Problem with installing programs

Ger


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Hi, i have a Ibook G4 and i cannot seem to install downloaded programs and other stuff. also my bluetooth doesnt seem to respond when i click the send file or browse device buttons.

if anyone has come across this before can they let me know what the story is

Ger
 
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MacBook Pro | iMac(2.1 G5) | MacBook(2.16 C2D) | MacMini (1.67 CD) | iPhone 4 | iPad (3rd Gen)
Can you please elaborate your problem? What do you mean by "i cannot seem to install downloaded programs and other stuff"?
 
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Yes, we are going to need a little more information on this one.
What exactly are you doing that won't allow you to install something?
What application are you trying to install?
What file type is it, what extension does it have, where did you get it from...etc.?
 
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Mac Studio, M1 Max, 32 GB RAM, 2 TB SSD
Could it be that your account doesn't have admin priveledges?
 
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Or could it be that the apps just go away when you restart the laptop? that happened to all the time when I was a newbie...2 months ago.
 
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make sure your account has admin privelages so that you can install programs

and

make sure your installing them properly and not just launching them from the mount.
 
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Ger


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hey sorry, im talking about things IN GENERAL. when i click something it doesnt launch. also my bluetooth isnt responding. when i click the the send file or browse device button...i get..nothing.

i tried looking in my "more info" in about this mac and its saying i dont have a system profiler?? seems odd to me but this is well out of my knowledge.

basically ANY .DMG is not launching. im getting no responses.

sorry for the vauge inital posts guys. hope you can help.

Ger
 
M

MacHeadCase

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Try dragging the finder pref file to the trash (don't empty the trash right away), restart and see if this works.

Path to file is this:

Macintosh HD -> Users -> Your Home Directory -> Library -> Preferences -> com.apple.finder.plist

If that doesn't work, download MainMenu and clean out all the user caches, deep clean the system, clean font cache. Restart. After emptying the caches, the restart will be longer than usual so don't worry if you notice it is taking a while longer to reboot.

If that doesn't work, create a new user account, log into that new one and use it, see if the problems persist in the new user account.

If not then it means that your usual user account has corrupted data in it. If the problem reproduces in the new account as well, then this means the problem is system-wide.

Report back with your results to these various troubleshooting ideas.
 
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I know this sounds silly, but you do know that you have to double click a .dmg to open it, don't you? Then you have just opened a disk image, and you will see a disk mount on your desktop. Open that and you will see the application inside. Double click to launch it.

If you like the app, you can drag it to you Applications folder, close the .dmg and trash it. From then on, you can launch it by opening your Applications folder and double clicking it there.

If you REALLY like the program, you can drag it onto your Dock, and then a single click there will do the trick to launch it.
 
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Ger


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mac head case: ill give that ago. the problem is my girlfriends mac, not mine. but ive tried everything i will give it a go and report back. thanks for taking the time to write that bit up.

mac57: yes i am well aware of double clicking and the rest. im not a noob. :) thanks though
 
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hey its my computer we're talking about here...so let me just tell you exactly whats going on.

i don't know how it happened but somehow my system profiler has gone missing. i've done all those things that i was told to do but none of the options have worked. it all started when i tried to download a bluetooth firmware updater. after the download was complete, i opened the disk that it downloaded to the desktop and i noticed that the icon of the file contained inside the disk, entitled BTFWUpdate.1.2.1.pkg, was a little white piece of paper instead of being the little brown box with the yellow square inside of it. when i clicked on it, a dialog box popped up which asked me to choose a program to open the file with. i don't know what's going on.

also, if someone could please help with my bluetooth, i'd greatly appreciate it.
 
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MacHeadCase

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So I gather from your post that you have tried everything I posted above and nothing works?
 
M

MacHeadCase

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Well firmware is pretty serious stuff. According to Apple, it goes pretty deep in the system, software and hardware. I doubt that you can salvage your install as it is now. I just hope that missed firmware install didn't do anything permanent to the hardware, i.e. your Bluetooth setup.

Maybe someone else has another solution.
 
M

MacHeadCase

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One last thing you could try is pop in Apple's Hardware Test (it came with your iBook kit, on one of the included CDs), restart holding down the C key and run the test in Extended mode.
 
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i highly doubt it was the firmware download itself. it did this to another download that i was doing before this one.

what were you saying about reinstalling the OS?
 
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see thats my quandary. i don't have any of my cd's or anything with me. i recently moved from america to ireland and i left all of that stuff back in the states.
 
M

MacHeadCase

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Unfortunately, that's the only thing I can see. The computer should never go without its CDs. They can bail you out of tight spots like this.

And if you want to reinstall the OS you will need either full install disks or the original disks: you cannot use the disks that came with another Mac, these install disks are model specific. Full install disks are another matter, as they can be installed on any model of Macs.
 

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