The Mac OS is quite resilient, and you can try a hard restart if it won't restart through a direct command.

First try holding in the standby button on the back of the iMac for about 10 seconds. If it doesn't restart, then you can try holding down Ctrl+Cmd while pressing the standby button. 

In your case, since they're unclear on username/password, etc., I would actually reinstall the system, from the installer disk, and then go through a full reinstallation of everything you've already put on the harddisk. In other words, a clean reinstall deleting everything on the harddisk.

That also gives you a chance to set your username password and privileges all over again. 

After that, I would go to System Preferences, and go to Software Updates. Update everything, following instructions, until you have the absolute latest version of everything on your iMac.

Then reinstall your documents, files, music, movies, etc.

It's a bit of bother in lost time, and would have been completely unnecessary if they had done their job. Your keyboard problem may either be due to a faulty keyboard, or to having set Keyboard/Mouse preferences for long delay between entries?
 

This is the store in Bath? I'm surprised, they're usually very very helpful in there.

RE: Apple Care, definitely worth it. Replaced my MacBook Pro (first generation, notoriously unreliable) a few months after the warranty ended, although not without a bit of a battle. Still, more helpful than any other computer company I've delt with.

I  don't usually read this forum being a PC man. I didn't realise how exciting it was.

Keep up the good work guys, you're better than watching the tele. Much more fun!

I've just spent the best part of 20 minutes reading the whole thread!!

Clearly some passionate Mac-fans here - it's bitchier than an episode of "Desperate Housewives" in here!

Flappo - my father has been working with PC's since the dawn of time (like Simon)!

However, I'm 100% certain he'd have absolutely no idea how to use an iMac - but this doesn't make him 1) Bad at his job; or 2) An idiot!!

Give poor Simon a chance - he's a "MacVirgin"!

A14BEO:

I've just spent the best part of 20 minutes reading the whole thread!!

Clearly some passionate Mac-fans here - it's bitchier than an episode of "Desperate Housewives" in here!

Flappo - my father has been working with PC's since the dawn of time (like Simon)!

However, I'm 100% certain he'd have absolutely no idea how to use an iMac - but this doesn't make him 1) Bad at his job; or 2) An idiot!!

Give poor Simon a chance - he's a "MacVirgin"!

OK, bottom line is this. I have been playing with my new iMac for the best part of the day and it is impressive at what it does. But its not for me and I am going to be returning it to the shop tomorrow morning and continue using my Toshiba laptop. I have no regrets because I have often wanted to try the MAC since it has been able to run Windows. Sadly I still haven't experienced this because of the Administration problems that prevented Boot Camp Assistant from starting. I think that what puts me off is primarily two things. Firstly, the concept about owning a MAC and then being so loyal to it that you fight to the death for it and remain convinced its the best machine out there. This has been demonstrated today in the thread which it now seems many of you have come across, by word of mouth I am sure. I really struggle with that mentality and I don't want to become like that. Most Apple shops I have visited have a bad and unfriendly attitude to non MAC users which I just can't tolerate at all. Secondly, from the moment I switched the iMac on I felt trapped. Its like you immediately conform to the MAC way of doing things. Since I am a complete non-conformist I could never cope with things being out of my control. I think Apple have done an excellent job of making the whole computing experience easier and more accessible but that is not what I want from a computer. I want to be in charge, I don't want everything done for me, I want to learn how to do new things, not have everything thought of and done for me already by someone else. So I guess thats it. I have no regrets about trying it out but I do honestly miss Office and Windows, even if it is old fashioned and still sits on top of DOS. Perhaps I respect it even more for that. Change is difficult for most people. I am sure if I had started out on a MAC years ago I would have loved it and thought it was the bees knees. As I say, I don't want to take anything away from it, it does a very impressive job from a multimedia point of view and really does integrate everything very well. PCs are not like that, but thats what I personally prefer.

Thank you to everyone's comments throughout this thread. It certainly has been an interesting and passionate one. In hindsight I think I could have started it off a little more diplomatically than I did but I was having nothing but problems at the time of writing while trying to get the thing working so I spoke my mind at that time and I guess I say how it is. At the end of the day this is a B&O forum and that is why I joined it in the first place. I only posted because I saw a MAC thread but I wasn't expecting it to go the way it did!

Hope you all had a good evening and I am sure we will catch up again soon in the General Forum.

In good spirit I hope,

Simon. 

i think the basic mistake you made was buying a mac then wanting to run vista on it , akin to buying a porsche and using it to go shopping with

if you want to use vista - why on earth would you buy a mac when we have tiger and leopard - two vastly superior operating systems already ? you can of course run vista in boot camp , but the whole idea of the mac is you run the mac os for 90% of your stuff and boot into vista for the odd program that's not written for the mac . such as errr- games...

i'm sorry if you take this the wrong way , but i don't think it's a fault of the mac or the os , but entirely user error

 in future - i'd advise you to research your subject properly and don't jump to conclusions and please try and refrain from making inflammatory comments about subjects you have no experience of

also macs aren't just a pretty face , their exterior beauty reflects their interior design decisions and indeed the entire macintosh ethos , if you want a pretty pc may i suggest a sony or aliienware ? 

just my two penny worth 

:) 

The Beonic Man:

 but I do honestly miss Office

But you can buy Office for Mac? I have it but its the only thing I now dislike about my Mac. 

Its a shame, you can lead a horse to water....

I think your making a mistake but good luck with your PC anyway. 

@ Simon - you've hit the nail on the head with that last post...

It's completely down to user preference - what makes a person choose a PC over a Mac is akin to a person choosing Pentas over BeoLab 9s - I know which ones I'd have - and wouldn't give a hoot if anyone thought differently!

I think that in future it would be in everyone's best interests to remember the above - after all, it's a free world, and we're all free to do as we please! By all means fight for the cause - just fight nicely - no scratching - and avoid the face!!

@ Simon - you've hit the nail on the head with that last post...

It's completely down to user preference - what makes a person choose a PC over a Mac is akin to a person choosing Pentas over BeoLab 9s - I know which ones I'd have - and wouldn't give a hoot if anyone thought differently!

I think that in future it would be in everyone's best interests to remember the above - after all, it's a free world, and we're all free to do as we please! By all means fight for the cause - just fight nicely - no scratching - and avoid the face!!

I agree,

If at the beginning you weren't sure to switch to Mac (willing to stay with Office, Windows), then it was over the first day of purchase... 

In this case it's only a matter of user's preference, as some members previously stated before. 

Cheers,

Guy 

A14BEO:

@ Simon - you've hit the nail on the head with that last post...

It's completely down to user preference - what makes a person choose a PC over a Mac is akin to a person choosing Pentas over BeoLab 9s - I know which ones I'd have - and wouldn't give a hoot if anyone thought differently!

I think that in future it would be in everyone's best interests to remember the above - after all, it's a free world, and we're all free to do as we please! By all means fight for the cause - just fight nicely - no scratching - and avoid the face!!

Well, this will make you laugh... I have just hit my head again - this is the stuff classics are made of! I am still at home and have decided NOT to take my iMAC back to the shop. Regardless of ALL that has been said in this very stimulating thread (to say the least!) I am going to stick with it and open my arms to the new possibilities with Apple. At the end of the day, this is a heavy computer and I really can't be bothered to pack it all up and drive into Bath to take it back. Also, it does go without saying that it is a very beautiful style and matches my B&O home perfectly, that is certainly difficult to get away from. You're going to love what's coming next... I have been continually playing with it this morning and it has grown on me a lot. I have completely amazed myself and I am sitting here laughing because I know you guys are going to have a field day with this! But I don't care. I needed to go through what I did to reach a decision that felt comfortable and right, and now it does. I just couldn't bring myself to pack it up and take it back. It goes with my Soundsticks sound system really well and the colours look great and match everything in the home. I was playing with the remote control and loved the way the media comes up, the pictures of the DVD covers on the left and so forth. It is well thought out and well executed there is no doubt about that. So, you must all be giggling now huh? I am not going to say I am a convert - I don't operate like that, and, I do so hate buying into the Apple mass market consumerism, just as I do with Microsoft, Sky and other such companies. I am sure there are many of you that can relate to that. But, it is undeniably nice on the inside and on the outside. Well, there you have it. I am not going anywhere so I will be watching this thread like a hawk and can't wait to see what you all have to say! Just be kind, polite and no "I/We told you so's!"

Flappo, I do respect your opinions but you have a great talent for dropping in digs and being very personal when you write and that is not a good characteristic to have. I was critical towards the MAC and its operation only, which obviously struck a cord and I can understand that as we all get passionate about things we love, but what I wrote in any of my posts was never once directed as a personal attack or insulting to either you or anybody else in the forum. I hope we can avoid this in the future.

Simon. 

Hi Simon,

Are you sure you really want this iMac ?

It seems your decision was made upon the fact that it can be bothering to pack it all up and drive into Bath to take it back...

Maybe I am wrong, but listen to your heart :-)) 

Cheers,

Guy 

The Beonic Man:

So, you must all be giggling now huh? I am not going to say I am a convert - I don't operate like that, and, I do so hate buying into the Apple mass market consumerism, just as I do with Microsoft, Sky and other such companies.

Nope, not giggling at all. I'm actually impressed that you managed the conversion in a couple of days, after having been on Windows for a long time. Though there are some similarities in interface, there are enough differences to make the transition require time to breed familiarity.

I keep having small Apple epiphanies in spite of having been on the platform for a long time. For instance, when I attached my Konnekt24D sound card/processor with FireWire. I thought I would need to run through some configurations.

The Sound Pane recognized the Konnekt, and its interface, resetting bitrate/samplerate to the optimum.
The Audio MIDI Setup did the same thing. And I had sound coming through from the very moment I sent something to the Konnekt. Must have taken me 45 seconds to set up, and I was piping 24bit/192kHz studio master files unconverted from my Mac to my BeoLab 5s.

Good luck with your Mac discoveries, and just post queries here if you're wondering about something.

you'll probably end up being a total convert , that's often what happens to the doubters , i've seen it LOADS of times

i managed to convert a whole mod room ( on some silly american forum ) over to macs , now they're even bigger fanboys than i am 

as long as you go into it with an open mind and are happy to accept a slightly different way of things working , i'm sure you'll be more than happy with your shiny new toy

Give it some time, and you'll absolutely love it. If there is ANYTHING you can't work out how to do, or need an app which does xx or replaces xx from Windows, then post here on the forum, we'll be able to help.

some helpful forums for a newbie such as yourself are :

macrumors ( seems a tad biased towards conjecture rather than plain fact ) not unlike appleinsider

macnn ( stay out of the lounge - it's full of idiots )

and

apple discussions ( has a habit of having anything vaguely anti apple locked up and deleted )

Quick Look adds a feature on top of the cover flow browse:

http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/quicklook.html 

it's extremely difficult when installing and uninstalling mac software ( joke )

to install just follow the directions when you've downloaded something - usually drag an icon to your application folder

 to uninstall . just throw it in the trash - or for some programs there's an uninstall package that asks for an admin name

 see , i told you it was easy :)