New mac owner and super frustrated

[jessesmith121]

Hello I am new to the mac world... I purchased a "mac mini" with Mac OS X 10.6.8/ a 1.83 Intel core 2 duo with 1gb 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM... I purchased this for my wife for Christmas. I am really getting frustrated with the thing. Ive tried to install flash about 4 times and it fails at the last second. Other thing I have tried to install do the same thing. Then when I connect this computer to my router it kicks off all of my windows pc's, and vice versa. I'm rebooting my router about 4 times a day just to get connectivity. Then it only prints about half of the time... It pauses the document in the middle of printing and then errors out... The cannon I have works great with my i pad and air print... The software says compatible with my OS... I got this computer because I was told up and down how "trouble free" these computers were... Every time my wife or I want to use it, it is nothing but trouble... Please help before I take a hammer to this thing...

[Smithcraft]

Oh dear!

Well, before the hammer comes out, can you tell us if it came with any install discs, or did it just come all alone without any discs?

SC
_________________
Grumpy old man of computing.

[Desktop] G4 mini - 1.5Ghz 1GB 80GB HDD - Newer miniStack v2 500GB - 10.5.8

[Media System] Intel i5 mini - 2.33Ghz 8GB 500GB HDD - 4 x Hitachi 2TB HDD in a qBOX-SF - 10.7.5 (Thanks Phil!)

Make sure it has pins!

[jessesmith121]

in a way... the install disks are on the hard drive...

[Smithcraft]

Ok. If you can, burn them to discs or to a USB stick, 'cuz the OS installed on the mini might be bad.

However, first we'll try a trick to see if it's just the user space that is bad.

Back up all your important data, like email, or business stuff.

Just to be sure, but it's not complaining about low disc space or anything like that is it? The installs are just failing?

Now create a new user that is an Admin account. From that account, try installing what you want to install. If it still fails, then I would suggest, assuming nobody else chimes in, that you are going to want to reinstall the OS and start fresh.

SC
_________________
Grumpy old man of computing.

[Desktop] G4 mini - 1.5Ghz 1GB 80GB HDD - Newer miniStack v2 500GB - 10.5.8

[Media System] Intel i5 mini - 2.33Ghz 8GB 500GB HDD - 4 x Hitachi 2TB HDD in a qBOX-SF - 10.7.5 (Thanks Phil!)

Make sure it has pins!

[b0bb]

1Gb memory is really tight for Snow Leopard (OSX 10.6.x), I think you may have just run out of memory during the flash install.

I would take Smithcraft's suggestion and reinstall OSX to get rid of other memory resident programs. You can also try to clear it out manually using the Activity Monitor tool.

[macmanmacman]

Does anyone think illegal snow leopard copy see apple disables installation of programs on snow leopard if it detects a illegal or stolen copy of the o.s its a good feature but totally screws over anyone who buys the machine used.

i would recommend doing something major.

once you burn the reinstallation cd's/dvd's make sure you do one thing..

boot from the installation media then go into utilites at the top of the screen and select disk utility and run a 7 pass format its located under partitions and click security options then select 7 pass air force standard here is why that model of mini was known for hard drive issues and even some processor issues to verify its not a processor defect run the format if the format fails its a bad drive if the computer restarts its a bad cpu

simple as that

[Smithcraft]

I don't. Did the OS tell the Flash installer that the OS is illegal because it didn't have a correct serial number?

Oh, I forgot, OS X doesn't use serial numbers. So how would OS X tell Flash that it is an illegitimate installation?

SC
_________________
Grumpy old man of computing.

[Desktop] G4 mini - 1.5Ghz 1GB 80GB HDD - Newer miniStack v2 500GB - 10.5.8

[Media System] Intel i5 mini - 2.33Ghz 8GB 500GB HDD - 4 x Hitachi 2TB HDD in a qBOX-SF - 10.7.5 (Thanks Phil!)

Make sure it has pins!

[ez061111]