Ask Jacob

I too was surprised by Apple’s decision to drop FireWire connectivity from the latest iPods. My nano suffers from the same USB only limitation that the Video iPod does. For me, USB 1.1 is slow for transferring music files and probably painfully slow for video. I have not had the time to test video transfers on USB 1.1. If your Mac has an open PCI card slot, you can get a USB 2.0 PCI card. Sonnet Technologies has a 5 Port Allegro card for under $30.00 with good Mac support. If you have a PowerBook with a PCMCIA card slot I would recommend the LaCie USB 2.0 & FireWire PC Card, which is less than $70.00.

Unfortunately if you have an iBook, iMac, or eMac without native USB 2.0 you will not be able to add it. I hope this helps, and remember the watched pot never boils. If you have to use USB 1.1 to update an iPod Video find something else to do while you wait.

Like any new Apple product, there were some “first rev” issues with the MacBook Pro. Apple wanted the transition to Intel to be cleaner than previous product transitions, so they worked hard to fix these issues fast. Apple has been quick in finding and then fixing the problems with all of the Intel-based Macs. Design changes for Intel Macs have come faster than I have ever seen from Apple before. The best way to be sure you’re getting the latest version of MacBook Pro would be to order a Build To Order model. Getting a bigger hard drive or faster processor will almost guarantee you are getting fresh stock, although by now most stock is new enough.

The only reason you may want to hold off for a while is that at least two more laptops should be released before you head off to school and you might want to see all your options.

But, I know waiting can be hard, so really the bottom line is that now would be a fine time to buy a MacBook Pro.

There are two ways to use external displays on PowerBooks: Mirroring and Spanning. Mirroring is when the laptop screen and the external screen show the same images. Spanning is when each display shows a different section of the desktop. Spanning is often used because it will give you the combination of both the built-in and external monitor’s screen space, allowing you to have more things open. You can even change which monitor your dock and menus are on.

To make adjustments to your displays go to the System Preferences and click on “Displays.” A window will open on each display if you are in Spanning mode. Look for a tab labeled “Arrangement” and click on it. There you will see icons representing your two displays. You can drag the icons around to change their orientation toward one another. To change what display has the menus and dock, just drag the bar at the top of one display icon to the other. This same “Arrangement” preference window will also have the checkbox that allows you to Mirror the two displays.

Technically there is a third way to use an external display with your PowerBook. If you close the lid on your running PowerBook and have an external keyboard and mouse connected you can press the space bar to wake the computer up. The PowerBook will then only use the external display and act like an expensive Mac mini.

The 12″ PowerBook is not like the other, larger screened, PowerBooks. It has more in common with an iBook than a PowerBook. 15″ and 17″ PowerBooks can take two gigabytes of RAM because both RAM slots are exposed to the user. iBooks and 12″ PowerBooks have only one RAM slot. The additional RAM is soldered onto the logic board and cannot be removed. Your 1.25 GB of RAM is going to be the most RAM you can have in your 12″ PowerBook. means iBooks can take up to 1.5GB of RAM.

In a strange twist that further complicates the 12″ PowerBooks RAM limitations, iBooks have 512 MB of RAM soldered onto the logic board. That means iBooks can take up to 1.5GB of RAM.

Sorry for the bad news but at least you know why you could not find the second RAM slot.

I would recommend an iBook. I bought my 11-year-old daughter a G4 iBook and it has worked perfectly for her. It has survived at least one drop and a great deal of abuse without breaking. Nearly any iBook would work but you may want to get the G4 iBook or wait for an Intel iBook which probably will be out in less than 6 months. That way you will have a computer that will last you a long time. Now if you just want a portable for when you are away from your Mac Mini then find a nice used iBook 600MHz or 700MHz.

The Lombard PowerBook can only run Mac OS X 10.3.9 and it will not run it well. If you are going to use the Lombard with 10.3.9 then make sure the computer has at least 512MB of RAM.

The short answer is no you can’t do that, but I have never been the short answer kind of person. Laptop displays are not just thin monitors bolted to a computer but instead are integrated components of a whole computer system. There is no monitor port inside a laptop that you could connect up to from another computer. That is why I say that you cannot use a PowerBook as a second monitor. But I just can’t leave your question alone.

There was once some PC software that could take any two computers and make them act as one system. I saw it once on an old TechTV program called “The Screen Savers,” and after that never heard of it again. I cannot remember the name and I do not think they ever made it into a real product you could buy, but it was exactly what you wanted.

The only other option that came to mind was importing a video feed from your main PowerBook onto your “second display” PowerBook. By connecting the S-Video connection of the main PowerBook to a FireWire Video Converter you could display a TV quality version of your spanned desktop on another computer. The “Second Display” PowerBook would need to be running a viewer application like Video Viewer and be connected to the FireWire Video Converter.

Now, both these ideas are not very useful to you in any practical application. The program I saw was not produced and was made only for Windows and the money you would spend on the FireWire Video Converter could buy you a LCD display. Trust me, you will like the image of a LCD Display better than the TV image on a PowerBook. So my simple recommendation is to buy a second monitor.

I know this was confusing but hopefully fun to read.

We get this question often. The short answer is no, almost all laptop hardware is set in stone. That being said you could squeeze a little more performance out of your RAM and hard drive. If you have the 17″ or 15″ PowerBook, then you should be able to take it to 2 GB of RAM. This will make sure that most everything you are working on is in memory and not coming off the hard drive. Hard drives are the bottleneck of most computers. They run much slower than the rest of the system so having the maximum memory will prevent the system from throwing away data only to get it back from the hard drive seconds later. And if you must use the hard drive, as we all do, then you can get a faster one. Laptop hard drives are now available at 7200-rpm speeds.

OK enough squeezing. The truth is that this is not a good use of your money. The benefit of those improvements will not get you the upgrade you want. This is precisely why PowerMax has a trade-in program. The new MacBook Pro will likely be your next system and you will be able send us you old laptop to help offset the cost. Don’t start feeling sad yet. You still have much time to spend with your old PowerBook. The MacBook Pro is not shipping yet and you still have to wait for all your work programs to be rewritten for Intel before you need to upgrade.

Using that adapter would be bad for your 17″ PowerBook and could create a fire hazard. The reverse of this would be OK to do because a Mac laptop will not use more power than it needs. The Watts (W) of that power adapter is a reference to the maximum power that adapter can provide. Under-powering a PowerBook could cause it not to charge or shorten the life of the battery. In addition to harming the 17″ PowerBook that 45W power adapter will overheat as it tries to give the PowerBook the power it wants. More watts than needed are OK… less is not.

The PowerPC to Intel switch is going to be far more difficult for the Professional Mac user than for home users. Both Quark and Adobe CS will run in Rosetta but at reduced speeds compared to what you are used to. Adobe further complicated your decision by announcing that they are not going to update their product line faster then planned. That means it will be 2007 before a Universal Binary is going to be available for the MacBook Pro. Because this is a work computer, I would caution you against making a decision based on trade value alone. Not only is your productivity worth more than equity loss on your PowerBook, but also I think that there’s going to be a demand for PowerPC equipment after they are discontinued.

Hold onto that Mac a little longer, at least until after September.

The answer to your question is not going to be just a “yes, so we’re in trouble” or “no, we’re still safe.” Most things that make the Mac a safe system are going to be unchanged by the Intel switch. For one, Mac OS X was engineered with safety in mind. By leaving out the base of Mac OS 9 in creating OS X, Apple avoided the trouble Microsoft has had with Windows. When most of the operating systems were written, computing was much safer. Computers then didn’t connect to one another as much, and if you wanted to damage someone’s computer you had to break into their house. It’s hard to take something that was written from a trusting perspective and then make it secure afterwards. So Mac OS X was a clean start at the right time. The second safety of the Mac is in its market share. Macs still only account for around 5% of the world’s computers. Most virus writers use infected computers to spread to new computers exponentially. So trying to go after Macs would be difficult and slow because of the small numbers of vulnerable computers. The last built-in protection for Mac users is with the OS itself. Many viruses are sent as attachments in emails and require users to open those attachments. They are mostly .exe files or some other executable that requires Windows to run. Macs will not run .exe files so the pure difference in operating systems is a safety tool. Alas, we come to the exception to our uninterrupted Mac safety. The most difficult aspect of protecting a computer is not knowing what the next attack will be. PowerPC processors do work in a completely different way than Intel processors and that has always been a good difference as far as the viruses go. However, someday we could see a virus or worm that needs only an Intel chip and RAM to wreak havoc. And that day we all will suffer.

However, Mac users lost only one of our four Mac protections, but we have also gained more benefits than we have lost from this Intel switch. For now we are still safe.

Final Cut Pro is definitely going to be faster on an Intel Mac. No one can say so by experience though. As of now FCP will not run on the Intel iMac. None of Apple’s Pro applications run on these new Macs quite yet. Apple says it will have versions that will run sometime in March, but there is another glitch. FCP is no longer sold as a program by itself (though PowerMax still has some in stock). It is only sold in Final Cut Studio, which also includes the $49 Intel software upgrade program. The just-discontinued stand-alone FCP will cost $99. Earlier versions can cost up to $699. Suffice it to say, it’s worth finding out what upgrading your software will cost before you upgrade to an Intel Mac.

There are two sides to wireless Wi-Fi networking (aka Airport). One side is the client card, like your Airport card, and the other side is your network access point. Sometimes coffee shops provide access points or other times there are open public access points. Most often though, you will need to buy an access point and connect it up to your current Internet connection. Apple makes a few access points, of which I would recommend the Airport Express.

If you already have a wireless network that you want to connect to, then you are only a few steps away from getting connected. The Mac OS includes all the software you need to connect to a wireless network as part of the operating system. To activate a new Airport card, go to System Preferences under the blue Apple menu. Next click on “Network” at which point you may be told that a new network connection is available. You will be asked if you want to use it, to which you should accept. You should now see the Airport as an active network connection. Also a new icon will be added to the menu bar next to the clock. It will be a pie shaped icon. Clicking on it will show you a dropdown list of wireless options. Turn on Airport. Then look for networks available to you listed below “Turn Airport Off.” Click once on the network and enter a password if you need to.

I can only hope the Performa will not be your primary connection to the internet. Many modern websites require web browsers that will not run on that computer. That being said you can get a 5200CD online with a few upgrades.

If you are going to use a dialup Internet account, it’s going to be as easy as buying a Mac serial 56k modem. Your 5200CD has two serial ports that will support modems and printers. I would encourage you to upgrade to Mac OS 9.1 before trying to connect new hardware. Otherwise you might have extension and compatibility issues. Now if you have a Broadband Internet connection then you will need a router to share the ethernet cable with multiple computers. Getting a 10BT Ethernet connection may be a little harder. You will need to find an LC slot Card for the 5200CD. You’ll probably need to go to eBay to find one, as the few companies that made them have long since discontinued production. It will probably cost you $15 to $50 for the card but you could easily find it for less, just keep searching.

Good luck getting this working but I would recommend finding a web surfing alternative.

Apple Mail sometimes has trouble letting go of the past, particularly with SMTP outgoing mail servers. To get rid of your old .Mac SMTP server, open Mail and go to the Mailbox menu and select “Go Offline.” This will stop any mail activities that could be crashing the Mail application. Next, from the Mail menu select “Preferences” and click on “Accounts.” Click on one of your email accounts. From the pull down field next to “Outgoing Mail Server” select “Edit Server List” and click once on smtp.mac.com. Click on the “Remove Server” button and then click on done.

You may also need to remove your .Mac account from the Accounts list. To remove it, just click on the account once and then click on the “-” button to remove the account. After that you should be able to close the preferences window. Before you select “Go Online” from the Mailbox menu clear out your Outbox. Check to see if there is anything in Drafts waiting to be sent. If you can, delete everything in drafts and then go online.

The AirPlug is a versatile wireless upgrade. I’ve always been drawn to the USB wireless network devices because it is easy to move them from computer to computer and they will outlast the life of the computer they are initially attached to. The only problem with them has been that most vendors do not support their product’s use on the Mac.

But thanks to the great people over at Ralink Technology, Mac users can use certain USB wireless devices. Ralink makes most of the technology used inside the AirPlug and they try to support every OS they can, unlike the companies they sell to. On the Ralink web site is a huge selection of wireless drivers for many different operating systems.

I do admit that there are almost too many versions of drivers up on the Ralink site. Here are the direct links to the latest files but you should check back to see if there is an update if anything stops working.

For Mac OS X 10.3http://www.ralinktech.com/drivers/Mac/STA_2500USB%20OS-10.3%202005_11_18.dmg

For Mac OS X 10.4http://www.ralinktech.com/drivers/Mac/STA_2500USB%20D-1.1.2.0%20OS-10.4.X%202005_11_29.dmg

All the dual-core based PowerMac G5’s use a new combo wireless card instead of the two cards used before. The card is similar to the combo Bluetooth/Airport card found in iBooks. The difference is that the card is attached to an adapter card before it is inserted into the G5. Additionally the two antenna cables have changed to the smaller standard used inside most Apple computers with built-in wireless.

Most people with basic mechanical skills could install this wireless kit into their G5 tower. The reason Apple does not consider it “User Installable” is that it’s a multiple part assembly in a tight space. We sell it because we feel people should have the option of installing it themselves. The only drawback to installing it yourself is that you will lose your Apple warranty on the wireless kit.

The slot that the assembled wireless kit fits into is the same mini PCI slot that Airport Extreme (APX) cards fit into. As a test, I installed an APX card into a dual-core G5 and it worked fine. Unfortunately the built-in cables will not work so you have to use an external antenna and cable.

So if you are confident with your hands, pick up one of those wireless kits.

I can understand your reluctance to buy the Airport Base Station. You would only be using one of its features. It would be your only option if there where multiple people in your house wanting to share a Dialup Internet account or if you wanted to print wirelessly, but if you just need to cut the phone cord it would be overkill. What you need is a wireless phone line. Some cordless phones will have modem ports in them but those are hard to find and bulky. Fortunately a company called Nebo Wireless (http://www.nebowireless.com) has just what you need. The Nebo Wireless base unit connects to your home phone line and the receiver unit plugs into your modem and USB port. The USB connection is only for power so there are no drivers. Your computer thinks it is hooked up to a regular phone line. The Nebo Wireless is only $49.99 and can be purchased directly from their site. I have never used this product but it looks to be the best solution for you.

What you need is an Ethernet “crossover” cable and not a regular Ethernet cable. You can use a regular Ethernet cable if you are going to have a hub or switch in between both computers. You can also use a regular Ethernet cable directly connected if, at least, one of the computers has a Gigabit Ethernet port. But in your case, both computers have 10/100 ports, so a direct connection from computer to computer will require a crossover cable.

Another option, if your iMac has a FireWire port, would be to reboot the iMac with the “T” key held down. This will put the iMac into Target Disk Mode, which makes it work like an external FireWire hard drive. Once the iMac has a blue screen with a yellow FireWire symbol on the screen, you can then connect the two computers with a FireWire cable. Your iMac’s hard drive will then show up on the eMac’s desktop. FireWire is much faster than Ethernet at transferring data, but this of course will only work if both computers have a FireWire port.

On the iMac you will need to turn on AppleTalk if it is not already on. Go to the Apple menu and mouse down to Chooser. In the Chooser, select “AppleTalk” in the left pane and then select “Active” in the right pane. Now close the Chooser and restart.

On your eMac select “System Preferences” from the Apple Menu and click on “Network.” From the “Show:” menu select “Built-in-Ethernet” and then click on the AppleTalk tab. Check the box marked “Make AppleTalk Active.” Now click on the “Apply Now” button. Next, from the System Preferences window, select “Sharing.” Under the “Services” tab check the box for “Personal File Sharing.” You may now close the System Preferences window.

Back at the iMac again, go to the Chooser. Click on AppleTalk and you should see your eMac listed in the window on the right. Double click on it and you will be prompted for a username and password. Use your OS X username and password from the eMac. Now you should be connected to your eMac like it was a server.

Mac OS X has always impressed me with its ability to communicate with Windows computers. Tiger 10.4 is notably the best at making those connections. The direction of the communication is important in grading how easy a Mac/Windows connection will be. Although connection to a client PC is possible from a Mac, it is far easer to setup Windows File Sharing on your Mac and having the Windows PC connect to it. For server connections, your iMac G5 will have no difficulty connecting to the Windows NT Server for file services. However, Exchange server connectivity is not as smooth as file sharing. It will take more work to establish Exchange services on the Mac and your Mac will not use 100% of the services available on an Exchange server. Adding a new Mac to a non-Exchange Windows network will be easy. You should not need to upgrade anything.

Congratulations on getting that high-speed Internet connection. I have been on one every place I have lived since 1998. It may be a little expensive but I would recommend the Apple Airport Base Station. It will be easy to setup and administer from any of your Macs as well as support connections from your PC computers. It will also include two Ethernet ports. One Ethernet port is used for the DSL modem from Verizon. The other port is for the G5 without a wireless card. The Airport Base Station will have a few other features that will be of use. It has a modem in it in case you ever go back to dialup. The modem port could also be used so that you could dial into your home DSL connection when traveling. It will also have an antenna port on it. If you have parts of your house that you do not get any signal then you can add an extra external antenna.

Any Product that is a NAT router will act as a firewall. This includes the Apple Base Station as well as many other home Routers. The PC should have an antivirus but the Macs do not need any additional protection. If the Apple Base Station cost more then you want to spend than I would suggest one from Linksys. The 4-port Wireless G router would be a good fit but harder to configure.

When moving files from Mac to Mac over the Internet you will need to make a few changes to your network’s settings. TCP ports 548 and 427 need to be opened up on your home router and your work router. Then you will need to have a fixed IP on your work computer or setup Port Forwarding on the Work Router. File sharing then needs to be activated on your work computer. At home you will then click on the “Go” menu and select “Connect to Server…” Enter “afp://YOUR.WORK.IP.ADDRESS” in the top text field and click “Connect”. User name and password are the same as when you access the computer locally.

The problem with the above setup is that most IT people will not let you change the network settings because it can leave a network vulnerable to malicious hackers and viruses. There are several VPN options as well but that requires some hardware and again, the help from your IT staff. This is where using a .Mac account might simplify your life. When I move files from my home office to my work computer I use a .Mac account. It is like a shared hard drive that is mounted on the desktop of both my computers at the same time. .Mac is not as seamless as a direct link to your computer but it requires a lot less “back end” work to get around your company’s network protections.

I would recommend not using a wireless PCI card. Wireless drivers for OS 9 and earlier versions of the Mac OS are almost non-existent. Instead, I recommend you buy a cheap 10/100 Ethernet card and then use an Ethernet to Wi-Fi adapter to go wireless. Support for an Ethernet card is common in OS 9 and you may already have an Ethernet port. From the Ethernet port you could easily connect a Linksys WET54G Wireless-G Ethernet Bridge. It configures through a standard web browser and works without any drivers installed. I have used this option with great success.

For many years I did not own a TV but instead used my 6400/180 to watch TV shows. It was a great use for my old Mac and I am happy to know that I am not the only one who thinks so.

If I understand correctly, you are trying to share your iBook’s wireless connection to the 5400 through your iBook’s Ethernet port. I have done this before and it worked well. You will need to use a crossover cable and plug one end into each computer. Then go into the iBook’s System Preferences and click on “Sharing.” Under the “Services” tab check the checkbox that says “Personal Web Sharing.” Next click on the tab labeled “Internet.” Then from the “Share your connection from:” pull-down menu select “AirPort.” Below that are some check boxes. Check the box next to “Built-in Ethernet.” Click on “Start” and that should get your iBook setup. The 5400 will need to be configured through the TCP/IP control panel to connect via DHCP over Ethernet. Then you should also go to the AppleTalk control panel and switch it to Ethernet. Lastly you want to go to the “File Sharing” control panel. Click the checkbox to enable the “Enable File Sharing clients to connect over TCP/IP” option. You should be all set after that.

If that does not work then consider buying a Linksys Wireless to Ethernet converter. I have used them in the past but they do not support AppleTalk.

You are eventually going to want to upgrade your print layout program, but there should be no urgent need to upgrade. What you should do in the immediate future is get “Classic” installed on your eMac. Modern PowerPC Macs can utilize OS 9 programs through a special emulation of OS 9 called Classic. You will need to find your copy of Classic, which in not pre-installed by Apple. The installer is on one of the grey DVDs that came with your computer. Most often, Classic is on the second DVD and the DVD will have “Includes Mac OS 9.2″ printed in small text in the upper right hand corner of the disc. On the disc will be an item named “Install Mac OS 9 System Support.” Double click on it and select your language. After you have finished installing Classic, you can put in your PageMaker install disc. Then run the installer to install the program on your eMac. After that you will be able to use PageMaker just as you do on your old computer.

Let me know if that works for you… but you will need to look at transitioning to InDesign or Quark for true native OS X speed. But at least this will buy you some time before you switch.

Not all Fonts are transferable from OS X to OS 9. Fonts that have the “.FFIL,” “.TTF,” or “.LWFN” can work in both OS 9 and X. Other font packages like “.OTF” fonts won’t work in OS 9. All you will need to do is copy the fonts you want over to “/System Folder/Fonts/” from the “/Library/Fonts/” folder. If you hold down the “Option” key when dragging the fonts over you’ll make copies of them instead of just moving the fonts to a new place.

That should get your fonts in order.

This is a common problem for the later model G4 computers. They will only boot off a Mac OS 9.2.2 CD and no other version will work, not even 9.2.1. The bigger problem there is that Apple never made a 9.2.2 CD that you could buy. They only came with new computers. The fastest way for you to get OS 9.2.2 on your G4 computer is to purchase the original CD pack that came with that computer.

There is another way to get your copy of OS 9.1 on your computer but it’s complicated. You will need another Mac that has Mac OS 9 on it and a working original FireWire port (This cannot be done with a B&W G3 tower). Also you are going to need a 6 to 6 Pin FireWire cable, the kind that you would use to connect a FireWire Hard drive to your computer.

Boot up the Mirrored Door G4 with the “T” key held down. This will put the computer into Target disk mode and display a big yellow FireWire symbol on a blue screen. Now connect the two Macs with a FireWire cable and boot your second Mac from the OS 9 CD by holding down the “C” key. When your second Mac boots fully of the OS 9 install CD you should see both the hard drive of the second Mac and the Hard drive of the Mirrored Door G4. Run the installer and install OS 9 on the Mirrored Door G4’s hard drive. When the installation is done, restart the second Mac and hold down the “Option” Key. The boot loader will appear and you can select the Mirrored Door G4’s hard drive. Click on the right arrow button to boot off the selected drive. When you boot up, you can update the OS to Mac OS 9.2.2 from software update. You may have to upgrade several times to get to 9.2.2 but after you do you just need to restart both computers without the FireWire Cable. You now should be able to boot into OS 9 or X on the Mirrored Door G4 and Classic should now work within OS X.

Macs introduced after the beginning of 2003 will not boot into Mac OS 9. They are OS X computers only and will only run OS 9 programs through the OS 9 emulator called Classic, which is part of OS X. A new iMac G5 will still come with Classic on discs but it will not be installed. However, you are right to wonder if your husband’s survey software will work in Classic. Some software does not run in Classic at all, or runs poorly, although other programs work well. See if you can find a friend’s computer with OS X and Classic to test it on. If it will run in Classic then you are just in time. As Apple switches all Macs to Intel processors your options to run OS 9 applications are disappearing. Intel-based Macs will not run Classic at all. Find the fastest PowerPC based system that will run that application because this will be the last upgrade for your husband’s application. Don’t fear if Classic doesn’t work for you, PowerMax still has many OS 9 booting computers just for people in your husband’s position.

Playing around with file permissions can get you into trouble, as you are now finding out. When you change the permissions on a volume (aka a partition) it is going to be near impossible for you to recover. That is the “you” that’s the user currently logged into the computer. What you need to do is become bigger than “you” are in terms of user privileges. And in the Mac OS X world “root” is bigger then anyone else. So lets enable root and get you logged in as the “God User.” From the /Applications/Utilities/ folder launch “NetInfo Manager.” From the Security menu click on “Authenticate…” and enter your administrator password. Now go back to the Security menu and click on “Enable Root User.” You will be warned about choosing a good password for root and then prompted to create that password. Make this a password that your kids are not going to guess but that you will not forget. Now logout from the blue Apple menu and you should see a new “Other” User option in the login window. Choose “Other” and enter “root” as the user name, and that new password you just made as the password. Now that you’re logged in as root, you should be able to see that missing partition and fix the permissions on it. Please use extreme caution when doing anything as Root. There are few limitations when logged in as Root so you can break your OS if you’re not careful. When you’re done, log back in as “you” and run a Repair of Disk Permissions from the Disk Utility to clean up your system.

Hope that brings your partitions back.

You should have no problem jumping to Tiger. You will want to have 512MB of memory and you need to repair your disk permissions before you install. I would always recommend backing up your files before upgrading your OS a full version, even if for no other reason than it gives you incentive to back up, which you need to be doing anyway. After you upgrade, you should look for software updates to all your applications in case they have some compatibility fixes for Tiger.

Other than that, upgrade away!

I once read a little tip on this that seems to help a slow HelpViewer. The tip is to create a network location without any ports. This can help by preventing HelpViewer from looking at Apple’s site for additional information. HelpViewer will try to connect to Apple.com to check for relevant support articles that match your question. Often this outbound Internet connection is what slows down HelpViewer.

Here is how you make this new, port-less, location. Open System Preferences and click on “Network.” From the “Location:” pull down menu select “New Location…” and name it “Off-Line.” Now from the “Show:” pull down menu select “Network Port Configurations” and uncheck every checkbox. Click the “Apply Now” button and you are now disconnected from the Internet. Close the preference window. You will now be able to switch network locations from the Apple Menu. Click on the Blue Apple and mouse down to “Location” and in the pop out menu will be your locations. Switch back to your previous location, the default location is called “Automatic.” Now you should be connected to the Internet again.

Next time HelpViewer is painfully slow, just try a quick location change to “Off-Line” and see if HelpViewer speeds up.

A few things may be causing this to happen so I am going to have you try three things. First click on your desktop once. Then hold down the “Control” key and click again without releasing the mouse button. A menu window will appear next to the pointer. Select “Show View Options” from the menu. A small window will open. Towards the bottom of the window will be a checkbox labeled “Keep arranged by” with a pull down menu below it. Check the checkbox and change the pull down menu to “Kind.”

Next, from the same window check your icon and font size. The icon should be about 40X40 and the text should be 12 pt. You may want to adjust the size of both the icon and text to see if those are affecting your system.

Lastly check to see that your hard drive’s name has no extra spaces. To do this, click once on the hard drive icon and once again on the name of the hard drive. The hard drive name will be highlighted meaning you can edit it. Retype the hard drive’s name as you like it to appear. Click any place on the desktop when done.

One of those three things should fix your problem.

I have found very few problems with Mac OS 10.3.9 but I would recommend you do some drive maintenance before upgrading. Open the application Disk Utility found in the Utilities folder in the Applications folder. From the left hand side of the Disk Utility select your hard drive. Then look for a button called “Repair Disk Permissions.” When you click on that button all your files will be checked for errors that could interfere with an OS installation. Those files will be fixed if problems are found and those fixes will be displayed in the box above the button. Quit Disk Utility after it is done repairing your disk permissions. Now you can upgrade your OS. I would recommend doing this every time before you do a big update.

Tiger has had some problems in its first few releases. Most copies sold now are at version 10.4.3 and are very stable. Of course you will need to upgrade further to 10.4.5, but 10.4.3 and up are all good versions of Mac OS X.

QuickTime Player is a free application. QuickTime Pro, however, costs $29.99 for a license. The free player can be found here. http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/mac.html Just uncheck the two checkboxes and click on the “Free Download NOW” button. If you had QuickTime Pro 5 or 6 before, then moving to QuickTime 7 will require you to upgrade at a price. Unless you need to create or reformat video content, then the free player should suite you just fine.

You are right to question Retrospect’s performance and design. It is a processor hog and can require a lot of skill to set up. It’s an old application that has only received a minor face-lift for OS X. All that being said, it’s the only competent game in town in order to do what you want. An expanded Workgroup version of Retrospect, installed on the XServe, will be able to backup all your client eMacs in dated incremental segments. You can pick the date to restore, but still avoid filling the 250 GB hard drive with redundant data. I have asked around about alternatives but every other option costs more and is not quite what you need.

I have one hardware-based solution that could simplify the process and give you the added security of off site backups. “Broken Mirror” backups are used in many businesses to provide dated backups that can be stored off site. It will require a change in how your computer lab operates. You would need to setup “Portable Home Directory” services on the XServe. This would mean that the XServe would host all user data. Then you would need to create a RAID 1 or “Mirror” RAID set of that 250 GB hard drive. All the User accounts would be kept on that Mirrored RAID and always have the latest user data. Then when you want to create an archive copy of that data, you break the RAID 1 and remove one of those 250 GB hard drives. Then you replace it with a new 250 GB hard drive and repair the RAID 1. You can end up burning through a lot of drive modules this way but it will protect your data the best without the need for software backups.

It is probably best to use the imperfect Retrospect because of the alternatives’ cost and complication.

The magazine article you read has some truth to it. Upgrading is just that, taking all that was old and just adding to it. A clean installation will ignore your old system files and write new ones, often replacing damaged files. Upgrading damaged files can make a small problem bigger, so a clean “Archive and Install” is recommended. You can do an “Archive and Install” at any time without losing your personal information. This is how you do it. First boot up off the Mac OS install disc. Before you began installation, you will want to repair disk permissions. Under the “Utilities” menu on the install disc is the application “Disk Utility.” Launch that and select your hard drive from the left hand side. On the right hand side click the button called “Repair Disk Permissions.” After it finishes up, which can take a little time, quit Disk Utility. Then start with the installation. At the point you are asked to select the installation destination disk, you want to click on the “Options” button after you select your hard drive. In Options you will select “Archive and Install.” Make sure that the preserve network settings and user data checkbox is checked. Then proceed with the installation as normal. When you are done you will need to run Software Update to bring you back up to the latest version of your OS. My gut tells me this will fix those slow system issues you are having. Remember too, you should always back up any important files before you do this kind of OS installation.

There are several things that could be the cause of this problem. First thing to do would be boot up off the “Apple Hardware Test (AHT)” CD. Sometimes this is on the “Restore/Install” DVD. Insert the DVD and restart the computer holding down the “Option” key. You will see a blue screen with buttons indicating bootable volumes available. Chose the HST button and click on the right arrow. After it boots up to the test screen, run the test several times and see if it finds any faulty hardware. If it does not find anything then try reinstalling the OS off the “Restore/Install” DVD. Chose the Clean install option when installing. Now if that still has not solved the problem try exchanging the RAM to see if that helps. An Apple Authorized service center can help with the RAM tests if you have not installed any RAM yourself. If you have, Remove that first then see if the problem is fixed. Leave it out before you take it to a service center.

Let me know if this solves your problems and if you do not have it, I would recommend Apple Care for this computer.

What you are experiencing with your shrinking OS partition is a common symptom that often goes unnoticed in the era of large hard drives. Mac OS X uses a portion of your hard drive to hold data that was in RAM but needs to be stored temporarily so it can load more information into RAM. What OS X does is create invisible files called Swap Files. Each time it runs out of space in a Swap File it makes a new one. When you restart your computer it erases all your old swap file… hopefully. The more RAM you have the more Swap File space gets used. If after restart your drive is still full than repairing disk permissions from Disk Utility and then restarting could help.

As for changing your partition size without damaging data, it can be done. PC users have been able to change partition sizes for years with PartitionMagic. For the most part it is safe and effective but always back up your data whenever working on a hard drive. As for the Mac software I know of a couple but have not used them myself. I will mention them but you should evaluate the software for yourself.

DiskStudio – From MicroMat, which is a trusted company and the maker of TechTool Pro.

VolumeWorks – I do not know this company but it looks to be well liked product.

Let me know what you chose to use and how you like it.

It can be hard to tell for sure. My suspicion is that this could have been a “Disk Permissions” error. I have seen this happen before when a significant OS upgrade is performed on a well-used hard drive. Try launching Disk Utility and repair the Disk Permissions first and then install. If this happened during a point release upgrade (i.e. 10.3.8 to 10.3.9) then in addition to repairing Disk Permissions make sure you are using the COMBO update version. This version of the OS update replaces the greatest number of files, which helps solve more software issues.

I would recommend using a utility to upgrade the DVR-110D firmware. The only one I know about for the Mac is “DVRFlash,” currently at version 2.2. It is found here: http://lasvegas.rpc1.org/. DVRFlash is a nice Terminal utility that will flash your drive with the latest firmware. You will need to find out your drive’s firmware by going to the System Profiler and looking at the drives “Revision:” number. If it is less than version 1.37, then update. I would also suggest upgrading to OS 10.4.3 for the best compatibility. That way you will not lose any updates you have done and will get the latest drivers from Apple for upgraded hardware.

Good luck, and be sure to read the DVRFlash instructions.

Geographic Information System (GIS) are a little outside my realm of personal experience. However, whenever I am in the search for this type of program I will head over to freshmeat.net, which is an open source development resource. I have found four projects that may work for you but there are many more that will work in the X11 Unix windowing environment. Apple includes X11 as an optional install in Mac OS X. My guess is your daughter will already have it installed for her line of work. Here are the links for you look at. I am confident you will find something useful there.

http://freshmeat.net/projects/qgis/
http://freshmeat.net/projects/udig/
http://freshmeat.net/projects/ploneworldkit/
http://freshmeat.net/projects/grass/

It is truly a mystery why your AIFF files would be disappearing. My guess is that you have some of your files stored outside of the iTunes library. This can happen if you use your iPod or other external drive to transport your music files from computer to computer. It may be that some of those files are still stored on the hard drive section of your iPod. The hard drive section is independent from the music player files that are synced from iTunes. The fix may be as simple as plugging in all of your removable storage devices. If the songs are playable again you just need to make sure you have copies in your iTunes library. To do this, Apple added the ability to localize all of your music files. From the iTunes Advanced menu select on “Consolidate Library…” You will be told that your music will be copied to the iTunes library. Just click on the “Consolidate” button and then you are ready to go. Consolidating should prevent you from losing any more songs. Also, any missing song listings should be removed so you can re-add those songs to iTunes without duplicate listings.

The first thing to try would be reinstalling QuickTime 7 on the Windows computer. Sometimes Windows can lose track of the applications that support certain file types. First, you want to go to Add/Remove programs and uninstall QuickTime. Next download the latest version of QuickTime from here. Run the installer, but make sure all the programs and antivirus software are turned off. My hunch is that will solve the missing Codec problems you are having.

However, if that doesn’t solve your problems you can always make a DVD of your presentation. From PowerPoint open your presentation and click on “Make Movie…” from the file menu. Towards the bottom center of the screen is a “Movie Options…” button. In the options window select “Custom” size and change it to 720 X 576, which is the PAL TV setting. In the United States it would be the NTSC TV standard of 720 X 480. Once you have made those changes click OK and then save. Now open iMovie and drag the .mov file you just made in PowerPoint into your clips library. Now you can add it to your timeline and also add any other footage you may want. Save your iMovie project and then select iDVD from the Share Menu. When prompted, click on the Share button, which will open iDVD. From iDVD create a simple project and burn it to a blank DVD. You do not have to think too much about PAL Vs. NTSC with DVDs. A DVD player will play your presentation video appropriately to the TV or projector it is connected to.

It is strange that Word doesn’t ask you to append the file when you save it the first time. File extensions are not always needed in Mac OS X but, as you know, Windows XP relies on it for file management. The “.doc” extension can be added at any time just by renaming the file to include it at the end of the file name. To check whether files have extensions, setup the Finder to always display file extensions. From the Finder menu select “Preferences” and in the preference window click on the “Advanced” tab. Check the checkbox next to “show all file extensions” and close the window. Now when you see a file without an extension you will know you need to add one.This still does not change the fact that Word should ask you if a new document needs a .doc at the end of the file name. There are a few things you can try changing in the Word Preferences. In the “Save” preferences, uncheck “Allow fast saves” and check the box next to “Prompt for document properties.” Also make sure the “Save Word files as: ‘pull down is set to Word Document.’” If you have not done so already, you should get the latest updates to Word from www.mactopia.com.

If all else fails you can throw out your preferences and copy of Word. After you reinstall you should be prompted to append new files with the .doc, as that is the default way Word wants to save.

Sometimes when you are sending files that an email application can use, like fonts, the program can get confused. It does not know if you want to send those fonts as an attachment or use them for the text you are going to write in that email. I would recommend that you package those font files before you send them.

The best way to do this in OS X would be to use Disk Utility in your utilities folder. Click on “New Image” and when it prompts you to name the image, name it “Fonts.” Before you click on the Create button, make sure you’re saving to the desktop, the size is set to “2.5 MB,” and the format is “read/write disk image.” Now a “Fonts” disk should be mounted on your desktop. You can now copy all those fonts onto this “Fonts” disk just like any hard drive. After you are done copying files you just eject the disk. All the copied files are stored in the Fonts.dmg file also found on the Desktop. Attach the Fonts.dmg file to your email and send it over to the other computer.

Now if both your computers are running OS 9 then you are going to have to package the font files using a different method. Stuffit would be a good application to use for this. It will take those files and compress them into a .sit or .zip file that then can be attached easily to your email.

Unfortunately the speed and power of your video card will not help with importing of video or rendering video. That work is still done by the G4 processors. Graphics cards only help with the viewing of video once it is on your system. The 9800 card will speed up the previewing of edits and effects, but once you commit to those changes then your G4 Chips are doing all the hard work.

You should be able to import though. One thing to check is that you create your iMovie project as the correct format. When iMovie asks you to name your new project and pick a location to save it, there is another hard to see option. Below the “Where” selection is an arrow with “Video format” printed next to it. Clicking on the arrow will expose a new pull down menu. From that menu select “HDV 1080i” which is the HD format of your camera. Now click on “Create” and try to import from your camera to that new project.

If iMovie HD is still is not importing then you may try using a PCI FireWire card. I have heard that this can solve problems similar to yours.

The first thing to try would be a different web browser. I always keep a copy of Firefox on my computers to test my connection. You can get a copy here. If Firefox is loading pages much faster than Safari that will tell you that your copy of Safari is broken. If it is Safari, then you will need to trash Safari and all of your Safari files. You can find those files from doing a Spotlight search on “Safari” and then “com.apple.safari.” Before you trash Safari export your bookmarks, it is an option under the Safari menu in the application. Next download a new copy of Safari from here. Now, if the new version is just as slow as the first version then I would recommend repairing your Disk Permissions.

Now if Firefox was just as slow as Safari, you have some network problems. Double check your network settings provided by Quest and MSN. Look hard at your DNS settings, as they are often the cause of slow connections. You may also have some problems with the wireless router provided by you ISP. In my experience Mac users can stump customer service people. So if you call into Quest or MSN for support, be persistent that your computer is in good working order and it is a settings error.

Hope that helps get you working up to speed.

I used to run MacTheRipper for similar projects but have changed recently to HandBrake (http://handbrake.m0k.org/). It is simple and powerful tool to convert DVD VOB files into MP4, AVI or OGM files. Many Video iPod owners like HandBrake for its ability to convert DVDs to iPod-friendly video. The files HandBrake will create are not easily editable in iMovie or other Video editors, though. If you need to play segments of video alone or cut together different sources, then you would be better off using ffmpegX (http://homepage.mac.com/major4/) This program has many more features but has a bigger learning curve.

Both are free so check them out and see which works for you.

I have been using Mail for years and, while recognizing the limitations, I like the overall integration that Mail has with OS X. This being said, my recommendation is going to be based on the opinions of some of my coworkers. Most non-Mail users around here are in favor of Thunderbird as opposed to Eudora. This is probably because Thunderbird is free and has a lot of new development around it. Thunderbird is missing an Apple Mail importer however. Eudora has the built-in option of importing Apple Mail but you will have to pay $49.95 or watch advertisements to use Eudora. Although it is not automated, Mozilla has some instructions on importing into Thunderbird found here: http://www.mozilla.org/support/thunderbird/faq#mail.app

Try following those instructions first and see if it works for you. If it fails to get you switched over then you’ll have to decide if the price for Eudora is worth it.

First lets get your preview window back. That’s the convenient mail viewer that was below your messages. The good news is that it is probably still there just hiding. If you look at the bottom of your Mail window you should see a thin grey border line with a dot in the center. Move your mouse pointer over the dot. The mouse pointer will become a horizontal line with two arrows, one pointing up and the other pointing down. Click the mouse button and hold it down while moving up about half way up the Mail window. Let go and click on an email. It should now appear in the preview window as it did before.

Now let’s look at your sending mail issues. This was probably set up wrong at the Apple store. In the Mail application there is a menu called “Mail” and inside of it is “Preferences…” Clicking on “Preferences…” will open a new window. At the top of that window will be @ icon that you will need to click on. Now you will see a listing of email accounts on the left side of that window. You probably only have one there. Click on your account and then click on “Account Information” on the right. Towards the bottom of the preference window is a button that says “Server Settings…” Clicking on that will open another window were you need to put your outgoing mail settings. All Internet providers use different settings. Yours is AOL and they have the following settings. Your “Outgoing Mail Server” is “smtp.aol.com” and it is probably already entered in the text field. The “Server Port” needs to be 587 and the “Authentication” should be set to “Password.” In the User Name and Password fields enter the same AOL username and password you entered to get into your account. Click “OK” and there is just one more thing to do. Click on “Mailbox Behaviors” and uncheck the two checkboxes called “Drafts” and “Sent.”

That should fix it.

At one time there was upgrade options for the MDD G4 towers. Giga Designs had the M-Series that supported upgrade speeds topping out at 2.0GHz. Unfortunately the Giga cards had many reports of unstable performance and the product was later discontinued. You may still be able to find some on eBay but I would not recommend using one.

Upgrade cards have been a problem for used Mac owners. Unlike the PC world, Macs need to have special upgrade cards and only a few companies have attempted to make those cards. An advantage of the Intel switch is Mac users will have access to the same upgrades that PC users have had. Both the Intel iMac and Intel Mac Mini have processors that are removable. Because the processor is a standard Intel chip, it can be swapped out for a faster processor of the same Intel chip family.

That is nifty for Intel people but you still need more power today. In your case, you may need to look at going to a G5-based system. A dual 2.0 would probably work well and still be affordable with the trade in of your old G4 tower.

I hope this softens the hits on your processor.

This is an Apple driver issue that has been the thorn in the side of many Intel Mac customers. It is a strange quirk that only effects first revision iSub owners who have the Intel version of Mac OS X. PowerPC users are unaffected by this. To further complicate this, Apple is solely responsible for creating Mac drivers for the iSub and as of yet, has not fixed the problem.

However, some creative folks on the Apple forums have devised a workaround. The temporary solution is to use another USB audio devices for sound output and the iSub will start working. An iMic with a connected pair of multimedia speakers would do the trick.

Here is a link to the Apple forum discussion.

Hope that gets your bass pumping.

The first thing that comes to mind is that the hard drive has bad sectors on the inner rings that store the partition table. Every hard drive has some bad sectors, and because of that all computers are good at avoiding those bad sectors. Most times, mapping out bad drive sectors works, except when those sectors are in a critical place. I believe that’s what is happening to your drive. To test the problem you should eliminate the possibility of your G5 being the cause of the problem. The test is simple. Swap the position of your two hard drives by moving the second hard drive to the top and the boot drive to the bottom. The nice thing about Serial ATA (SATA) is that each hard drive has its own data cable, independent from the other drives. If the problem follows the drive and not the drive bay, you can be confident it is a hard drive problem. One last thing to check is if you are formatting the drive properly. It should be formatted as a “Mac OS Extended (Journaled).”

It sounds like you are putting together quite the computer setup and the good news is that you already have the equipment you will need to connect it all. Your computers should be connected to the network wirelessly through your Airport Extreme Base Station. Your Ethernet printer should then connect to the Base Station via the open Ethernet port that’s located next to the Broadband Ethernet Port. One of your USB printers should then connect to the USB port on your Base Station. You may need to turn on support for USB network printing from the AirPort Admin Utility.

For your second USB printer, you have two options. You can connect it to the USB port on your Airport Express if it’s in a good place for a printer, or you can connect it to your iMac. If you connect it to the iMac, you will need to turn on “Printer Sharing” from the Sharing System Preference pane. Since you have the Sharing Preference pane open you should also activate “Personal File Sharing” because you’re going to want to share the external hard drives from your iMac as well as the printer. When you’re connecting to the iMac from the PowerBook, you will want to log on with the user name and password of the iMac’s Administrator account. That way you will be able to mount any Mac formatted drive connected to the iMac; standard users can only mount their home folders. As for your DVD burner, you may no longer need it. The iMac has a SuperDrive for all your DVD burning needs. You may just want to keep it around for DVD backup of your PowerBook.

I think that will get everything you wanted talking to each other.

That’s a simple question with a complicated answer. That combination of Intel Mac mini and 23″ screen will look good and certainly outperform your old G4 on native Intel applications. However, Quark, Photoshop, and Illustrator are not yet available for purchase as Universal Applications (native speeds on both PowerPC and Intel). Quark is going to be the first of those applications to be released as Universal, but it’s not ready for production yet. The underlying problem with using an Intel Mac mini for your type of work is that the software will be running in emulation and that’s not the best way to run software with which you make a living.

Another problem with the Intel Mac mini is that it uses Shared Graphics Memory with the system memory. With Shared Graphics Memory the video chipset will reserve 80MB of the system memory for graphics. Your system will have to compete with your graphics for memory resources. That means you need to get more RAM than you would initially think. A gigabyte is a good start, but depending on the file size of your work, you may need more RAM. The Mac mini is a good desktop system but is not appropriate for serious, professional, work.

A better computer for your type of work would be any generation of the Power Mac G5. Your software will work well on that hardware without much modification. It will make quick work of your Quark projects and pay for itself in productivity gains. I think for many design people, the G5 is still the frontrunner of Mac hardware.

When you ask most people what makes their computer work, they will answer “the processor.” The truth, though, is that electricity makes a computer work, and all the processor does is switch the path that electricity takes. Understanding what importance electricity has to the operation of your computer will encourage you to invest in a UPS. An Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) sits between the wall outlet and your computer. The UPS plugs into the wall and the computer plugs into the UPS. Although a UPS will include a surge protector to prevent damage from too much power, it also has a large battery to keep the power from going too low. Brownouts can cause as much damage as a lightning strike. Power outages are the worst of both worlds. First the power dims prior to going out and then when the power returns it surges through the computer. A UPS will provide consistent power to your computer even when the power fails, and will block a surge when the power is reestablished. With a UPS, the battery is really what is powering your computer and the power outlet charges the battery. Any damage that comes from changes in the power hit the battery and not your computer. There are many UPS brands and types available, just look for a rating around 300 Watts / 500VA and a USB connection. In Mac OS X 10.4 you can use the Energy Saver System Preference to gracefully shut down your computer during a power failure as long as you are connected to your UPS via USB.

A UPS probably would have protected your equipment during that power outage and buying one now would definitely protect you in the future.

Hope that helps… and you can press the space bar to wake your computer from sleep.

Having the 1.25 GHz G4 processor will make those “part of the song was not played…” messages go away and you will feel the increase in speed other places as well. Because you like this computer style and are going to want it to last as long as possible, you should fill it with RAM. It can take up to 2 GB of RAM but one stick has to be installed by technicians due to its location in the upper housing. If the iMac is opened improperly the heat pipes will not connect back to the housing and the processor could overheat. Let someone at PowerMax do this for you. I think this would be a wonderful computer for what you do, but remember that you will not have much room to grow. One of the nice things about the new iMacs is that they will have much more power then you need right now. This should be a consideration because the future GarageBand will need more than a 1.25 GHz G4 processor to run.

However, as I try to tell my wife, you can always have more than one Mac in the house. If you like the G4 iMac, snatch it up and worry about the future when it happens.

You are right, your eMac is going to max out at 1 GB of memory, and I’m not sure you’re going to see an improvement in performance upgrading from 768 MB to 1 GB. Upgrading the RAM in an eMac is really the only internal upgrade you can do. The video chip is part of the logic board and can’t be changed. The hard drive and Superdrive can be upgraded but it will require skilled hands to take apart your eMac. The eMac you have right now is close to the best it will ever be. The Mac Mini is a decent computer if you already have a monitor, keyboard, and mouse. But it’s not going to help you, because you can’t separate the eMac display from the eMac to use with another computer. For what you are trying to do, I would recommend that you trade in your eMac and look at an iMac G5. The additional money you spend will get you a much better computer and help you greatly when it comes time to work with video.

The defining question is what kind of connections does your video card have? All G3 B&W computers shipped with only a single VGA video port. VGA is an analog video signal and will not support any of Apple’s ADC-based displays. Because you upgraded your video card, there is a good chance you have an additional connection. Many ATI Radeon cards will include not only a VGA connection but also a DVI and S-Video connection. If you do in fact have a DVI video port then you are in luck. With the additional purchase of an Apple DVI to ADC adapter, you will be able to connect the 17″ Studio Display to your B&W.

The $99 Apple adapter is a good solution if you already own an ADC 17″ Studio Display. It is, however, a large added expense if you are looking to buy both. If you want to buy an LCD for your B&W you would be better off finding a DVI or VGA based unit. For close to the same price you could find an equally good new display and have fewer cables to deal with.

The Blue & White G3 (B&W) hard drive size limit has been one of the most frequent questions of my technical years. It all centers on the two different revisions of the B&W logic board. Rev A logic boards supports only a single 6GB hard drive reliably and Rev B can support two 120 GB hard drives. You can tell which revision logic you have by the part number on the board. Look for the Apple copyright information printed on the logic board and below it will be a string of characters in one of the following two configurations XXX-09XX-A or XXX-10XX-A. The “X” is used in place of unimportant information. 09 indicates that it is a rev A logic board and the 10 means that it is a rev B.

Since you have a rev B B&W then you are going to be limited to a 120GB drive size without some additional hardware. Sonnet’s Tempo ATA133 card is actually what I recommend all B&W owners use for adding hard drives. This will fit into one of your open PCI slots and you will use the included ribbon cable to connect to the drive. This will replace the ribbon cable between the hard drive and logic board. There are several benefits to upgrading this way. You will have significantly faster communication to the hard drive as well as greater stability. You can add up to four drives to one card. Most importantly for you, it will see the full capacity of your 250GB hard drive.

The sad news is that the Radeon X800 XT will not work in your G4. That card uses an 8X AGP slot and your G4 only has a 4X AGP slot. Unlike other components that can operate at slower speeds so as to work in a slower slot, this card is physically different and will not even fit in your computer.

The best ATI card you can get for your G4 is going to be the Radeon 9800 Pro (ATI PN 100-435058). This is a good video card with 256MB of RAM, but even ATI admits that it is a few steps behind the X800 XT. In addition, the 9800 only has DVI and VGA display connecters where the X800 XT had DVI and ADC.

The PowerMac G4 Mirrored Drive Door (MDD) is the most expandable Mac ever made. It can hold up to four hard drives, two optical drives and a slew of other internal components. The answer to your question is a certain yes, you can add a Superdrive. My only bit of caution is in how you install a super drive. The MDD G4 has an upper and lower optical drive bay. Single drives are always in the top bay. When you install a super drive into this computer, you’ll need to move the Combo drive to the bottom bay and install the Superdrive to the top bay. For some reason Superdrives have to be on top. Also you will need to set the Superdrive’s jumpers to “Cable Select” position. Lastly, the most overlooked step while installing aftermarket optical drives into Mac towers is to remove the disc tray bezel. The tray that you place a disc onto has a small plastic lip on the end of the tray. This lip catches on the outer case of most Macs and can stop the drive from ejecting properly. The lip should just slide up and off.

I do love the Sawtooth, AKA “AGP Graphics,” PowerMac G4. I used one to create video projects for my DVD company many years back and it always worked like a champ. For the sake of honesty I feel I must first recommend that you do not upgrade this computer. For the same money you could trade in that G4 for a Mirrored Drive Door PowerMac G4. The MDD G4 is the only G4 that can accept two internal optical disc drives. A Mac Mini could even work as a replacement if you do not have software conflicts moving to an Intel Mac. I just do not feel that after upgrading your Sawtooth you will be getting your money’s worth.

That being said, I understand loyalty and nostalgia, so let me answer your questions as best I can. You can only have one optical drive in your computer so I think it may be best to buy an external DVD burner. I have always liked LaCie drives. They are more expensive than some other drives but they tend to buy the “A” stock of parts when other companies just buy whatever is cheap. For processor upgrades, I prefer Sonnet Technologies upgrade cards. You need to be able to trust your processor and I trust Sonnet. You will be able to get anywhere between 1.0 GHz to 1.8 GHz upgrades for your Sawtooth. In addition to buying more RAM, consider an additional hard drive. Because the more you can do with your computer the more you end up doing with it, and you will need a place to put it all.

It sounds like your Front Row application has been broken or deactivated. Here is what I want you to try. First lets get rid of the broken version of Front Row. It is located at:

Macintosh HD/System/Library/CoreServices/Front Row.app

Drag the Front Row application to the trash. You will be prompted to enter your username and password after you put it in the trash. Now you will need to get a new Front Row. You can find it here but you will need to be running the latest version of Mac OS X, which is 10.4.5. After downloading and installing the new Front Row you will need to restart. That should get you couch-surfing with your iMac again.

Apple has another year at least of selling PowerPC computers. My guess is that the XServe will be the last system to be switched to an Intel chip. We may find that there will always be a PowerPC server line from Apple, while all the other systems run on Intel. The question of when the switch will happen is really as soon as they are ready to rev the computer line. I doubt we will see any more PowerPC upgrades from Apple. That means what is available today is going to be the fastest PowerPC Macs available. A fact that makes planning easy, in a way. Buy what will work best for your workload today. Then start saving for the Intel hardware and software switch. If you are working fine now don’t panic and buy a computer because you are afraid it’s going away. PowerMax will always sell every generation of Mac we can get our hands on for as long as someone wants to buy them.

The switch is happening right now and it can be nerve racking. Just the other day Apple discontinued the PowerBook G4 15-inch and the iMac G5-17 inch. Soon the 20-inch iMac G5 will be discontinued. The next announcement is coming any day now. So think about what you need now and focus on that.

Speakers and headphones are always tough to recommend. The difficulty comes from the enormous difference between the way people hear sound. For example it is rumored that the iPod is the loudest portable music player because Steve Jobs is slightly deaf and insisted that the volume needed to be increased to his liking. That being said, some people do not hear that much difference between good sound and bad sound when it comes to speakers. If you’re that kind of person, then most PC speakers systems will be fine for you. I have liked Logitech’s range of speakers but you can find many other speakers of similar quality. If you are the “golden ear” type of person who can hear every hiss and pop in an audio file then you should be pickier with your selection. I would recommend you sample the sound of the speakers. This is where owning an iPod helps. Create a playlist with a range of music and spoken word files on it. Take your iPod shopping with you and try bits of all the same files on different speakers. Mid range speakers are going to cost between $150 to about $300. If you look at going above that in price you may want to use the optical audio connection on your G5 and not the line out 1/8″ jack.

You sure can move your Startup Volume. I would recommend using Carbon Copy Cloner to do this. It is a free utility that works flawlessly at moving data from one volume to another. It will even make sure that the new volume is bootable. After you are done cloning just use the “Startup Disk” preference window to change the Startup volume. This is the same utility I use to completely backup my home Mac.

Before replace any more parts, have you run the Firmware update for your 1.8 G5?

It is found here.

You did not say if you had run this yet but this sounds like it could be related to the problems you are having with that G5. Firmware updates often will not be recommended through “Software Update” because if they fail it will break your computer. Unfortunately, due to this, a firmware update will be almost a hidden fix for big computer problems. A good troubleshooting tip is to search for Firmware updated in the Apple.com download section when you are having these kinds of problems.

$500-$1,500 is plenty of money to get nearly any Mac that would do what you need. I feel I must disclose that I have never personally liked the eMac. I used to be the main configuration tech for PowerMax during the introduction of the eMac, so perhaps it was because they are heavy or maybe because they have large CRT displays when everything else has sleek and slim LCD screens, but still, that’s just my personal bias, and in fact an eMac could be a great computer for you as it’s one of the most cost-effective desktop Macs around today. But, I will also give you two other options that will meet both the needs of you and your wife.

Option one is either a 12″ or 14″ iBook. A portable will be a good option for you as it will travel outdoors well and can be put away from the “little ones.” The iBook is the most sturdy of the Apple portables and has a good deal of power to do all of your work. You will be able to run most of your old OS 9 applications through Classic but you will also get a ton of new programs like iPhoto.

The only problem with going to an iBook is that it is older technology. The PowerPC based Macs are on their way out. You upgrade so infrequently that it may be better to get the newest of the new. So option two would be an Intel iMac. This will be a clean break for you. None of your OS 9 and earlier applications will work on this computer and most of the current software titles available are not optimized for this new computer yet. It is, however, the most forward-looking system to buy. It will last for many years with a great deal of support from Apple and third party companies alike.

Regardless of what you think is the best solution, I am going to further recommend that you buy a version of PhotoShop Elements. This is going to help you with most of your future photo work.

That is a very good question. Recommended specifications are usually directed at hardware. That is because the speed of your computer’s hardware is going to affect the performance of the software running on it. When it comes to OS recommendations, it has more to do with long-term stability and not performance. Running iLife ‘06 on your computer as it is right now will work fine. The only problem with running it on OS 10.3.9 is going to be as iLife ‘06 updates occur you may find problems unfixed. When Apple updates software they do it with a focus on the current version of the Mac OS. Their support for problems between iLife and 10.3.9 will dwindle quickly. That is why it is recommended you keep all your software up-to-date. If it is, you will receive the best upgrade support.

As for your old iLife files, they will update to the new format when you open them in iLife ‘06, but expect not to be able to open them with the older iLife on another computer. You can always move up. It is often harder to go back down again.

It looks to me that you have an abundance of storage space available. Even though you have nearly a Terabyte I am going to recommend that you get more. I would recommend that you buy another 500GB internal SATA hard drive. This will become your main boot drive. You should store all of your photos, MP3s and applications on it. Centralize your data. Many people have reported problems when keeping their iTunes and iPhoto libraries off the boot volume. As those libraries grow, you may have problems if they are on external drives. The added internal drive will also free up your 250GB hard drive to become a scratch drive for Final Cut. A good scratch disk is going to be one that has no long-term data on it. After each project is done the drive should be reformatted. This will give you the best configuration for your video editing work. As for your external drives, they have their place in this setup too. The 400GB drive should now be your backup drive for the 500GB internal drive. Make regular backups with Carbon Copy Cloner to that drive so you always have a bootable backup. Keep that drive in a safe place and turned off most of the time. The 160GB will become your project storage and transportation drive. I think that will be your best solution for your needs.

There is a possibility that some extra data is leftover in the volumes folder. To get there you will need to click on the desktop once. This will make sure you are in the Finder. Then click on “Go To Folder…” from the “Go” menu. Enter “/Volumes/” in the text field without the quotes and click “Go.” In this folder you should only see your mounted drives. If there is more there than you expected, that could be the cause of your second volume error.

As for your crashing system I wonder if you have tried making a new user account. An Archive and Install will only replace your system folder and not your user folder. There is a chance that within your user account is corrupted settings that could cause your lockups. Try creating a new user account and working from that account for a little bit and see if the problem continues. Try not to change any of the new accounts settings from the defaults. If you are still having issues then it is most likely a hardware problem and should be taken to a service center.

This is such a common need for people that Apple built-in a way for you to do this. It is called target disk mode. With the power of the G4 off but your G5 fully booted, just connect your G4 to your G5 with a FireWire cable. Upon powering up the G4, hold down the G4’s “T” key. Very shortly you should see your G4’s hard drive icon on the desktop of your G5. Then it’s just a matter of finding the files you need and dragging them over to the G5’s hard drive.

Apple engineers have decided that instead of aiming for higher clock speeds they would build a system with more processors at a slightly slower speed. The Dual Chip Dual Core 2.5 GHz effectively has four 2.5 processors. While this is not the same as having four times the power as a single processor 2.5 GHz system, it does out perform two 2.7 GHz G5 chips.

As for Final Cut Pro HD performance, the Quad 2.5 G5 is a significant performance booster for HD editing and data management. The only downside of the Quad G5 is that it does not have PCI-X slots but instead comes with PCIe slots that will not take PCI or PCI-X cards. This can be a problem if you have an investment in non-PCIe equipment. Hope that helps and remember we will have 2.7 GHz G5s from time to time on our website.

We get this question often as people make the switch from PC to Macintosh. I wish we could help people by taking in old PCs on trade but we do not. The reason is that we service and test all our trade in computers and get them ready for sale. People who have a tighter budget or are just looking for a great deal buy these previously owned computers. We stand behind all our systems with warranty and support. Unfortunately we could not have the same faith in a PC system’s quality that we have in our Mac systems. We made the decision long ago that we would only sell quality computers and in our opinion that is what Macs are.

The best bet for selling a PC would be eBay or craigslist.org. Good luck with your PC and I am sure we can help get your son find a Mac he will love.

Have you tried a “Verbose mode” startup? You do this by pressing Command-V during startup. Verbose mode will show you what is happening at the startup instead of the grey screen shown by default. Make note of what the last thing it is doing when it locks up. Restart it three more times and see if it freezes each time at the same place. If it is at the same place each time, it should give you some idea of what is going wrong. It could be that you will get past the “verbose mode” screen each time but lock up later in the booting sequence. If that is the case try holding down the “Shift Key” instead of Command-V at startup. That should start you in “Safe Boot” mode, which is a stripped down version of OS X and can get you around some software problems.It could also be a hardware issue. Hardware is difficult to diagnose at home without extra parts. However, if you have two or more sticks of RAM try removing all but one and see if anything changes. If nothing changes remove that RAM and try a different stick of RAM. If excluding a certain stick of RAM solves your problems that RAM would most likely be your culprit. Remember RAM can fail at any point in its life so suspect that first with troubleshooting this kind of hardware problem.

The good news is that HP printers are well supported in Mac OS X. This includes your printer as seen here. http://www.apple.com/macosx/upgrade/printers.html. The bad news is that you will need to add a connection to the printer to get it viewable by modern Macs. Using an external print server would be the best option. HP makes a Jetdirect product that should work, or choose a router with a built in Parallel printer port. The other bad news is this option is troublesome to setup and, in most cases, is slow at printing. The effort and hardware expense could justify a new printer.

As for your Perfection 1200S scanner, it will not be compatible. As you know the 1200″S” is a SCSI model. I have not found a reliable SCSI to USB adapter and you have no PCI slots in an iMac. So the scanner cannot make the move over to the new system. This could be an opportunity to buy a good multi-function printer/scanner instead of spending money on hardware to make your older peripherals work with your new computer. Good luck!