I am going INSANE!!! PLEASE help!

martinatkinson

martinatkinson

Registered
Hello!

OK, I have a serious problem that is driving me crazy! :mad:

I bought my grandparents an old 7100 last year. I installed OS 9.1 on it with no problems. I also set up multiple users. Couple days ago I went to turn it on and it gave me a bomb with something about the control strip. "Oh boy, looks like another problem, should be easy to fix though.." I thought to myself as I restarted with XTensions off, logged in as admin and removed the control strip XTension. I restart again and get another bomb about the desktop printer utility :mad:. OK, now I am getting a little frustrated. So, I repeat the previous steps, removing the desktop printer utility I restart.

FINALLY! It starts with no bombs and I get the login screen. I breathe in relief and log in as Ronald Martin. So, I try to open a file and boom! another error "Sorry, the application "Microsoft Word" could not be opened because it can not be found" :mad: :mad: :mad:

I try opening every file, copying every file, moving every file, rebuilding the desktop and restarting the computer dozens of times. The only thing that will open is the chooser and (of course) the Finder and login panel. PLEASE HELP!!! :confused:

Have a great day (even though I am not)!

Albert
 
well the thing I would do is move backwards.
Have you installed anything new the last few times that you ran the mac ? if so remove that and see what happens.
 
Hello!

The only things I have installed are the bare basics. And I installed them when I first got the computer. Nothing has been changed since I got it except for adding documents. Any other suggestions?

Thanks and have a great day!

Albert
 
Norton is your friend. Run diagnostics, defrag, all that stuff. Sounds as though System may be corrupt, but Norton will tell you for certain.
 
You can run Norton applications without booting off a CD, but it may not be able to fix your problem - at least it will tell you if there is a serious problem that it can fix.
 
Hello!

I will try this tomorrow and let you know what happens. Maybe I can put it on an external SCSI drive and run it off that. Thanks for your help!

Albert
 
Ouch. That's a nasty predicament you're in. You might want to make a call to Symantec to see if they just might have an old copy (or new) of Norton that runs off of floppy disks. I know there was a version that did this, but it was like 3.0 and it didn't handle OS 9.1. Still, it might be good for the basic drive tests.
 
Hello!

I will try this. Maybe it would be easier to just save up what I can and buy him an iMac. Problem is that these things are expensive and since I do not have a real job it will have to pay off with many odd jobs.

Anyway, do you know how you can choose a startup disk during startup? I will try copying the Norton disk onto an external SCSI and install OS 9.1 on it as well. The only problem is that if it starts up I can not switch startup disks because it can not open the control panel giving me the excuse that it could not be found.

Thanks guys for all your help!

Albert
 
albert, ist i would just get rid of the control strip altogether. that thing causes more conflicts and problems than anything i have ever seen. second - get techtool lite and zap your pram using it. while you could do this manually, ttl offers the advantage of saving your old settings so you can revert if needed. and reinstalling word might be a good idea if you haven't tried it yet. chances are that somewhere along the way you removed some stupid m$ extension (or it became corrupted).
 
Hello!

Thanks for your reply. I did not even think of zapping the PRAM or to run TechTool on the system (especially since I have a disk of it sitting right in front of me) :rolleyes:

I will try this today or tommorrow and let you know what happens!

Have a great day!

Albert
 
If you want to bypas the interna drive try this

Restart then hold down Command-Option-Shift-Delete keys immediately after restarting. Continue to hold these down until the happy mac appears. If you get a flashing ? disk then it won't work.

If it does startup then the original drive that was your startup disk might not be mounted. If this is the case then look into getting 'SCSIProbe' or see if 'DriveSetup' will mount it manually.

Good luck
 
Hello!

Ok, I finally was able to complete fixing the problem. For those of you who may run into this problem in the future here is what I did for your reference.

1.) Installed Mac OS 9.1 and Norton Utilities on an external SCSI disk.
2.) Attached the SCSI to the 7100 and booted off my seemingly useless system folder.
3.) Opened the startup disk control panel off the external, chose the SCSI as the startup and pushed the restart button in the control panel.
4.) After restart was complete I ran Norton Utilities and came up with alot of major errors some of which effected where the files were stored :eek:
5.) Fixed all the errors, ran Speed Disk and restarted onto the internal drive.
6.) Everything works fine!!!

Thank you so much for all your help! Have a great day!

Albert
 
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