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Posted on 05/31/2007 6:56:41 PM PDT by jdm
Out of curiosity, has anyone with a Mac iBook been presented with this message, when powering up in a different location than where you normally connect to the internet:
I'm posting this message for a friend who clicked "Yes" to that prompt and immediately the following happened:
Not sure what to do next. The computer won't even turn on anymore.
Apple is scheduled to pick-up the iBook tomorrow, but I'm thinking this may be something we can fix ourselves (that way the computer won't be gone with Apple for 4-7 days).
Of course, in hindsight, clicking "Yes" turned out to be not a very good idea!
Would be most grateful and appreciative for any suggestions, if you wish to reply.
Thank you very much.
If you’re near an Apple Store, try to get some time with a “Genius.”
It sounds to me like a problem more severe than minor.
Thanks for the ping, Petronski.
Well a google of jdnetwork turns up jdnetwork.chm which hosts several pOrn sites.
It looks like the ibook was compromised by a security flaw. Of course, clicking Yes was not real smart.
I’ll ping some Mac gurus who know a lot more than me.
jdnetwork.chm = jdnetwork.ch
.ch is a Chinese address. Bad news, almost like buying Chinese dog food.
If this was a Microsoft based notebook some fan boy would chirp with a ‘Get a Mac’ comment..
I’ll refrain from the obvious....
Thanks much for that info. I actually went to google first and didn’t find any relevant info (I always google before posting a vanity). I’m going to re-check. Thanks again for your replies.
I know why my initial google search didn’t turn up those results the first time: I googled “jd network” instead of jdnetwork (one word). What a difference that makes!
I googled jdnetwork it don’t look good. It looks a web development site with the only English site listed referenced child porn.
I just noticed that too, once I scrolled down on the google results page. I wonder why his computer was trying to connect to a server in China? This is like the Twilight Zone or something. Thanks for your reply.
That is the normal alert that comes up when you are not at home, connected to your Ethernet or Wifi connection. It has failed to find those connections but has found some Wifi connection signals that are unrecognized by it. It is asking if you want to attempt to connect to one of them. Your friend’s iBook apparently had a problem completing that.
Pulling the battery to force a shut down should not have been necessary. Usually you can press the power button and hold it for ten seconds (actually less) and the hardware will force a shut down.
I suggest pulling the battery again and re-seating it. It may be that the contacts are dirty. Use an ink eraser from an erasable pen and clean the contacts.
Guys, I doubt that the iBook was trying to connect to a WiFi network in China, child porn or not. Wifi networks are generally limited to a couple of hundred feet diameter.
The iBook will only find a wireless connection to a local Wifi hotspot. The owner of the site can name it however he chooses and may have chosen the name "jdnetwork" because his name is John Davis and its his network.
Thanks VERY much for your replies, Swordmaker. Really appreciate it. I’m going to advise he pop the battery out and clean the contacts, as you suggested. Hopefully that’s the problem and will allow the computer to turn back on again.
However, when he was on the phone with Apple tech. support, they told him to hold in the power button for 10 or 15 seconds (as you suggested as well) in order to power down the machine. Doing this didn’t turn off the machine, unfortunately. That’s why he ended up popping out the battery in the first place.
Thanks again very much for your help. Fingers crossed it’s just the battery and no viruses!
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How I wish I had some advice, but I keep my iBook at home!
And, fwiw, I notice that my “corporate son”, who is forced to use a PC by his corp, is not allowed to use anything but “dial-up” when he is traveling. It must be just because of this kind of garbage.
When he visits us, he can’t connect using our Airport or cable modem. The Corporation is too worried about all the problems out there.
Does that make sense to you experienced PC guys?
Has he tried hooking up to the power cord?
How old is the battery? It sounds more like a low power situation to me than a virus.
How old is the iBook? If it is old enough, the PRAM/NVRAM battery has died - and removing the main battery while that was discharged can cause the Power Manager to get confused. If that happens, the machine might not turn on.
Flip the iBook over and tell me what the model number on the bottom is.
.ch is a Chinese address. Bad news, almost like buying Chinese dog food.
Actually, .ch is Switzerland. The dog food there is actually pretty good, but the porn is dull.
Three things to try:
1. Try zapping the PRAM by holding down command-option PR when you try to start up.
2. Try booting off of the recovery DVD provided with the computer.
3. If he/she can access the RAM modules and/or Airport card on the computer, make sure they are seated firmly. This last one bedeviled my Dad’s powerbook for a week post soft drop until discovered.....
Command-Option-P-R doesn’t work unless the thing actually bongs and tries to start. You *can* reset the Power Manager, though - but instructions vary on model.
This happened with my Mom's 2001 iBook. The battery would discharge in about 1/2 an hour. It would not even wake from sleep. However, I removed and replaced the battery (the same 6 year-old battery), plugged in the charger, and then powered up the iBook just fine with the charger plugged in. In fact, you can run an iBook on the charger alone without a battery even in the battery bay.
'Hour glass'? Are we talking Windows or OS X? Windows has an hourglass in a 'wait' state; OS X presents a 'spinning beach-ball of death'.
'Green power light'? Are you sure this is an iBook? I own both a 2004 iBook and a new MacBook. There are no green lights on the machine other than the battery charge indicator lights (4 of them) on the bottom of the machine. There is also an amber/green ring light on the charger cord, but that's it.
Something sounds fishy here.
Yep, I spoke too soon, and didn’t double check,
I saw the reference to pOrn and the description of the problem and thought, “You’re going to China!”
.cn is the country abbreviation for China.
Good suggestion.
Just curious but was he using a a standard account or admin account when he tried to log in?
The machine should come on with the battery removed and connected to the power cord. If you do not shut down properly it can take what seems like forever for it to reboot in some cases.
He received the iBook maybe 7 or 8 months ago. It's not that old. He does announcing for a high school baseball team, and uses the computer to play songs between innings, for plate appearances and so on. So the school actually owns the iBook; they're letting him use it. It's one of the cheaper iBook's, though. Not a lot of bells and whistles.
Thanks again very much everyone! Will post more updates later.
LOL!
The verdict:
The “Genius” at the Apple Store in Novi, Mich. said the problem was with the “logic board” (motherboard). The iBook is being shipped to an Apple Care Center in Memphis, and will be repaired there.
Thanks again so much for your input, suggestions and help.
This is the very same problem my son had with his g4 ibook last month. While I was using his laptop cruising Free Republic it just stopped. It turned itself off and nothing we could do ourselves or by troubleshooting with Apple by phone would turn it back on. The suspicion was a bad power cord but it was the logic board. We were told that it would be at least a week until a new logic board could be located as this was an issue with the ibook. When a logic board was finally found and installed the hard drive crashed. So a hard drive was ordered and installed. All is well now, and it was all covered by the AppleCare warranty except the information on his hard drive. It cost $55 to have the info retrieved and transferred to the new hard drive. Lesson learned to back up iTunes!
...so instead, some MS-fanboy comes in and makes an obvious comment.
I appreciate your post to this thread. Thank you very much.
Yes, he backed up iTunes, although I'm not sure how long it will take to transfer (from DVD-R) 3 gigabytes worth of songs back onto the iBook, if the iTunes library is shot. Hopefully not more than an hour or two.
Hopefully there's no hard drive issues after the logic board is replaced either. That really stinks for you and your son -- as if the logic board going wasn't enough! I'm glad it's all back to normal now, at least.
Thanks again for writing.
One other odd thing that happened about a month before my son’s g4 crashed was that the keyboard became a bit bloated...like it had a bubble underneath pushing it up. Did you have any experience like this with the keyboard? Not a lot and you would have to be the primary user to really notice but he showed me and I felt it too.
I have to admit, I was thrown by the hourglass cursor and green light details.
Lets stick to problems that haven't already been solved.
You couldn’t be farther from the truth, but think what you will...
Folks —— don’t forget that any wireless network (routers in particular) can be named anything - and many people use initials or names with “network” added. So, even though the porn-hosting network of “jdnetwork” may very well be what you say, it is just as likely that the person this thread is about may simply have a hardware problem that coincided with this lack instance.
In fact, my guess (I have an iBook as well) is that he has it set up to look for open connections when the “preferred” one is not found. I have seen a very similar message before (although not jdnetwork). I suspect that a hardware issue just showed up at a poor time - not that there is ever a “good” time for hardware problems.
But I could be wrong. But I am 99.999999979% confident that his iBook was not “compromised”....
Some thoughts:
1 - what “green power light”? Mine has no green power light. The only green light is when the power adapter is plugged in and the battery is fully charged. Has no bearing on the power-on status.
2 - Hourglass? What hourglass? Macs use a “spinning beachball”. Unless that is what you meant to say.
3- Having never had to remove the battery (never a good idea while the computer is on and not plugged in to the AC adapter), I don’t know what to expect when that is done. I would suggest that maybe the battery isn’t connected properly? Have you tried with the AC adapter?
4- Press and hold the power button for several seconds.... any signs of life?
5- Remove the battery for 20 minutes or so without the AC adapter plugged in. The plug it in and try to boot...
6- Any sounds at all when you press the power button (hard drive spin-up, anything?
7- If there is an Apple Store nearby - that might be a good starting place if none of the above does any good.
Thanks for your post. The problem is with the logic board. The iBook was shipped to an Apple Care Center on Friday. It’s all under warranty and he should have the iBook fixed and returned within a week or so.
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