[muglo] Problems, have I got problems

Dear Muglo-ites:

I'm back in the MUGLO fold after moving from London, Ont. to Nanaimo, 
B.C.

Upon my arrival in Nanaimo, I bought a snazzy new G4 Powerbook, which 
worked marvelously,  but then began doing weird stuff in late October, 
two months after I bought it - and just after I downloaded software 
updates sent to me via e-mail by Apple.

Since then, this is what happened:

1.  My laptop kept crashing every time it went into sleep. I checked to 
see if it was the peripherals, or the USB hub, but it still kept 
crashing.

2.  I tried the Apple Hardware Test; it found nothing wrong (although 
the techie at the shop said that's not uncommon, even when there is a 
hardware problem.)

3.  The computer seized up when I was proofreading. I had endless 
problems working in MSWord; I couldn't select items; the spell-check 
wasn't working properly; files were converted into read-only; I 
couldn't save documents in particular fonts, or the fonts disappeared 
from the list of those available; when I saved something, sometimes 
there would be a "bling" noise, sometimes not.  Since I work 99% of the 
time in MSWord, this is terribly frustrating.

4.  I took it into the shop and had everything re-installed except the 
MS Office X software which was installed by the university techie, so I 
don't have a disk for that.

5. The shop techie found two versions of System Preferences for MS 
Word; he also deleted Norton SystemWorks because it creates problems 
unless it is started up from the CD.

6.  The problems continued. I put the computer to sleep at 6 pm one 
night and came back at 7:40 pm to find the sleep light off and the 
screen dark; it would not light up when I pressed the keys, so I 
pressed re-start and it made a whirring noise.

7. I took it into the shop again and they gave me some new memory to 
see if it was a memory problem.  It still kept doing weird stuff. When 
I shut it down from MSWord the screen went all strange and was filled 
with all kinds of junk - it looked like when you are de-fragmenting 
your hard drive.

8.  Then I took it in and the techie replaced the logic board and the 
battery.  It now runs faster but is still doing weird stuff in MSWord.  
I now make sure not to shut it down from MSWord.

9.  In the midst of all this, something else has happened.  During one 
of the re-installs the techie misspelled my Admin name and then had to 
go back in and change it to the correct spelling.  I also  had to 
re-input my password.  Now the system does  not recognize my password 
whenever I want to install upgrades or programs.

10.  I thought maybe that I might have mistyped my password when I 
re-inputted it again, and so went into Mac Support to see if I could 
retrieve it or change it.  However, to do that, Mac has to recognize 
your Apple ID, which is your current e-mail address.  It refused to 
recognize my current ID  - although I am still getting sent upgrades 
sent to my e-mail address.  How can it do that if it doesn't recognize 
my e-mail? My understanding is that administrator passwords allow the 
installation of software, and they are supposed to be the same as the 
administration user's login password - which my system now refuses to 
recognize.

11.  I also now have to type in my password to access my e-mail every 
time I boot up my computer.  However, I understand from reading on the 
Apple support site that this sometimes happens with OS 10.2.8, and I 
can live with that.  I would like to be able to upgrade software, 
though.

11.   The techie at the shop now says we need to go through the 
re-install process again: first, re-install everything from disks; then 
re-install Microsoft Office X (at the university); then re-import my 
mail, addresses and bookmarks.  I asked him if he thought the MS Office 
X could be the problem; he said if you are attached to the  network and 
you have more than one machine on the network with the same serial 
number on Office, it will act funny.  I work from home, but I am 
attached to the university network, and use Entourage to connect to my 
university e-mail.  Could that be the problem?

I have to say I don't really understand this.  All I know is that the 
program I work in all the time is not functioning properly, and I can't 
seem to get any straightforward answers as to what is wrong. Both the 
university techie and the shop techie are skilled and knowledgeable, so 
it's not that they are doing anything wrong - I don't think!

I have always found Macs to be reliable, but this one sure ain't and 
it's creating enormous difficulties for me.

As always, your assistance, advice, and explanations are greatly 
appreciated.

Cheers,

Kathryn




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