01-26-2012, 10:36 PM

About six months ago my iMac stopped working/turning on. When it does turn on and i am able to reach the home screen i have about 5 mins before a grey screen comes down and says something like "Computer has something wrong and needs to shutdown immediately". I decided to go on and spend a little time to see what might be wrong and i discovered i turned my Firewall off.... Now i'm sure i have a virus and i think it came from an email or possibly a website because my firewall was turned off. Is there anyway i can troubleshoot it and do a full system scan for the virus and delete it without having to go to the apple store and pay for a repair. I'm certain i did not get the apple care coverage because i am very careful with computers and i know where the viruses are and where to stay away from.

Any advice would be useful since it just sits there and collects dust.

i might add that i had OSX leopard originally then switched to OSX Snow leopard.

01-26-2012, 11:09 PM

You do NOT have a virus. Or malware of any kind. Let's just get that out of the way now.

Next time you get that error message, please write down exactly what it says. In the meanwhile, you should run the Apple Hardware Test to see if it turns up something faulty.
The Apple Hardware Test

01-26-2012, 11:30 PM

Well i just tried to turn it on and do the hardware test and the screen stays white and a loud beep comes from it. It's looking like im going to need to take it to get fixed. Ill try tomorrow to turn it on and fill you in on what happens.

01-26-2012, 11:35 PM

Woooooooo up there for a minute.
We have only just hit the surface on things we/you can try before you take it anywhere near a Apple store.
What lifeisabeach suggested is only one thing.

Do you have the original install disks that came with the machine ?? If so there are things we can try . . ..

Cheers

01-26-2012, 11:55 PM

Sounds either software related or possibly hardware. Try a restore.

01-27-2012, 12:00 AM

Originally Posted by TattooedMac

Woooooooo up there for a minute.
We have only just hit the surface on things we/you can try before you take it anywhere near a Apple store.
What lifeisabeach suggested is only one thing.

Do you have the original install disks that came with the machine ?? If so there are things we can try . . ..

Cheers

****, i'll have to look for the discs. i've had it for so long now i'm not sure. But what are u suggesting i do if i find them?

01-27-2012, 08:22 AM

Originally Posted by Cana05

Well i just tried to turn it on and do the hardware test and the screen stays white and a loud beep comes from it. It's looking like im going to need to take it to get fixed. Ill try tomorrow to turn it on and fill you in on what happens.

That is very much not a good sign. Check out this conversation on Apple's forums. Someone else who experienced these exact same issues had bad RAM.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread...art=0&tstart=0

This may not necessarily be your RAM, but it does point to a hardware failure. We can test to see if it is the RAM if you have 4 modules installed. IIRC, you must have 2 pairs of matched modules installed at least. You can't boot with just one module. Have you ever replaced the RAM or added any?

01-27-2012, 12:20 PM

Originally Posted by lifeisabeach

That is very much not a good sign. Check out this conversation on Apple's forums. Someone else who experienced these exact same issues had bad RAM.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread...art=0&tstart=0

This may not necessarily be your RAM, but it does point to a hardware failure. We can test to see if it is the RAM if you have 4 modules installed. IIRC, you must have 2 pairs of matched modules installed at least. You can't boot with just one module. Have you ever replaced the RAM or added any?

Yeah about a month after i got the computer i upgraded the ram to 3gb. i bought enough for 4gb and one of the ram pieces didn't work. So yeah that might be the problem.

01-27-2012, 12:38 PM

Ok i took out the ram and now im back down to 1gb ram and it works now. Thank you. A piece of advise for anyone looking to upgrade ram. DO NOT buy A1A ram, both 2gb ram pieces i bought from them are now broken. One was broken on delivery too.

But im not out of woods yet. I get a message now every time i turn the computer on about Norton Antivirus that pops up like 15 times in a row. Any suggestions on how to get rid of it?

01-27-2012, 12:43 PM

Originally Posted by Cana05

Ok i took out the ram and now im back down to 1gb ram and it works now. Thank you. A piece of advise for anyone looking to upgrade ram. DO NOT buy A1A ram, both 2gb ram pieces i bought from them are now broken. One was broken on delivery too.

But im not out of woods yet. I get a message now every time i turn the computer on about Norton Antivirus that pops up like 15 times in a row. Any suggestions on how to get rid of it?

Get rid of Norton Antivirus. Just uninstall it and be rid of it. AV software is simply unnecessary for all but the most reckless of people, and even then the likelihood of getting ahold of one of the very few pieces of malware is pretty slim.

01-27-2012, 01:46 PM

Ok i uninstalled Norton a long time ago, but i still get messages when i start up. Any suggestions on how to remove it. I dont know where it could be coming from because i searched my entire hard drive for Norton and nothing comes up.

01-27-2012, 02:44 PM

Originally Posted by Cana05

Ok i uninstalled Norton a long time ago, but i still get messages when i start up. Any suggestions on how to remove it. I dont know where it could be coming from because i searched my entire hard drive for Norton and nothing comes up.

Well best bet is to re-install Norton then using their uninstaller that comes with the install .pkge uninstall it. If it doesn't come with a uninstaller i use AppTrap which sits in my Preference Pane. Once downloaded and its in Preferences make sure its active and forget it. Now every time you Trash something you will get a pop up asking to remove all files, which you do. This is AppTrap at work.
And contrary to what others in the forum says, it does work and does a good job. Others don't think you need something AppTrap, but i am ANAL about having those little files building up over time so this is why i use it

Cheers

01-27-2012, 03:18 PM

Tattoo is correct. Norton in a lot of cases is worse than a Virus would be. If you want an Antivirus for your Mac, get the Free ClamAVx.

Best place to purchase RAM for a Mac that will work is OWC. Excellent company with excellent products and service.

01-28-2012, 03:55 AM

Originally Posted by Cana05

Ok i uninstalled Norton a long time ago, but i still get messages when i start up. Any suggestions on how to remove it. I dont know where it could be coming from because i searched my entire hard drive for Norton and nothing comes up.

Norton tends to get more dug in and hold on for dear life within your preferences than any virus ever could. I STILL can't totally eliminate it from my PC.

As others have said, Anti-Virus really is not necessary for OS X.

01-28-2012, 08:00 AM

Originally Posted by Cana05

Ok i uninstalled Norton a long time ago, but i still get messages when i start up. Any suggestions on how to remove it. I dont know where it could be coming from because i searched my entire hard drive for Norton and nothing comes up.

Removing all Symantec programs for Macintosh by using the RemoveSymantecMacFiles removal utility