Ask Jacob

Because your problem happens to many different applications, I think it is a bigger problem than a faulty application. Any time you have a widespread problem like this one, and you have not updated to the most recent point version of the OS, I would recommend running Software Update to bring your OS to the latest version. If the problem continues past upgrading to Mac OS X 10.2.8, then I would create a second user account with which to test. Make the user account an Administrator account, and then log out of your main account. Next, log into your new test account and see if you get the same problems. If you do not have the same problems, then it is some setting in your main User account’s preferences. Go through your main account’s Preferences folder in the user’s Library folder and remove anything having to do with networking or Internet connectivity. Keep testing as you remove each item.

If the problem occurs in both accounts, then it is probably a system problem. Upgrading to OS 10.3 or 10.4 via an “Archive and Install” will often help resolve those issues. You can also do an Archive and Install in OS 10.2, if you have the system discs. Here is a link to Archive and Install instructions and further info.

Click here for Install instructions and more.

The great thing about using Parallels for Mac is that you can run any version of Windows or Linux you want on your Mac.

You just have to tell Parallels what you want to do before you install the non-Mac OS into a Parallels Virtual machine. Some versions of Windows Vista are not licensed for installation on virtual hardware like Parallels. You will want to use the Ultimate version of Windows Vista to comply with the Microsoft license. Also, you will want to run the Service Pack 2 version of Windows XP. This is only for security and is not about licensing. You can install any version of XP, but I recommend that you immediately upgrade it to the SP2 version, in order to prevent getting a virus on the PC side of your Mac.

You don’t need anything fancy from your version of Windows when you run it in Parallels. Just get a version that will work best for what you are doing. In most cases, XP Home will serve you perfectly.

Upgrading RAM will help your mini run faster with all those pictures. An external drive will only really help you if you are running low on hard drive space. RAM is only short-term storage space, and internal hard drives or external hard drives are for long term storage of files. When you open an application, it is temporarily taken from the hard drive and sent to RAM. RAM is were you actively work with things on a computer. Then the changes are written back to the hard drive. The bigger the files you are working with, the more RAM you will need to keep the same functional speed.

The RAM can be difficult to install into the Mac mini. You may want to have an authorized service center install the RAM for you.

I had not heard about any OS limitations with the B&W G3s, so I went back to the service benches and tested it out. I used a Rev A 350MHz G3 B&W with 256MB of RAM. I installed a fresh version of OS X 10.4.3 onto the drive and then updated to 10.4.10, in addition to all the other available security updates. It runs fine, albeit a little slow. I watched some YouTube videos and other activities without errors or problems. I think you should be safe updating your computers to 10.4.10. The one limiting item of a Rev A B&W is its drive size. It will not work well with a PATA (ATA/EIDE) hard drive bigger than 6GB connected to the internal drive cable. Perhaps the people you spoke to had upgraded to larger drives, and are experiencing problems unrelated to 10.4.9. If you need a bigger drive in a Rev A B&W G3, it is recommended that you use a PCI-based hard drive controller card.

Sharing email with two user accounts is similar to sharing email between two computers. There is an assumption that each user will have their own email account, and Apple does not have a sharable mail section in Mac OS. It is possible that both of you can share the same email account in different user accounts if your email provider lets you have IMAP access to your email. An IMAP email account stores your mail on a server, not your computer. Because the mail is always saved on the server it does not matter which computer you use or which user account you are logged into. As long as you have the connection info, you will have all your email accessible and everything will stay synchronized between computers and accounts.

Unfortunately many ISPs will only give you POP mail access, and that is much harder to manage from multiple accounts. It may be easier to get a separate email account for her to use. For instance, a Gmail account would work well and it can be used with the Apple Mail application. If she wants the mail that is already on the other user account, then you just need to copy one folder and one file to the new user account. Here’s the procedure:

From your older account, copy the Mail folder to the Shared folder in the Users folder, located here: Macintosh HD/Users/YOUR_USER_NAME/Library/Mail.

Now copy the preference file here: Macintosh HD/Users/YOUR_USER_NAME/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist.

Next, log into the new account and move the files you copied to the Shared folder. Place them into the same places you copied them from, but with “YOUR_USER_NAME” being the new user account.

After all that, your two mail accounts will be identical, but that will change as soon as one of them checks for new mail. You will have to disable one of the accounts from within Apple Mail’s Preferences.

I hope that helps.

Although there are several devices that will share printers on a network, my current favorite is the New AirPort Extreme base station. Not only will it share printers and hard drives, it will also act as a gigabit router.

Apple Airport Extreme Station

You can connect many printers to the base station’s USB port via a USB hub and have them all simultaneously shared. The complication will come from the HP Color LaserJet 1600 printer. It is not Mac compatible and probably won’t work on the base station. That printer may need to be connected to your HP desktop and shared from the Windows printer-sharing feature. It may turn out that the LJ1600 will one day be supported–you might even find that it does work when connected to the base station now, but there is no guarantee.

Here is a link to printers that have been tested to work with Apple’s wireless printer sharing equipment:
Click Here for details.

It is not an official list, but can be helpful. If you already have an investment in good networking equipment then the base station may not be the best solution because of the expense added to your network. In that case, you can always use the OS X printer-sharing feature to share the other two printers. The option is in the System Preferences in the Sharing section. It is limited, but would work as a low cost option.

Seeing as you are having connectivity issues, I will try to give you a few different things to try so you do not have to wait around for the next set of instructions. The first is centered around the Mac remembering trusted wireless networks. You can tell your Mac to connect to “any” network, without adding it to the Preferred Network list. That network list could be your problem. To make these changes, select System Preferences from the blue Apple menu. Now click on the Network section and double click on AirPort from the Network Status window. Under the Airport tab, change the “By default, join” popup menu from Preferred Networks to Automatic. Click on the big Apply Now button in the lower right corner and test it on the network. If that fails to work for you, can completely remove the default Airport settings and see if that change helps. The preference file is located here: /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.airport.preferences.plistDrag it to your desktop first and it will make a copy of itself for safekeeping. Now drag it again, but this time, place it in the Trash. You will have to enter your password. Now go back to the Airport System Preference section and change it back to Preferred networks. There should be no entries there now. Try joining a network and see if it works. If it still does not work, and networks you could join before don’t work, then you can copy the file on your desktop back to its original place.

The other possibility is that your Keychain is remembering the wrong passwords for some of the networks, or thinks it knows the network’s password, when it doesn’t actually have a password for the network. The Keychain is where OS X stores your passwords when you ask your Mac to remember them for you. You can look at your passwords through a utility called Keychain Access. It is in the Utilities folder inside the Applications folder. In the application, click on “All Items” in the left section of the window and then sort the list by kind. You can sort by any header category by clicking on the header (Name, Date, etc.). Delete anything that is an “Airport Network Password.” Try connecting now.

The only other possibility I can think of has little to do with your computer and more to do with the router being used. Most times we do not think about it, but Airport and Wi-Fi networks have channels just like TV. Wi-Fi is standard and around the world you can use channels 1 through 11 any place. Europe however, uses two additional channels in their Wi-Fi. These two channels, 12 and 13, are commonly used outside the US–but US-built equipment cannot communicate on those channels. It could be that you are trying to connect to a base station using channel 13 and your Airport card does not go that high. If you are able to ask someone in the know the locations where you’re having problems, check to see what channel they’re using. The only solution to this European router issue is to get a European-made Wi-Fi card.

Most Mac laptops have two batteries. One is the big removable battery but there is a second, smaller battery inside. Both batteries are rechargeable and replaceable. If both are completely drained, then you will experience boot-up problems. The best fix is to reset the power management unit (PMU), turn it on, and let it charge for 24 hours, uninterrupted. Below is a link to the PMU reset procedures for most G4 PowerBooks.

PMU Reset procedures

You can upgrade the hard drive in a Mac laptop. The drives used in a G3 or G4 PowerBook are standard 2.5″ PATA (AKA EIDE or ATA) drives. Currently the largest PATA laptop drive is 160GB. The larger laptop drives are SATA based 2.5″ drives and will only work in Intel-based Mac laptops. MCE makes an upgrade kit that will come with tools and instructions. It’s cheaper to buy the naked drive and use your own tools, but this is the best way for the casual tech to upgrade their drive.

MCE upgrade kit

I would also recommend getting an external drive enclosure to place your old drive into. That will let you copy info over to the new drive. Also, this way you’ll have an extra backup drive at the end.

Click for detailed spec

I think I understand what you want to do. Like you, I do not like to take my hands off the keyboard to grab the mouse. Apple understands that not everyone wants to use, or can use, a mouse. There is of course a way to get to all of the menu items from the keyboard. The first thing to do is let the Mac OS know you want to use one of the menus along the top of the screen. You do this by pressing the “Control” and “F2″ keys at the same time. The blue Apple menu will turn white with a blue box around it. Now you can use the Arrow keys to navigate the menus. The right and left Arrow keys will move you from menu to menu. The up and down Arrow keys will let you highlight menu items. The “return” key will select (click on) the highlighted menu item.

You can use a similar method for the Dock but use “Control” and “F3″ keys to jump to the Dock. All the useful keyboard navigation shortcuts can be found by searching Mac Help for “Full keyboard navigation keyboard shortcuts.”

The problem you are having is related to Apple’s naming convention for optical drives. The term Combo Drive refers to a drive that reads and writes CDs, but can only read DVDs. A Combo Drive cannot burn any format of DVD. The Super Drive term is used for a drive that can read and write both CDs and DVDs.You can of course add super drive to that computer. The MDD G4s let you have two optical drives. Just move the Combo down to the lower space and install a MCE Super Drive in its place.

a MCE Super Drive

This is actually a much better drive then the Apple stock Super Drive for the G4 generation Power Macs.

When Apple switched its tower design from the G4 Plastic case to the all metal G5 case, they had to do something funky with the wireless antennas. Unlike plastic, wireless signals travel poorly through metal. So Apple solution was to route the bluetooth and Airport internal antennas to the back of the G5’s case. There are two antenna ports on the back connection panel above the optical audio jacks. The topmost plug is for a T-shaped Airport antenna that came with the G5s when they were new. The other lower-port is for a pin-shaped bluetooth antenna.

If you still have the original G5 box, the “T” shaped adapter could still be in it. Otherwise one can be ordered for you as an Apple Service part. A replacement antenna will cost $19.88 plus shipping. The free fix is to run your G5 with the side door off. The plastic airfoil will keep it running cool and the clear plastic will not stop the wireless signal like the metal door does. The “T” antenna is the best solution though.

The “T” antenna was often lost and Apple came to realize that it was a bad solution. Later on when Apple switched to the Dual Core G5s, they integrated the antennas onto the outside of the case in a plastic strip along the back.

These days battery charging has become something of a black art. The best data today suggest that heat is the biggest killer of rechargeable batteries. Fully charging a battery creates the most heat and that is why batteries gradually lose charge with each cycle. The best thing you can do to preserve the life of a battery is to remove it from a computer and keep it in a cool place. You don’t need to put your battery in the refrigerator, but keeping it out of direct sunlight is a good idea. Also, watch the overall heat of your system because you could be cooking the life out of your battery. In the end we have to remember that batteries are designed to be used and Apple has done a great job at making a laptop battery that lasts. If it is convenient to pop out the battery when you are at a desk then do that, but if that causes problems don’t worry about leaving the battery in the computer.

Well it helps that you have two user accounts and one of them works. My guess is that one of your preferences became corrupted when you forced your iBook to shut down. If your other account is also an Admin user, then you should be able to login to the working account and edit items in the broken one. You should remove the “Library” folder from the broken account and place it in the shared folder for safekeeping. Then log out of your working account and try logging into your broken account. Without a library folder the Mac OS should recreate a new library folder with the default settings and let you log in. After you get into the formerly broken user account, you can start moving the old library items back into the new library folder. Do that work slowly, one folder at a time. Each time you move a folder, restart the computer. Eventually you should find the broken item and be able to remove it permanently.

I suspect that the problem is not with the speakers but the headphone jack. When Macs detect power traveling through the headphone jack, they automatically mute the internal speakers and change the output source to the headphones. What you are describing sounds like there is a short circuit in your headphone jack that is tricking your Mac into thinking headphones are plugged in. Look in the headphone port to see if there is any debris or a broken headphone jack. If it looks clear, you should next try cleaning it with a Q-Tip-like tool dipped in rubbing alcohol. If that fails, then it could just be a failing audio jack. The problem is that the jack is part of the logic board. A service center could possibly repair the problem but the likely repair would be to replace the logic board. Admittedly, that is not a cost effective option. You can always us PC speakers connected to the headphone port replace the internal speakers.

The most effective way to troubleshoot a printing problem like yours is to reset your printing system on the Mac. Mac OS X uses a central printer system to control all printers and sometimes it gets fouled up. You can get to the printing system through the Printer Setup Utility application. It is located in the Utilities folder that is inside the Applications folder. Under the Printer Setup Utility menu, select “Reset Printing System.” Next click on the Reset button and enter your password when prompted. All your printers in the list will disappear. You can now add your printer back to the list. Click on the Add button and select your printer from the list. Wait for a few moments and then click on the Add button at the end of the list. You should now see your printer in the main Printer List. Close Printer Setup Utility and try printing something.

Drive size limits on older Macs used to be a simple problem to fix with a PCI ATA controller card. However, most Mac-friendly products are no longer being made. Every manufacturer is moving from PATA hard drives connectivity to SATA hard drive models. In your case the best option is to use an external drive case, which will see your full drive size.

Click here for more details.

Well that is an interesting error to get when installing. It seems strange that RAM that shows up in Mac OS X 10.1 would not work with OS X 10.4. In my experience, if it works in one version of OS X then it is almost certainly going to work in another version of OS X. I am curious, did you get an OS X Tiger CD pack from Apple? If you only have a CD-RW drive, it would not read the Tiger install DVD. Perhaps you have a non-retail version of OS X. If it is a retail version then it will have a black label. If it is grey-labeled, then the installer is locked to a particular Mac model that came with 10.4 pre-installed.

When a laptops battery stops charging there can a few things at the root of the problem. Interestingly, the most common culprit is an under-powered power adapter. Apple has a habit of using cosmetically similar power adapters with different wattage ratings. Most iBooks will only need a 45 Watt power adapter, but many PowerBooks need a 65 Watt power adapter. Both the 45 and 65 watt Apple adapters are identical, and to further complicate the matter, a 45 watt adapter will look like it’s functioning perfectly on a PowerBook. The problem is that despite appearances, a 45 watt adapter only runs the computer and barely charges the battery. This causes a short battery runtime like you are experiencing. The only way to see what adapter you have is to look on the edge of the adapter. It will have a 45W or 65W marking. You would think with the confusion from the old adapters, that Apple’s new MagSafe adapters would all be the same wattage. Sadly Apple does the same thing with MacBook/Macbook Pro adapters as they did with iBook/PowerBook adapters. The MacBooks use 60 Watt adapters and the MacBook Pros use 85W adapters.

Even though most power adapters are linked to the right computer from the factory, sometimes refurbished or pre-owned computers end up with mixed-up adapters during the re-box process. If you find that you have the wrong adapter, it is just a matter of contacting your salesperson for exchange information.

The other possibility is that the battery has aged to a point of losing life. Rechargeable batteries can only be recharged a set amount of times before they start lose life. After that point, the battery will have an increasingly shorter run time on a full charge. Batteries are tested before resale, but in some rare instances they are closer to end of life then indicated in the testing process. This would again be covered for a period of time and you can contact your sales person for your options.

The last possible cause is faulty power management. This is the least likely possibility and there are two parts to it. There is a PMU reset that will clear bad settings. Here is are some links to reset instructions for a variety of Macs:

docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86760
docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303319
docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=14449

If that fails then it could be power management hardware, and that needs to be worked on by an authorized service center.

When working with Boot Camp, it’s important to have the latest version. Boot Camp is beta software, and so fixes and improvements occur regularly. Also, when new computers are released, Apple has to update the driver install disc for the Windows side. Without the updated Windows driver disc, the new hardware Apple is using will be partially incompatible with Windows. The easiest way to fix the problem is by downloading the newest version of Boot Camp.

www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/

Go ahead and install it but you don’t have to resize your partition or reinstall Windows. All you need to do is burn a new driver disc. After that, you can restart into Windows and install from the new driver disc. Everything should install into Windows without those error messages you had received before. You will probably want to keep looking for Boot Camp updates over the next few months, and then burn new driver discs after each update. Apple is slowly making its hardware just as compatible in Windows as it is in OS X.