Ask Jacob

Hi Jacob,
I have an early 2008 MacBook Pro and a Mac Pro desktop. I upgraded the MacBook Pro to Snow Leopard as soon as it was available last month and then upgraded the desktop to Snow Leopard just a few days ago.

Firefox (3.5.3) is not playing in the sandbox well with either machine. At first it was only the laptop. But the same problem started appearing on the desktop as soon as it was upgraded. The problem is that I’m getting very frequent “Can’t Find Server” messages with Firefox after the upgrade. Both Macs are now running OS X 10.6.1. It is extremely annoying – as you can guess. And I’m too stubborn to change to Safari.

If I open Terminal and use the “dscacheutil –flushcache” command, the problem almost always goes away and the next click connects fine. I have a satellite ISP whose modem is connected to a Time Capsule base set via ethernet. The laptop connection is wireless, and the desktop is connected via ethernet (and Airport is turned on).

Would appreciate any suggestions.

Many thanks,

- Stan

Hi, I have an issue and am not sure how to proceed. I bought my daughter a MacBook Pro for college (from Apple) and she apparently sleep walks now and took the MBP to the kitchen and ran the kitchen faucet over the keyboard in hopes of removing all the crumbs in it….Grrr. The MBP is only ONE month old and is NOT covered under any warranty since it’s user error water damage!

I took it to the Apple Store and they said there was a little corrosion on the inside, but the hard drive was good. So, I’m looking to fix this one, sell the parts, trade in a PC or two to replace this thing. Do you have any suggestions???

Thanks for your help.

- Toni

I have a G5 (C-U65874) that I bought used from PowerMax in April 09. Yesterday the screen froze, no response with mouse or any key. I used the power button on the front of computer to turn it off. When I turn it back on now it does not make usual start up sounds, but quickly power light reverts to flashing three times with a pause in between. Fan comes but no hard drive clicking.

At time of failure I was using a flat panel Apple screen. After failure I hooked up to my old Viewsonic CRT, which had worked previously. The CRT just said “no signal”.

Any ideas?

- Gale

Hi Jacob -

I am trying to find out if the Powerbook G4 15″ has two latches on the top – I’ve heard that when they first came out there was only one latch – But in the next generation they may have had two? Can you confirm this?

Thanks!

Carrie

Hi Jacob,
My 15″ Titanium G4 does not recognize or find a USB hook-up to a Everio JVC. Is there a program that will allow my G4 to import through USB since the JVC only is capable of exporting through USB?

Thanks,
Skip

Jacob;

I was setting permissions on all files in my Intel-based iMac 20″. After completing the OS quit; I could not even force quit or relaunch the finder.

And after restarting the gray Apple logo and the spinning gear were visible; but the iMac restarted on its own. It would continue repeating this restart cycle.

So I got out my OS A 10.5 DVD and noticed that i could restore from my TimeMachine backup. Cool! So I did it. It was successful HOWEVER, my TimeMachine backup excluded the Applications folder. Very stupid on my part.

So after restoring all my files I had to reload OSX 10.5 to get various Apple applications such as Main and Safari. But iPhoto was NOT included. I do have a copy of iLife ‘08 so I loaded that. And I did a software update for iPhoto. BUT when running iPhoto, I get a number of errors. My newer iMac here is running version 7.1.5, which is the version I used to have in this iMac.

How do I get version 7.1.5 into this iMac.

Thanks for your continued help,
- Bill

I am trying to find an inexpensive (under $150.00) printer that prints direct to printable cd/dvd. I purchased an HP Photosmart c5580 but we could not get it to work. I had to take it back. The store manager said he had heard no one else with a problem. HP says it’s Mac compatible. Can you please help me? I have a MacBook Pro Intel, OS 10.5.6.

Thank You,
- Jody

Dear Jacob,

I recently purchased a pre-owned Titanium Powerbook from you guys with Mac OS 9.2.2 & OSX 10.3.9 Panther. Somehow while setting up the administrator and password things got a little out of whack.

To make a long story short your help desk informed me that you can only set up a new administrator, namely myself, if you have the original Panther start up disc. I have an original Panther retail start up disc that I purchased for my iMac G4. Can I use this disc to re-install Panther again without erasing OS9.2.2 which I don’t have a disc to re-install? Also, will I have the same amount of free disc space as I did prior to the re-install? I don’t want to have two versions of OSX formatted on the already small 40 G.B. hard drive.

The main purpose for buying this computer was to have a dual-boot machine, so I don’t want to lose my OS9 capabilities.

Thank You in advance,

Terry

I recently purchased a LaCie external drive with an eSATA, FW800, FW400 and USB connections. I’d like to take advantage of the eSATA connection to my Mac Pro. I’ll have to add a PCI express card to allow me to connect via the eSATA connection – are there any particular cards or brands I should look for?

Thanks,
Ladd

As an owner of two iMacs purchased through PowerMax, I hope you don’t mind a really simple question: can I insert and play a small (3″ diameter) DVD–assuming it’s formatted for Macs–into the right side slot, or will it lodge inside?

Layne

Dear Jacob,

My PPC G5 iMac DVD and CD reader/writer has just died. Is there somewhere else I can still buy this or an alternative to it? I have seen that there are some issues with bezel edges and exact fit of some possible models. Can you recommend one that is fast and fits perfectly? Thank you.

Nick