Like most of you out there, I upgraded my iPhone to iOS4 right when it came out. And like most, have hated the upgrade because my iPhone 3g ran like crap afterwords. It was so slow, I could hardly use it at all. Crashes, mega slow, and all sorts of crappy performance issues. Nothing seemed to work. After scouring the Internet, I finally found a couple posts and threads that addressed the issue. What I gathered was that the iOS4 update needs some loving from your iPhone hardware to work right. Basically, it seems it needs to “rebuild itself” on the software side. My first attempts were to turn the phone off and back on but this didn’t work. Turns out it needs a “hard reset”, not just a power off (one would think these were basically the same things, but nope). Here’s what I did and it fixed everything:

• Press and hold BOTH the Sleep/Wake button and the Home button
• You will see the shut off screen. KEEP HOLDING
• Wait for the Apple logo
• Release the buttons
• Wait a bit until it comes back up (mine took a couple minutes)

Bingo! It’s back to its old self with iOS4. Now I have my phone back and all is right in the world. Well… Except that I don’t have the iPhone 4 yet, but that’s another issue entirely. Hope this helps you out as well.

Edit: I guess there’s another way by doing a complete backup, reset to factory defaults and restore through iTunes, but who wants to do that? I guess if the previous method doesn’t work for you, give the old restore a try.

Have you experienced the same thing? How did you fix it? Please share!

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

I bought the new Imac 20inch desktop, the 1st Apple I ever owned… Problem I have is a bit unknown possibly to most because I’m a disabled person that uses [Universal Access] “Sticky Keys” & “mousekeys” for my mouse over on the Numeric keypad to navigate and Click — and always before on [Windows] the [double click key] was the key — right of the [ 6 ] key which is [ + ] on Windows & Mac, left click key is Always the [ 5 ] key on the Numeric Keypad, Right click is [control] + [ 5 ] keys …when I click the [ + ] (double click) it opens up the Spotlight Search? …using Fire Fox browser clicking it brings up status bar [Find]?

I’ve searched and read anything and everything I could find, My problem remains unsolved,
I hope you can help me and other disabled persons that may have the same problem as I,

Respectively

–Jeff–

As always, thanks to all in advance

-Brent

Yesterday while using my mac, I got a busy wheel. my computer wont let me do anything else. fortunately, it ran out of battery so it just shut off. however today when i plugged it in to recharge and turn on, the busy wheel is still there, it wont let me do anything on the computer at all. any feedback would be greatly appreciated!

Have you been in this situation and how did you fix it? Help Laura out and I know I would love to know, just in case…

Disclaimer: There may be a better way to do this, but this is how I worked it out.

One of my recent frustrations with my MacBook is that I either have to leave my Wireless Mighty Mouse on all the time and just keep pumping batteries in there all the time or save my batteries and go through the Bluetooth connect process every time I open up the cover. Both are a bit of a hassle and somewhat annoying so I began hunting to figure out a reasonable alternate solution. From what I gather, there’s no real simple way to do it. But there’s a semi easy fix that has made my life easier.

For some reason in the Bluetooth Preferences pane, I can mark my mouse as a “favorite” but have yet to understand what that really means. That wasn’t the solution, as logical as it sounded to me. So I manhandled it my way. To do this on your Mac, you will need Quicksilver (a free application and one of my personal faves). Quicksilver sits right near the top of my “Essential Apps” list for sure.

What I did was take a little piece of AppleScript I found online and save it as an app out of Automator. Then I placed the app in my Applications folder and I can now kick it off through Quicksilver. In a couple keystrokes, I am connected to my mouse (or other device) and all is well with the world. If you would like to use the app for yourself, you can download it by clicking on the icon to the right. Give it a try and let me know what you think.

You want to check your email or download photos or do some actual work, and you turn on your Mac and nothing happens. Now that’s a scary feeling! But it may not be hopeless. There are some tricks you can try before you give up all hope.

1. Check all your connections and make sure they are tight.
2. Make sure your Mac is plugged in. If it’s a laptop and you’re using it on battery, get out the power cord and plug it in.
3. Make sure the outlet works. Plug a lamp or fan or something into it and see if that works.
4. If you’re using a power strip, make sure it is turned on and working.
5. Eliminate the power strip and plug the Mac directly into a working outlet.
6. Unplug everything from the computer except your mouse and keyboard and try again to start it by pressing the power button.
7. Unplug your mouse and keyboard, too, and try to start.
8. If you did anything to the computer, like install memory, undo it and try again.
9. If you have any cards inserted, remove them.
10. If you have an iBook, miniMac or PowerBook, press control-command-power simultaneously. (I know—shades of a PC!)
11. If it’s a laptop, reset the Power Manager.
12. If it’s a desktop, consult your user manual and reset your motherboard.
13. If you’re a MacGeek, replace the PRAM battery on the motherboard.

If all of these interventions fail, take your Mac to an authorized repair place and see if they can fix it for you. Don’t bury it until you are sure it’s really and truly dead; that is, until it is pronounced dead by a MacExpert. Even then, try to recycle or repurpose it. Old Macs do not die; they simply reappear as MacParts.

Additional Useful Resources:

• Apple Docs
• Apple Support
• Creative Techs Tiny Guide
• Mac Tips and Tricks

AirPort Extreme provides wireless networking for Intel-based dual processor Macs and for PC’s. The 2007-001 update fixes a security vulnerability where someone in close proximity to the network could send malicious frames and crash your system.

The glitch is that some people have connectivity problems after installing the update. They may not be able to connect to the internet or to maintain the connection once they find it. Frequent and sudden “drop outs” are annoying and frustrating.

Logging off and back on again, putting the computer to sleep and waking it up, or restarting usually restores the connection, but it may be lost again in a short while. Here are a few other tricks to try that may solve the problem.

• Turn the AirPort Base Station and/or internal hardware off and then back on again. It usually works best if you disconnect the power source instead of toggling the on/off switch.
• Check for 3rd party wireless routers or applications that interact with the router, such as CoconutWiFi and remove them.
• Go into the Airport Admin Utility and change the security protocol.
• Go into the Airport Admin Utility and change the channel. You may have to change the channel of any other routers, too.
• Do a hard reset of your base station. This removes all the settings and allows you to reset everything. After a hard reset, you will need to physically connect your Mac to the base station with a cable to reprogram it. You can find the directions for performing a hard reset in your owner’s manual or on the Apple website.

If nothing else solves the problem, a hard reset should do it. You should be able to maintain connectivity to the internet at all times. If a hard reset doesn’t work, you may have to call for technical support.

Mac OS 9 and X use a keychain program to protect and encrypt your passwords. It’s a very handy tool, and allows you to use different passwords for different applications and websites. Keychain is one of the security features that make Macs so infection- and hacker-resistant. Your keychain is password protected, and sometimes that is a problem—like, when you forget your keychain password.

In theory, if you forget your keychain password, you can reset it to your user password. To do this, you go to your Utilities/Applications File and select “Keychain Access.” Choose the Keychain First Aid utility and click “Repair.” It will ask for your username and password, and will tell you if any problems are found. You can have it reset the password to your user password. That allows you to access your keychain but doesn’t change any of the passwords or encryptions in it.

Unfortunately, that doesn’t always work. When it doesn’t, the only thing you can do is start over. You’ll have to build a new keychain. You will lose all your passwords, so I hope you have them memorized.

You can delete the keychain by going to the Users file and opening your library. Find the file login.keychain and delete it.

Create a new keychain by going to the file menu and selecting “New” and “New Keychain.” You can use the Password Helper to help you select a strong password, but make sure you can remember it this time.

Instead of deleting the old keychain file, you can rename it. That way it’s still there if you ever do remember your password.

Having a secure place to store your passwords, encryptions and security certificates is a great idea. The password helper makes it possible to create really secure passwords, too. You have high level security and only have to remember one password—the one that opens your keychain. Which (sigh) is one password too many for some of us.

At times applications in OS X may freeze up. The cursor turns into what looks like a spinning pinwheel for several minutes or more. Instead of waiting to see if the program will correct itself, or if it can’t, you can “force quit” it. Please note that you will lose any unsaved changes in this application if you choose to “force quit.”

Follow the instructions below to “force quit” a problem application.

1. From the Apple menu, click Force Quit. (Or press Apple + Option + Escape on your keyboard.) This will display the Force Quit Application window.

   

2. Select the problem application (usually displays in red) from the list, and click the Force Quit button. The program should close shortly. When you open it again, it should be fine.

Recently my sweet, innocent, little puppy, Kaze, step on my MacBook (I know, gasp). Everything seemed fine at first but I soon discovered that the internal speakers on my MacBook stopped working completely. After browsing the Apple Support Site to no avail. I was able to find the following information helpful and ultimately it solved my problem. (whew!)

From iMeowBot on MacRumors:

“That kind of thing happens when of the tabs inside a phono jack is bent. They can often be fixed with a small pick, but it would be very easy to break them off too. You will want to bring it into the shop if you haven’t done that kind of thing before, and the tabs aren’t always accessible anyway, especially on the little jacks.

If you haven’t yanked a cable or anything like that, it’ll probably be covered under the warranty.

If Apple decide that it’s not a warranty item for some reason, and that you need a nice new expensive board, you could you a Griffin iMic or something as a replacement.”

From this, I took my headphone plug and wiggled it around (gently) and it worked. Wierd huh? I definately pulled a Paul and hated my mac for about an hour. All is well though and I’m right back where I should be. Thanks iMeowBot (whoever you are) for the tip!