“All of the sudden, my Mac is freaking out. First, I noticed that it was slowing down an awful lot. Now, I can’t even restart or shut it down normally. Disk Utility isn’t working and I can’t even eject my CD. Any ideas how I can troubleshoot this issue and get my Mac back?”

Thanks in advance!

I run my external Dell @ 2560×1600 resolution. Most of the time everything is great, but when I leave the computer for a while, the screensaver comes on and eventually the MBP shuts off the monitor. This is where my issue takes place. SOMETIMES when I come back and move my mouse, everything turns on as expected but more often than not, I am thrown into this really wacked display. It’s as though the screen image is doubled on itself. There are vertical bands of rainbow color and scatter pixels across the whole width and it’s nearly impossible to see anything on the screen. I have found 2 ways to resolve the issue.

1. Unplug the mini-DVI for a couple seconds and plug it back in. This (as you probably know) isn’t the best solution because unplugging a monitor from your computer while it is on isn’t “advised”. So…

2. Struggle to find my mouse’s way up to the resolution/monitor icon in the taskbar and switch the resolution to 1280×800. This flickers the screen and comes back visible where I can then change the resolution to 2560×1600 with no issue. Then, however, I have to un-resize and un-rearrange all the windows I had open. This is really a pain.

So here’s my question… Is there a way to 1. completely avoid this issue all together? or 2. is there an easier way than method 2 above that doesn’t involve switching resolutions and OS X resizing and rearranging all my windows?

You guys are the smartest mega Mac brain I know. I trust and believe we can find the answer. Can you help me? Please!!!

My Noisy Fan from Brent Spore on Vimeo.

3 years of owning my Mac with no major issues. JUST after it’s AppleCare expires, it decides to start freaking out.

I have a powerbook G4, info below, and wanted to see if there was something I’m doing wrong to cause my battery problems. I bought a new battery because I thought the last one was getting old and causing the symptoms: no matter how many times I calibrate, it won’t charge past 43 or so percent. So, I’m having the exact same issues with the new battery. I’ve tried to reset the pram and the power management thing, but no luck.

Any ideas???

Thanks for any help.

Model Name: PowerBook G4 12″
Model Identifier: PowerBook6,8
Processor Name: PowerPC G4 (1.2)
Processor Speed: 1.5 GHz
Number Of CPUs: 1
L2 Cache (per CPU): 512 KB
Memory: 1.25 GB
Bus Speed: 167 MHz
Boot ROM Version: 4.9.0f0
Serial Number: 4H5151A2RJ7

Sudden Motion Sensor:

State: Enabled
Version: 1.0

Battery Information:

Charge Information:

Charge remaining (mAh): 1576
Charging: No
Full charge capacity (mAh): 4209

Health Information:

Cycle count: 2
Battery Installed: Yes
Amperage (mA): -1296
Voltage (mV): 11661

System Power Settings:

AC Power:

System Sleep Timer (Minutes): 0
Disk Sleep Timer (Minutes): 10
Display Sleep Timer (Minutes): 30
Dynamic Power Step: Yes
Reduce Processor Speed: No
Automatic Restart On Power Loss: No
Wake On AC Change: No
Wake On Clamshell Open: Yes
Wake On LAN: Yes
Wake On Modem Ring: Yes
Display Sleep Uses Dim: Yes

Battery Power:

System Sleep Timer (Minutes): 5
Disk Sleep Timer (Minutes): 10
Display Sleep Timer (Minutes): 1
Dynamic Power Step: No
Reduce Processor Speed: Yes
Automatic Restart On Power Loss: No
Wake On AC Change: No
Wake On Clamshell Open: Yes
Wake On Modem Ring: No
Display Sleep Uses Dim: Yes
Reduce Brightness: Yes

Hardware Configuration:

Clamshell Closed: No
UPS Installed: No

AC Charger Information:

AC Charger (Watts): 0
Connected: No
Charging: No

I figured this was a good one for the mega iBAM community mind to tackle. Any thoughts, ideas or suggestions?

Thanks in advance

- Brent

So, I bought my iMac *maybe* 4 months ago. The day after I got it, the SuperDrive crapped out on me. I bought it refurbished, but they guaranteed it to be like new. Anyways, my question is this: I fixed it about 4 times after a disc kept getting stuck in there. It was a DVD. Brand new each time. I cannot afford to be without my Mac and cannot send it in. I have an external CD/DVD drive that was originally built for PC but it’s runs on my Mac. I would like to know what would be an affordable Mac friendly external drive that would play DVDs too. I don’t want to buy a SuperDrive for fear it will do the same thing again. Any help would be fantastic!

This one’s out of my league so I thought I’d throw it up the greater minds out on the tubes. Anyone out there got some advice for our pal John? I’m sure he as well as I and most likely many others will be eternally grateful. As always, I thank you in advance.

Brent

Hi! I just bought an Imac and am having difficulty transferring my itunes
library from my pc to my mac. I am transferring from Itunes to an external
hard drive using the add to library link in itunes and dragging to
applications. I am copying the library using the export function from the
pc. I seem to only be copying empty folders so no music is being transferred
although the process takes a long time. HELP!!
Also can I use yahoo as the server for mail on my mac. I seem to be having
trouble with the outgoing mail server.

Thank you, Sarah

When transferrirng iTunes libraries, it’s much simpler to just transfer the iTunes folder itself. Exporting the library does not always transfer the media files, but the structure of the library.

As far as using any mail account with Mail.app, your email provider must enable POP or IMAP access. Yahoo only offers POP access to it’s premium customers. If you want a dedicated Yahoo Mail app for your mac, try using Fluid – It is a web browser made specifically for web apps. It enables dock badges, so you’ll be able to see your unread email count on your dock icon just as you would on Mail.app.

Special Thanks to Tyler Hurst for assistance in answering these questions.

Check it out and let me know what you think.

I’ve been getting used to iPhoto as I’m used to just browsing for pictures in Windows Explorer. Anyway, I let iPhoto copy my images to the iPhoto library. But unlike the iTunes library function which very logically puts music in Artist – Album folders. But the iPhoto library seems to hide my photos so I can’t access them through Finder. I’m just curious what the “Mac” way would be to for example, open a photo to edit in photoshop.

There’s two ways of approaching this problem, one of which is if you just want to edit photos using an external photo editor. The other way is to access the actual photo files in the Finder. The explanations for each are below.

To Access via External Editor

If all you want to do is just be able to edit your photos using Photoshop, you can simply change the iPhoto preferences. You just need to open up your Preferences, click the selection that says “Edit Photo” and then choose the application that you want to edit your photos with. Then, when you click the edit button in iPhoto, your pictures will open up in the external editor.

To access the File Hierarchy

On the other hand, if you want to access your photos in a folder hiearchy, simillar to the iTunes folder system, you just have to do some right-click action. First, you should navigate to the Photos Folder, then right click on the iPhoto Library file, and choose “Show Package Contents”.

“Do you guys know if a Mac user with an iPhone can access their iDisk?
Of is that just from a Mac computer?”

This is  a really great question, but it also falls into the “yes and no” category of answers.  You can access your iDisk through Safari (http://idisk.mac.com/username) on the iPhone, but all you can do from there is see the list of files that are there.  You can’t download or do anything else with them. 

However, I did come across one solution which was just released and that is the A.I. Disk application for the iPhone.  From the developers site:

A.I.Disk is an elegant solution to access files on your MobileMe iDisk, save them to the iPhone or iPod Touch, read on the go and even email to friends. Besides MobileMe iDisk the application can connect to any WebDAV enabled online file storage like Box.Net or MyDisk.se.

A.I.Disk has built-in file viever that supports number of formats including MS Office and iWork documents, PDF, TXT, HTML and others. Just tap on a file to copy it to your iPhone or iPod Touch file storage device and enjoy reading it anywhere!

The app is $7.99 and can be found in the App Store in iTunes.  Although I haven’t had a chance to personally try it out, it sounds like the only solution thus far. 

“I love iMovie 08 and have been surfing the net about it after having
completed one video project so far. Read one article on your site that had
an initial review, but… is there any new info on add-ons for iMovie 08? I
would just like more transitions, ANY video (special) effects, etc. Is it
possible to use add-ons (special effects,etc.) that worked with old versions
of iMovie? If so, how do I go about it?”

This is a great question, many of the iMovie purists think that iMovie 06HD was so much better, and that is not truly the case. iMovie 08 is much more different. Unfortunately plugins are not supported in iMovie 08; however as an owner of iMovie 08, you are entitled to download iMovie 6 HD for free. That can be downloaded here,

If you go that route, you can get some iMovie 6 plugins . I have found a pretty good list here or here.

Making your own movies is always fun, and I find it interesting to go back to the movies I first made, and see the progress that I have made. Hope this has helped.

Good luck