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2 Macs fighting icon, non-boot
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Fresh-Faced Recruit
Join Date: Jun 2006
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My Mother is a teacher, and they have an iMac in her classroom. She told me the other day that it's not working, it won't boot, and upon bootup there's an icon of 2 macs fighting. I've never seen such a thing and I was wondering if anyone had an idea of what it could be. I apologize for the lack of information, but due to the stupid school/administration rules, but unfortunately, I, (as a computer technician for over 10 years) am not allowed to touch it (!) only their "people" (who I might add never come around on a regular basis) and I have not seen this first-hand. Thank you.
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Professional Poster
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: Asheville, NC
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Yeah, can't help you. If it won't boot, how can it do something on bootup?
Does it chime?
Is it running OS X?
Is there either a happy Mac or an Apple logo on the screen?
Is there either a spinning gear under the apple logo, or a spinning beachball in the upper left hand corner?
Does anything else come up on the screen?
Anyway, if you can't touch it, why would you want your mother attempting to fix it? You'd be better off fixing it yourself or waiting for their tech to show up.
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ACSA 10.4/10.3, ACTC 10.3, ACHDS 10.3
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Couldn't tell you, that's all the info I have.
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Oct 2000
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There is no startup icon of Macs fighting, but it's most likely that the system software on that Mac has become damaged. The person fixing it should have an OS installation disc available (either OS 9 or OS X). It's a really simple procedure to get the system running as long it's just a software issue - just perform a clean install (OS 9) or an Archive and Install (OS X).
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"The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground." TJ
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Mar 2001
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Could be something related to netboot?
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What the nerd community most often fail to realize is that all features aren't equal. A well implemented and well integrated feature in a convenient interface is worth way more than the same feature implemented crappy, or accessed through a annoying interface.
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Oct 2000
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It's possible, but the globe icon does not look like two Macs fighting, right?
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"The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground." TJ
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Oct 2001
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Nothing I've seen looks like two Macs fighting.
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Chuck
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"Instead of either 'multi-talented' or 'multitalented' use 'bisexual'."
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Ok let me clarify, I asked again and she said it's a picture of 2 angry faces with some sort of rectangle in the middle and it blinks a few times and that's it. Hope that helps.
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Posting Junkie
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I think you're going to need to post a digital photo.
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OMG!!!! 1t's the neXt MAC viri!!11!!one!
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-- Jason
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Clinically Insane
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I think the problem is that the original poster can't actually look at the computer himself, so he only has a (seemingly inaccurate) description of the problem to go on.
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Chuck
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"Instead of either 'multi-talented' or 'multitalented' use 'bisexual'."
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Posting Junkie
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Yeah, but there's no reason that he couldn't get his mom to take a digital photo. Even if all she has is a cell phone camera, it would probably be good enough.
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Addicted to MacNN
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I don't think I could have gotten my mom to take a picture with a cell phone.
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Posting Junkie
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Oh come on. It's just two button presses (at least on my phone).
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Senior User
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it almost sounds like a description of the split Mac face (as in the Finder icon) but i can't think of any situation that it might appear at boot time
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"You can't waste a life hating people, because all they do is live their life, laughing, doing more evil."
-ALPHA ROBERTSON,whose daughter was one of four girls killed in the bombing of a Birmingham, Ala., church in 1963.
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Baninated
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sounds like the finder icon.
tell her to hold down the two buttons to the right of the space bar and the p and r buttons on the keyboard while switching it on. that resets the pram.
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Professional Poster
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It sounds like the sad mac face to me - isn't that usually a hardware issue?
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Clinically Insane
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I wouldn't describe the Sad Mac as two faces separated by a rectangle. It's one face on a computer screen. And does it even appear on New World computers? (Or is that the New World version?)
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Chuck
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"Instead of either 'multi-talented' or 'multitalented' use 'bisexual'."
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Ok now she says it's a split mac face, with 2 faces looking at each other smiling, with some sort of rectangle in the middle. She tried to take a picture but it totally did not come out so she's going to try again tomorrow.
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Professional Poster
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Originally Posted by glassvial
Ok now she says it's a split mac face, with 2 faces looking at each other smiling, with some sort of rectangle in the middle. She tried to take a picture but it totally did not come out so she's going to try again tomorrow.
The old Mac logo looked like two faces looking at each other: http://somebodystopme.net/photos6/MacLogo.jpg
There may be a blank error message that has popped up.
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ACSA 10.4/10.3, ACTC 10.3, ACHDS 10.3
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Originally Posted by Detrius
This guy apparently doesn't like people hotlinking to his site.
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Mac Elite
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Originally Posted by glassvial
Ok now she says it's a split mac face, with 2 faces looking at each other smiling, with some sort of rectangle in the middle. She tried to take a picture but it totally did not come out so she's going to try again tomorrow.
That's the Finder icon, also used as the "Mac" logo on product packaging and such, like Detrius's linked image.
What version of OS X is this iMac running I wonder? How old is it? I can't think of why this would show up on boot. Don't know what part of the boot process this is, either, or if it appears to be part of an error dialog or something.
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Mac OS X 10.5.0, Mac Pro 2.66GHz/2 GB RAM/X1900 XT, 23" ACD
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I think I know what she is describing.
It'll be the Mac Face alternating with a folder icon (the rectangle she is describing) - IOW, it can't find a system to boot from. It is presumably running Mac OS 9 or earlier (or does this still happen in OS X - it's so long since I had that type of issue, I wouldn't know anymore).
(
Last edited by JKT; May 11, 2006 at 07:09 PM.
)
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Fresh-Faced Recruit
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Yeah she drew a picture of it, now I know what it is. It's the split mac face alternating with the ? over a folder...pretty obvious what that means. Unfortunately I don't know what MacOS is on there or what steps to try next to solve the problem (again seeing as I can't touch it).
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Professional Poster
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Originally Posted by glassvial
Yeah she drew a picture of it, now I know what it is. It's the split mac face alternating with the ? over a folder...pretty obvious what that means. Unfortunately I don't know what MacOS is on there or what steps to try next to solve the problem (again seeing as I can't touch it).
Well, the first thing you need is an OS to boot from. Did you recommend she do a PRAM reset? If that doesn't work, she'll need an OS CD to boot from.
And FYI: since it means that no OS can be found, don't you think it's independent of OS 9 vs. OS X?
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ACSA 10.4/10.3, ACTC 10.3, ACHDS 10.3
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Mac Elite
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Originally Posted by glassvial
she said it's a picture of 2 angry faces with some sort of rectangle in the middle
Originally Posted by glassvial
Ok now she says it's a split mac face, with 2 faces looking at each other smiling, with some sort of rectangle in the middle.
I think her Mac could have a conflict of personality, get at appointment with a psychiatrist
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Fresh-Faced Recruit
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Originally Posted by Detrius
Well, the first thing you need is an OS to boot from. Did you recommend she do a PRAM reset? If that doesn't work, she'll need an OS CD to boot from.
And FYI: since it means that no OS can be found, don't you think it's independent of OS 9 vs. OS X?
Yes I told her to do a PRAM reset, she said it didn't fix anything. And, I figured if we knew what version of the OS was on it we could attempt to run a repair (or something) with that version.
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Mac Elite
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(
Last edited by jasong; May 14, 2006 at 07:12 PM.
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-- Jason
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