Ask Jacob
Archive for August, 2010
I can’t get my Mac mini set up correctly …
Displays, Mac mini, Troubleshooting / 0 Comments
Jacob,
I ordered a Mac Mini and am trying to set it up to no avail. I do not have the Apple monitor.
I did go to the Apple store to purchase a VGA adapter. However I get nothing. I made sure it is plugged into the back of the Mini correctly. I am also having a problem getting the disc out. I can feel it spinning but it won’t eject it.
- Dan
You can force the disc out of the drive by holding down the main button of a USB mouse when the Mac mini is starting up. That should force out the disc. Most VGA displays should work on the Mac Mini.
What model display are you using that will not work? It is OK to use a PC display on a Mac, almost all of the modern PC displays will have no problem working with any Mac, even refurbished Mac minis.
Jacob
My refurbished MacBook Pro battery won’t old a charge.
Batteries, Laptops & Notebooks, MacBook / 0 Comments
I recently replaced my refurbished MacBook Pro battery and the computer shuts down about one minute after unplugging it from the power supply. Pressing the battery check button on back of laptop indicates full charge with all green led lights lit.
Plugging in the power supply and pushing the on button reboots the computer with chime sounding and the web paige I was on reappears and all is good.
What to do?
- Gary
It sounds as if your battery is not working properly. Either is is not truly being charged fully and it is misreporting that info, or it is discharging fully in seconds not hours. Is the battery an Apple branded battery or can you contact the manufacturer to see about getting a replacement unit?
I do not think it is a problem with your refurbished MacBook Pro. I would suspect a error in the battery itself.
Hope this helps
Jacob
How can I install OS X on a backup drive?
G5, Hard Drive, Operating Systems / 0 Comments
Hello Jacob,
I have a G5 Dual 2.7Ghz PowerPC running 10.4.11, and I have the original OS software discs that came with the tower, 10.4.2 I want to install 10.4.2 on an external drive so that occasionally I can boot up some software that will only run on that older OS.
When I try to do this install, I keep getting into a “do loop” where the install disk wants to restart the computer and then when it does, it says it cannot “install the software on this computer”, I can’t seem to be able to perform this simple install without restarting the computer and then I go around again. Please help Mr. Wizard.
–Matt
Are you sure that you have the original install DVDs for your system? Most gray labeled discs are locked to the exact generation computer that they shipped with.
Most Dual 2.7 G5s shipped with 10.4.0 and did not have 10.4.2 DVDs. Those 10.4.2 DVDs were included in the generation after that model. However, if you are sure that they work on your G5, It may just be a problem with the destination drive. If you have a second internal drive you could experiment with, try installing 10.4.2 on that drive.
Then use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone that fresh install onto your external hard drive. Dont forget to format the External Drive as a Mac OS Extended (Journaled) volume with a Apple Partition Map. Those are often the default settings when using Disk Utility to partition a drive.
Jacob
My little, used PowerBook is maxed out. Or is it?
Laptops & Notebooks, PowerBooks, Upgrades / 0 Comments
I have an old 12 inch 1.33GHz PowerBook with maxed out 1.25GB ram and a 5400rpm 80GB hard drive. I love this thing as it was the first computer I bought and cant fathom selling it (especially since it runs OS 9 baby! BAM!), but it is showing its age.
I’m wondering what I can do to increase it’s power to at least watch YouTube videos or video podcasts without jittery playback. Right now I simply use it for email, project timing and anything non video related (iCal, iTunes, web articles, etc), which it does fine (also a great companion on road trips) but would like to increase it’s usefulness with better video and Flash performance.
Would it be worth it to upgrade the HD to a SSD? Is there a way to upgrade the graphics card? Anything else I might want to try? Any help is greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
- Tyler
The only thing left for you to do to that little well-used Mac would be upgrade the hard drive to a faster unit, but even that will not change your Flash video playback performance.
To get a performance upgrade for YouTube, you are going to have to move to an Intel Mac. That does not mean you need to retire your PowerBook, but it is doing all that it can now.
- Jacob
My mac no longer recognizes my camera …
Accessories, Operating Systems, Software / 0 Comments
I have a Mac running 10.5.6 software. It will not recognize my Sony video camera anymore even though I have used it several times before.
It is connected via firewire 800/400 & I have tried all I can think of except a new firewire. I unplugged everything including power and firewire & I also reinstalled the software and still nothing in finder. I have seen people complaining of these issues online and unfortunately I can’t afford Apple support. Any help would be appreciated.
- John
Have you tried updating to 10.5.8, just to see if that fixes the issue? Beyond that, you should see if the camera shows up in other applications. For instance, on Apple computers the iChat application lets you use FireWire camcorders as an iSight camera.
Open iChat and see if the Video/Audio tab shows the camera as a functioning source. If it is working in iChat, then the camera is fine and you need to focus on the software you are using to edit it. Are you using iMovie or another program? It could be that any none Apple software did not get updated to work with newer versions of the Mac OS. In that case you may want to update that software or switch to iMovie.
Hope that helps,
Jacob
