I keep getting the waiting icon on my imac for no reason (as I am typing for instance). What should I do to stop this from happening.

You may have something running in the background. Os complete reinstall maybe necessary due to age and use.

Which icons are disappearing and reappearing? If you're talking about the Dock (The quick-launch and management area at the bottom of the screen by default), that may have been set to hide it's self, only showing when the mouse is at the very bottom of the screen.
Other icons that come and go are ones that represent volumes such as external hard drives, memory sticks, network places, CDs/DVDs. What icons are being problematic?
Hope that helped, please clarify problems if not!
Oh and by the way - iMac is just that particular type of computer. The Operating System is known as Mac OS. Knowing this will make getting help easier in the future :)

As the hard disk appears to be showing up when you boot up using the install disc, I would suspect that the system is somewhat corrupted. You could reinstall the system again and if you are happy starting from scratch and wiping the hard drive select this option failing that and there is some data on the imac you could install using the preserve user data. A fresh install should sort out any problems. Hope this helps.

It may be stuck so what you can try are one of these options:

Option# 1
* Shutdown your iMac G4
* Before you turn on your iMac, hold down your mouse button(s).
* Turn your iMac on still holding the mouse button(s) down.
* You will need to keep holding, until your disc ejects as your iMac starts up. That should do it.

Option# 2
If it does not, try using the Terminal utility to attempt to eject the disc.

* Click anywhere on the blank space of your desktop
and then you should see Finder appear near the Apple menu icon located in the upper left corner of your screen.

* Now from the Finder menu, select Go > Utilities.
* Within the Utilities folder. locate the Terminal application and launch it.
* When the screen prompt appears, type:
drutil tray eject

Option# 3
If that does not work, you can also try ejecting the cd using Open Firmware:

* Restart your Mac and hold these keys:
* Hold Command, Option, O and F keys while booting up.

* Now type: eject cd

To exit the open firmware screen type: mac-boot

One of these 3 methods should eject your disc.
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If not, you may have a genuinely stuck CD in your drive and may need to take your iMac in to your local Apple retail store Genius bar or local Apple-authorized service center to have it safely and correctly removed.

Honestly, however, I have this same type of iMacG4- you will probably have the cd out by Option # 2 :)

Regards,

-Mactechtrainer

Reastart the iMac and at the same time hold down the mouse left click button. If that does not work.

1. Restart the computer.
2. Immediately after the startup sound, press and hold the key combination Command-Option-O-F.
   Note: The Command key has the Apple and () icons on it.
3. Release the keys when you see a white screen that says "Welcome to Open Firmware."
4. At the prompt, type: eject cd
5. Press Return, then wait a few seconds. The disc drive should eject any disc that is present, and "ok" appears behind your command when the action is complete.
6. Type: mac-boot
7. Press Return.

Make sure that BlueTooth is turned on and is discoverable. (System preferences OR via the Bluetooth icon near the time-machine clock in the menu bar. Disconnect your wired mouse and wait a moment or two. You should get a message that no mouse is connected. Switch on your mighty mouse and wait a moment or two.
You should get a message that a mighty mouse has been detected - then follow the on screen instruction.
That's all there is to it.

Hello, this can be either a software or hardware problem, 
To know this, please try to repair your hard drive by pressing "cmd - S" at startup, that will take you to single user mode. you will see a black screen with unix lines. Here you type "fsck -f" and hit enter. Wait untill the repair is finnished. If it shows problems then you have a hard disk problem. If not, try to reinstall the system using the DVD, and choose "archive and install" option, to keep your files and settings.

I have the same problem, it was working but just stopped for no reason, even tried new leads but still no joy.

Hi, Try shutting the G4 completely down, waiting about 15 seconds, and then booting the Mac with the shift key down. That should clean up a lot, as it gives a safe boot. Then go to disc utilities and repair permissions. That might clean the whole thing up for you. If sounds like it's a Finder problem. If that doesn't work, boot from Disc Warrior or Tech Tools and run a few tests. Good luck!

what type of file is it that you are trying to open, sometimes you will see gobbledegook if your computer doesn't have the right program to handle a PC word processing and your mac doesn't have Microsoft Office installed. It also could happen with other type of file such as an image, video etc.



Open office can open a number of word documents:
http://porting.openoffice.org/mac/

Gimp for macintosh opens a lot of image files:
http://www.gimp.org/downloads/

also if you know what type of file it is, try adding an extension to it by placing a dot then follow it by typing the filetype. For a word document type in .doc for instance