macbook pro emergency!

[murphey]

arrrgggghhhh!

First problem - could not eject the USB flash drive. Instructions say reboot. OK, reboot. Second problem - Unfortunately the system is stuck on shutdown - Apple's version of the Blue Screen of Death. Blue screen with the silly rotating timer icon. And stuck and stuck. And no battery to remove to force the shutdown. (Intel MacBook Pro)

Never in more than 25 years of the Mac have I ever had this problem. Fortunately, a backup Mac (OSX 10.4) and a WinXP system so I'm not hosed. But I need suggestions. Right now my only option is to trot down to the Apple store and have them deal with it unless someone around here has suggestions.

 

[rpadula]

Hold the power button down until it turns off. That should do it in about 10 seconds or so.

 

[flyingcheesehead]

What Rich said - And after it boots up, try rebooting it "nicely" again (ie, by choosing Restart, not powering it down). If it still doesn't want to reboot, you might want to run Disk Utility and such to clean it up a bit.

 

[bigred177]

Wait, I thought Apples never have any problems ever?

 

[flyingcheesehead]

Wait, I thought Apples never have any problems ever?

No, that's the contention of those who like to slam some of us who continually seem to recommend switching - Apple products are easy to use and have *fewer* problems. There is not a product in this world that is perfect.

 

[murphey]

power switch for 10 sec solved the problem...thanks!

 

[jesse]

Worst case you can usually boot from the installation disk and reinstall the system. Pretty much all your applications will still work and you won't lose any data. Try that in Windows. You'll generally be out your registry and damn near everything installed will be hosed.