configure them. Do you have any third party applications installed that are trying to compete for BlueTooth control?

Did you try booting from your Tiger optical disc from the internal drive?

[adamfishercox]

Just so you know, you can go to the Apple Menu and click on "About this Mac" and it will tell you all about your computer's RAM, Processor, etc.

[manyproblemspleasehelp]

forgot about that thanks

[manyproblemspleasehelp]

Okay

Further Info

Mac OS X Version 10.4.10
Processor 2 GHz PowerPC G5
Memory 1 GB DDR SDRAM

checked system profiler under bluetooth it says no information found

[P]

Hmm... I think that your installation is damaged somehow. Can happen for various reasons.

Best bet? Backup all your files, user data and programs. Reformat the HD, reinstall and restore from backup. Second best: Delete everything you don't really need, boot from the install disk, repair the HD (Disk Utility), Archive and Install but keep current user data. Then install the latest combo update.

Diskwarrior is a nice app, and it might help with the speed if your directory is really messed up, but it won't fix the problems you have with Bluetooth and the burner.

Fragmentation is not an issue.