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Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Optical Drive + SSD

Uncategorized / 0 Comments

Hi,

I need an new optical drive in my mid 2010 27″ i7 imac. … QP0331XHDNR

I am curious about adding a SSD while the thing is open.

Regards,

Steve Bloch

Photographer

Good morning Steve,

Jacob’s currently wearing many hats here at PowerMax, so I thought perhaps I may be able to address your question. It would indeed be possible to add in an SSD drive, to augment the current drive. They could perform this, during the optical drive replacement procedure. There would be the labor fee of $99.00, as well as the cost of the SSD drive to be installed. Please feel free to get in touch with any additional questions that come up.

Dennis Beaman
PowerMax Support

iPad 3 Javascript

Uncategorized / 0 Comments

Hi, I use windows xp on my netbook. My wife has a new apple ipad 3 sometime i try & use hers to get into my certain websites(ie) my radio stations my bank account etc etc I find apple ipad a very clumsly computer it just keeps saying enable javascript but never tells you how to enable whats the secret!!!!!!. sure could use some simple common advice re my problem.. Could you E mail me with some directions how to enable javascript. regards Bill Roeder

Good morning Bill,

Jacob’s currently wearing many hats here at PowerMax, so I thought perhaps I may be able to address your question.

The iPad’s operating system (IOs) has many of the application preferences grouped together with the iPad’s system settings. The Settings icon, is a square with gears in it. If you touch that to launch, you’ll notice the sub-settings in the column on the left. In that column, is “Safari”. This is where Safari’s settings are located. Touch that, and the third item from the bottom, is the “Javascript” toggle. This setting should resolve the Java errors you’re experiencing.

Dennis Beaman
PowerMax Support

Downloading YouTube Videos

Uncategorized / 0 Comments

Jacob,

The summation of my question is this: is there a way to monitor Safari’s (version 6.0.x) Activity in such a way as to download items in the page, such as Youtube videos?

The extended version has some history (and a cool tip, I think), as follows…

I found a podcast a few years ago by a young fellow named Heath Mound, who called himself the Macster. He showed how one could download videos that were being played on pages such as YouTube, and I summarized the instructions for my family (see below *****), and got it to work. I am not a web page writer (or whatever that would be called by those who are), so I know only a little about this stuff, but this seems to have only been available in Safari versions prior to the one I have now (6.0.2), or possibly this changed between OS 10.6 and 10.7.

The upshot is this: The “Activity” window is no longer available, but there is a “Develop” menu and “Web Inspector.” I could navigate neither to find what I was looking for, but does this possibly hide the key to the lost ability?

-Bill Smith
Radcliff, Kentucky

***************
To Download Youtube videos in Safari (Lion):

1. Install Perian (it’s free & you only need to do this the first time). It works as a plug-in for QuickTime.
a. Website: http://perian.org/
b. Open the downloaded disc image & install
c. Perian will operate when you open QuickTime, and shows up in System Preferences. Once installed, you never have to mess with it again (it may occasionally update).

2. Access YouTube. Because this process is fairly attention-taking, CLOSE ALL OTHER SAFARI WINDOWS & TABS!
a. Before you play the video, go to the Window menu (in the Safari toolbar) & click “Activity.” This will open a window that you’ll want to see as the video begins to play. Place it beside the active Safari window (half-screen each will work best).
b. Begin playing the video. You will see many things happen in the Activity window
- Look on the far right side of the window for the largest file size (usually greater than 5 MB; it varies in proportion to the length of the video).
c. This part is different in Lion, as you can’t get the contextual menu if you “right-click” any of these links:
-click the largest file-sized link once to highlight it (preferably while it’s still loading), then
-Hold down the “option” key and double-click it (preferably while it’s still loading), then
-Look wherever Downloads are saved to see if there is any activity with a file named “video player,” “get_video,” or anything like that: this should be the video. This can be in the new Download button in Safari, or glance in the Downloads file in your dock.
-If nothing is happening, you have to experiment with the functional keys (fn, control, option, command) until you get results. That’s what I did.

3. Convert the video.
a. Once the file has finished downloading (it should have the extension “.flv”), you have to tell the system what application to open it with. (You might want to rename the video file to something recognizable at this point.) Now you can “right-click” it, and select “Open with…”
b. Check the box that says “Always open this file with this application,” (or similar), then locate QuickTime Player in the list of applications and select it.
c. By this point, you should be looking at the video in QuickTime. There are two options from here: Share or Export. Share has its own button in the QT toolbar; Export is under File. Either choice will probably only have limited options for how the video is converted.
1. “Export” will simply create a file that you can work with further, if you want to.
2. “Share” will convert the video & place it wherever you’ve selected.
d. You can delete the original file, and repeat this process from step 2 for another video.

Good afternoon Bill,

Jacob’s currently wearing many hats here at PowerMax, so I thought perhaps I could address your question. I’ve heard of this method of acquiring Flash video, and converting it over to a Quicktime/iTunes compatible format prior. The method outlined can work, however when YouTube changes formats, it would most likely have to be revised. I have however run into a number of specific applications that handle downloading and converting at the same time, and if maintained, would allow for YouTube updates.
TubeSock, is one of the more popular options, as it’s versatile, and easy to configure.
There are a large number of freeware, and shareware software titles available that have similar capabilities as well.
MacX YouTube Downloader received good reviews as well.

I believe those options may save steps, and give you more control of the file output options as well.

Dennis Beaman
PowerMax Support
888-769-7629, ext 202

LG Burning Out

Uncategorized / 0 Comments

Hey — I have a 19″ LG monitor hooked up to an older model Mac Mini for about 5 years and the monitor is constantly flashing. I don’t know if the problem is the monitor or the Mac. I wanted to bring the monitor into your shop, hook it up to a Mac and see which it is. If it’s the monitor, then I’ll buy a new one from you guys. If it’s the Mac, I’ll pony up for a laptop.

Let me know what you think — thanks!
Randall Hall

Good morning Randall,

Jacob’s currently wearing many hats here at PowerMax, so I thought that perhaps I may be able to address your question.
The display flashing could be related to a few different things. It could be an issue with the power supply within the display, The power source (power strip, outlet) or it could be related to the Mac Mini itself. Testing the display on another machine would be one good option, or testing the Mac mini with a different display may also point to the source of the trouble. Do you have someone that you know that has a notebook with a compatible display connection? That would save packing up the display for transport, and provide some of the testing needed. At present, we’re open Monday through friday, 8:00am to 5:30pm.

Dennis Beaman
PowerMax Support
888-769-7629 xt 202

iMac Not Waking Up

iMac, Power Supply, Uncategorized / 0 Comments

iMac

I normally leave my iMac on 27/7; but it does go to sleep during most of each 24 hour period. Recently, I have noticed that the iMac will not wake up from sleep in the mornings when I want to check for emails. In fact, it appears dead. I cannot hold down the button at the rear to get it started. I must first pull the plug and wait for a few seconds before plugging the power cord back in. Then I can press the power button at the rear and it comes up. However, a meaasge appears saying that the Mac was not properly shut down.The iMac does not feel hot, only slightly warm along the top. It appears that I have a power supply problem. What do you suggest?

While it may indeed be an issue with the power supply unit within the iMac, it may also be that your PRAM/PMU battery has stopped holding a charge. This can cause issues like failing to wake from sleep, forgetting what the time/date is if the unit’s unplugged, and even failures to start up normally. It would be a low-cost option to test prior to having a power supply replaced. Should a battery not resolve the issue, then the only other real option would be to check it into an authorized service center to have the unit bench-tested.

Are the speed benefits of 10.4.11 worth the compatibility issues?

G5, Hardware, Mac OS X, Operating Systems, Software, Uncategorized / 0 Comments

I recently got gifted !! a Dual G5 1.8 with 2G RAM. It has 10.5.8 on it. Geekbench score of high 1400′s to low 1500′s. I installed 10.4.11 on an external firewire drive. 10.4.11 gets scores of around 1687.

One of the obvious pluses to 10.5.8 is Time Machine. But, that will not work for me as I don’t have any discs big enough to back up to. I end up using rsync to backup stuff like Music to one drive, pictures to another, etc…..

So, my question is this. If I wipe the 10.5.8 I will have no means of going back to it. I like 10.4.11 but it is beginning to seem like more and more software will not work with 10.4.11. Example, Evernote!

What do you think? Get the performance boost that 10.4.11 seems to offer on this machine or stick with 10.5.8 that I do not have an install disc for….

What a nice gift! 10.4.11 has been a really good system, but is beginning to lose some support from newer software. 10.5 shouldn’t be much slower, unless there are underlying issues. How much RAM do you have? Do you have one, or two internal drives? What kinds of software do you plan on using with this G5? These are all questions that must be considered when it comes to performance and compatibility.

- Dennis

 
 
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