Ask Jacob

This is a good time to buy a used Black MacBook because they have recently been discontinued. That means that they are cheaper than a new Aluminum Unibody MacBook, but still are fast and can be bought with an Apple warranty.

A Black MacBook would “make” any teenager’s Christmas. They can come “fully loaded” with 2 GB RAM and a 250 GB hard drive. If a fully loaded model is over the collective budget of the family there may be some other pre-owned options that you can look at. You may also find a few open-box Black MacBooks in our special value Mac section. I would also suggest you call our PowerMax sales team to find the best deal on possible incoming trades.

Focus on an Intel Core 2 Duo MacBook with at least 1 GB of RAM. Make sure you tell them that you need a Black MacBook, as that immediately limits the search to a small selection of computers.

Hope that helps,

Jacob

The Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger upgrade path is a decent way to go when upgrading your 10.3 Mac computer. I personally will want a full retail disk around so that I can Archive and Install, without downgrading and then updating again, but it is not essential. Save your money and get a Upgrade OS X CD set, instead of a full version. PowerMax used to sell those but we have long since run out (probably due to our significantly lower prices, compared to what you are listing).

Hope that helps,
Jacob

You can absolutely use your old keyboard with your new Apple iMac. Some people even use the extra-compact G3 iMac keyboards with newer Apple computers, just for the convenience of the smaller size while retaining a 10-key. I understand the value of a good keyboard, though I have the opposite preference. I have replaced all my keyboards with the Aluminum Apple Keyboards because I type more accurately with the added key spacing. It is all about what works for the individual, so keep using the white Apple keyboard.

Hope that helps,
Jacob

There are some third party insurance services for computers but the best method of protection comes from your Home Owners or Renters insurance. If you contact your insurance provider, they can talk to you about adding a Computer Rider to your policy. It often has very little additional cost and you can specify an appropriate deductible.

I hope this helps, sorry to hear about the accident.
Jacob

You may have a received a corrupt download because the disk image is not complete, and therefore not mountable on the Desktop. Also you may have an issue installing Firefox 3 on your system, as it requires OS X 10.4 Tiger or newer. You should download Firefox 2 instead.

Thunderbird 2 should run fine on your system though. Make sure you are downloading each separately as the combo installer will not work with your system. It comes with Firefox 3.

Hope this helps,
Jacob

Welcome to the Mac community, we are happy to have you. The 24″ Aluminum iMac that you are looking at is a good choice and should last you many years. I share a similar model with my wife in our home office and it is a great central family computer.

I love the “The Missing Manual” series from Pogue/O’Reilly press and think it would be a good series for you to read. Start with “Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual - Leopard Edition.” Then after you become comfortable with the differences between Mac and Windows, you can move on to “Mac OSX Leopard: The Missing Manual.”

If you are interested in reading some online sources, you can try this switchers site that has some basic info to get you started: www.switchtoamac.com.

Hope this helps,
Jacob

Sorry to hear about the loss of your Apple iMac. The best way to recover data from a Mac computer that will not power up is to remove the hard drive. You can then put the drive in an external drive enclosure or use a universal USB to drive adapter cable.

Then just connect the drive to your working Mac and collect the files you need from it. Below is a link to a G3 iMac upgrade article that should help you remove your hard drive. Just follow the instructions for upgrading the hard drive up to the point of removing the old one.

Hope this helps,
Jacob

The Mac OS has a well-developed group of Accessibility Features that can assist people of differing ability. They are a core component of the operating system and can be enabled from the System Preferences. The section to make the accessibility changes in is Universal Access. You will be most interested in the options under the Keyboard tab. Just as with Windows there is a feature called “Stick Keys” that will let you press a series modifier keys one at a time to activate the key combination.

The trackpad will respond to any skin contact point so you should have many control options with the MacBook Pro.

I hope this helps let me know how it works out for you.
Jacob

There could be a few things potentially at the root of this problem but my first guess is that it is a RAM issue. A bad RAM chip would only trigger a crash when the system tries to write and read form that damaged part of the RAM stick. Depending on how many applications you open and what you are doing, your RAM will become fully occupied at different times. That is why it unpredictably locks up on you. If your eMac has two RAM sticks installed, I would recommend that you try to remove one and see if it still locks up. If it does, then put the pulled stick back in and then remove the other stick. Each time only starting up the Apple computer with one RAM stick Installed. Here is a link to the RAM removal and installation Procedures.

If you only have one RAM stick in the eMac, Start by removing that stick and then move it to the other, unused, slot. Start up the computer and see how it behaves. If the problem is still occurring then consider purchasing a new RAM stick. Even if it turns out to be a non- RAM related issue, you will still benefit from an extra stick of RAM installed.

If after all this you have eliminated the RAM as the culprit, I would next suggest that you look at doing an Archive and Install of the Mac OS from the Discs that came with your computer or the most recent Retail Install CDs you have.

Hope this helps,
Jacob

Buzzing in digital audio speakers can be due to all sorts or radio interference. The most common source is from a cell phone or cordless phone. Even when you are not talking on them, these devices emit radio waves that will be audible on powered speakers. It is more likely that interference has recently developed in your neighborhood than the port failing on your G4. However you can check that simply by connecting the speakers to another device. An iPod or portable CD player would work well. The important part of the test is to leave the speakers where they are and just change input sources. If the speakers sound fine on another device, and it is just a computer issue, then you can get a USB audio adapter to replace the internal sound system on the Mac. Many people use the Griffin iMic for a simple solution:

If the static does end up occurring on both the Apple computer and portable audio device you used to test with, then you need to eliminate possible causes of that buzz. To troubleshoot, try plugging in the speakers to another power source, in another room. If the move fixes it then you should be able to move it back to its former positions, in small step until you locate the source of the buzz.

Hope that helps get you moving in the right direction,
Jacob

The answer is a yes and no answer. The eMac does support an external display via an Apple Mini-VGA to VGA adapter.

The Apple driver only lets you mirror what is displayed on the built-in screen of the eMac, you will not be able to extend your desktop as most would want to do. That being said, a clever fellow created an application that will allow you to unlock the Extended Desktop mode in some iMac, eMacs, and iBooks.

But check the list of supported Apple machines before you install and remember this is unsupported by anyone, especially Apple.

Hope this helps,
Jacob

Locking and unlocking a file is done from the info Get Info window. To get there, right-click or [control] click on the file and select “Get Info” from the popup menu. In the General section of the Get Info window are two checkboxes. Check or uncheck the “Locked” checkbox to change the locked status of the file on your Apple computer.

Hope that helps,
Jacob

In my experience that is probably a dead or low voltage PRAM battery issue. You
can test the battery on a Volt Meter to see if it is putting out 3.6 volts, if not you should replace it. If you replace the PowerPC PRAM battery on the logic board with a new one, I bet it will return to normal operation.

After replacing the Apple computers battery you should also reset the PMU on your Power Mac to make sure no corrupt settings are saved from your failed PRAM battery.

Hope that helps,
Jacob

Modern Apple computers do not come with built-in modems these days. This has a lot to do with the availability of broadband throughout the country. Most people are not using dial-up anymore so putting a modem in every Mac just adds needless expense to the majority of the Mac users. Modems are still available but as USB dongles that are purchased separately.

We still list the modem as not installed because some of our older systems will include internal modems and a few of our customers are looking for that feature.

Hope that clears things up,
Jacob

As with most annoying things in the computer world, this is a feature and not a glitch. This was added to mail so that people could proofread what they were sending on their Apple computers. You can change the display option of your attachment by Right clicking or [control] clicking on the attachment and selecting “View as Icon” from the popup menu. To change it from displaying an icon, to displaying the image or PDF in the body of the email, Right click on it and select “View in Place.”

Hope that helps,
Jacob

To change the “Start Page” in Safari you will need to go the “Preferences…” under the Safari menu. In preferences select the General tab on the top bar of the Apple Mac window. You can then type your preferred start page address in the in the address box to the right of “Home Page:” If you were already on the web page you want to see on starting Safari, then you just need to click on the Set to Current Page button under the Home Page address box.

Hope that helps,
Jacob

SuperDocker does not actually replace the Dock application itself but instead contains some scripts that replace visual elements and edits the preference file for the dock. The easiest way to restore your Apple computer dock to normal is with the SuperDocker application. At the bottom right side of the SuperDocker Application window, is a “Restore Dock Settings.” Clicking this will get your Dock back to the way it looks when you first logged into OS X. All your Added items will remain the same but if you had it on the right or left hand sides of your screen, then you will have to use the Dock System Preferences to restore that position.

After that you can trash the SuperDocker application again.

Hope that helps,
Jacob

In many cases restarting Apple iPods will fix this issue. Do this by toggling the Hold switch on and off. Then press and hold the Menu and Center (Select) buttons simultaneously until the screen flickers and the Apple logo appears. Assuming you have tried that and now need more help you will need to go to the computer. As a general fix all for an iPod you should try a complete Factory restore. This will wipe all the music off of the iPod and then take it back to its original conditions. You can then copy all your songs from iTunes back to the iPod.

Here is a link to Apple instructions on restoring your iPod.

If this fails to revive your iPod you will need to take it in for service or contact Apple for mail-in repair options.

Hope that helps,
Jacob