The 27″ iMac can use the Apple Mini-Displayport to VGA video adapter for use with VGA compatible projectors. You will also need a VGA display cable (see image below). Now, VGA may not always pass through plug-and-play information from the projector, so you might have to go through some configuration manually.

To do that, go to System Preferences > Displays > Detect Displays.

I hope this has been helpful for you.

Dennis Beaman
PowerMax Support

The startup disk is the drive that your operating system is installed on and is used to house your applications and home folders.  For most users, it’s the Macintosh HD.

The reason you’re receiving the notice, is due to the fact that your computer requires a certain percentage of free space on that drive in order to function reliably. Ideally, you should have space greater than 10% available. To check the available space on your drive:

• Open Finder
• Select your startup disk drive (Macintosh HD for most users)
• Press ‘command’ & ‘i’ keyboard combination
• In the Info window, you’ll see the capacity (total capacity), available (available capacity), and used (capacity used) for your startup disk.

Easy ways to free up space are to empty the trash and uninstall unused applications. Also, In most cases, media files are often the biggest consumers of drive space so it might be a good idea to move large media files (movies, music, & images) to a separate external drive like this 500GB Rikiki Hi-Speed USB 2.0 from LaCie. Doing this should free up the space you need.

Dennis Beaman
Ask Jacob Team

You are correct in that it’s indicating a RAM error. Three beeps, pause, etc. Now, often a RAM issue can be resolved by re-seating the RAM. This is because it may have been nudged around during shipping. To re-seat, you can remove and then re-insert the RAM.

I would also check that the environmental conditions in the location where it’s reporting the error have adequate airflow to keep the machine cool and ideally, not in prolonged direct sunlight. In cases were a RAM card has failed, it usually is a permanent failure. This scenario however, suggests that perhaps the card is not completely seated.

I hope this information has been helpful for you.

Dennis Beamen
Ask Jacob Team

If your new Iomega external drive has both USB and FireWire ports, you can use a FireWire cable to perform the partitioning and backup. If your hard drive only has a USB port and the USB ports are disabled on your Macbook Pro, you may have to find an alternative way to transfer, such as going machine to machine, using FireWire Target Disk Mode.

As for Partitioning the drive, there is an application, inside the Utilities folder on your Mac, called Disk Utility. Disk Utility has the ability to help you format your hard drive and partitions. For Windows machines, the format is NTFS. For Macs, it’s Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Your Mac can view both partitions, however the Windows machine can only see the NTFS partition.

I hope this information has been helpful.

Dennis Beaman
Ask Jacob Team

The System Management Controller, is a componant that manages functions like, sleep, wake from sleep, thermal controls, remembers the time, as well as volume settings. In some cases, the SMC may become corrupted and begin to exhibit unusual behavior.  On the bottom of your computer, there is a coin-screw that can be turned 90 degrees. This releases the battery. It shouldn’t require any real amount of force to remove. Once the battery is out, you can perform the SMC reset process.

To reset the System Management Controller for Laptops:

• Shut down the computer
• Disconnect the MagSafe power adapter from the computer- if it’s connected.
• Remove the battery
• Press and hold the power button for 5 seconds
• Release the power button
• Reconnect the battery and MagSafe power adapter
• Press the power button to turn on the computer

The SMC reset may indeed provide the solution but keep in mind, certain applications generate more heat and will kick the fan up. With my MacBook, I’ve noticed that any web-page running flash for more than a few minutes kicks the fan up.

I hope this information is helpful for you.

Dennis
Ask Jacob Team

The new MacBook Air that you’re receiving has an application that provides for “Over the Air” network-based migration, as the MacBook Air does not have a FireWire port included. However, in order to use the “over the air” method, the originating machine must have an operating system of 10.4.6 or later. Because your iBook G4 has 10.3.9 installed, the automatic migration isn’t an option.

Should I have this same situation, I’d use a manual migration method. Using a USB external drive, back up your data from your home folder. Then go through the standard setup process with your MacBook Air. Once your account is created on the new machine, you can connect your external drive and move the backed up data to the correct folders. It’s not exactly seamless or automatic, but it can provide a safe way to move your data and build a nice, stable system.

-Dennis
Ask Jacob Team

It is often necessary to power off both the Cable Modem and the Apple Time Capsule / Airport Base Station to resolve this issue. Make sure that the Cable Modem is connected to the Time Capsule’s WAN port. When ready, first turn on the Cable Modem then power up the Time Capsule. After a minute or two, the Time Capsule light should turn green. Then, you should connect to it and make sure you have changed all the passwords from the default setting.

- Jacob

It is not a clear symptom but it sounds to me like you are having network connectivity problems. This could be caused by three possible issues.

It could be the network you are on, so you should take your MacBook Air out of the house and see if the problem happens on other networks. Try going to a coffee shop with free Wi-Fi and see if you can get Safari to crash or iChat to logout.

If it happens on another network, then you should next look at your OS X software. You should do an Archive and Install of the Mac OS from an Install DVD. This will replace your OS with a new version of the software but leave your personal data intact. IF that fails to help, try deleting your Network preferences. Then restart your MacBook and test your Safari and iChat.

Macintosh HD/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.airport.preferences.plist

Macintosh HD/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/NetworkInterfaces.plist

MacintoshHD/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.network.identification.plist

If that fails to resolve the problem, it is probably hardware related. If you had been connected wirelessly to the internet, try an ethernet connection and see if it is the network interface or your whole system. Then when you have it pinned down, you can be certain it is hardware related.  I would advise you to take it in for a service diagnostic at an Apple Authorized Service Center. They should be able to pinpoint the problem if you give them the testing info gathered from the above troubleshooting.

-Jacob

Well most Apple Authorized service centers can help you. You can find the nearest location here.

You can also try and repair the drive with Disk Utility, found in the OS X Utilities folder which, is in the Applications folder. If Disk Utility fails to see the drive, you can try removing the internal drive from the external drive case. It could be that your external hard drive is OK but the drive enclosure has failed. To test this, you can connect the raw drive to your computer with a Newer Universal Drive USB 3.0 Adaptor.

As a side note, you said “I’m afraid I’ve lost all of my backed-up files forever” which would indicate this drive was your backup drive. In a good backup process you need to have at least two copies of every important file. It is not backing up if you move a file to an external hard drive and then delete it off of your internal hard drive. That is not backing up, just changing locations. Any hard drive will fail eventually. So to be backed up, please make sure you have at least two copies and preferably three copies with one being at a different location than your computer.

You may also view this Ask Jacob post for my recommendation on a back up drive.

- Jacob

It is sometimes nice to use a third party to be the intermediary in the transfer process. I like to use Gmail for this. Here is Microsoft’s pages on how to get your contacts loaded into a free Gmail account:

Export Outlook contacts to Google Mail
Transfer contacts between Outlook and Google Mail

Then in your Mac’s Address Book Application, go to the Preferences. Under the Accounts tab mark the checkbox for “Synchronize with Google” and enter the credentials for your Gmail account. This will let you transfer your Outlook contacts over the network. Additionally, syncing them with your Gmail account will make sure that they are always available to you. You can view them via the internet in your Gmail account, they will be constantly backed up from your Mac, and easy to export out of Gmail if you need to.

Jacob