Ask Jacob

The easiest way to go wireless on the Quicksilver G4 is with the original Airport Card (http://www.powermax.com/product/Used_Airport_Card/a-51540.html). It just slides into a special slot on the inside and a built-in antenna plugs into the back of the card. It is a very clean and easy install. As for the transmitting end: some DSL providers supply wireless routers but you can just buy yourself a Linksys wireless router (http://www.powermax.com/product/LinkSys_WireLess-G_BroadBand_Router/563043.html). That should get you wireless. For a cost-effective laptop, you could go with a previously owned G4 iBook, but also consider a MacBook. For as little as $1099.00 you could have a faster computer than your Quicksilver that can also hook up to your current display and keyboard. You could then use the MacBook as your main system and trade in your old computer.Perhaps that will work best for you.

WPA wireless security is definitely what you will want for your mixed network. The main reason is that WPA is implemented with the same passkey system on both the Mac and Windows OS. WEP encryption is flawed and in mixed networks WEP often uses long Hexadecimal passwords that rarely work the first time you enter them. The largest Problem with WEP is that any kid with enough time can crack it. WPA is currently safe from Wi-Fi spying, and for business work that’s essential. If your wireless router supports WPA, then start using that instead of WEP and as long as your Macs are running 10.3.9 then you should be able to connect. Almost all wireless equipment is cross-platform, so there should be no reason to buy extra equipment. If all else fails, an Airport Express connected to the router will get you wireless quickly (http://www.powermax.com/product/Apple_Airport_Express_Base_Station_with_AirTunes/a-m9470ll/a.html).Hope that helps get you going without the cords.

The most recent OS that will work on your iMacs is 10.3, which will come with the Safari web browser, although you may also want to use the Firefox browser. In order to run Mac OS X 10.3 you will have to upgrade your RAM up to 256MB. On those computers it would be easer to get help installing RAM from a local service center than doing it yourself. You can do it but tray-loading CD iMacs are a little difficult to open up. Here is a link to instructions on installing RAM (http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=43012).Have fun with those upgraded iMacs.

There are a few sources for anti virus software for the Mac but I would not recommend that you use any of them. I once told people that “If it makes you feel better then go ahead and use it” but I now advise against it. In my experience it causes problems on the Mac and provides protection from a non-existent threat. Not only did you buy a computer that is not a target of Spyware or viruses, but you bought one that uses the PowerPC processor. That chip works differently than the new Intel Mac processors, so any future attacks will pass you by and there are no current exploits. If you want to err on the safe side of this subject, then all you will need to do is check for updates every day and never use any Microsoft software on your computer. That’s overkill, but other than that you are safe as can be. Enjoy your Mac!

The first step to finding the root of a problem like this is to eliminate software as a possible cause. Borrow the other good G4 in your office. Move it close to your problem computer. Plug a keyboard and a power cable into the good G4, and start it up holding down the “T” key. Next connect the two Macs with a 6-to-6 Pin FireWire cable. Now start up your troubled Mac holding down the “Option” key. At a blue screen you’ll be able to select the good G4’s hard drive to boot off of. Select the drive and click on the right facing arrow. You will now have your troubled Mac booted off the good Mac’s hard drive. Try to recreate the problems you have been having. If you cannot recreate the problems then you will know the problem is with the Operating System on the problem computer. You can just do a clean install or archive and install from a Mac OS install disc to fix that.However, I suspect that you are having a hardware problem, and when you do the above test the problems will continue to occur. In that case you are going to need to take it to a service center. I would guess that the problems you are having are caused by a faulty power supply. If you feel confident with service work you could test the power supply by switching it with the good Mac. If the good Mac becomes the bad Mac and your problems are solved then you know it is the power supply. If nothing changes then I would look next at the logic board, and that can be an expensive repair.Hope that get you closer to fixing that misbehaving Mac.

The Xeon processors used in the Mac Pro and the G5 processors you have now are very similar. Both are 64-Bit processors and both are not too different in benchmarks. What would be of more concern for your comparison is that the Mac Pro is a Quad Core system and has a faster clock speed. Your G5 is just a dual processor at a two thirds the speed of the Mac Pro. If you are planning on using a Universal version of Final Cut Studio, then I would say that the upgrade to a Mac Pro from an older G5 is definitely going to help with your HD video editing project. Not to mention that the Mac Pro has more internal drive capacity.The G5 is not obsolete by any means but for the cutting-edge work, like HD video, the Mac Pro would be better.

With the introduction of the Fifth Generation iPods, Apple officially dropped FireWire support for iPods and made the iPod a USB 2.0 device. Fortunately the iPods do support data transfers at the slower speed of USB 1.1 and you can use it with your iBook. The problem you will encounter is that USB 1.1 will not charge your iPod nano. USB 2.0 provides more power than 1.1, and there are no upgrades you can do to your laptop to change that. The best solution is to buy a USB wall charger. (http://www.powermax.com/product/iPod_USB_Power_Adapter/a-m9837ll/a.html) Charge your iPod before you connect it to the computer so it does not lose power when updating. Other than adding the charger to your order, you will be ready to get that new iPod.Enjoy your nano. I love mine.

X11 is offered as an optional install on the OS X install discs. You can probably track down the individual installer on the disc but I would recommend booting off the install disc and selecting the X11 installation in the “Customize” section. From the same area you can unselect all the installers that you don’t need. If you are still having problems after that, you may want to do a custom “Archive and Install” from the discs. This is done from the “Options” section when you select your hard drive and just before you get to the “Customize” section. After everything is installed it should be a simple matter of installing the Application and launching it.With Open Office you must make sure you have the correct version for your Mac’s processor. http://porting.openoffice.org/mac/download/index.html. Choose the Intel-based download for your Mac Pro from this link. After that, everything should work just fine. I encourage you to also install the Developers Tools, which can help with other aspects of porting Linux/Unix based applications.Let me know how it works.

It is certainly possible that poor or excessive power could have created your display problem. What you describe is symptomatic of a LCD backlight failure. It could be that the power adapter damaged the LCD’s power inverter. A damaged inverter will prevent a backlight from turning on and make the screen constantly look dim. You may be able to reset the power manager and fix your problem. First zap you PRAM repeatedly. Do this by restarting the computer holding down the Apple, Option, P, an R keys. Let the computer chime four times. Next locate the reset button on the back of the computer near the connection ports. With the battery out and power unplugged, press the button. Plug the power cable back in and press the button one more time. Now press the power button and see if the video comes back. If not you are probably out of luck because there are no replacement parts for the 5300cs outside of perhaps eBay.

I think you may have accidentally turned on a Universal Access feature, and that’s what is causing your problems. Go to the System Preferences and click on Universal Access. Now click on the mouse tab and turn off “Mouse Keys.” Unless you use Universal Access you should make sure all settings are marked as “off.”Hope that solves it.

There are very few components of a computer that can make a clicking noise. The usual suspect for random clicking is the hard drive. The clicking noise is caused by the drive’s internal read head smacking against the side of the drive’s case. This is a precursor to total drive failure, so back up your important data right now even if you think it could be something else. One way to check the health of your hard drive is to go into Disk Utility and look at the “S.M.A.R.T. Status” of your drive. Big problems will be identified by the S.M.A.R.T. on-drive diagnostics, but you may need to use the Apple Hardware Test (AHT) included with the iBook Restore discs.If your hard drive passes the tests then you will need to use your ears to narrow your search. Wait until your iBook starts clicking and then put your ear to the iBook. If the clicking is under the left palm rest, it’s coming from the hard drive. Clicking coming from under the right hand side of the keyboard is caused by the optical drive. An optical drive will fail much like a hard drive and make the same type of clicking noise.Another possibility that your iBook’s fan is causing the clicking; the fan is located by the display hinge. There is also the outside chance that the clicking is caused by the system freezing and not the other way around. In that case it could be a problem with the RAM, or software conflicts. Try removing the extra RAM from your iBook and see if the problem goes away. To test software, reboot with the “Shift” key held down to boot into a Safe Boot mode.Good luck and I hope this narrows the troubleshooting.

Apple is using standard Intel processors in the new Macs. The current iMacs use the Core 2 Duo mobile processor. This chip is sometimes referred to by its code-name Merom. It is a 64-bit processor with 4MB L2 cache memory. Because it’s a standard Intel processor, all X86 operating systems will be able to communicate with it. Of additional interest is that the Graphics card in the 24″ iMac is removable and possibly upgradable. A first for any iMac.Hope that is the info you wanted.

Not all processors are interchangeable even if they fit in the socket. If you got a processor from a Quicksilver 733 MHz Power Mac, it may not work in your Digital Audio Power Mac even though there was a Digital Audio 733 MHz. The symptoms you describe when starting up with the 733 MHz processor installed indicates that the processor is damaged or incompatible.Here are a few things to try before you should give up on the 733MHz processor. First double check that there is no uninstalled firmware updates for your 466MHz G4. Second, try booting without RAM installed. This should make your Mac beep and flash its lights. If it does not get that far, it is failing the Power On Self Test (POST) before it gets past the processor. Lastly you can try to find someone who will let you test that 733 MHz processor in their Quicksilver G4.My guess it is not going to work in your computer. In that case consider a certified and compatible upgrade card. Giga Designs makes some very fast upgrade kits. http://www.powermax.com/product/Giga_Designs_Processor_Upgrade_Tested_at_2.0G_for_both_100MHz_and_133MHz_Models_(2.0GHz_7447_Processor)_with_firmware/a-gig-7a-2000u.htmlHope that helps you outJacob Loeb

Having a single wireless network comprised of multiple base-stations is one of the things that sets Apple wireless products apart from the rest. What you will want to do is set up “WDS” in your network. WDS stands for Wireless Distribution System and it’s what allows one base station to act as the primary connection to the internet, and every other base station in range to act as a repeater. With the latest version of Airport Admin Utility, connect to the Extreme base station. Click on the WDS tab. Check the checkbox next to “Enable this base station as a WDS” and set it to be the “main base station.” Next, select the “+” button to add your Express base station. It will have to be within 150 feet for this to work. Select your Express and then click the Update button. After everything resets, your two base stations will act as one network and each base station can support a printer. This is the best way to setup multiple base stations and you can keep adding Express base stations to the network as your needs grow.Have fun.Jacob Loeb

The program you want to use for your AVI files is the versatile and free VLC (http://www.videolan.org/). It is a cross-platform “Swiss Arm Knife” media player. Give VLC a try and see if it solves your playback problems. Your keyboard, on the other hand, may need a trip to the service center see if the key is properly installed and if needed, get replaced.For word processing you have many options. You already have TextEdit in your applications folder. As a basic word processor TextEdit can type formatted text and spell check for you. If you want to use MS Word it is available for the Mac and has long been a standard of the business world. Apple’s own Pages is also a very good word processor, without some of the complications and hitches Word has. There are also less expensive yet capable word processors like Mariner Write (http://www.marinersoftware.com). Try some of those options; you truly don’t need your PC any longer.Jacob Loeb

One gigabyte of memory is plenty for most work you are going to do on a MacBook Pro. If you are working with big files or editing video, then I would say it’s worth the price to upgrade to 2 GB. Otherwise you can wait. However, an additional criterion for upgrading the RAM would be if you plan on running Windows XP through Parallels or through whatever Leopard brings us. In that case. you would be in effect running two operating systems and both would want to have 1 GB of memory. Not every program runs on Intel-based Macs but most do, and more are being updated every day. Most of your older applications will run on the MacBook Pro through Rosetta, and the rest will need to be upgraded. However, none of your OS 9 Applications will work. Many people have expressed concern over the heat generated from the MacBook (Pro) but it is only slightly more than the G4 models. Heat is always going to be an issue with a fast processor in a thin laptop.As for glitches and design mistakes, there have been a few. It is no more prevalent in Intel Macs than in other new Mac models. I think people are a little gun shy with the Intel switch than in previous upgrades. Apple’s newfound popularity also is responsible: it’s somewhat a case of over-reporting; that’s why it seems like the MacBook Pros are problematic. I have not found a single issue that affects more then a handful of units. The best advice that I would have for you is to buy a new unit and add AppleCare to it to cover any of these potential design problems. That way you are covered.Hope that helps and you are going to love the MacBook Pro.Jacob Loeb

My suspicion would most certainly be the CRT display as opposed to the website or G5 video card. The FX 5200 is a capable video card that will handle anything on the web, and unless it is intentionally designed that way, most web text is going to look normal on new computers. A CRT display that is set incorrectly or wearing out could display text improperly. I would recommend finding a site that consistently cases the problem and start changing your monitor’s resolution and frequency. After each change to your monitor preferences check the site and see if it corrects the vibrating text. If every setting is problematic then you should look at replacing your monitor with a newer LCD display. I always suggest upgrading your display at the same time as you update your computer. Take a look at a replacement option from Planar. http://www.powermax.com/product/Planar_PL2010M_20%22_UXGA_LCD_-_Black/d55857.htmlLet me know how it goes.Jacob Loeb

I am glad you asked the question before putting the disc in your PowerBook. We have had to break down many a computer to remove those mini CDs and DVDs. They do get stuck in the drive and sometimes damage a drive beyond repair. With slot loading optical drives like the ones in the G4 and Intel laptops, you should never put any disc in it other than a standard sized disc (12 cm). This is also true for slot loading iMacs and XServes. You just saved yourself a world of trouble by checking first.Jacob Loeb

Unfortunately the first generation of 12″ PowerBooks did not come with USB 2.0 and without a PCMCIA card slot on the 12″ model it is impossible upgrade anything but the RAM and hard drive. Most items that require USB 2.0 will often work on USB 1.1 connections but just at a lower speed. USB 1.1 delivers less power than USB 2.0 so you are probably going to want to use a powered hub in between the computer and USB 2.0 devices.Sorry for the bad news but I hope you enjoy everything else about your PowerBook.Jacob Loeb

Both the PowerBook and MacBook Pro have the ability to operate with the lid closed. In most cases this feature is used for docking a laptop to a full-sized monitor, keyboard, and mouse. If you connect an external keyboard to the laptop with its lid closed and press a key it will wake from sleep. The problem you will encounter is that when you shut the lid to put it away the MacBook Pro will go to the sleep power saving mode. You would have to keep a small USB keyboard connected to it so that you could wake it up and continue to record.Another option to consider is using a small LCD display connected as the primary monitor when inside the case. You can get 7″ VGA displays that would work as a simple Logic Express status indicator. These 7″ LCDs are made for in-car entertainment systems but will work mounted to the top of your recording rig. That, combined with a mini USB keyboard and travel mouse, would let you keep an eye on your recordings. As you know there is nothing worse than finding out that you missed a live recording because your equipment needed you to click another button.Let me know what you end up using and send pictures when you get it set up. I would like to put them up online.Jacob Loeb

Any upgrades you do to a Mac can offset the cooling balance within the case. A larger hard drive that spins faster than the original drive will generate more heat and trigger the fans to come on more often. That being said, any good engineer builds in some padding to his numbers, and you do not sound like you are over-tasking this computer so there may be another culprit. In the Utilities folder within the Applications folder is a program called Activity Monitor. This program will show you what is running on your system and help identify what could be causing this problem. In Activity Monitor’s window, make sure you are viewing “All Processes” and not just “My Processes.” Then click on the column labeled “%CPU” to see what is eating up the most system resources. Make sure no process is marked in red or is using more then 30% of the CPU for long periods of time. Look at your “Disk Activity” and see if that corresponds to your fan use. It could be that everything looks normal in the Activity Monitor. If that is the case try changing your Energy Saver settings in the System Preferences. Allow your hard drive to go to sleep whenever possible and in the “Options” section make sure that your processor settings are set to “Automatic.”As a last ditch effort you could do an archive and install of the OS and see if the software-based fan controller is corrupted.Good luck and let me know what you find out.Jacob Loeb

There are a few things to try and it may be a simple fix. The first standard Mac fix with almost anything is to zap the PRAM. This is done by holding down the “Option,” “Command/Apple,” “P,” and “R” keys on start up. Hold them down until you hear four chimes from the Mac. Then see what you get. If this doesn’t fix anything, then try reinstalling the OS, any Mac OS will do. If the computer will not boot of an install CD or the hard drive, then it is a good idea to try and reset the Power Manager on your computer. Unplug the power and open the case. Locate and remove the PRAM battery. Near the battery is a small button 1/16th of an inch in size, press it once. Put the battery back and plug in the power cord. Boot it up and see what you get. If you are still having problems see if your friend still has the original G3 processor. If he does you are going to want to reinstall it and see if it was an issue with the processor upgrade not being compatible with OS X 10.2.Good luck and let me know how it works out.Jacob Loeb

Lisa, Sorry to hear about your computer.Getting liquids into your computer is never a good thing, especially when it is powered on. I hear countless tales of people who accidentally dowse their computer but are able to just dry them off without any damage. However, that’s really only possible if the computer was powered off when the liquid hit. When the computer is turned on you get the kind of catastrophic damage you are describing. Repairing the computer is a decent solution. During the repair any moisture left in the computer will be dried out. Nothing should continue to erode or become further damaged. The problem you face is that you have no idea what was weakened, but not destroyed, by the water. The repair quote is only for what they know does not work. Any failure beyond those replaced components are not covered and they could fail at any time. The good news is that the majority of what can fail will be replaced during the service work, and most people who I have known in your position did not have any further problems after it was fixed.However, one thing to check on is whether your insurance company will cut you a check for the repair and then you can take that money and some of your own and get yourself a MacBook to replace your PowerBook. At the very least you will have more confidence in a new computer. In addition, a PowerMax pre-owned PowerBook can actually cost less than your repair, depending on the level PowerBook you had. You might want to check out that option as well, which will give you the same 90 day warranty without the water damage concern and risk.Hope that helpsJacob Loeb