Ask Jacob
Archive for February, 2011
2.66GHz MacPro problems
Intel Macs, Mac OS X, Mac Pro, Troubleshooting / 1 Comment
Well, my trusty 2.66GHz MacPro failed two months out of AppleCare warranty. Right before it failed, the screen image developed a very faint herringbone pattern of thin horizontal yellow rectangles which look to be about 1/4″ x 1/16″ rectangles. The computer gets through the chime and through the Apple screen and to the blue screen with mouse pointer in the upper left. The drive is being accessed, but nothing happens on-screen though the cursor does track mouse movements while leaving a fixed mouse pointer at the original position. The yellow pattern is consistent through multiple reboot attempts. I pulled the drive and hooked it up to my Intel Mac mini and it mounts to the desktop and I can see all files in the Finder.
In the past, the video card failed and was replaced under AppleCare. I tried the usual tricks individually with reboot attempts between checks (checked 3v lithium battery, PRAM reset, pulled extra memory, reseated video card, move drive to different bay, disconnected all external devices except keyboard/mouse/DVI. Same result on all counts. Checked for dust build-up on memory and video heatsinks. Not much there. I installed a brand new WD Caviar Black drive and tried to install the OS (Discs supplied with MacPro) on a new drive. It makes it through installation Disc 1 to the RESTART button. When it reboots, I get a grey screen in multiple languages saying to restart. Can’t make it to Disc 2. Tried re-installing with drive in 2nd bay, same thing.
Hardware Details:
- 2.66GHZ Dual Xeon Macpro 2006-7 unit bought from Power max
- 4GB memory installed (1GB x 4)
- Mac OS 10.5.8
- Monitor: Dell Ultrasharp 24″ using DVI
- Boot Drive: 7200.10 Seagate 750GB
I apologize for the long e-mail. It is frustrating when stuff breaks right out of the warranty period.
I would appreciate any advice on further diagnostics and options for repair.
The symptoms you’re describing do seem to relate to a video card failure. The Kernel Panic on restart may also point to a video card failing to identify correctly. How long ago was the video card replaced? If it was recent enough, it would be worth checking with the repair center that performed the replacement. In some cases, the repair on the video card, has it’s own warranty, and may qualify you for a replacement. I hope this information has been helpful for you.
Dennis Beaman
PowerMax Support
Lost audio on a G4 PowerBook
G4, Hardware, Laptops & Notebooks, Mac OS X, Troubleshooting / 0 Comments
Our Apple laptop (a Mac OS X, processor 1.67 GHz Power PC G4; memory 1.5 DDR SDRAM) has lost sound and we cannot figure our how to restore it.
Can you help?
With the G4/1.67, there were two different models. One has a standard analog audio port (headphone jack), and one has the Combination Analog/Digital Optical port. It’s possible that the the sensor that detects a headphone connection may be tripped. This would cause the notebook’s speakers to be silent. One way to determine this, is to plug in headphones, and see if you get sound through those. Also, if you go into System Preferences, then to Sound, and check “Output”. It should list which devices are providing sound output. Does it list “Line out/headphones” or internal speakers? Let me know what the results of these are, and we can go to the next step of restoring sound for you.
Dennis Beaman
PowerMax Support
Unable to print in Snow Leopard
Mac OS X, Printing, Snow Leopard / 0 Comments
I reluctantly upgraded from Tiger to Snow Leopard recently and discovered, to my dismay, that my HP 940-C will not print now. I have a Mac Pro which had the original 160 HD with Tiger on it. I installed a 500 GB Western Digital HD drive and cloned the drive as you suggested with Carbon Copy Cloner (thanks by the way!) and installed Snow Leopard on the new drive. After discovering that Snow Leopard didn’t have a fix to make my printer work as it should, I went to system prefs and rebooted from my original drive which has Tiger installed and I was able to print as usual. Is there a fix to make Snow Leopard functional with my older printer? I went to Apple website & downloaded what I thought might be a printer driver solution that still doesn’t work. If there is a simple solution I would appreciate a tech tip.
I checked through Hewlett Packard’s website, and it appears that the driver for that printer has not been updated since march of 2005. Most likely, the correct driver for 10.6 is included in the 10.6 DVD install. I would recommend going to System Preferences, then to Print & Fax, and delete the current printer, and re-add it. When re-adding the printer, check carefully under the driver selection, and see if the 940C driver is listed. if it is, select that driver, or one for “The 940 series”, then perform a test print. If this driver is not listed, it’s possible that it may be on the DVD for Snow Leopard, under “Optional Installs”(does not require reinstallation).
Dennis Beaman
PowerMax Support
