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What About Leopard?

BOB'S MAC USER TECH TIPS

Any part in RED means you should "Read and Heed" these Mac Tips. Do this or else type topics are covered. Purple highlights important tips.

I do apologize in advance since the tips page continues to grow like a fungus. It is not the best organized to say the least. You can use your browsers find command and type in a keyword of interest. Command F and type in the keyword should find what you need if the index links at the top of the page don't get you where you want to go. Just because you have looked at this once you may want to reread it again. I frequently add new material as I learn new things or get reminded that not everyone knows something that I do. I hope you find the answers you need here. If not use the form to Contact Us and we will be happy to help.

MAC TIPS PHONE TECH SUPPORT

We now have dedicated lines for technical support for your Mac. We love this business and live, breath and eat Macs. We thank you in advance for using the tech support line for out of warranty or systems and equipment you have bought elsewhere, or if you just need some purchasing advice. 901-591-1548 9-6 Central Time Monday - Friday is our tech support line. Thanks for paying for the call. We need you to help us with this as our toll free lines expenses are rising far faster than our sales are. We are always happy to help and we pay for the calls on in warranty products. Use our email form anytime you don't need immediate response or after hours. Make sure you identify the system you are on, the OS you are using and any other pertinent hardware facts. We can help you identify your system if you don't know what it is but prefer you find that out before calling or emailing. There is generally a tag on the back or bottom of the machine with specifications of your system as it came from the factory. Apple System Profiler under the Apple Menu in 8.6 up through X will also tell you about how fast your machine is, how much ram, how large the hard drive is currently. Imagine calling an Automotive Repair Center with a problem and all you can tell them is that it is a white car, or going to a Camera store and asking for film and all you know if your camera is black and about this big. We are happy to help but please do what you can to help us get you the information and materials you need.

Toll Free ORDER line 877-639-1543 9-6 CST, M-F (901-759-1543)
New TECH SUPPORT Line 901-591-1548
FAX 615-523-1360

UPGRADING THE OFFICE? We buy quantities of Mac systems & components. Email your list: cheryn or use the online form.

OSX notes Beige G3 Systems! | OSX Notes B&W G3 Systems | OSX Notes G4 Systems

New 1st Quarter 2010 Edition! SUPER Kitchen Sink on 2 DVD's!

Each quarter I update and add materials to this collection. Now even better with many new additions and improvements. I simply ran out of room on one DVD to get all the materials I wanted. Now on 2 DVD's! One of the things that killed me was each time I updated the Kitchen Sink CD assortment for X is that it required me to remove a few programs. It seems like every time the programs were updated it never got smaller, so I would have to remove a few to make room. I also kept away from any large programs since I would have to sacrifice so many good smaller programs to make room. Well with 2 DVD's space is no longer a problem. I added all the goodies I always wanted. Now you can simply load them from the DVD's. Categorized, Indexed and Described and most all include links to the authors web site so you can read more about them. We were also able to include Intel versions of the updates where needed. ORDER NOW! Software section of the online store.

2-OSX DVD's 1st Qtr UPDATE $14.77 Shipped!

OSX SUPER Sink 2 DVD's 2010! NEW just updated 2 DVD Set! 1st Quarter 2010 Edition! 2 DVD's of compressed files! This must have for any OSX user! OSX SUPER Kitchen Sink Set 2010 features the latest software updates for your Mac. Each section is categorized and a nice description is included for each program. I carry this one in my toolbox. This is one of the best Mac software collections. Even more categories featuring the best shareware and freeware utilities, games, Internet goodies, music, graphics and multimedia, updates, system files, diagnostics, hard to find drivers, and more, all for OSX (everthing but the Kitchen Sink). This one has all the goodies you need when setting up a new system or simply updating your old one. Something for everyone. All programs were checked for current version and updated! REQUIRES: OSX 10.2 through 10.6.x, DVD Player - Still only $14.77 shipped! SOFTWARE section of the store. OS8 or 9 2010 Kitchen Sink (1 CD) - $9.99

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SEAGATE SOLD?

Seagate Technology, the company that helped create the disk drive business, announced today it will be bought by Veritas Software and an investment group in a complex $20 billion deal. READ MORE

What does this mean? I think eventually good things. Most of you know that I am partial to Seagate Hard Drives. If you didn't know Seagate bought Maxtor and Quantum, more or less consolidating the hard drive business. Availability is becoming a problem lately and we have had to subsitute my second choice drives the Hitachi's. I am hopeful that they will get there ducks in a row and begin heavy production once again.

MIGRATION ASSISTANT UTILITY - move your old systems setup to your new system

With OS10.4 and up Apple added a utility called the Migration Assistant. What it allows you to do is to connect another drive, or another Mac via Firewire and import all your settings and applications to your new system. It requires that you have a valid OSX bootable partition on the drive you want to import from. If your OSX is badly damaged do not attempt to use this feature. I usually start the old system up in Firewire mode by holding the T key down at bootup with the unit attached to the new machine via a Firewire 400 6 pin to 6 pin cable. The drive from the old machine will show up on the desktop of the new machine. BEFORE YOU BEGIN THE MIGRATION: run the disk utility and repair the hard drive. Once it passes run it again just to make sure. Then run repair permissions. I would never try to migrate from a drive that failed disk repair.

If your drive does fail try moving the contents of the user folder one folder at a time. You can then manually integrate those materials into your new systems user folder. I would not recommend moving the library contents though unless you know what you are doing.

One thing that is nice about the Migration utility is that it even moves your old OS9 set up automatically if you are still using classic.

HEY BOB, WHAT ABOUT BLU-RAY INTERNAL OR BLU-RAY EXTERNAL PLAYERS FOR MAC

Will my Mac play Blu-Ray? Blu-Ray is not ready for prime time on the Mac platform yet. No viewing software. I think people buy external or internal players and then are really disappointed that they didn't read the product description carefully since playback of Blu -Ray Movies is not an option. (Let me know if you find a viewing solution). No blu ray mac drivers yet available.

You can't install one internally on anything except a Mac Pro Tower since the drives are SATA based (you could hook one to our SATA PCI Cards Internally). Early on they made ATA models but there are no current models with the ATA bus and my bet is that they would be too slow. They would install nicely in one of our new style housing that would give you eSATA, Firewire 400/800 and USB2 connectability in a FAN COOLED housing, but we don't make any up yet, since you really can't do anything but burn and read data. Let me know though if you are interested. I would happily put one of the new Pioneer Blu-Ray mechanisms in our new Fan Cooled housing and would suggest that if you want good longevity this one would be the one to buy.

Toast Titanium 10 supports the format for data reading and burning and you may want to consider this for backup purposes. Toast is the only blu ray burning sottware mac that I know of. I personally don't think it is a valid solution right now for most folks though. Cheaper and better to have an external hard drive. I also understand the latest version of Final Cut Pro will let you author movies but you will have to watch them elsewhere.

KNOW YOUR OSX VERSIONS

Jaguar 10.2.8 - Anything earlier was Apple chump practice. Runs even on Beige G3 systems up to the last of the G4's. Allows you to open classic applications if you have 9.2.2 installed. I suggest Firefox 2 as a browser for this version. This is a decent OS for earlier hardware assuming you can live with the limitations of the dated web browsers and limited software availability.

Panther 10.3.9 - Nice stable version with reasonable system requirements. Long in the tooth these days since it won't run the later browsers and flash. Will not run on Beige boxes without a hack. Allows you to open classic applications if you have 9.2.2 installed. I suggest Firefox 2 as a browser for this version. I would upgrade to Tiger if your hardware is capable.

Tiger 10.4.11 - was currently supported and runs latest browsers, iTunes version and Flash. Required build in Firewire and G3 Processor. I wouldn't run this on anything slower than a 500 mhz G3 (although it will) and would recommend at least 1 GB of RAM. Allows you to open classic applications if you have 9.2.2 installed and a PowerPC processor. No classic mode for Intel at all. This is what I run personally on a souped up QuickSilver. We still sell the mac os 10.4 cd and dvd versions.

Leopard 10.5.8 - still currently supported and runs latest browsers, iTunes version and Flash. Requires an 867 mhz G4 Processor and a Quartz Extreme 32MB Video Card. DOES NOT SUPPORT CLASSIC MODE. Has Intel Support. Next to impossible to find. Call Apple and complain if you have a qualified PowerPC G4 system and wish to upgrade. We can find no Leopard software for Mac.

Snow Leopard 10.6.2 - latest and greatest OSX version. Only runs on Intel based Mac systems. This is the only version of the OS Apple stocks. The $29 upgrade requires you have Leopard installed. You have to buy the box set if you are running Tiger on your Intel qualified system since there are no Leopard OSX installs left.

AppleWorks 6.2.9 will run on all of these systems and will load any of the older ClarisWorks and AppleWorks files.

iLife 05 was the last iLife package that would run on a system with a G3 Processor. iLife 06 runs well on Tiger systems. iLIfe 09 for Leopard.

NeoOffice opens and saves Word, Excel, & PowerPoint files and is donationware. Version 2.2.6 will run on Panther 10.3.9. NeoOffice 3 will run on Tiger 10.4.11 and up. It does what we need when dealing with Microsoft Office files. I normally use AppleWorks for word processing however.

Graphic Converter is available for almost all versions of the Mac OS including early machines. It handles lots of different graphic file formats and will open and convert formats. It even opens and repairs damaged image files. I use Photoshop for fancy stuff but find Graphic Converter invaluable and it will allow you to perform most things you would want to do with images files. It is shareware but the program works in demo mode until you decide to pay up.

Roxio Toast 6 Lite or later works with all versions of OSX and allows CD and DVD burning. Toast Titanium (full version 6 or later for OSX) allows video compressions and many other things you may want to do.

 

OSX 10.5 LEOPARD PRICES GOING THROUGH THE ROOF

Well it has happened again. There was evidently not many copies of the 10.5 Leopard software in the supply chain when they released Snow Leopard. We can't find a decent price on Leopard and have taken it out of the online store. I hope Apple goes back to press one more time but they probably won't.This leaves thousands of people with older Apple hardware faced with paying escalated prices or more likely to buy bootleg copies. They did it with Tiger and full install boxed new inventory is non-existent and has been for some time, yet many thousands of Macs out there can only run this version. It is unfortunate since PowerPC Macs were sold up until the middle to late 2005 and are incapable of running the new software. Many came with Tiger and now lots of folks who need to upgrade to a more modern OS have no choice with Leopard quickly becoming unavailable.

ALUMINUM EXTERNAL DRIVE HOUSINGS DON'T RUN COOL WITHOUT A FAN!

I just discarded another Name Brand 3-1/2 Firewire External Hard Drive a customer sent up to recover. I had to call him with the bad news. The external "aluminum" case was discolored from the heat build up of the drive. The drive of course was toast. You could hear the the heads hitting the platter. No fan, and no room or ventilation for the drive. Sure you can buy the bargain but expect a substandard hard drive brand or slow 5900 rpm mechanism, USB2 only and no ventilation. Format it for Mac Extended Journaled on OSX 10.4 or later and turn it off when you aren't using it and hope your data is safe.

While aluminum does make a decent heat sink it doesn't if the hard drive or the optical don't come in contact with the aluminum. The 4 screw points that the drives actually contact the housing isn't enough to cool large high speed hard drives or even external optical burners. While aluminum does transfer heat better than plastic without air circulation around the hard drive it matters not what the case is made of. Since the drives are actually not in good contact with the aluminum except for a minuscule amount, elementary physics should tell them that this is a crock. They should spend the extra buck or two and put a fan in them. A fan is a must in my book and it should be in yours.

Our last housing supplier had a brain fart and decided to stop carrying our top selling housings. I have to agree it was getting time though since the IDE mechanisms are getting harder to find. What we needed was a FAN Cooled housing with the good Oxford chipset that would take the lower cost and higher performance SATA drive mechanisms. The ones they carried either didn't have a fan or did not have the Oxford chip. They did make one but it was not available in for the domestic market. We no longer purchase from them. Once again, we are in the process of changing our product lineup.

We found a new supplier and got in a few test housings. They offer ball bearing FAN cooling and have the later OXFORD chip that supports the lightning fast Firewire 800. Of course the housing we picked also has a Firewire 400, USB2 and eSATA connections. They aren't cheap and that is the reason our prices are a bit higher than the discounters. You get what you pay for though.

We will be using Seagate SATA 7200 rpm mechanisms that come with a complete factory warranty (Seagate SATA Drives are 3 Year Factory Warranty).

Black Bullet PRO Series sizes 500 GB to 1.5 Terabyte starting at $179.77 shipped!

I will not sell large capacity high speed external hard drives or opticals without a fan cooled case! You shouldn't buy one no matter what brand! Don't let them bull sh*t you by telling you how quiet there drives are because they don't have a fan. What good is silence when all your data is lost. Since I do a lot of data recovery from all types of external drives for folks (almost never our brand by the way) I find the ones that fail prematurely are the ones with large high speed hard drives that don't have fans, no matter what material the housing is made of. We do sell a small capacity lower speed USB only no fan unit primarily designed for backup. These work fine but are low speed drives designed for periodic use. If you use your drive all the time and transfer lots of data then always look for a fan cooled housing, not matter what the housing is made of. WE HAVE JUST ADDED our new external hard drive lineup! Fan cooled, pro quality mechanisms as we have always provided. Visit the external drive section of our online store to learn more about them. Snow Leopard Tested! We do recommend reformatting for Time Machine and Intel boxes.

EBAY IS LIKE A BOX OF CHOCOLATES, YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT YOU ARE GOING TO GET

Every so often someone writes to me asking how I can charge $39.77 for an item they found on Ebay for $20. Most of you already know this so I may be singing to the choir so to speak. The person offering that price has one good used one. If you get this one and it works, good for you.

We generally buy the items new wholesale except for systems. We include shipping in our prices and you can buy that same item in quantity from us. We warranty the product and the manufacturer may offer even longer warranty. That isn't the case if you buy from Ebay most times. Don't get me wrong there are good buys to be had, and I too sometimes pick up an item or two especially if the item is no longer made.

On the downside, I can't tell you how many folks have called me trying to get parts or repairs to what they just bought. Well it only had 64 MB or ram, or it had the original hard drive that is worn out, or the optical doesn't read CD's well, and they really need a DVD anyway. By the time you buy the replacements or upgrades you end up spending sometimes more than a warranted system from us sells for. Oh yes how much shipping did you pay. Our units include domestic shipping in the price. Yes there are bargains to be had. Ebay works if everyone is honest. I guess you know that everyone isn't. Keep in mind the used system or item you are buying may be cleaned up a bit but it is not usually professionally tested and has no warranty on the majority of items you buy. Many overcharge for shipping. Many don't pack properly so your merchandise arrives damaged. Try getting a refund from PayPal. Ebay owns them you know. Sometimes penny-wise is pound foolish, to coin an old English phrase.

OLD CLASSIC VIRUS REARS IS UGLY HEAD - NVIRUS

First let me say there are still no viruses for OSX.

FOR OS9 AND BELOW MACHINES ONLY. I picked up nvirus-a the other day (very very old) from a machine we purchased or repaired. It wrote itself to my diagnostic and set up hard drive I use to boot systems from. I didn't catch it immediately. I usually do a quick check before we ship a system, but have been lax since it has been years since I had one. One of our customers let me know that a machine he had received from us had it. Once I discovered it I ran my old copy of Norton Antivirus from the Norton System Works we sell. It cleaned it off quickly. I had to remember to check all zip and floppies that I may have used. I made up a few bootable disks with Disinfectant 3.7.1 on it as well as a system folder and locked the disk. Disinfectant is in the Anti Virus folder of the 8/9 Kitchen Sink CD and does a good job of removing "classic" viruses like the nvirus variety. You need to boot from another CD or Floppy for it to thoroughly clean off a system. You can run it from your utilities folder though just to check to see if you are safe. The virus probably came from a school computer by the way. If your kids bring home media and use your system you should be more diligent. Disinfectant is a small program and while not completely up to date it is fairly fast to run and takes care of many virus types. Keep a copy in your utilities folder and run it every once in a while, especially if you recently get files on disk from others. If you run disinfectant and have no way of booting your machine to clean it off give us a call on our tech support line and we will help you find a solution. Click here to download Disinfectant 3.7.1 . The program will not run from classic mode and requires you boot from 9. It only effects older systems. If your machine doesn't boot into 9 and you use X only and have never booted into 9 you don't have to worry. Nvirus simply duplicates itself over and over to applications and system files and thereby slows down your system. It causes no permanent damage and can be quickly cleared up. It is high on the nuisance factor since it infects all writeable media and works over networks.

HEY BOB.. WHAT ABOUT SNOW LEOPARD

We won't be carrying it, at least for a good while. We are not an authorized Apple Dealer and don't have access to buy it directly. The new version doesn't work on PowerPC models. We presently don't carry any of the Intel based machines yet. They have only been out since 2006 and until corporations and schools start retiring the units in quantity we won't be getting any until they turn up. I think if I was on an Intel system I would perhaps spend the $29 but not install it until a few weeks goes back and 10.6.1 comes out. I let Apple practice on other folks before I jump in. I use my machines to do work you see and I can't afford to have my machines not functioning. Perhaps you don't mind. I recommend you read through the incompatibility list, since that main app you use everyday may not work in 10.6 and it may be a while before the manufacturer makes an updated version that will.

I hope you read up on the problem using the Guest account and have taken a minute to disable the guest account on your system. I am sure the 10.6.2 update will have a fix, but better safe than sorry. Disable that account now.

I will be watching MacFixit.com to see what grief others are going through and suggest you do the same before installing.

BAD NEWS? NO NEWSGROUPS FOR BOB

I use the newsgroups to keep up with a few things, download a few binaries, etc. When my access stopped working, I called my ISP Worldspice Technologies here in Memphis (Best ISP in Memphis). I asked the young fellow that answered the phone to have someone reset the newgroup server since that is usually what is wrong on the rare occasion I couldn't access it. He asked "whats a newsgroup". It caught me by surprise at first but then I thought, folks who haven't used the Internet since its inception would not have ever been exposed. He quickly asked and I talked to someone who knew a bit more. The fellow said they were looking at trimming expenses and since only 3 users were regularly using newsgroups and they were paying a substantial fee for their feed each month, they had sent out notices that they were discontinuing the service. Evidently I missed the list since I hadn't used them in a while.

There are services out there like Giganews, Thundernews and dozens more. They provide newsgroups access for a fee, starting at a few dollars a month up to about $50 for unlimited access. Like all things on this earth some things get passed up by new technologies and I guess newsgroups are one. If you want to try newsgroups http://www.newsgroupreviews.com is a portal that has reviews and links to the providers. Some offer a free trial period if you want to find out a bit more.

I still like and use MT-Newswatcher 3.52 which is on the Kitchen Super Sink for OSX.

CLASSILLA - A MODERN WEB BROWSER FOR OS9

Brian Akey (an old friend of mine) ran across a different browser for OS9. As many of you 9 users know the browsers are all pretty long in the tooth. I have been using Mozilla 1.3.1 as a primary browser and iCab as a backup for sites that don't work in Mozilla. These are both better than Explorer which hardly works these days. While it is a project and isn't finished you might want to give it a try. I have and am impressed with it. It will be on later versions of the OS8/9 Kitchen Sink CD and is available free for download at: http://www.floodgap.com/software/classilla/

Classilla is a free, open source browser for Mac OS 9^*

Classilla is bringing back web browser support to your classic Macintosh -- built on WaMCom, a port of Mozilla to classic Macintosh systems, using the same technology underpinning the popular Firefox browser. It's completely free and it's open source, and it's standards-compliant. Use it without cost or restriction; or, if you've got the skills, hack it and make it your own. Classilla brings your wonderful old Power Macintoshes back to life and back online.

Pioneer SuperDrive - 22X DVD Burn Speeds! (A15, A16, A17, Now the A18)
NOW SHIPPING!

SOMETHING THAT MAKES ME HAPPY WITH THIS NEW MODEL! 22X DVD Burn Speeds! Something that makes me unhappy? No Beige. We have even tried ordering the listed beige units directly from Pioneer. My guess is that they aren't selling enough beige colored units these days to make it worthwhile to run the line with beige. That just means you will have to put up with a black face on your older unit..

What is the difference between the A17 and the A18? The only major change seems to be the 22X burning speed for DVD-/+R DL media. I just finished testing the new Pioneer A18 and it is available for order in the store. Toast 6 and later for OSX does support these features now! But for the few dollars more one of these units cost I think you might want to spend it now. It works fine in both 9 and X and I have already written an OS9 iTunes patch for it. You can use all your existing software just like it is a regular Apple SuperDrive including iDVD. We of course include all needed patches and demo versions of DVD writing software. Of course Apple's iDVD software is available in the popular iLife upgrades.

I had someone else call and said they bought an a SuperDrive (not from us) and installed it with the patches on a G4 and could not get the DVD to play movies back in OSX. My guess is that they installed the mechanism and didn't have the DVD Player installed since the OSX install doesn't put the player on the system if a DVD player is not present during the install. If you just copy the DVD Player from someone else's system and add it to your system it will not work. You need to use a program called Pacifist (on the X Kitchen Sink/Diagnostics folder), This will allow you to install parts of the OSX software (much like Tome Viewer does in OS9). Use it to locate the DVD player on the original CD and let it install it with all the parts and pieces. Run the disk utility and repair permissions always before and after installing software. Out of the hundreads of Pioneers (now A18's) I have installed in both 9, Jaguar and Panther and Tiger, I have never had a problem. Of course we sell brand new drives with our 30 day warranty and the full 1 year factory warranty from Pioneer, beside including the 9 and X patches so that all Apple software sees the device as a fully recognized drive. I wrote the new OS9 drivers and they are included on the install CD we include with the drive.

The Pioneer SuperDrive will read DVD-RAM disks that are out of the cartridge but will not write to them.

We also have a patched DVD player that allows you to playback DVD Movies on Beige or Blue and White G3's. You just need an ATI Rage Pro Video Card 16 MB or better installed. No special DVD decoder required. See troubleshooting and more infoon using your CDRW or DVD

USING MAC OS9 & PROGRAMS FROM A LEOPARD MACHINE (Even an INTEL) Cheryn recently decided she needed to run Leopard OSX 10.5 since the new version book keeping software she uses is Leopard only (QuickBooks). Of course I could set her up a dual boot system that would allow her to change back to TIGER10.4 so she could use classic mode for the older OS9 apps she still uses. LEOPARD HAS NO CLASSIC MODE if you didn't know. Rebooting to a different OS is a bit inconvenient since she frequently accesses QuickBooks in our day to day operation. I set up one of our bench G4 machines with OS9.2.2 and the Applications she uses on our internal network. I installed a free program called Vine Server (OS9 Kitchen Sink Internet Folder) that allows itself to be run remotely using VNC. On our current 10/100 network (soon to be Gigabit once I can find some cheaper switches). Leopard has the built in ability to access a machine since it has VNC client technology built in. She can now access OS9 applications from her Leopard desktop. Perhaps not quite as fast as before but it certainly works well and costs nothing if you have an older machine you can run OS9 on. I did reduce the colors to 256 to speed up access, but with the Gigabit Switch I think you could easily run full color without too noticeable lag in performance. You do have to use File Sharing to move files around. We can help you do the same. We sell Gigagit Ethernet Cards even for older Beige G3 machines and many of the other items you may need to add an OS9 server to your network.

THE FIRST REALLY USEFUL WIDGET?

I know a lot of folks who really were excited when OSX Tiger added Widgets. Now you can have all these goodies installed again like years ago. Most of the Widgets I have seen though were really not that useful and you had to leave your desktop for the Widget environment. The other problem is that once installed most Widgets continue to run and tie up your processor even when you aren't using them. Some are pretty hoggish. Well on the SuperSink is a Widget called Dashit. Because of the name it doesn't show up one many shareware sites. It shuts down your Widgets when you our not in Dashboard. While you have to wait a second for your Widgets to update when you enter Dashboard having your processor back the other 99% of the time you are using your computer is worth it.

The second Widget I want to mention still continues to surprise me when I install it on systems. Maintidget 151 tells the date of the last time your daily, weekly and monthly maintenance was run. Many systems that come in to us have not had all of the maintenance run for years. You can run the maintenance right from the Widget.

On the latest Super Sink I added a nifty little program that lets you "tear off" widgets from the widget dock (Widget to Desktop 4.0) and use them on your desktop. Handy if you have lots of screen!

IDE HARD DRIVES GOING THE WAY OF THE DODO?

It seems that Seagate is stopping production on some sizes of IDE hard drives. We can't get some sizes right now. Since most all new computers have moved to the SATA standard it may not be too long before your only choice will be to install a SATA card and run the larger faster cheaper SATA drives. Some of you don't have that choice if you or on machines like the iMacs that don't have a PCI slot to put a SATA card in. Hopefully some of the adapters out there will allow you to keep those older machines running. If you have been thinking about upgrading your hard drive in your older machine now would be the time while you still have some good choices. I keep testing SATA to IDE adapters but so far none seem to work reliably. Let me know if you have any luck.

ODD SYSTEM FREEZES?

I have had several times over a period of years, had folks send me systems that had odd freezes. Some describe it as the mouse locking up and not moving. In every case it was caused by the energy saver settings. If you install a USB2 card and many other types of accessories you need to disable sleep. You can keep your screen saver active, just don't let the CPU sleep or the hard drive spin down. If you come back to your machine after a while and find it locked up you may need to trying turning off the energy saver.

HAVE YOU BEEN THINKING ABOUT UPGRADING YOUR G4's PROCESSOR? UPDATE - TOO LATE??

The Sonnet 1 Ghz Single Processors are now sold out and they aren't being made any more. We are now out of the Mercury 1.5 ghz Singles. Freescale (was Motorola) is the manufacturer of these chips. Once they are gone they will not likely run the production line again. We do get a few processor upgrades in trade and may have a used one at a good price. Have one you aren't using anymore? Sell it to us.

WIRELESS N - Back In Stock! Lower Prices!

Or should I really say Draft N? I thought it would be a long while before I upgraded my Wireless G components to N. Cost keeps me from running out and adopting new technology quickly and I am certain that many of you are like me when it comes to parting with cash. I have had my eyes out for a low cost alternative that would enable me to install the much faster and longer range N. Well I finally located some market PCI cards that we could get drivers for. I replaced our trusty LinkSys Wireless G Router with a refurb N unit and have started using these new cards. You get more bars at even marginal locations with these cards and the transfer rates are astounding. I can now see how video can easily be shared. Perhaps shortly I will have a Mac permanently attached to the TV. Makes it better to watch those shows I missed from online and all without stringing CAT 5E across the floor. Whether you choose the PCI card (best if you have a PCI slot open) or the USB Lan Adapter we include the drivers on our latest SuperSink DVD which is also chock full of updates and the best freeware and shareware available (a $14.77 value all by itself) included with your purchase. Oh yes if you need a Wireless N Router just watch the sale papers for Best Buy, Office Depot etc for the LinkSys Wireless N. They sell them so cheap we simply don't bother to stock them.

Make your G4 Wireless!  $34.77 Shipped! Hi Speed Wireless N

Mac compatible Wireless N PCI Card Special $34.77 shipped Add low cost high speed Wireless N to your PCI Mac System! Panther, Tiger & Leopard Tested! Leave it to Headgap to bring a low cost Mac OSX compatible Wireless N PCI card to the market! OSX Panther, Tiger & Leopard Drivers supplied on CD by us. This 802.11N Wireless Draft N PCI Adapter is based on the RALink chipset and is compatible with 802.11b, 802.11g and fast 802.11 Draft N standards that delivers up to 540 Mbps data transfers (10 Times Wireless G)! Your wireless communications are protected with up to 128-bit WEP encryption. It fits easily in your desktop's PCI card slot so you can start networking and get online fast. Simply plug into an open PCI slot, and install the drivers from the Headgap supplied DVD. FEATURES: Bus Type: 32-bit PCI V2.2/2.1. Works in Blue and White, G4 Towers all, early G5's with standard PCI slots. REQUIRES: Open PCI Slot and OSX 10.3, 10.4, & 10.5 and the ability to install a PCI card and to configure the included software for your system. DOES NOT WORK WITH OS VERSIONS EARLIER THAN 10.3. Our LOW $34.77 Price includes domestic shipping. Wireless N USB Adapters also available! See the Wireless section of the store.

Make any Mac with USB Wireless! Wireless N Speeds!  $34.77 Shipped! Requires OSX 10.4 up

Wireless USB 2.0 802.11N Mini LAN Adapter Special $34.77 shipped Provides Faster Wireless N networking on iMacs, Mini's, iBooks, Powerbooks, and MacBooks or any Mac with a USB 2 Port! New Mini SIze! Finally a reasonable cost USB Wireless solution for the Mac! Mac OSX 10.4 to 10.6 compatible! Extend your wireless coverage and experience greater speed with this Wireless N USB 2.0 Adapter! Based on the 802.11n 2.0 standard, this Wireless N USB Adapter delivers the highest wireless data rate so you can enjoy uninterrupted data streaming. This Wireless N USB Adapter features integrated antenna and is backwards compatible with 802.11b/g networks! With WPA2, WPA, 802.1x and WEP security encryption, the Wireless N USB Adapter helps keep your wireless connection secure from intruders. Transmit: Up to 150 Mbps, Receive: Up to 300 Mbps. Frequency Band: 2.4 - 2.5 GHz. REQUIRES: USB2 Port, 10.4 . 10.5 or 10.6 & a compatible wireless network. Includes our OSX Super Sink DVD ($14.77 value) with drivers from us DOES NOT WORK WITH OS VERSIONS EARLIER THAN 10.4. Our $34.77 price includes domestic shipping. See the Wireless section of the store.

QuickSilver Dual 1 Ghz shutting down by itself

One of our customers sent in his QuickSilver Dual 1 Ghz G4 systems for us to repair and upgrade a bit. He was having all kinds of odd problems and could not get his Leopard install to work. His graphic card was bad (if you see artifacts in the screen and your monitor is plugged in solidly it is the card) and he had a Crucial Memory 133 Stick of RAM that reported itself as PC100 in profiler (I have seen this a lot) and so I replaced both. With those fixes Leopard installed just fine.

The worst of the problems was the machine would run about 3 hours from sitting cold and then it would shut itself down. I just knew one of the processors was not getting cooled or going bad. I swapped processors with a known good dual and it would still shut down. I installed a bit more thermal paste and a full time high velocity 60MM processor fan in place of the stock unit. I got about the same. I finally put my original dual back together and let it run all night with Leopard installed under load. It ran fine.

I finally replaced the power supply on his unit and that fixed it. Oh yes I did all the usual things, like deep level resetting the system, installing known good ram, checking all the fans etc. There was nothing wrong save the power supply would get warmed up good and shut down. I probably will install a high speed fan in the "bad" 3 hour power supply and put it in one of our units we use around here to see if a better fan was all it needed but I bet some of the capacitors are going bad. I Googled the problem but only got a hint at the power supply. I have seen many systems that run only a few minutes and shut down and know to replace the power supply right off. Never one that runs for hours.

I like to have tore my hair out on this one. With the 3 hours lapses between shutdowns in took several days to finally nail this problem. I hope my notes save you some time.

REPAIR SCAMS

So you go to the yellow pages and pick out a company to come repair XYZ appliance. They send a guy out in a truck. He comes in and gives you an estimate about $100 more than the appliance cost. So you pay them the $75 service fee. These guys never really do any work. They just go around collecting $75 from the chumps. I suspect if you told them to fix the appliance at the jacked up price they either wouldn't or couldn't do it. DON'T PAY THEM. Better yet find a name of a reputable dealer to start with. If you don't know who to ask try a local Realtor, especially one who has rental properties.

I GOT BIT! APPLE SECURITY UPDATE KILLED ME

Last night I ran the Maintenance 1.1.7 routine on my personal Tiger system in preparation for the latest round of Apple Updates. The routine repairs permissions (as well as a lot of other things) which I always do before I install software. The updates I needed for my system were the Security update 2009 - 001 and the Java Release 8. I never got to the Java Release as the Security update killed my system. After rebooting the system just sat with a blue screen and the little watch dial. After waiting 20 minutes I rebooted trying Safe Boot Mode by holding the shift key down. Still blue screen. I then started in Single User Mode by holding down the command and s keys and ran AppleJack (you do have AppleJack installed don't you?). I expecting this to get me back on track since it validates the drive, repairs permissions and prefs and dumps caches. Still no luck. I ended up booting from my backup (hold down the option key at startup) and using Carbon Copy Cloner to copy over the System and Library Folders only. I am back up and running this morning thanks to the backup. I checked to see where my backup was and it had everything except the security and java updates and the quicktime 7.6 update which for now I am leaving off. I checked MacFixit.com by the way and they had some reports of users having this problem but no real advice for a fix. You may not have a problem and I probably will take a run at the updates again this weekend when I have time. My point in sharing this with you is that you need to have a sound backup of your system period. If you don't plan on a lengthy reinstall process and perhaps losing lots of data. Since I only had to replace my Library and System files none of my Applications or User files were affected. I have since went back and updated my system with no problems. I am glad I keep that backup though.

DON'T LET SOME IDIOT WORK ON YOUR APPLE LAPTOP - THIS MAY INCLUDE YOU

It upsets me to see equipment come in for repair that has been damaged by some "expert" upgrading a hard drive or installing an optical. We have had many of these over the years and more recently. The correct size screws must be put back in the proper positions. Certain screws are grounding screws and if not put back in place then the unit will not work. Using the wrong tools causes screws to be stripped and jamming a flatblade in a hex screw is absolutely the wrong thing to do. Heavy handed nitwits also break frames, damage cases and otherwise cause the unit to be expensive to repair properly. Anyone using both hands to tighten up these tiny screws should be shot. The teenager at the discount store may be a genious on full size hardware, but he may not have the tools or the training for laptops. I personally know my limitations and do not work on laptops except for the ancillary things like RAM upgrades and Wireless Card installs. We have people that have the training and the tools to do proper repair work. For board level repair we send the units out. Oh yes. Leaving screws out is bad. You can't imagine what the replacement screws cost and how hard they are to find, but I guess leaving them out rather than forcing them into the wrong size hole or through a cable is better. As Dirty Harry says "A man has got to know his limitations".

DRIVE FAILURE PREVENTION

I have been fixing a lot of hard drives for folks lately. I think I need to repeat a few things. If you don't know, buying an external hard drive at the discount store is okay if you don't use the drive all the time, and format the drive for the Mac OS. If you send me a DOS formatted drive I will send it back untouched and wish you luck getting someone to fix it. I have good tools but they are Mac Tools and repair Mac formatted and partitioned drives. I will not work on LaCie External drives at all. I am not happy about working on the new Maxtor housings since many have to be destroyed to get at the mechanisms. If I sold crap like this I don't think I would want people seeing it either and I guess gluing the housings together keeps people from seeing the cheap hardware inside. I was able to recover all the drives sent to me recently and move the data to better quality hardware.

ALWAYS buy good quality drive mechanisms with FAN COOLED housing if you care about your data and run the drives all the time. The OXFORD chipsets for Firewire are a must since that is the only chipset guaranteed to be daisy chainable. (See if the kid at the discount store can tell you what chipset is used in the hard drive you are buying). You also won't have the mounting problems and less drive errors with Oxford chips. Do shut down your external drives when they are not in use. Every so often run the disk utility and run repair on the hard drive. That insures your directories are healthy and will fix small problems before they become big ones. You should also unmount external drives before turning them off but your computer probably has told you that. 

LIPSTICK ON MY MAC MAIL

I had a tech support call. The guy said he wanted to know why his email had lipstick covered lips on his emails (Tiger Mac Mail) and wondered if it was a virus. I did a Google search for lipstick mac mail and a few other variations without success. I finally got to thinking and remembered a pair of lips was a user icon. Whoever set him up as a user initially had chosen the smack.tif from the user icons and they were appearing on his mail. A quick click of the Accounts system preference and a user picture change fixed him up.

The small user pictures are in the Library/User Pictures. In this case the one chosen was smack.tif. You can easily add your own using the graphics program of your choice. Make an image 48x48 pixels and save it out as a .tif file type and add it to one of the category folders. You can then choose it as your user picture.

TROJAN INCLUDED IN THE BOOTLEG VERSION OF iWork 09

If you downloaded the bootleg copy of iWork 09 and installed it you have also installed a Trojan. Download and run the free repair utility. http://smokingapples.com/software/security-software/free-iwork-trojan-removal-tool-released/ Next time wait and purchase a legitimate copy from Apple. If you frequent the pirate sites and otherwise download indiscriminately you might want to visit http://www.securemac.com and read about the latest in trojans and other attempts to cause problems by the malware community.

NO MORE OS 10.4 TIGER? MAKE A BACKUP OF YOUR INSTALL DVD

I am sometimes frustrated by the fact that Apple quits producing older software versions. Generally after a new version of the OS is released their is enough old software in the pipeline to keep folks happy for a good while who are using older equipment. Not in the case of Tiger. Since there are more than a few folks who either are still using G3 or other slower G4 equipment, or still need classic mode from running older software. I personally will be running Tiger for a long time since I still have several unreplacable pieces of software that need classic mode to run.

You can't buy a genuine Tiger DVD install these days. Ebay is filled with overpriced used and or possibly bootleg disks selling for far more than the software did originally. We have been selling legit copies of Panther with legit Tiger Upgrade disks for a price much higher than I would like at a margin that is too low. This will not work for some models of G5 for example and we have no alternatives. I guess many folks are left to either buy bootleg copies or borrow someones copy. It is a shame that Apple doesn't make a small production run to supply the pent up demand instead of forcing folks to break the law. By the way if you are not using your old original Mac OS Install CD's or DVD's (NOT machine specific) and they are in good condition check with cheryn as we buy good working copies of 7.6, 8.1, 8.5, 8.6, and 9.1 as well as OS 10.2, 10.3, and 10.4.

I think it is a good idea to make a backup of your Tiger DVD and use the backup to reinstall or run repair. Keep your original in a safe place. You need a DVD burner for this to work as well as some good DVD-R blank media.

Making a DVD Image

1. Insert the retail Mac OS X Install DVD into your drive.
2. Launch Disk Utility (Applications > Utilities).
3. In Disk Utility, you will notice a white pane on the left hand side. In the pane, select the Mac OS X Install DVD by clicking on it once.
4. Click New Image on the Disk Utility toolbar.
5. A dialog box will appear. Give the new image a name. I used 'Mac OS X Install DVD'. Select the destination where you wish to save it. Leave Image Format at Compressed (default) and Encryption at None (default).
6. Click Save to begin creating the image.
7. Once your image has been created DO NOT mount it. Leave the image alone and proceed to the next section.

Burning the Image

1. Launch Disk Utility (Applications > Utilities).
2. Click Burn on the Disk Utility toolbar (upper left).
3. Navigate to where you saved the DVD image created in the previous section. Click on the image file, then click the Burn button. Do not drag and drop the image file into Disk Utility during this step.
4. Insert a DVD when prompted and proceed to Burn it. (use good quality media)

 This procedure also works for bootable backup CD's if you bought the CD version to start with. There is a program called Clone X 3.2 that will build you a bootable copy on CD or DVD of your system. I have not used this program personally but if it works as advertised some of you may find it useful. http://mac.softpedia.com/get/System-Utilities/Clone-X.shtml is one of many places you can find it if you want to learn more about it or download it. Let me know how you do.

McColo Shut Down! There goes half the spam traffic! Kinda dated info now and spam levels are back up again.

You may have seen an article or two but I am here to tell you my spam traffic is less than 1/2 now. Praise to Hurricane Electric and Global Crossing for cutting McColo Corporation down. I am sure both companies took a financial hit from cutting off this company and probably some legit businesses may be suffering, I can't help but rechoice from the relief. Sorry if you are missing your influx of Viagra ads, but you probably won't have to wait too long. These guys are like cockroaches, you kill one but there are still myriads left in the crawl spaces. For now the Orkin man has been here.

One side effect seems to be that now that the spam is down to a dull roar the ISP's are now able to respond to complaints quickly and the spam percentage at least for now is continuing to decrease.

NO MORE USB 1.1 CARDS

You may not care, but if you run an older PowerPC system or Rev A. G3 Desktop or Tower the readily available and inexpensive USB2.0 cards will not work in them. We have searched the entire world looking for a source for the 1.1 USB cards that work in the older PCI based Power Macs. There are none. What we offer these days is an extremely limited quantity of used tested pulls. If you are scrapping an old Mac make sure you pull the USB 1.1 card. We pay $15 each for working units. Please let us know if you locate a dealer with quantity.

NICELY CONFIGURED

You may notice the term " nicely configured" in the description of systems we sell. Well what does that mean really and why don't you send me a list of all the stuff you put on it? If I did I would never have time to build your system. We update our Kitchen Sink Quarterly but when I am working on your system other updates may have come out. I try to always have the latest versions of our installs on each of our systems and we frequently make improvements.

I put many freeware, shareware and open source programs on each system we sell to make it easy for you. I don't know of any other dealer out there who does this. Most install an old version of the basic OS if they even do that. I have bought "configured" machines from many of our competitors over the years, to be totally unimpressed. I am impressed by how much time I would have to spend to get a machine into a useable state. They mostly are clean but have the original battery, tired old hard drive, nearly worn out optical and some odd group of RAM. Okay it does work okay but not good enough for me. You could have to spend hours just locating and updating the OS components alone. Not one system had the scuffs and scratches buffed down and none were waxed.

Even older systems that we install older OS versions on have improvements in the OS. I use the USB components from the Apple SDK for example to update it past the 9.2.2 install and use them even on the older OS8.6, 9.1 systems. I also use the later Firewire components, networking parts and pieces, etc. This allows the system you purchased to work properly with most modern USB and Firewire devices and allows you to use even an older system on your modern cable or dsl network. I also try to make sure you have a good assortment of the basic Applications and Utilities you need. All of our systems have de-archiving softwore preinstalled for example. That way you can open most attachments and files that you may download over the net. I also make sure you have a couple of web browser choices in case one doesn't work properly with the site you are accessing. We also include our Kitchen Sink CD's appropriate for the OS you have installed with our systems. That allows you to easily locate and install many other Apps and Utils for your specific needs without having to spend time searching the net and downloading files.

APPLEJACK PREINSTALLED? IF YOU DON'T HAVE APPLEJACK INSTALLED FOR OSX YOU SHOULD!

There is now a version of AppleJack for Leopard. Version 1.5 is now on the new version of the OSX Kitchen Sink. We preinstall AppleJack on all OSX systems. This little utility (Kitchen Sink OSX Diagnostics Folder or downloadable from http://applejack.sourceforge.net/) allows you to repair your disk, repair permissions, validate the system's preference files, and get rid of possibly corrupted cache files. In most cases, these operations can help get your machine back on track. The important thing is that you don't need another startup disk with you. All you need to do is restart in Single User Mode (SUM), by holding down the command and s keys at startup, and then typing applejack, or applejack auto (which will run through all the tasks automatically), or applejack auto restart (which will also restart the computer automatically at the end of the process).

The only gotcha I have found so far is on Beige G3 systems. If you had to borrow someone's monitor to install X, then your other adapted monitor probably will show you a black screen at startup. Since you simply need to type applejack auto restart, I do just that blindly and then leave the system alone. It runs through the cycles and then restarts usually getting you back up and running. There are some other warnings in the documentation so read through them thoroughly before using on your system. This is an emergency repair program and I really would not run it all the time, but it has saved me more than a few times from the hours of reinstallation.

ALWAYS RUN A BACKUP WITH OSX! Lots of words here but worth reading I think.

If there is one thing I could convince folks of when they buy a system and plan to run OSX it would be this: Run a second drive or external drive with a cloned backup of your OSX install. We can do this for you with your purchase, and certainly help you install a second or external reliable hard drive. While I find OSX generally very reliable and hardly ever have to use our backups I am glad I do when it does happen.

 OSX had been out a good while before I started using it. Why you ask? I will not run an operating system I can't make a bootable backup from. Until Carbon Copy Cloner became available running OSX was a crap shoot. After 10.2 came out it finally was a stable and reliable operating system, that I could run a backup for.

 We operate our business with 6 systems and 4 servers and most of them have X on them these days. On each OSX system I either run a second drive or an attached Firewire Drive. I keep a cloned copy of the OS on that second or attached drive. If and when we have a system go down, we simply boot from the second drive by holding down the option key at startup and choosing the alternative drive. We are back up and operational in the time it takes to boot. I think all Mac OSX users should do the same. While I have ran for years on my personal systems with little or no problems (OSX Tiger is indeed stable), things do happen and being prepared keeps you from going through the grief many of you do when something does happen to your system.

 You can then take the time to troubleshoot and repair the problem or simply replace the original install using Carbon Copy Cloner (or send it to us). I also use a program called RSYNCX to do any periodic updates to those backups, since it only updates the files that have changed. We all run weekly maintenance on our systems either using an old program called System Optimizer for Jaguar and Panther machines, and Maintenance 1.1.7 or 1.2.6 for Tiger and Leopard (all are on the Kitchen Sink for OSX). While OSX is supposed to take care of these chores automatically I find that you will do better if you use these programs to do this at your command.

 Oh yes, don't forget to boot from your backup every once in a while to make sure it is indeed bootable and in good condition. The time to find out it isn't working is not when your main hard drive just died. You can then run the disk utility from your backup and run a full repair on your main drive.

 I recommend to anyone running a Mac system that you replace your main work hard drive every 3 to 4 years (more often if your are a heavy user or run servers). They are not expensive these days, but having one fail with all your hard work, music, video, and photographs, can be. I relegate the old hard drive to back up duties then. We will preformat the drives if you ask so all you have to do is pop it in along with your old main hard drive and clone it to your new drive. I store my old backup drives in my underwear drawer (sealed airtight), just in case.

 You may also want to start thinking about off site storage. Not too many years ago we had a break in and thieves stole some of our systems. Fortunately they left the drives in my underwear drawer alone so I was back up and running quickly albeit from dated data. I now store another copy of our important data off the premises in case of breakins, fire, tornadoes, or other disasters. It usually is a month or so old and we have started using "thumb" drives. With sizes from 1GB up to 8GB commonly available it isn't expensive to keep a copy of your really important stuff. While not bootable it is fairly simple to restore your data from these units. Periodically I will retreive them and run update the data. I don't trust online storage at all having been on the web longer than most of these outfits. I see them come and go with no warning far too often and no one really knows if they are secure or not. 

Some people say well I have the software on DVD or CD so if something happens I will just reinstall. Well I personally don't have that kind of free time. An OSX install takes several hours when you consider all the updates that also have to be ran. Keeping a cloned backup is a much better use of your time in my book. A clone will usually finish while you are at lunch and RsyncX finished generally in the time it takes to pour yourself another cup of coffee. Be safe, run a backup.

Looking for a Good List of Open Source Software for Mac OSX?

One nicely done web site has a good list of open source software for Mac OSX is http://opensourcemac.org Of course a good bit of the programs appear on our Kitchen Sink for OSX but a few are a bit large and more special interest. This is simply a list of what is available but a good one. Most programs are Freeware or Shareware. I like and use NeoOffice these days in place of Microsoft Office and have recently added Seashore which gives you Photoshop type editing for free. I also like and use the program Unarchiver which adds itself at to finder and extends the types of files you can compress and uncompress in place of Stuffit or the built in. Before you go spending big bucks to add a program to your system, I would give some of the open source programs a try. We preinstall some of these programs when you have us configure your system with OSX and include many on the Kitchen Sink CD OSX version.

New Headgap.com System - Was Beige Minitower, Now G4 Yikes Tower - 7/6/2008

I recently retired our last Beige G3 Minitower Server. There was no real big reason and I still use my trusty G3DT for a main bench machine. The old Beige Tower I had set up is sturdy and reasonably fast with the upgrades we made. It had a G4/800 Sonnet Processor, and a 10/100 card so it was fast enough for the traffic we have on the box. I still need 8.6 (which keeps me out of the more modern G4's) to run TeleFinder Server efficiently and TeleFinder still has features not available to any OSX Server. I have moved my graphics and much of my business traffic to the new OSX Tiger Server G4 DA running 1.467 Ghz which is now handling the bulk of our traffic. When I retired a special G4 Yikes System (running 8.6) recently I had set it aside. I had used it as our business server running TeleFinder but now it was sitting dormant. I had installed one of the new IBM G3 GX 1.1 Ghz ZIF Processors in it. This one has a full megabyte of backside cache running the full processor speed. This made it lightning fast and unlike the Sonnet processors the 100 mhz bus speed of the Yikes box stays 100 mhz. TeleFinder doesn't take advantage of the Altivech processor a G4 chip offers so there was no disadvantage to the G3 chip. I added one of our Gigabit Ethernet Cards and it is plugged into our LinkSys Gigabit Hub attached to our T1 via the ADTRANS Router. I had trouble until I notices the old cable was CAT3. I replaced it with a CAT5E and will soon have everything replaced with the 5E cables. 512MB of RAM has always been enough for the TF Suite. We did install a new 80GB 7200 Seagate Drive and I left the Hitachi 80GB that was in the Beige Headgap in as a backup. I had installed one of our 120MM cooling fans in place of the stock one to help keep the system which runs 24/7 as cool as possible. It also has an ATI7000 32MB Video Card plugged in the shared LCD. I am very pleased with the new server that has now been up a few days. When you go the headgap.com and any of the BBS features, you are on this system. Not that the system was ever slouchy the new system does appear much snappier and the unit has been extremely stable. You can read a bit more about what hardware and software I run at http://headgap.com/features.spml I still have a few things to fix like automatting the backups via Retrospect again and automatting the Newsgroups downloads.

The Electronic Paperback Book?

I ran across a program called Stanza for OSX recently. It allows you to download and read books. Granted you could just use a text reader for most of the books but bookmarking and other functions are not there. This program lets you bookmark and even change fonts or the size of the text. Cheryn my wife has a bit of tendonitus and loves to read so much but gets pains in her hands from holding the paperbacks. This reader takes away all of that allowing you to move to the next page withthe touch of a button. She can now read books from her laptop or computer. How do you get the books. Well there are tons of free ones we were happy to find. Try the Baen Library for starters. Then try the Gutenburg organization. There is also an Ebook Wiki for more information. While it will be a while before I give up my paperbacks I anxiously await a really great solution for a portable reader and sorry Amazon the Kindle is not it. I do imagine books one day being purchased and downloaded much like music is and used on devices like iPhones and iPod Shuffles. The iPod Touch is awful close to a reader and I understand there are book reading apps available.

There are still no active viruses or spyware for OSX

There are only rumors of possible ones. If you must send $50 to someone send it to me instead of these virus software producers. Sure the programs find viruses in your email but they are PC viruses and none effect the Mac. I personally don't worry about PC users since they are already infected anyway. There is an average of 3 new PC viruses/spyware/Trojans a day. No matter how up to date the PC virus software is, they are already infected. Not too long ago CBL.ABUSEAT.ORG reported a bot army of over 300,000 infected machines sending out alarming numbers of pump&dump and pharmaceutical spam. You can thank your PC brethren for the majority of crap in your mailbox. Do keep up the Apple updates on your system, but as I always say, run repair permissions before and after installing any software. Check http://www.securemac.com/ the next time you start worrying about it.

Recently June 2008 a couple of Trojans have cropped up. MacUser reports an AppleScript called ASthtv05 and another cleverly called PokerGame are around. They require you download and install them before they perform their nasty bag of tricks. NONE OF THE REGULAR VIRUS SOFTWARE for Macs will stop these since it is an AppleScript you have to give permission to install and so far there are ZERO VIRUSES. Please note that the only place I have ever heard about these trojans from were in the same sentence with the antivirus software manufacturers that were also selling the fix for $50, which is a bit fishy if you ask me.

Okay so you work in a mixed office and your techs insist you run virus software on your Mac. Download the FREE ClamXav software or copy it from the Kitchen Sink for OSX Utilities folder. They regularly update the definitions so your Mac can kill the PC virus attachments. There is no better virus software in my book and the price is right.

iMac G4 Neck Fix?

Many of you that own the 1/2 Basketball iMac G4 with the screen on a swiveling neck, may have experienced the droops after using the machine a few years. I heard rumor that there was a special neck tool but could never find anyone who owned up to having one. I mentioned this to one of our customers and he shared his home grown solution.

Jim Sulanowski writes: over the weekend I discovered a great Tim Allen solution. I took a small C-clamp and put it on both sides of the loose joint and tightened it down a bit. Viola! It now stays where I put it.

AppleWorks 6

Many of you have AppleWorks 6 installed on your 9 or OSX System. Apple put it on many of their systems and I still like its simplicity and speed for basic word processing. It does much more and many folks don't realize that the built in draw program is really an advance copy of the old MacDraw program but it will not open your old files. It will allow you to recreate them and will open any saved out in .pict format though not editable. It will also run on systems with X installed in native mode without having to have OS9 emulation running. This means it will even run on the newer Intel based systems (although they are slow since they run in a PPC emulation). This gives you a bridge for your older ClarisWorks files as well as the even older MacWrite, MacDraw and MacPaint files.

If your AppleWorks SpellChecker isn't working, choose the dictionaries from the AppleWorks Essentials Library!

Some of you have complained that the built in spellchecker doesn't work on your system. Some of you have a nasty habit of dragging the Application from its folder rather than using an alias (stop it). You simply need to take the time to link the dictionaries. For some reason under OSX it does not automatically link those and you do have a choice of what dictionary you want. In Word Processing mode select the Edit Menu and Writing Tools. Use the Choose Dictionaries to locate AppleWorks Essentials/Dictionaries and select the appropriate files. Continue this with the user, hyphenation and thesaurus files. It even highlights which choices you have and most of you will want to select the English versions. Once done it will remain linked until you change it.

It is unfortunate that Apple discontinued this program and its support. They have come up with replacement programs that in my opinion are excellent but beyond the scope of many users and their needs. For Microsoft compatibility I still like and use the FREE NeoOffice in OSX. It opens and saves in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint file types and that allows me to open those file types on my system.

G4 7455 PROCESSOR SHORTAGE - Oh No! No more FastMac Processors!

One of my favorite upgrades and processor choices for me was the FastMac 1.467 Ghz Single Processor Upgrade. We have sold hundreds of these units over the time they have been available. I use them on our Servers and anywhere someone needs fast compatible processing. This same series processor was used by Apple in production and it works with ALL versions of the OS from 9.2.2 up, and that is something the 7447 series processors can't claim since they don't work at all in Jaguar and require Panther 10.3.5 or later to boot. FastMac notified us that they could no longer get the chips and that production from Freescale (was Motorola) was unlikely since the runs have to be so large. We will be substituting the same chip made by a different manufacturer who still has a small stash of these chips. They carry the same 3 year warranty. If you are planning this upgrade on your own G4 do it soon as they have a limited supply as well.

PS. I don't like the Newer Tech Processors since their firmware updates are wiped when you zap the pram. This is a deal breaker gotcha in my book, and I won't install them.

POWERMAC G5 AND SCSI

If you are moving up to a G5 and think you can still use your old SCSI Scanner or drives you may be in for a surprise. The PCI-X bus requires a 3.3V SCSI Card keyed properly for the slot with the proper ROM. I have boxes of SCSI cards we have pulled from systems we have bought over the years and none of them will work. There is no such thing as a cheap one and prices are around $300 and up. The ATTO ExpressPCI UL4S seems to be the card of choice for the G5's. We carry the adapters if you aren't using ultrawide devices. You are on your own though in finding the card. It probably will be cheaper for you to replace whatever it was you were going to run or to keep an old G4 around with a SCSI card just to use the device. If you must though the new cards that do work are lightning fast.

G4 MIRROR DRIVE DOOR FAILURES - Keep your vent clean! If you are on a G4 Mirror Door system (G4MDD) the one with the Mirror Front and 4 Buick Roadmaster Vent Ports, shut down your system and look up under the front foot (you will have to pick the unit up). This is where your machine draws cooler air and it probably is packed with dust. Every unit I have checked had more lint on it than a dryer screen after drying a load of new cotton towels. No air flow means parts heat up and the fans run all the time. Eventually your processor will fail and it is even worse on the dual processor units since one is not cooled as the other. Keep it clean or suffer the consequences. Failed power supply, processors and ram are what happens. I use a dampened rag and brush all the lint and dust out and then a can of air to blow out the dust. Thanks to reader David Joern who writes: ....thank you Bob for that article detail....good god, no wonder the fan was so loud earlier today....Real quiet now.

MAKING INCREMENTAL BACKUPS OF OSX

For my servers I use a small program called RsynchX 2.1. It has a decent and fairly uncomplicated interface. The scripting is a bit daunting but you can automate your jobs. I simply just do it each evening. You simply drag your source and destination to the graphic interface and select what you want to do from the buttons. They can even be a network drive you are connected with. It is free to use but I think they take donations. You can choose to make the drive or partition you are backing up to bootable and it even handles the older OS9 files if you have them on your system. It has proven reliable to me. It requires OSX 10.1.5 or later and I have used it personally all the way up through Tiger. I haven't tried it with Leopard but suspect it will work as well since it calls to the built in rsync that normally is only available to terminal users. It is on the OSX Kitchen Sink in the utilities folder, but can be downloaded from the link above or your favorite Mac Shareware site.

BURNING ELECTRONICS SMELL

Cheryn said something is not right as we were about to retire last night. She noticed an odd smell in the server area. I noticed the black screen on our FileMaker server and noticed that same aroma. We quickly unplugged the unit. For some reason the power supply thought it was a good time to die. I pulled the machine down to the test bench and noticed that the power supply was extremely hot. Other components in the system were quite warm as well. I pulled another G4 DA and moved my old components over one at a time. I was back up and running in about 1/2 hour and hope it was just the power supply. Since we were on a good quality UPS I am fairly certain a power fluctuation was not the reason it decided to die. I always tell folks replacing a power supply to make sure their other components are responsible. I have been doing this long enough to have learned that sometimes dual processor systems sometimes have one processor starting to go out and they take the power supply out. Putting a new power supply in will only fix it for a while and the same problem will occur again if you don't fix the problem. I hope the processor on my unit was not responsible and it was just a fluke. In all these years this is the first time I have ever had a power supply go out. I added an upper level fan to our server rack. It has started to warm up here and perhaps that may have contributed.

SLEEPLESS - NODDING OFF AND NOT ABLE TO WAKE UP

A couple of times now I have had folks describe their machines as shutting down or locking up (freezing). I eventually figured out that they had USB2 cards installed and had turned the sleep feature back on. What happens is the machine goes to sleep and cannot wake up. You sit there with a black screen and have to force a power down by holding in the button before the machine will restart. If you are running OS9 you can't just turn off or discard the Energy Manager parts it leaves the preferences that were already set. You need to go into the energy manager and swing the slider to the off position. In OSX the same holds true. Turn off the sleep totally. You can use the screen saver mode on most units but do pick something simple. The more complex the screen saver the more likely you are to have trouble. A few of you may not have trouble with sleep mode in X. Apple did fix a few problems with the later software. Do be aware though that a USB2 card or even perhaps a device you have plugged in can cause sleep related issues. I choose to turn mine off totally and shut down the machines when they are not in use, since I will not do without the device or USB2 card.

DON'T GET RIPPED OFF - WIRELESS RANGE EXTENDER SCAMS

Do you remember the little stickers they use to sell to extend the range of your cell phone? Those people should have been put in jail but nothing ever happened. I have talked with what I thought were intelligent people who though the little stickers actually worked. Well now there are companies selling gizmo's to extend your wireless computing range. Be wary of anyone making outrageous claims. Adding a higher gain antenna is sound science. Adding another wireless access point is also sound science. People who make networking equipment like LinkSys, Netgear and Dlink would be in this business if real improvements could be had and do make products that work. If you travel look for a directional antenna (like a cantenna) that will hook to your existing setup and enable you to point directly at the wireless source where you are at. Like anything else on this earth though look for the misdirection, there is no real magic.

OSX Tip - Stool Softener For Your Constipated OSX System?

Personally I handle all the maintenance on my system with an Automater App called Maintenance (10.4 and later). OSX is supposed to perform maintenance automatically. They improved it in Tiger so that it supposedly runs even if your computer was off or asleep when it was scheduled but it doesn't always. You certainly want to do this if you are on Panther or Jaguar, but folks on Tiger or Leopard systems may benefit from running it regularly.

• Open terminal from the utilities folder on your system.
• Type the following in the command line and then leave the computer alone until it finishes.
• sudo periodic daily weekly monthly (you may get a warning and indeed you do not want to play around with the sudo command).
• Press return and it will prompt you to type in your password before it runs.
• Once complete you can type in exit and logout and or just simply quit the Terminal program and RESTART YOUR SYSTEM.

This forces the daily, weekly and monthly maintenance to run on your system. Do this about once a month or get system optimizer off the Kitchen Sink CD (Tiger and below) which does more and run it weekly. NOTE THIS MAY TAKE SOME TIME IF YOU HAVE NEVER RAN IT, BE PATIENT. Prepare to be amazed on how much better your system runs if the maintenance hasn't been running!

Apple does have an Automator Script that will do this for you without terminal. It is called Maintenance. The version is for both Tiger and Leopard. It works well and should be safe to use since it only runs the built in maintenance. Of course it is also on the Kitchen Sink for OSX.

It's hard for me to think that way?

It sometimes helps if you understand how things work. This sometimes surprises me, but I guess it really shouldn't. I had a customer call recently and say they were disappointed with their purchase and that many of the applications were not working. After a bit I finally figured out they were using the recent applications folder from the OS9 menu bar. Of course when I configure a system I load various test applications from attached hard drives as well as a few applications from the actual hard drive but not very many. I hope they understood but am not sure they really got it. The recent application folder (from the OS9 Apple Menu) is up to the last 10 applications loaded on the machine. I guess I should clear this folder out but in all these years this is the only time it was ever a problem. Most people have been taught to open an application you open up the hard drive and then the applications folder. Of course it is a shortcut once you have recently loaded an application and that is what makes the Mac OS great. They give you easy ways to do repetitive work. The correct way though to open an application though is to find it in the actual applications folder and open it from there. I guess the last computer they had someone had used it a bit and luckily the recent application folder was fairly populated. Unfortunately for them they may have missed dozens or more programs that may have resided on their hard drive simply by looking in the applications folder on the hard drive.

Since I use dozens of programs regularly I never go into the habit of looking for them in the recent applications folder. I do use it though when I know I was just in the application recently and it saves a step.

I also see folks pull the application out of its install folder and move it to the desktop. Then they wonder why the plugins stopped working or they lose their bookmarks or the dictionary breaks, etc. You must leave the applications in the install folder, there may be other parts that load and when you move the actual app you change the path to the accessories breaking them. You can make an alias and drag it to the desktop or in the case of OSX and the dock you can drag the app to the dock and it will automatically make an alias in the dock. Oh yes, the ? mark symbols in OS9 stand for the help files and are not a motherboard problem.

Bad News for us Mac G3-G4 users - no more new 120 GB Hard Drives

I had a hunch that this day would come. Most of you know that the largest hard drive you can install on a G4 prior to the 2002 QuickSilver was 132GB's. Practically that means that the largest drive you can install on the stock bus of the G3 or G4 is 120 GB's. We have sold many hundreds of this size drive over the past years. It seems that everyone has stopped producing them moving up to the 160 GB and larger. These of course do not format properly. We can still get 80 GB drives and a pair of them will do most people nicely but if you really needed that extra space, then your affordable option is to go to the SATA card and drives that do not have the limit problems. We are working on a lower cost solution. Watch our feature pages and store. In the meanwhile we were able to find a small supply of 120 GB Refurbished Hitachi Drives. I would use these as data drives and put in a new 80 as my main drive. Oh yes, let me add that formatting a 160 or larger to the 128 GB it ends up is a bad idea. The drives don't last long set up that way. I am not sure why. We sometimes have good used that we refurbish using our Drive Erazer Device which thoroughly wipes and tests. Call for availability and pricing.

Drive Formatting Safety

We recently added a gizmo to our small arsenal of tools that allows us to automatically format drives to Department of Defense level security. If you format lots of drives like we do then you might want to look into one. It is called the Drive eRazer and is available from Wiebtech.com. It really doesn't do anything you can't do on your computer using the Mac disk utilities, except that it doesn't tie up a computer to do it. If you ever trade in equipment you don't have to worry if it comes here. Every hard drive we receive gets the once over from this gear, assuring complete erasure as well as the great job it does checking the drives hardware. If you buy a used drive from us it has been formatted and tested on this device.

Psst, Hey Buddy, want to buy a watch?

I still have an unfiltered E-mailbox I set up many years ago. It lets me see how much spam is being produced and see what viruses and other crap PC users are getting sent. The account averages around 430 messages a day and none are to me. I haven't advertised this email address in over 10 years which is long in Net Years. What astounds me is that these guys keep doing this because idiots evidently are still clicking on the links so they are still getting paid. I am not sure about you but I wouldn't buy a Rolex from a guy in an alley, or ED medication from Russia or China, or refinance from someone who can't spell it from Zaire. If you must try the Hoodia diet aids, go to Walgreens. If you get crap like this in your email box, don't open it. It probably has an image linked that lets the sender know you are looking at the mail. Delete it without opening, and have a talk with your friends who are probably still clicking. I am not sure who would buy from someone who starts out their message your Farmacy order is in, but evidently they are still out there. I guess they take the PE pills and then go gambling at the online casino's with the money they saved from lowering the Morttggage, wearing their new Raolex, and sporting their new broadsword.

Got the TurboTax Blues?

The latest version of TurboTax for Mac requires a G3 or better processor, 256 MB of ram, and Mac OSX 10.4 Tiger. Let me first say that 256 MB or ram is not enough really to run the operating system by itself. 384 would get you by but 512 MB or more is what you really need. We carry the ram and the OSX Tiger software (see our Memory or Software section of our store) and can help you upgrade your machine or if needed sell you an affordable qualifying system. We are here to help!

We just got a better buy on both 256 and 512 MB Mac compatible SDRAM. Check out our lower prices.

Do you need the CD version of Tiger?

Give us a call when you are ready to order and we will supply the CD version of OSX Tiger at your request.

OSX - To Journal or not to Journal

I had someone ask about Journaling. If you run a server you already probably know about this and have it on your server since it gives you a bit of extra protection and reliability. If you hadn't noticed it became an option for your Mac Extended Hard Drive starting in Panther. Next time you repair permissions using the disk utility in Tiger look at the screen and you may noticing the Journaling option button. I have a rule of thumb about Journaling. I turn it on my boot drive and off on my data drives. What it does is keep additional information as you use your hard drive. In the event of a power dip or crash when you power back up it uses this info to restore the drive. Some folks think that everything should have it turned on but it costs speed. If you use your data drive for video project work for example it slows down the drive access enough it may cause you problems. Burning large amounts of data to an optical may be slowed down enough you may have a failure is another reason you may want to turn it off. Since the drive utility makes it easy to turn on an off you may want to use this to your advantage. Turn it off when you need max performance and on the rest of the time for safety.

Leopard OSX Update 10.5.1, 10.5.2, 10.5.3, 10.5.4, 10.5.5, 10.5.6, 10.5.7, and now 10.5.8

As usual I recommend you review the MacFixit.com Website about the trouble folks are having with the update before installing. The link to Apple's download page is here. I have downloaded and installed with no adverse reactions. As usual I ran repair permissions before and after my install. Some may say this really isn't necessary but it doesn't take long and a botched permission can keep software from installing and I never take pleasure in reinstalling from scratch. Better safe than sorry. If you have good bandwidth it is always better to manually download the COMBO UPDATE. This one is a whopper.

I can make any Sawtooth or later G4 Leopard Compatible - not anymore. No processor upgrades

I sometimes hear of a computer sales person telling a customer to forget that old machine it can't run the latest operating system. Granted these days the little $599 Mini looks real attractive. Of course you have to add a keyboard, mouse, and monitor, to the price plus tax and shipping. But it is still a good buy for many folks. For some though that need to run the odd older Mac app or already have investment in their old G4 tower like lots of ram and larger hard drive or processor upgrade. I still like to boot into OS9 to run an application or two, and that is something none of the new Macs can do at any price. REMEMBER NO CLASSIC MODE ON THE INTEL PROCESSOR MACS. ALSO REMEMBER LEOPARD DOES NOT HAVE A CLASSIC MODE. If you are on a dual bootable machine you can still boot into OS9 if you have it installed.

What Leopard needs that most don't have is an 867 mhz or faster G4 processor. The Sonnet 1 Ghz G4 Processor upgrade (no longer available new) meets that need and at less than $175 shipped it makes short work of not having fast enough processor and of course for a bit more you can go even faster. The second thing is a Quartz Extreme support Graphics Card. Most all early G4's have the 16 MB ATI AGP Graphics Card. Our NVIDIA 5200 128 MB Graphics Card not only supports Quartz Extreme, its 5200 GPU also supports core video and is only $99.77 shipped. Of course you may need to add a bit more ram, perhaps a DVD burner, USB2 Card, Wireless Card etc. You can easily extend the life of your old trusty G4 for less money than buying new and run the latest operating system if you choose. You can do this yourself but if you would rather you can ship your unit here and have us install the upgrades for only a few dollars more, plus get your machine thoroughly cleaned and tested.

Do you have less than an 867 MHz G4 and want to run Leopard?

I recently added a program to our OSX Kitchen Sink called Leopard Assist. It allows you to install Leopard on some earlier G4 systems. I know that Leopard would run okay on a iMac G4 700 or 800 for example with enough ram. Click on the link to go to the web site and download it yourself. Personally I am still running Tiger and will for the immediate future.

DO NOTE THAT LEOPARD REQUIRES A G4 PROCESSOR and will not run on an iBook G3, or iMac G3 no matter what you do. If you are on one of these systems plan to run Tiger OS10.4.11, which is still currently supported by Apple and a better OS in my book for the older machines.

Why I don't run Leopard on my personal machine

I think many of the new features Leopard offers are wonderful and now that it is up to the 10.5.4 level it is a fairly stable and reliable operating system. The gotcha for me though is there is no classic mode. I still use a few older software programs that use the OS9 emulation mode and booting into 9 takes too long. I rarely boot into 9 these days unless I am going to be using a classic app like Pagemaker for a large job. Tiger OSX 10.4.11 is very stable, and leaner that Leopard. Tiger is still currently supported by Apple which is a good thing for us folks that still use older software. It also runs on older slower machines including systems with G3 processors.

Leopard OSX - Testing in Progress! Apple's Leopard requirements

I got my copy of Leopard OS10.5 Saturday morning and installed and began testing it on our equipment. My first surprise was that it wouldn't install on a QuickSilver 800 I had on the bench (yeah I read the requirements but I thought it still would let me install). The installer refused. I installed a FastMac 1.5Ghz and tried again. It installed perfectly from our Pioneer A15 SuperDrive unit we sell which recognizes it straight up with no patches. I installed it on the Seagate 120 GB drives we sell. I tested our NVIDIA 5200 AGP card and it reports Hardware Accelerated and Quartz Extreme. Our USB 2 5 port card also reports as a USB 2 High Speed Bus and gives good transfer rates. I have since ran Leopard on a 533 MHz Digital Audio w/768mb of ram. It ran okay but was sluggish.

Leopard actually runs okay on processors slower than 867 MHz as long as you have sufficient ram. Apple put a gotcha in the installer. Get someone with a qualifying system to connect your system in Firewire Target mode and install that way, or use Carbon Copy Cloner from a Firewire drive with an installation on it.

"Do know that Leopard is a new version of Mac OSX and it will likely not be as stable as Tiger, nor quite as fast on older equipment." Do weigh the benefits and consider some of the disadvantages before upgrading! Since we run older software we will not be upgrading for a long while.

I put back the 800 MHz Processor after some initial testing and once installed Leopard runs just fine on it. Apple put a gotcha in it that really is unnecessary in my opinion. Someone will come out with a hack soon enough (Leopard Assist) to let you install it on older slower machines. Performance wasn't bad with 1 GB of memory. I guess they want to force us to buy new hardware. The Sonnet 1 Ghz and above or the FastMac processor is a great upgrade and it works okay with the installer. They set the minimum processor install at 867 mhz and I guess it looks for that speed of processor. Do note the problem with DVD playback noted below on systems with 16 MB video cards.

Password and Keychain Grief?

Download the Login and Keychain Update from the Apple web site. This has been superseded by the 10.5.1 update.

What No Classic Mode in Leopard? Keep Tiger if you have older software you need.

One other major gotcha for many folks is that Leopard does NOT HAVE A CLASSIC MODE. If you must run an older program you can boot back into 9.2 on dual bootable machines and use your program. If your computer is not 9 bootable then you had best keep Tiger around a while longer. I think some folks will probably keep a second drive with Tiger and classic installed if they must run a classic application and they have a system that only boots in X. Of course if you are on one of the systems with the Intel Processors you have no classic mode either.

No DVD PlayBack?

Unless you have a 32 MB Quartz Extreme qualified Video Card, the DVD Player refuses to work. I tested a 16 MB stock ADC ATI Radeon Card and the DVD player failed. It works fine with our NVIDIA 5200 Upgrade Cards or a stock 32 MB NVIDIA or RADEON Card as long as they qualify for Quartz Extreme. It is kinda cool with visual image chapter markers. There are alternative DVD players if you choose not to upgrade your graphics card right now so you can work around this.

I will not list the G4 Sawtooth, Gigabit Ethernet, or Digital Audio systems on our web site as Leopard compatible though many of them will run it just fine if they have faster than 867 MHz processors. The DVD playback will not work on these models without a graphics card upgrade. Any of the models with the faster processors will run Leopard and with the addition of the NVIDIA 128 MB Upgrade Card will run great and allow DVD playback with the newer player.

Leopard's Time Machine requires a high capacity second drive or an External

I tested our Silver Bullet Hard Drives during the install and successfully cloned the install using the more advanced version 3.0 of the Carbon Copy Cloner program. The Time Machine recognizes the drive straight up. We do recommend you reformat the drive using Leopard's disk utility. A large internal hard drive would also work but the early G4's have the 120 GB limit. You are better off with a large capacity external Firewire Drive like our FAN COOLED Silver Bullets, or consider adding a SATA Card and one or two drive up to 2 Terabyte in capacity.

Can I use Leopard's Time Machine with my non-Apple network drive?

One of our customers gave us this tip.

James Buttle writes: Time Machine
Here is the full how to and why it can work on this link http://www.macinstruct.com/node/234

To make a long story short you simply open terminal and type or copy and paste in the following:
defaults write com.apple.systempreferences TMShowUnsupportedNetworkVolumes 1

As you can see it simply shows the "unsupported" Network Volumes. You can even use a FAT32 volume for Time Machine using this command. Thanks James!

Leopard Precautions - archive and install when upgrading!

Make sure you read MacFixit.com notes before installing. They recommend strongly new install or archive and install rather than upgrade. Also remember to backup any crucial data (or better yet keep a cloned copy of your old install). Run drive repair and repair permissions before starting the install.

Leopard INCOMPATIBLE PROGRAMS - You best check first if you work on your Mac

Before you jump out there and install Leopard, if you use your system for work, you might want to note that more than a couple of programs will not run under Leopard until the software manufacturer releases an upgrade. Adobe CS3 problems may put a cramp in a lot of peoples ability to work, as may QuickBooks Pro 2007, or Adobe Acrobat 7 users not being able to print. MacRumors.com has thoughtfully put up a list of incompatible programs as well as listed some programs that just have certain issues. They also include links for many of the software manufacturers statements page. You probably will find this page helpful and you may want to hold off updating to Leopard if you are a heavy user of these incompatible programs until the companies release an update.

Bob's Prediction: LEOPARD OSX 10.5 REQUIREMENTS? Will your old machine make the grade?

How did I do? Apple posted the Leopard requirements today 10-16-07. The G4 867 MHz requirements did surprise me a bit. Everything else is as expected. My bet though is that it will install on a slower G4, but perhaps not run so sprightly and of course lots of ram helps OSX a lot. Processor upgrade time for a few of you if you expect to run Leopard. We will have tested and qualified our upgrade parts as soon as we can.

THIS WAS MY PREDICTION: Are you concerned your old system won't meet the specifications to run the new Leopard 10.5 OS? Keep in mind this is my speculation but go back and read this after the release. Today's date is 9-26-07. Anything you read anywhere at this point is speculation since Apple is keeping this under wraps for now. I will go on the record saying that it will require a bit faster G4 processor (probably in the 700 MHz range or better). G3's probably won't qualify and have been left out of in version 6 or later iLife packages already for some pieces. They will probably require a Quartz Extreme capable (32 MB or more) video card. RAM will probably be 384 or 512 MB but you will need at least double that since you already really do to run Tiger well. How can I guess what the requirements will be with any confidence. I look at the currently supported machines. The QuickSilver 2002 model is listed at that is the hardware installed on that model from the factory as well as the iMac G4, eMac, PowerBook G4 DVI. It stands to reason that current Apple supported hardware will meet the requirements. One thing I am not sure about though is the iBooks. Any of the iBooks that have 16 MB of VRAM or more are listed as currently supported and many of these had G3 processors and of course had less than Quartz Extreme video cards in them. If my logic is correct that currently supported machines will run Leopard may not apply to these or Apple may indeed have much lower requirements than I am speculating.

"Even if the processor requirements are higher the Upgrade Processors for your G4 AGP machine will likely far exceed those requirements." Remember the new Intel based Macs do not offer classic or the ability to boot into OS9.

One thing we already know of sure is that while some of these models only had a CD, we already know Apple has went to DVD install disks. I will guarantee that a DVD will be required to install the new software and that Apple will not likely release a CD version.

Can your old G4 make the grade. Yes is my quick answer. You may have to install and upgraded processor, more ram, perhaps a larger hard drive, and likely a better video card, as well as a DVD drive if you don't already have one. Most of you need that now if you want to run the new iLife packages. We have the items you need to upgrade. They will be compatible and we will test them thoroughly when Leopard comes out. Anything that has any gotcha's we will list in the product description.

Some of you will own older systems that can not be upgraded sufficiently to meet the new specifications. If your machine is still meeting your needs with the older OS versions I wouldn't worry about it and suggest you continue to use it until it doesn't. I still use hardware and software daily that the latest OS it will run is OS8.6. It serves my needs and if not I install faster hardware so that it can. Let us know if we can be of assistance.

Sonnet's new Encore/MDX G4 Duet 1.8 Ghz Dual Processors in a Mirror Door G4 (sorry no longer avail.)

I finally got around to installing one of Sonnet's new Encore/MDX G4 Duet 1.8 Ghz Dual Processors in a Mirror Door (G4MDD). The unit in question had a dual 1 Ghz processor originally and it would work about 10 minutes before the fans would start roaring and about 5 minutes later would shut down. The guy was working by leaving the door open and laying a small 6 or 8" desk fan on the processor. The new processor went in easily with the detailed pictured instructions that Sonnet is famous for. I like to not got the firmware updated since the stock processor kept shutting down until I used his fan trick. That is definitely one gotcha in this unit. Since they use a cooler faster 7447 series processor the firmware must be updated before the Sonnet processor can be installed. Once installed the cooler and faster running Sonnet is a joy. No more roaring fans!! The fellow has been back working several weeks now and is very happy. Worth every penny he says. This may be a fix for your noisy Mirror Door and will substantially improve performance for you as well. You can order them online from the accelerator/G4 AGP section of our online store.

WORTH REPEATING - HAVING TROUBLE GETTING A USB ITEM TO SHOW UP? Large size thumbdrives, cameras etc. not working?

Some cameras, scanners and newer printers (and even some of the larger thumb drives) seem to draw more power than can be supplies via the PCI USB Card or even the built in port on some models. Some even say they will not work with a card and require "native USB". Most times it is because the device tries to draw more power than the bus can supply. The card keeps itself from damage by shutting down. Unplugging the device and restarting the machine usually fixes it but sometimes zapping the pram is required to restore a shut down port. The solution is a GOOD POWERED HUB. The hub we carry is good for both USB 1.1 and 2.0 devices and supplies 2.+ AMPs of additional power. This makes many problems go away. Don't be suckered into buying a lower powered hub at a bargain price. 450 milliamps is not enough for many high demand items.

If a device doesn't work with one of our USB2 cards and you have tried a high powered hub, most likely the problem is software related or device related. If your iPod isn't mounting make sure you have the latest iPod software installed before looking for other problems. It is amazing how well things work when the proper software is installed. See the Firewire/USB area for more tips.

WHY DON'T YOU CARRY WIRELESS KEYBOARDS AND MICE?

They don't work. Okay well they don't work well enough to suit me anyway. I don't like things that skip and delay. They are probably okay for the net browsing etc. but if you use your system for work, I don't think you will like them either. If you find one that doesn't hiccup let me know. I would like it if they worked as well as wired. Also remember that wireless drivers have to load so if you want to start in SAFE BOOT MODE by holding the shift key down at startup, or if you need to ZAP THE PRAM, or startup in Single User Mode for any reason, you must first reattach your wired keyboard.

StanStodden writes: I have been using the Microsoft Wireless 4000 set/system for about 2 months. The keyboard shortcuts and all work with a Mac and flawless I might add. The set sells at Sam's Wholesale for about $70. You should have someone test it out. It really works great!!

Bob: Unfortunately we don't have a deal with Microsoft so I don't carry their products, but most folks can probably buy them at the local discounter. I take it Stan is using them in OSX. I wonder if they work at all in 9 or if you can hold the shift key down and use Safeboot mode etc. Thanks for the tip, Stan we appreciate it.

I have since worked with Bluetooth Mice and Keyboards and find them acceptable. We don't carry any presently since they are still pricey. Apple, MacAlley and Microsoft offer them. We sell an inexpensive USB dongle that will add bluetooth compability to any OSX system. See our wireless category.

NEW ADOBE CS3 REQUIREMENTS

Adobe has raised the requirements to run CS3 applications. The biggest change that effects most people is the 64 MB VRAM. We now stock 3 different Video Cards for your G4 system so that you can meet or exceed the requirements. Our new best selling 128 MB card features the NVIDIA 5200 Graphics Engine and supports CORE imaging and both DVI and VGA out. At a delivered price of less than $100 it makes it quite the buy. Of course your system will probably exceed the processor and memory requirements but from practical experience I can tell you that you will also want as much ram and you can afford and as fast a processor as you can get. These are all easy upgrades for you to perform. We generally send pictured instructions but you can always call our tech support line and we will walk you through any problems that may arise.

OSX RESTORE TIP

I assume all of you are running with a second drive or external bootable and have a cloned copy of your install. Lets say you just updated to 10.4.15 and stuff stopped working or the system is munged up period. A fast fix that won't interfere with your current files in the User or Applications folders is simply to boot from your backup and use Carbon Copy Cloner to ONLY REPLACE the Library and System Folders. You will be back up with the older working version of the OS in short order and you won't lose any changes. Make sure you run repair permissions after you complete the clone.

OSX Tiger 10.4.1x Update (or any major version update for that matter) WAIT!

I just downloaded the COMBO UPDATE and will be installing it in a few systems. Remember about my rule of running the disk utility and repairing permissions before and after a major install! Also download the COMBO UPDATE rather than let the system update itself, when you decide to attempt this install or any major update. This looks like a fairly major install after reviewing the changes. I will be watching MacFixit as usual to review what problems are having before I jump in. One of our techs installed it on his personal Sawtooth G4 machine and have had no problems. I did read through the problems folks were having on MacFixit.com. I will be waiting a while before installing it on machines that we are selling. perhaps 10.4.11 will be coming soon. Too many bugs in this one.

TIP: If you aren't keeping a bootable backup of your system, you are asking for trouble. Add a second hard drive either internally or externally and make a bootable backup of your system with Carbon Copy Cloner.

SUMMERTIME HEAT

One of my servers processors failed a while back. The symptoms were odd leaving me to think the hard drive was corrupted but after replacing the file with a backup I had the same problems. Changing out the processor fixed those problems even on the earlier system folder. The room this unit resides in was getting over 76 degrees. While I have many fans in place I can't help but think this may have contributed. With things running a bit warmer, make sure your computer has plenty of ventilation around it, and move any objects that may block airflow. A small desk fan nearby (but not too close) blowing over the system is a good idea especially if you are turning up the thermostat to save a buck or two. If you are on a G4 Mirror Door system (G4MDD), shut down your system and look up under the front foot. This is where your machine draws cooler air and it probably is packed with dust. Keep it clean.

SATA DRIVES & CARDS FOR MY MAC - TWICE AS FAST!

Almost TWICE AS FAST as your stock IDE bus and drive! Serial ATA or SATA hard drives are getting cheaper and cheaper these days and they offer better performance. We now are offering our G4's (or any compatible system for that matter) with a Firmtek SATA Card and Seagate SATA Hard Drives as an install option. I quickly tested copying a 60 MB folder on both our regular Hitachi 80 GB 7200 rpm IDE drives and the new 250 GB Seagate SATA Drive and found that the SATA was almost TWICE AS FAST. You folks that deal with large files all the time, like musicians, artists, photographers and videographers will want to seriously consider this option. Works equally well in 9 and X and no drivers are required. I have installed drive sizes up to the new Seagate 1.5 TB and they work perfectly. OS9 users will have to remember the 190 GB partition limit for bootable partitions though. See the new IntDrivesSATA section of the online store. We now stock Seagate SATA Drives from 160 GB to 1.5 TB.

New Feature - Add a 2 Port SATA Card and 500 GB Seagate SATA Drive to any G4 for $159.77! Access your data almost twice as fast with drive sizes up to 2 Terabytes (2000 GB) all internally in your G4! Complete with all cables and screws needed. See the IntDrivesSATA section of the store.

HEADGAP SYSTEM NOW ON DIGITAL PHONES!

When we installed our T1 for our network one of my goals was to also install a digital phone system. I can't say I did much as Cheryn picked out the phone system, figured out how many lines to add to meet our increased needs and contacted the folks at WorldSpice (Best Memphis Service Provider). We ran CAT5 cable from our rack (they split them into multiple lines) and in less than 30 minutes they had us connected. We have added a dedicated tech line with its own phonemail at 901-591-1548, but otherwise our phone numbers stayed the same. You will now get our phone mail if you call after hours. We still only answer 9 am to 6 pm Monday through Friday Central Time. I did like the answering service but they are expensive. I always though it was better to talk to a human whenever possible but the price these days is such that we really can't afford to. These new phones have a bunch of new buttons so forgive us if we accidentally hang up on your while transferring calls etc. for a few days. We will soon get use to them. 5.8 Ghz Wireless remotes with a wired base phone on UPS backup and now with more lines to take your calls.

One note of caution: Qwest our existing provider received notice of our changeover weeks in advance. They delayed our Toll Free line rollover for 24 to 36 hours and as I understand it they are about the only ones who practice this policy. I hope you were not inconvenienced by this and thank you if you dialed our regular long distance number and paid for the call during this time.

BBS DIAL UP LINE NO MORE!

In March of 1986 Operator Headgap BBS went online here in Memphis TN for the first time. We have been online for 21 years continuously. We have always had dial up lines to access our systems. After the Internet in about 1995 we gradually began cutting down our dialup lines as many more of you started visiting via the web. After reviewing our phone bills and system I have finally decided to take down our last dialup line. At about $25 a month only 2 or 3 folks a month are using the dialup line, and even then only once in a while. It saddens me a bit but the world does change and we have to also. I am sure most of you probably didn't know you could use dialup to access most of the system features and hope you will continue to visit via TCP/IP over the Internet or via the Web.

Sonnet Encore/ST G4 Duet - DUAL (or single) G4 1.8 or 1.6 Ghz Processor Upgrade for QuickSilver G4 OS9 ISSUES? (sorry no longer available).

I recently installed a 1.8 Ghz DUAL Sonnet G4 Processor in a QuickSilver G4 system. I had problems with OS9.2.2. The system would load about 90% and then lock up. I replaced the system folder with a fresh install etc. but to no avail. I finally got to thinking about where it was locking up (it worked great in X though). I know that they use the 7447 Freescale and I used to have trouble with the GigaDesigns chips in 9. They recommended you remove the multiprocessor folder from the 9 Extensions and only run the unit as a single processor. That is one of the reasons I quit buying them. I did pull the MP folder out and sure enough the system booted normally. I finally gave Sonnet a call and the tech told me that the install CD doesn't always upgrade the MP folder on some models. He sent me the modified file and once I put it in the extension folder in place of the old one the system worked fine with both processors once again. If you need the file download it from me at: http://resale.headgap.com/AppleCPUPlugins.sitx. Since it only affects a few models they are not going to fix the installer and wait for you to have trouble and call in. Sorry about the SITX compression making you boot into X to uncompress to install it in 9 but that is the way I received it. I had previously sent back several processors rather than mess with them for credit costing both Sonnet and me. You would think a quick note in the box might be in order but I guess it may be fairly rare.

P.S. This also applies to any Sonnet processor that requires their firmware update including the Single 1.8 or 1.6 processors.

SHIPPING RATES INCREASING?

Cheryn just finished negotiating with our shippers again. Prices continue to creep up on us. I am also sure you have seen the postal rates as well and what hurts most of all is the rates skyrocketed on many small package items. We will continue to keep our prices as low as possible but as my dad always told me if you aren't having fun and not making money then what are you doing. If you see a dollar or two higher price on items just know that it isn't us but the shipping rates on the items and of course the shippers blame the rising gas prices. We continue to shop prices hard so that we can maintain or even lower our pricing and we appreciate your continued support. REMEMBER OUR PRICING INCLUDES DOMESTIC SHIPPING if you are price comparing.

PCI GRAPHIC CARDS

We just got a good buy on some ATI Radeon 7000 PCI 32 MB Graphics Cards. These are great for adding a second monitor in any Mac with a PCI slot including PowerMac 7200's up to the early PCI based G5's. In the G4 and early G5's these cards are great for adding a second pallet monitor. In the Beige G3 and Blue and White G3 they are a great card for your primary monitor. They work straight up with the built in ATI drivers in the classic OSes and perfectly well in all versions of X. There is a patch program on the OSX KS that allows you to take advantage under X of Quartz Extreme. Worth doing on your souped up G3 or Yikes G4. They can be set up to display DVD movies with the appropriate DVD drive and drivers even on the older Beige G3's. See our monitor/video section or call and ask.

CORE SUPPORT - QUARTZ EXTREME - GRAPHICS CARDS

With Tiger Apple introduced Core Support. Not many older graphics cards have Core Support even if they do have a lot of memory. It takes one of the newer Graphics Engines to handle it. We now stock a few replacement cards that offer this feature and they really make a big improvement in high end programs. OSX offloads its graphics handling to the GPU of these cards allowing the processor to do its job and letting the graphics card do what it does best. See our monitors/video section or give us a call.

Another lower level of graphics support is called Quartz Extreme. They say that OSX speeds up 10-15% with a Quartz Extreme enabled graphics card. The requirements are much less (32 MB of VRAM) in a normal AGP Graphics Card will do the trick. Unfortunately there were lots of G4 machines sold with the 16 MB card. These work fine but for less than a $100 you can pick up a bit of speed in OSX if your card is enabled.

Unfortunately for Mac users there are not too many choices out there when it comes to these cards. You might be able to find a good used pull from a later model G4 that meets the Quartz Extreme requirements but they aren't usually cheap. Finding a Core Enabled Card means you shell out over $250 for an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro Mac Edition which are in short supply. Check with us we may have alternatives that are more affordable and will meet your needs.

BACKUP YOUR DVD MOVIES IN OSX WITH YOUR PIONEER SUPERDRIVE

If you don't have a Pioneer SuperDrive you can get one from us. The latest Pioneer A16 20X Dual Layer DVD Burner is now in stock. I have been doing this in OSX 10.4+ since the best tools these days are for OSX. I am not sure how far back you can go but suspect this would work well even in Jaguar. I use a program called Mac The Ripper 2.6.6. This version might even be on the OSX Kitchen Sink in the Utilities folder. Run this program to pull your movie to your hard drive in what they call a Video TS folder. Once you have that done load up Toast Titanium 7 or later and select Video (one gotcha on Toast 7 is that it requires a G4 processor). Make sure you select compress to fit. I recommend you use DVD-R media. The +R media doesn't work on many of the older DVD players. The -R is better supported.

You can also play the ripped Video TS folder on Apple's DVD Player via File - Open Video_TS Folder and then navigate to the ripped folder. This is great if you want to leave a video on your PowerBook so you don't have to risk carrying the DVD's around.

Handbrake is another DVD to MPEG-4 ripper/converter for OS X 10.3.9 and later. You can use this to rip MP4 files and use them in the movie section of your iTunes. Since you can compress the devil out of the files using this program it would enable you to store a library of Movies on your system. My tech Scott tells me that he doesn't like Handbrake since there are too many options and it is difficult unless you are an expert on how to set them up. Instant Handbrake is suppose to be setup for us less brainy types but he says he prefers iSquint. After using it I have to agree and particularly like the help file. Believe it or not you can get full length movie down to a gigabyte or less and still have decent viewing quality.

Since your Video TS folder has multiple VOB files you may want to join them all in one file (after compressing them with iSquint) so that you can place your movie in your iTunes Movie Library. I use Ajoiner http://www.digicowsoftware.com/detail?_app=AJoiner

Just imagine having all of your kids favorite movies in your iTunes library so all they have to do is point and click to play there favorites.

EARLY DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME

If you are running OSX you likely downloaded the update to take care of the early daylight savings time issue. For OS8 and 9 you will need to turn off the set daylight savings time automatically and turn it on manually from the Date & Time Control Panel.

PROCESSOR UPGRADES & FINAL CUT PRO - Compatibility Issues?

My favorite new processor and I think the best value for the money is the 1.5 Ghz Fast Mac Processor. It is a 7455 series chip (same as Apple used in many later models only faster). It has 2 MB of Level 3 Cache making it almost as fast as Sonnet's 1.8 Ghz which only has Level 2 cache. The gotcha though is some programs like Final Cut Pro actually call to the built in reporting software to check the processors speed to insure it qualifies to run the program. The Fast Mac and some other processors sometimes do not report their speeds properly even though they are running it. Apple System Profiler may show 0 or some odd number. This keeps Final Cut and other software from running. If you download GigaMeter 1.01 for OSX and run it this problem will go away. http://biz.headgap.com/Giga-Meter1.0.1.dmg.tgz

Another patch available that lets you circumvent this if the above solution doesn't work for you. http://eshop.macsales.com/Reviews/Framework.cfm?page=/Tips/fcp/fcp.html will give you the skinny on the patch and a download link for it. This may also be causing other high end software programs not to work properly and is worth trying before giving up on a processor upgrade.

IN OS9: To view the processor type, processor speed, bus speed, Level 1 cache size, L2 cache size/speed, and L3 cache size/speed (displayed only when L3 cache is present on processor upgrade card) I like and use a utility from Sonnet. It is called Metronome and I usually place it in the Apple Menu Item folder inside the system folder for easy menu access. http://sonnettech.com/downloads/software/metronome_v30.sit

If you install the G4 Firmware Update from the Encore install software it will even report the clock speed properly in Apple System Profiler. There is a bug however and you will have sound problems on Digital Audio Systems when you have more than 1 GB of ram in which case I wouldn't install the Firmware update. It doesn't bother any other G4 system and works just fine even on the digital audio units if you keep your ram under 1 GB.

WINTERTIME COLD - how not to damage a perfectly good piece of electronics

When pulling a system in from an unheated room (or UPS or FedEx Truck) let the machine come up to room temperature before firing it up for the first time. You see moisture condenses on the little electronic components. When the unit has warmed up to room temperature that moisture evaporates. You can damage or destroy a hard drive by being impatient. I too have to wait sometimes as our storage facility isn't as warm and toasty as our office is. Unpack the unit (this lets it warm up faster when you get all of those insulating peanuts etc. off of it.) and let it sit for an hour or two before plugging it in.

DON'T BE A PHISH!

Most of you know what PHISHING is. If you don't you may be a victim. Mostly they work by email and it may look like bank or credit card company has sent you an important notice about your account. The link takes you to a web site that looks your bank or card company, but that is the deception. The site is hosted most likely on some out of the country server. They ask you to confirm your information. Your real card company or bank would never do this.

The latest phishing scam I have seen is a bit more diabolical. Say you are in a discussion group, or chat and are discussing a piece of software or hardware you have been eyeing. Someone in the chat sends you a link to where you can save 15 or 20 percent on the purchase (sounds reasonable doesn't it). Again the link goes to a place that has nothing to do with legit sales. They get your card data and you get nothing but a lot of illegitimate charges to your account. Don't be a phish. Always be suspicious if you don't know the person giving you the link. Even if a friend sends the link, it doesn't hurt to do a bit of additional checking before making a purchase. Sometimes infected PC's use the owners address book to send information to you and while you may think it is your friend, because it is from his address, it may be from a scammer.

GOT THE NEW IPOD BLUES?

If you just got one of the new iPods you might notice they don't have Firewire connectivity. I got an iPod Shuffle and I can't use it with my older version of OSX. It requires Panther 10.3.9 or later and you really need a USB2.0 connection unless you have a lot of spare time to wait for your files to transfer. The good news is we sell a couple low priced USB2.0 cards that will work in any open PCI slot on B&W G3 and G4 Towers, and it works perfectly with your iPod. We also sell the OSX software should you need to upgrade your version. Let us know if you need to upgrade your system and we will be glad to help.

We now have lower prices on all PowerBook and iBook Batteries

Amanda found us a new source for top quality iBook and PowerBook batteries. We reviewed and discounted all of our pricing! We have also added replacement batteries for all sizes of the Aluminum PowerBook G4's. All of our battery inventory is factory fresh! Click to see a breakdown page.

BURN DVD's IN OS9 (Oh Roxio why haste though forsaken us?):

You need the full version of Toast Titanium 5 if you can find a used copy. It is also required for making VCD's and other exotic formats. This runs in both 9 and X but obviously doesn't have some of the advanced features and support the 6 through 8 versions does which is OSX only. They appear to have removed the link, and I cannot find any information at all about version 5 any longer. It seems Roxio has abandoned the OS9 market. I think Retrosoftware has a copy or two left.

It looks like Charismac's Discribe is the only OS9 compatible DVD burning software available these days. http://www.charismac.com/Discribe/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=79&Itemid=62 You can download a free demo and it costs $69.95

Hey We Got A T1!

Best Memphis Service Provider!

Operator Headgap Systems, Inc. is proud to announce that all of our new high speed servers are all directly linked to the Internet via a full T1 transfers with data at 1.544 mbps symmetrically.

Running 4 servers with one collocated was serving our needs up until Bell South decided everyone needed to be using the PPPOE connections via DSL. It just didn't work properly. We ended up with 2 of our 4 boxes collocated and two internal. Well we got to looking at the money we were spending and figured a T1 would only cost us slightly more than what we were already spending. Having this much speed both directions now means not only do our pages load fast on your end, the pages we load are also fast. We hope you notice the improvement and that it makes it easier and faster for you to use our services.

If you are just cruising the net and want high speed Internet, generally your cable company can be the best deal if you have a choice and are already a cable subscriber. There is nothing wrong with DSL for generally cruising the web and in some areas it may be all that is available, or it may be cheaper and it still substantially beats dialup.

I guess my next venture after upgrading our cabling to CAT6 and replacing some of our older switches is to replace some of the older servers with faster equipment. Then perhaps a digital phone system.

TEST YOUR CONNECTION SPEED

I think Speakeasy.net has one of the best and simplest testers going and it allows you to check our upload and download times to different parts of the country. http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/.

iTunes 7 Tip

I have heard that if you have aftermarket Visualizer's installed in your iTunes you need to remove them before upgrading to iTunes 7. If not you may have to reinstall your X.

DON'T CHUCK YOUR OSX INSTALL!

WHEN BOOTED FROM 9 do not throw away or move the little files that OSX puts on the desktop! I thought most folks knew that you should not mess with those files, but we have had several neatniks decide that it would be a good idea to put all of that stuff in a folder named OSX. Imagine their surprise when OSX failed to boot and they had to reinstall X. We named the problem after the first person to do it that we had to fix. Chucking your OSX install is now part of our vocabulary.

TRADE-INS

Many times when you are ready to upgrade your old system may not be worth much, especially to a dealer who is used to buying in quantity at wholesale prices and has the units shipped in bulk truck freight. Boxing and shipping your old system costs a few dollars. Here lately we have been having more trouble locating older systems people are still buying. We will begin offering trade-ins for certain older systems. The following are on the list: PowerMac G4, iMac G4, QuickSilver G4, Blue & White (REV 2 Only), PowerMac 7300, Quadra or Centris 650, Mac IICI's, and IISI's. The units need to be cosmetically in good condition and working (at least chiming). Trade in value will vary from the top price for extra clean, that exceed stock configurations and down for less that prime units. Email: cheryn or use the online form for quotes.

We are also purchasing good used working StyleWriters, and Zip Drives.

RECYCLING

If you have Mac items and hate to throw them away but figure they have little or no value in today's market, rather than dumping them to a landfill, write us with a list. Email: cheryn or use the online form. Any of the items we can use we will pay your shipping. You can rest assured that we will put your old Mac items back into circulation either using them to repair old equipment or including the items with systems. All hard drives are thoroughly formatted so have no fear about any data left on a hard drive. We properly recycle any items we end up having to discard. Sorry we can't take everything as I wouldn't know where to put it.

HATE MICROSOFT OFFICE BUT NEED IT TO OPEN FILES?

We recommend and use a program called ThinkFree. It opens and saves .doc, .xls, and .ppt files (word, excel, and powerpoint), allowing you to open and work on Office files without having to shell out the big bucks to Bill. Here is a link to the software archive page so you can download the versions for the older OSes including 8.6 through 9.2. http://product.thinkfree.com/download/

TIP: - you can open the .doc file using ThinkFree and then save it out to .rtf format if you want to use the information in other word processors like AppleWorks.

Neo Office (OSX) really does work well and if you are a casual Microsoft Office user this should work just fine for you.

Lately my wife and quite a few other folks out there that actually use the software suggest Neo Office. It is donationware and is a sizable download. They say it works great and the price is right. I have started installing this on all Tiger equipped systems. It really does work well and if you are a casual Microsoft Office user this should work just fine for you.

HATE WINDOWS BUT NEED TO RUN A WINDOWS PROGRAM?

On the Intel Chipped Macs of today running OSX you can of course run Boot Camp (now part of Leopard 10.5) and install Windows. Personally I wouldn't. I really don't want to send Bill any of my money if I can help it. Try Crossover. This little Application lets you run many Windows applications without having Windows. It won't work for everything but they are constantly improving it. It may just do the trick and you can do it all from within OSX.

The other program out there that lots of folks are using these days is called Parallels. You can download a demo but it requires you to install Windows.

LCD FLAT PANEL MONITORS FOR YOUR MAC

We have had so many folks ask why we didn't carry any of the new Flat Panel LCD type monitors for Macs. Frankly the Sunday Ads should tell you why. There are dozens on sale with rebates every week at most of the major discounters. What we didn't really think about though is that many of you don't have easy access to the discounters and also you don't have the knowledge on which one is a decent quality unit that will work with your Mac. When we needed to replace some of our aging CRT monitors we checked the wholesale market and found several with decent specs at reasonable prices. We presently have picked out two units that I consider deluxe models. We are pleased with our selections, and both units exceeded our expectations. We have priced them sharply and include shipping in our price. Some of the bargain units out there are dim and or fuzzy and have slow response times. These units are sharp, bright and fast and we think they are a good value for your dollar. They both have standard 15 pin HD15 VGA connectors so they work straight up with Blue and White G3's and later. With our adapter they will even work with the early PowerPC's although you may want to up your video ram.

Cheryn chose the 19" WIDE SCREEN model to use with her system. The extra real estate lets her have several applications open at once and she can easily display program pallets along with her work. If you have the scratch we think you can't go wrong with this unit. I originally chose the more conservative 17". I got jealous of how much room on the screen these Wide Screens offer and 1440x900. While not as sharp as when running under OSX I am very happy that I made the switch and I know Cheryn is.

One of the other benefits of these units over CRT is that they draw MUCH LESS POWER and don't generate near the heat. Since we leave our systems on 24/7 it may not take so long to recover our investment in power savings not to mention how much cooler they run. You don't really think about that until you have 3 monitors on your server rack with a small fan blowing the hot air out during the summer. What also pleases me is that I will now have more battery backup time should our power drop.

Sonnet Encore/ST G4 Duet Dual Processor Card GOTCHA! - and fix?

We have built a few systems with the new and lightning fast Sonnet Encore/ST G4 Duet dual processor card. If you are installing one you realize quickly that the Sawtooth motherboard screw near the socket is too tall and interferes with the cooling fan connectors. Initially I just left out the screw since the motherboard is in there pretty solid, but after a problem or two I realized the extra weight of the processor causes a lot more pressure on the socket. I have since learned to replace the screw with a flat head variety. I think Sonnet should include this with the processor.

The real problem though is that the heat sink of the processor contacts the optical housing. I learned to remove the zip screw and cover the aluminum of that section with a small strip of packing tape. It insulates if the heat sink should make contact with the housing with the door closed. I spent a lot of time testing the systems with the doors open and would have no problem. After closing the door the system would refuse to chime. For whatever reason I expect it is not a good idea to ground the heat sink against the chassis. The tape solves the problem. Sonnet could have helped if they would have shaved a 1/16 off of the heat sink, but I expect having a little more mass for cooling is a good thing. Maybe they will send a little vinyl label or something to insulate the housing. I have only experienced this in the Sawtooth, and Gigabit Ethernet G4's. I have installed one on both the Digital Audio and Quicksilver and there are no contact problems on those units.

BAD NEWS FOR CLASSIC USERS • NEW INTEL MACS WON'T RUN CLASSIC!

Not only can you not boot into 9, you cannot even use classic mode with the new Intel Macs. If you are using old software you will want to pass these systems up. If you are new to Mac or never use old software then they may be the system for you. Keep in mind while Apple says they are 2 times faster that is only true if you are using Applications that are optimized for the Intel processor. Most Pro Apps like any Adobe Product will be slower, until they release an Intel optimized version. If you work for a living you may want to avoid buying one until the software catches up or locate one of the remaining real G5 processored systems. It is kind of cool that you can run Boot Camp beta and boot into XP, if you have a need to gather PC viruses and spyware and don't mind that it expires forcing you to update to the new OSX version when Leopard arrives if you want to continue to use it.

BETTER MORE COMPATIBLE OS8-9 BROWSER - GIVE ICAB A TRY

Has your bank software quit working with your old browser, or is there some sites you like to visit that just don't work right? iCab is a browser that complies with the new JAVA and other security features that many banks and other sites are requiring. It has been around a while but I haven't looked at it lately. It has taken me a while to get used to and it is a bit slower than my favorite for 8 and 9 Mozilla. iCab is the name of the browser and it is a free download but costs $29 to register it. Cheryn tried it on our bank, which had recently forced her to switch to X when she was accessing our files. It worked perfectly, but she had some problems logging into the UPS site (so it is not perfect either, but we haven't experiments with the settings). It has the built in ability to emulate most browsers including the Explorer 6 for Windows, which lets you use more of the features on web sites you may have been denied access since you were on a Mac. Go to http://www.icab.de/dl.php to download a copy. It is a bit larger than 3 MB for the new Beta. This program is a bit sluggish so I don't use it as my first choice but load and use it if a web site doesn't work properly.

CLASSIC MOZILLA TRICK - MY OS9 BROWSER OF CHOICE!

I have found a better version! Try downloading the version from wamcom.org. It not only has an updated version of Mozilla it also has the Thunderbird Email Program for OS9. See the ClassZilla notes for an even more updated version.

The old Mozilla Web Browser program (v1.2) that runs in 9 is a little long in the tooth. I prefer it since it allows tabbed browsing, plus it crashes less often than Explorer. I accidentally discovered that if you install Netscape 7+ for 9 the installer actually replaces parts of the old Mozilla, giving you many updated components. This allowed me to use some web sites that had updated their security to continue to use Mozilla when accessing them. Can't find the old Mozilla? It is on the Kitchen Sink CD in the Internet/Browser folder as is the Netscape 7.02 installer. If you are installing it for the first time install the Mozilla first, then install the Netscape 7.02 after restarting so that it will do the same trick on your system. I have almost quit using Explorer, but sometimes have to resort to it if a web sites JAVA causes the Mozilla to lock up. You can also try iCab. While it is slower it also emulates Windows Explorer 6 if you set up the preferences that way.

OUTLOOK EXPRESS PROBLEMS?

I don't like Outlook Express. It keeps all of your messages in one file. If you save all of your old messages this file gets humongous, and then it craps itself. When this happens you probably are going to lose everything. Your prefs and the files you need to back up are in the Microsoft Folder inside the Documents folder. Most people don't know this and end up without a backup. If you get into trouble try starting Outlook Express and hold down the option key. It should ask you if you would like to rebuild the database. Say yes. This may fix it. If you would have done this periodically you may not be having this trouble. I like and still use Eudora which keeps its messages separate.

UPDATING OSX

Way too many of you call after you have munged your OSX system up by running the automatic updater. You can get away with this if you have a second drive with a cloned backup that you can use to restore. Most of you don't, so heed my warning.

ALWAYS RUN THE BUILT IN DISK UTILITY , SYSTEM OPTIMIZER OR MAINTENANCE AND REPAIR PERMISSIONS BEFORE & AFTER INSTALLING UPDATES. I never do a major OS update from the built in updater and always download the COMBINED UPDATE instead. Even at that I wait a few days and visit MacFixit to see what problems folks are having. If you do this you will have less trouble. The small Application updates, security updates etc. are fine to run from the updater, but again always always run repair permissions before and after installing software. If you do kill your X then be prepared to reinstall from the installer disks. Run the Disk Utility from the Apple Menu of the installer disk and run Disk Repair first though.

The guy who wrote System Optimizer has "upgraded" the program. He now calls is SOCKS. While it has many more features it expires quickly and you will have to judge if you want to pay the shareware fee. I will continue to use System Optimizer for the foreseeable future and prefer its simplicity. SOCKS has a much more elegant interface and it has the same functionality and more.

There are still no active viruses or spyware for OSX. There are only rumors of possible ones. If you must send $50 to someone send it to me instead of these lying, cheating virus software producers. Sure the programs find viruses in your email but they are PC viruses and none effect the Mac. I personally don't worry about PC users since they are already infected anyway. There is an average of 3 new PC viruses/spyware/Trojans a day. No matter how up to date the PC virus software is, they are already infected. Not too long ago CBL.ABUSEAT.ORG reported a bot army of over 300,000 infected machines sending out alarming numbers of pump&dump and pharmaceutical spam. You can thank your PC brethren for the majority of crap in your mailbox. Check http://www.securemac.com/ the next time you start worrying about it.

As far as I can tell the only way to keep viruses and spyware off your Windows PC is to never plug it in. The less you use it the better off you are.

SEAGATE BUYS MAXTOR FOR 2 BILLION

Most of you that read my tips know that I am a Hitachi fan and until something changes they will be my hard drive of choice. Maxtor was always second on my list, with Seagate always 3rd. Western Digital sucks period. The reason I think my opinion should count is that out of the 1000's of systems we get per year we pull and test the drives out of each one. I see what goes out in the trash. I felt about the same way when Maxtor bought Quantum, which was my old number 2. I hope Seagate keeps the quality control that Maxtor had and continues to produce at least that quality of mechanism. I shudder to think about web access to jumper charts and other drive info during the changeover. Some folks look at the specs on how a drive is rated which are made up by the factories and are meaningless. Other site the warranty, and those with the longest being the best drives to have. Not with my data. What good is a warranty when my server is offline and I am losing business, or I have to spend half a day recovering my personal system.

Apple's new iLife and iWork 06 REQUIRE a G4 Processor and a DVD Player

Before buying the new iLife 06 package for your trusty old iMac you may want to just stick with your 05 version. It seems the new iLife won't let you install it on a G3 system. The new software is also on DVD which leaves out a few folks as well. If you have a G4 Tower, iMac G4 or G4 PowerBook that is otherwise qualified but without a DVD drive and would rather have an external DVD drive call Cheryn and tell her you want the FireWire External DVD Drive for $69.77. We will build you one using a good new Firewire housing and a genuine "Apple" 8X DVD refurbished drive. You will be able to boot from your Tiger OSX Install DVD. This only works on Firewire equipped systems. This will not work for the Blue & Whites or early Yikes G4's which have a known boot problem with Firewire. Check our software section, I asked Cheryn to stock a few of the iLife 05's for those of you with G3 processors.

SONNET ENCORE G4 ACCELERATORS & MACOS ROM ISSUES?

I recently install a 1 Ghz Sonnet G4 Processor in a Sawtooth G4 system. I had problems with it. After a short period of warm-up time the machine would make a small hash noise (phfffft) and freeze at random. We do this all the time so I was stumped, trying different processors, ram, etc.

We finally tracked it down to the MACOS rom file. We were installing a version of 9.2.2 that had the MACOS ROM version 9.01. When I went back to my older 8.7 versions the problems went away. The later version of the file works fine with the stock processor. Somewhere in the later rom is a gotcha. If you are having trouble get with us for a fix.

ARE YOU WONDERING WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN NOW THAT APPLE IS OFFERING INTEL CHIPS?

I am not a prophet and Apple doesn't check with me all that often for my opinion these days. That being said I think the conversion to Intel will be much like when Apple went from the 68K processor chips to the PowerPC chips. The operating system changes will be gradual. For a time there will be both types of code in the operating system (they used to call them fat binaries). Eventually though as the line completely changes to Intel the code will be leaned down at some point to only support the new style processors. When this happens classic mode will most likely be gone. If you haven't noticed Apple is already moving this direction not installing classic mode for you on the new machines these days leaving it as an optional install you have to make. Eventually they won't even include the software and the new machines will not even support classic mode.

Apple sure did make a big deal about the G5 being 64 bit and didn't mention the new Intel chips are only 32 bit.

Rumor has it that at some point the new Macs may be able to run both the OSX and Windows as well as Unix all on the same computer allowing you to use most any software package on one machine.

So should you buy a new machine or wait? I think of computers a lot like cars. If your old one is getting you there then why change. If your old car isn't getting you there, you look for a new one or at least a later model in good condition.

When you buy a new Mac these days you have to make choices on what technology you want to leave behind. I can't tell you how many folks have written or called me asking how to make there LaserWriter 300 or their StyleWriters work with their new $1300 to $3200 Mac. To me that's like pulling the old floor mats from your 10 year old car and putting them in your new one. Doesn't make sense to me. You can do it if you spend $70 for a serial port adapter and can find a driver or find an old discontinued adapter that allows you to put your printer on the network but you still need a driver and the price for that gizmo many times is almost as much as a new printer. Brother makes new affordable USB Laser Printers. Many others make nice Inkjet's. Buy one when you get your new computer. Sell me your old one and I will refurb it for someone who needs a serial printer to use with their old system.

Not being able to run your old software is why we are still in business. From us you can get a fairly late model Mac that has been nicely refurbished and many times updated with faster processors, faster hard drives and better optical drives so it runs close to what a new one will and yet it still allows you to run your old software as well as the new. Of course these same systems can run the new software as well when installed.

WHY SO MUCH ON THE REALLY OLD MACS REVISITED:

I just spent two over 2-1/2 hours reburbishing a Mac IICI. The little things take the most time. You have to pull the power supply and drive housing to replace the battery. While you have that out you need to clean the dirt from the power supply and lubricate the fan, rebuild the floppy drive and otherwise clean the years of gunk that has accumulated beneath it. RAM Slots have to be cleaned of oxidation. RAM chips have to also be deoxidized. Finding a good small SCSI drive, low level formatting and having it test out is getting harder. Not sure we will be doing this much longer without charging higher prices.

We are talking about the old compact Macs, II's, LC's Quadras, and Centris models. While it is true you can many times find a really old Mac in a garage sell for a few dollars or sometimes folks just give them away, we have to charge for what we do. Consider that most older systems run slowly. That means to install an OS on them make take up to an hour. Perhaps you have forgotten how many disks you have to put in and out of an old Mac IICI to install an OS. Many times the cases are dirty and covered with stickers and magic marker. There is enough dirt in some of these you could grow corn.

We take the time to clean them up as close to new as we can. We replace any worn or missing parts (when we can find them), put in a fresh battery, and include a new or refurbished power cord, and mouse. We then thoroughly test the units to insure they function as they should. We also include shipping, packing, and your transaction fees every time you order. Cheryn says the way she figures it any computer under $100 is nonprofit for us. But you know us, we just can't stand to see an old Mac go to waste when we know some of you can use them. If you have bought systems from us before you know we send out clean nicely configured working systems and if it is your first time we think you will understand why we charge a few dollars more when you get your unit.

GOT THE NEW IPOD BLUES?

If you just got one of the new iPods recently you might notice they don't have Firewire connectivity. I got an iPod Nano and I can't use it with my older version of OSX. It requires Panther 10.3.4 or later and you really need a USB2.0 connection unless you have a lot of spare time to wait for your files to transfer. The good news is we sell a couple low priced USB2.0 cards that will work in any open PCI slot on B&W G3 and G4 Towers, and it works perfectly with your iPod. We also sell the OSX software should you need to upgrade your version. Let us know if you need to upgrade your system and we will be glad to help.

ODD THING - COLORSYNC NEEDED FOR SCANNER INSTALLATION

One of our customers needed one of our BigSisterG3DT models with OS8.6 installed. I don't normally like to install earlier OS versions since some things aren't well supported. With the Pioneer SuperDrive the version 5 of Toast Lite allows CDR burn speeds of 40X. With 8.6 you have to settle for burn speeds of 18X under Toast 4 Lite. They also wanted one of our SCSI scanners installed and tested on the unit. Well as things usually go our tech building the machine could not get it to work. After opening a second scanner and trying it, Cheryn got involved. She tested one of the scanners on her old 7600 desktop and it worked fine. Back to the G3 no soap. Well last night I noticed that ColorSync hadn't been installed. It took me a while to find an earlier version of ColorSync since v3 (on the Kitchen Sink CD) will not work on anything less than OS9. When I finally installed ColorSync 2.62 (in the headgap.com download library) the scanner immediately started working. Of course no where in the instructions do it say you must have ColorSync installed and it was indeed an optional install on OS8.6 boxes.

HEADGAP SERVERS UPGRADED

On November 6th, 2006 between 10:30am and 3pm we upgraded the headgap.com main server. It had been just over 2 years for any major changes on 3 of the 4 servers we run. We installed a new Hitachi 80 GB and replace our old backup drive with a good used IBM DeskStar 30 GB. The old Maxtor backup had completely died. We kept the same overclocked 450 MHz stock Apple processor that runs 500 MHz day in and day out for over 2 years now.

On October 29th between 3 and 4 pm we upgraded our biz.headgap.com server which handles our graphic serving as well as many of our business sites and mail. We replaced it with a Beige G3MT with a 1 Ghz Sonnet G4 Processor, a new 80 GB 7200 rpm Hitachi Main Drive and a 30 GB 7200 rpm IBM backup drive. If you notice the pages popping a bit quicker that is one reason. It replaced a 500 MHz G3MT with a 6 GB stock hard drive which had been online 2 years.

On October 23rd late evening we finally made the plunge from a 1 Ghz processor upgraded Beige Tower to a PowerMac G4 Digital Audio Tower. I am sure you may have noticed that sometimes during peak demand the server was sluggish or would downright stop if traffic was really high. Hopefully this 1.2 GHZ G4 FAST MAC Processor upgrade with fast 7200 rpm 80 GB Hitachi drives will keeps things running a bit faster.

THIS MAY BE THE COOLEST ADDITION YOU CAN MAKE TO YOUR G4!

Sweet Multiport no longer available open stock but we will install it in with your system purchase! Add the convenience of ports at your fingertips. The Sweet Multiport installs in the second bay of your G3 or G4. Add these ports and have them available at your fingertips, 2 FireWire ports, 1 USB port, 5-in-1 memory card reader, PLUS 2 more ports Firewire and USB available in the rear! Works in 9 or X! Fits in the second front bay (in place of the zip drive if you have one). This kit includes: Sweet Multiport front panel card, Sweet Multiport PCI card, Sweet Multiport interconnect cable, Mounting bracket and screws, Front faceplate, FireWire and USB cables. The Memory Card Reader supports: CompactFlash, IBM Microdrive, Memory Stick, Secure Digital, Multimedia Card. This works in Blue & White, G4 PCI or AGP, and Mirror Door. We will install one in your G4 purchase for $30 with your phone in order.

We found out the front USB port will run USB2.0 speeds under X when patched into a USB2 card. Sure makes it convenient when using it with one of the new USB iPods or even the Thumb Drives! Of course you may have to disable your systems sleep functions. If you have wanted one of these cards order it soon. This will probably be the last of the inventory and they are no longer being made. We still have inventor on the G4 Sweets and MDDG4's but no longer have the pieces for the QuickSilverG4's.

DON'T BE A TURKEY

I recently noticed a "new" Mac dealer selling new Mac units well below market price. I don't know what their scam is but don't be sucker. We at Headgap don't sell new products so we don't directly compete with them, but scamming people hurts all of us. What we offer is upgraded refurbished machines at a fair price. There are plenty of legit dealers (if you are looking for new products) out there and most of you know their names. When you see a web site selling new Macs $100-$200 below what every real dealer does, then you should realize they won't be there for long. Just long enough probably to swindle a few folks and duck out or until they get caught. Perhaps having the server out of the country prevents them from being easily dealt with by the law.

External Firewire & USB Drive Formatting

When you buy external hard drives from us we always format them for Mac OS Extended. This does keep you from connecting to a PC. If you want to use a drive both on a PC and a Mac you need the drive formatted for DOS. I don't recommend this unless you have to work back and forth. The reason is there are not good drive recovery utilities for DOS FireWire/USB Drives (some of you may argue that but our experts can't fix them easily). A photographer friend of mind recently picked up an External Maxtor FireWire Drive at one of the discounters. He put his entire photo shoot on the Maxtor. As things sometimes happen the drive refused to work after he got it back to his studio. He brought it by since I usually recover his drives if he has a problem. I couldn't help him. You see all the Mac drive utilities are for MacOS formatted drives. He took it to a PC shop and spent some money and if anything they probably made things worse. Our resident PC expert was out but when we reached him he was unable to recover it either. He ended up using one of our Silver Bullet Hard Drives and had to reshoot the entire job.

I am fairly certain that if he would have formatted the drive Mac OS Extended before using it I could have easily and quickly fully recovered the data. You see programs like Norton Disk Doctor and Disk Warrior or even Tech Tool Pro can work magic on these external units. If you don't need the PC compatibility make sure you format your external FireWire and USB drives with the Mac OS before you start using them.

FIREWIRE/USB DRIVE FORMATTING:

Firewire/USB drives used in OS8.6-9.2 should simply be formatted by choosing the erase command from the special menu. They should always be formatted HFS+ if they are to be used exclusively on Macs. If you wish to partition a Firewire Drive, I recommend you do it by using the disk utility is OSX. If you aren't running X ask a buddy to do it for you. I have never tried to format one that had different types of partitions but it probably is possible. Again I would use the OSX disk utility to set it up. Keep in mind if you have it DOS partitioned none of the drive recovery programs that work on the Mac will work to fix it.

Why Don't You Carry an External DVD Burner? WELL WE DO NOW!

HEY CAN'T A GUY CHANGE HIS MIND? We found a DVD Movie Player patch that allows you to play back movies in OSX. The new version of iLife's iDVD allows you to burn to a disk to an image so you can now use iDVD with an external burner. The main reason though is the Pioneer SuperDrive bare mechanisms have come down in price so that we can now offer them in our Silver Bullet Housing for less than $130 including shipping. This ain't a bad deal even if you use it mostly for CD burning.

You will want to buy a full version of Toast 5 if you can find it for DVD burning (for OS9 & X) or Toast 6 and up for X only. The lite version of Toast we include works natively in both 9 and X but allows CD burning only. Charismac's Discribe works allows DVD burning under 9. As always we include compatibility patches and other needed software on a CD including with your unit. Toast 6 Lite for OSX (and up) fully supports up to dual layer DVD burning with this unit.

You still are better off installing the SuperDrive internally whenever possible (we include pictured instructions for G4 and G5 Towers and if you can handle a Phillips screwdriver you can do this). For Firewire iMacs this isn't a bad deal though since it is cheaper and faster than anything you can install internally. Movie playback does require the appropriate graphics card to work even with the patched player however and that goes for external or internal.

While these units have USB2 connectivity and will burn under USB2 with the appropriate USB2 connection in OSX, Firewire is best. USB1.1 is not suitable for CD or DVD burning. USB2.0 is not available in OS9.

CABLE OR DSL REQUIRES OSX?

Recently we have had a rash of calls from different folks across the country asking about why their Cable or DSL service providers are requiring OSX. What the deal is if you have to configure your own cable modem or the one they provide, they don't have software or instructions to configure the DSL or Cable Modem that works in the earlier OS. If you are like us and the company sets up your modem you can run anywhere from OS7.6 and above and use the installed network. The Cable or DSL Modem once connected to the company doesn't care what OS or brand of computer you use. It just sits there waiting for someone to ask for an IP address so that it can start communicating with the attached system. If you are in the situation to where you need to set up a Cable or DSL Modem that requires OSX perhaps you can borrow a friends laptop or iMac and configure your Modem. If the instructions are browser based you can use any late model browser most likely from OS9 even if the instructions are for a PC or OSX. Once set up you can attach any system capable of TCPIP over Ethernet. Some may offer to set up your modem for you for a fee. I would recommend this if you can afford it.

We have been running DSL for several years now and before that ISDN. Our modems came preconfigured. We hooked our own Routers up and none of this ever used OSX. Only a few of our systems on the network are running X. Most are on 8.6 through 9.2.2.

Dan Imler writes:

CABLE OR DSL REQUIRES OSX?

The instructions that the DSL providers give for modem and DSL account setup sometimes give basic instructions for OS9 users. The gotcha here is that the old Explorer or Netscape browsers for OS9 are sadly out of date and won't execute java scripts correctly. The issue isn't the OS, but the browsers. I worked my way through this with a G4 laptop from work and Safari.

From BOB:

That's true, and I do need to add that sometimes the latest Netscape 7 version for 9 works well enough to allow you to set up without resorting to X (if not try iCab). It still is symptomatic of the twits who write the interface being totally unaware of the consumers they serve. The real pro outfits still manage to write supporting software that works even with older software. I try to consider before I do something that may reduce the amount of customers who deal with me, I am not sure why they don't. How can anyone run a business that fails to serve their customers?

FINAL CUT PRO

We have sold many of our upgraded G4 units that folks use with Final Cut Pro. Keep in mind though that the later versions of Final Cut require a Video Card that supports Quartz Extreme. That means if you buy one of our units and plan to use it for this program you need to replace the Video Card. We can special order the more expensive ATI9800 or see what we are offering in the Monitor/Acces category (we usually have a higher end NVIDIA or two). When you order one of our cards with your system we preinstall it (they require a driver upgrade both in classic and X). We also flash the cards to the latest ROM update if they require it. We then thoroughly test the card to insure it is performing at top levels.

It is amazing how well software performs when your system meets and or exceeds its requirements.

BOB'S SOFTWARE RULE: If you plan to use a piece of software on any computer you should first check the system requirements of the software and make sure your system has the qualifications. If it doesn't upgrade it so that it does.

G4 MIRROR DOORS (G4MDD)

I don't like to carry anything that won't boot into OS9 at least for now. Some of these units of course will boot into 9 (Firewire 400 only models). My experience with them so far has not always been good. If you want one that boots from OS9 make sure you read the description carefully They added a faster bus (ATA100) that doesn't have the drive size limit that earlier machines had and have a faster system bus and use faster DDR ram. It does require a special version of 9 to see those drives however so if you buy one of these make sure you get the original install disks. I also learned that to boot from OS9 the partition size can be no larger than 190 GB.

They call this one the Wind Tunnel, an appropriate name once you hear some of them. Apple had a deal where you could get the power supply swapped out for ones with quieter fans but that is only part of it. Many of the units coming out of the educational markets and were never updated. I now carry a few units and none have the noise problem. There was also a firmware update that helped. Make sure your firmware is current. That being said though I have worked on a few systems that were quiet and worked great. If you got a good one I guess you got a good one. Do make sure you have updated it to the latest firmware as Apple fixed some noise issues via the firmware update.

Make sure you clean up under the bottom of the case. Air is drawn from under the front foot of the system and I have seen systems so clogged they overheat and shut down. You have to pick up the machine to see this, and most I have found look worse than our dryer vent after drying a new wool blanket.

Install a PCI slot fan in the last slot if you own one of these. It will draw heat that collects in the top of the case and exhaust it.

If you happen to install a second optical in the other bay available you use the option key and the eject button to get the second device to open its tray.

One oddity (from the early Macs that is) that the MDD and everything after the QuickSilver 2002 model (Firmware 4.33 or later) G4 share. Apple recommends you use Cable Select on the drives. The drive first on the chain them assigns itself as master. You should never use Cable Select on any of the earlier systems (before the QuickSilver 2002) choosing the standard master and slave settings for the devices on the IDE buses. One other exception is the later QuickSilver 2002 models. They came with firmware that allows large than 132 GB drives and you should use Cable Select on these units.

One additional note. I set up the hard drives cable select and all was well on a recent Mirror Door 1.25 Ghz we recently bought and sold. I didn't think about the new Pioneer Optical I put in. The system wouldn't boot until I changed the jumper to cable select and it started working.

These units also use a special version of OS9.2.2 to work (assuming yours is OS9 bootable as some units were not). I would expect to add 9.2 for use in Classic Mode from X you would need this same special install disk. I have never seen one of these disks for sale. If you buy a used unit make sure you get the original install disks or expect trouble. I do have a copy and install of the OS9.2.2 install disk for these units and we use it on the units we service. I can make you one up if you need one for a small fee.

We recently had a customer who kept having trouble getting his MDD OS9 install to work. He finally reduced the amount of ram he had installed and everything began to work. He then reinstalled the ram and it continued to work. Sometimes a bit of Voodoo is necessary to get something to work. I generally simplify the system anytime I have trouble. Pull PCI cards, leave only one stick of ram and only plug in the keyboard, mouse and monitor. Zapping the PRAM or deep level resetting the machine sometimes helps as well and as a last resort press the PMU switch near the battery.

The GOOD NEWS IS: I have been told there is a fuse in the power supply. Check it first before replacing. Thanks to Don King. The specs on the fuse: 20mm, 250 V (volts), 8A (amps). Radio Shack part number 270-1050

GIGADESIGNS GOTCHA? - Out of business now (this applies to the current Newertech processor however).

I had been very happy with the price and performance of the GigaDesigns Processors we have been installing in our upgraded G4's. The new 2.0 Ghz Single Processor gave in excess of 6000 in the CPU section of Norton's SysInfo program in OS9.2. The machine averaged over 4000 in the combined tests making this the fastest G4 we have ever sold. There is one gotcha though that I didn't expect. Under OS9.2 when booting up you get an error message about a cache error and it tells you to notify your service technician. Come to find out it is looking for an L3 cache that this chip doesn't offer and you can really simply disregard the message. It doesn't do this in OSX 10.4 or when running 9.2 in classic mode.

The other gotcha on their Dual 1.8 GHZ based on the 7447A Freescale processor is that they will not support dual processor mode in OS9 or in classic mode. It needs 10.3.5 or later to operate which means you can't boot from a 10.3 install disk. We are now only selling these chips on systems with 10.4 preinstalled.

One other gotcha is that if you zap the pram or deep level reset the system you have to boot back into X and run the 9 patch again before 9 can be booted again. If you were booted in 9 last and you zapped the pram, simply hold down the option key and select X to boot from or boot from the original install DVD.

If you want fast dual mode (with no gotcha's) order the unit with the GigaDesigns 1.4 GHZ Dual. These run dual in both 9 and X and don't require any special operating system. Recently one of our Photoshop using customers discovered that his system would not use the filters properly if the dual processor mode was enabled in 9. We tried several units with several processors, so if your dual isn't working in 9 with your software you can simply disable the dual processor mode by pulling the multiple processor folder out of the extensions. They work fine in X in dual mode.

I have found the best way to eliminate these problems is to buy a Sonnet Processor instead. The new Newertech processors have the same issues.

BUNCH OF BONEHEADS?

I recently had a customer take one of our systems to another dealer. The technician told him that the "aftermarket Hitachi hard drive" was not Apple compatible. Of course I told my customer that the technician that told him that was a bonehead. I don't normally disparage other dealers but when they tell people boneheaded things I can't hardly help it. The thing is though, even though I said that to my customer I wouldn't necessarily damn the whole organization. In fact the dealer that the customer took his system to I respect. That doesn't mean that their folks are perfect. It is also hard to tell if my customer understood what the tech was trying to convey. For all know the tech was pointing out the superiority of the drive in question over what came stock in his older system. Second hand information is simply that.

The bottom line is I still recommend the dealer. They do a good job of taking care of their customers and in these days is getting harder to find folks that do.

MAC DEALER CHARGES 35% FOR SHIPPING?

We on occasion have trouble finding some of the older Mac items for our customers or to build and repair systems. We sometimes buy from other Mac dealers if they have them at a fair price. We found a few items we needed. The ticket was roughly $110 for a few dozen items that would have fit into one small box. The company is just south of Memphis where we reside. As we finished the online order shipping showed at $39. We called but they wouldn't budge. I guess if you show low retail prices you make up for it by sticking people on the freight. If you know us at all you know we hate that type of operation and our online store is just the opposite. You know what you are paying up front from us including shipping. Needless to say they can keep their goods and I hope for a long time. We will find them elsewhere and deal with decent folks with better business practices.

OPERATOR HEADGAP SYSTEMS, INC. NEVER PARTICIPATES IN AUCTIONS

Recently I heard a rumor that someone is offering our products in a yahoo auction. If you see any product that looks similar or even exactly like the items (the ones that are unique to us, especially with our copyrighted system names like PattyCake, we describe in our online store I would recommend you not participate. There is a very strong possibility that you are about to get ripped off. We sell to no one at a lower price that we offer on the web site. We do offer pick up discounts if you are in Memphis, and we do offer discounts for volume buys from legitimate dealers. We also offer educational discounts for quantity purchases. Rest assured when you buy from us you won't get our prepped equipment somewhere else for less. We work hard to keep our prices as sharp as possible and to give you the best value for your dollars. I personally don't think much of the auction concept for retailers, since most put in their price as a minimum and many stick you with any difference in price with inflated shipping. I sell you our product everyday at the best price I can. I guess some folks get a thrill out of paying too much just for the pleasure of supposedly outbidding someone else. Remember also we offer 90 day warranties on our systems and customer phone support.

LOW COST EXTERNAL DVD DRIVE FOR YOUR TIGER INSTALL:

If you have a G4 Tower, DV iMac or Notebook that is otherwise qualified but without a DVD drive and would rather have an external DVD drive call Cheryn and tell her you want the FireWire External DVD Drive for $69.77. We will build you one using a good new Firewire housing and a genuine "Apple" 6X DVD refurbished drive. You will be able to boot from your Tiger OSX Install DVD. This only works on Firewire equipped systems. This will not work for the Blue & Whites or Yikes G4's which are not Firewire bootable.

WHAT ABOUT TIGER COMPATIBILITY WITH YOUR MODIFIED G4's?

It took 35 minutes to install Tiger on one of our SuperBubbaG4 1 Ghz Models. The Sonnet processor was no problem during or after the install. While Sonnet supplies a Tiger patch it really isn't necessary since the processor and both caches are recognized straight up. WE ARE NOW RECOMMENDING THAT YOU RUN PATCHBURN 4 on Tiger. While they drive functions properly with most software there are some exceptions and Patchburn fixes the problems.

I had an opportunity to preview Tiger live with an Apple Engineer a while back. Spotlight, Dashboard and some of the other features are really nice. Spotlight in particular will probably revolutionize the way many work with a computer and Windows has nothing like it (and likely never will unless they start over again, although something that looks like it may appear).

One thing I heard is that the Iomega Zip mechanisms are not working under Tiger. When I checked he drives in my systems mount disks just fine. I am not sure what they were going on about.

Will you be able to run Tiger? If you have a system that will run Panther with a minimum of 256 MB of ram (really you should have double that) and 4 GB of drive space, the answer is yes. You can check Apple's listed system requirements here.

Apple has stated it does not support aftermarket processors but that is really kind of goofy since the aftermarket processor chips are made by IBM and Motorola (now called FreeScale which has to be the biggest marketing blunder in history) and are the same chip series that are in the stock systems. Apple never really supports products installed that didn't come with the machine so don't get tense.

Folks like Sonnet (they already have a patch up), FastMac, and GigaDesigns will be testing there products with Tiger you can bet. There may be a new patch or two but my bet is that most of them will run straight up with no other changes.

If you have a heavily modified system, or any system for that matter, my suggestion is that you wait a week or two after Tiger is released before installing it. Stop by web sites like MacFixit.com and see what problems others are having and if there are any tips and tricks that may help your install go smoothly.

Before beginning your install check with any of the aftermarket devices you have installed on their web sites. ATI for example already has updated drivers for Tiger for most of their Radeon Graphics cards.

We have Tiger and have checked it with our systems. We have Tiger available in the software section of the store and can custom install on any properly equipped system you order.

PC USERS GET A CLUE. ARE YOU SO SECURE YOU CAN'T USE THE INTERNET FOR BUSINESS ANYMORE?

I know that to most folks who read this, I am singing to the choir. Someone I know applied to work at a firm here in Memphis that does a bit of graphics for advertising and web sites. They sent their portfolio over in PDF attachments. The personnel person at the company could not receive the attachments, because they were blocked by their security software. They went through and resent with the PDF's archived and tried again. The person could not receive the attachment again. Fortunately the firm had a Mac user who could download them from a web link and print them. When will people get a clue. If they were all on Macs that could turn all that CRAP protection software off and use the Internet as they should. Having your users so protected they can't receive PDF's is absolutely nuts. Half the world uses PDF's to transmit graphic oriented material these days. Forrest's mom was right. Stupid is as stupid does.

YOUR MAC-FU IS STRONG TODAY, GRASSHOPPER...

I completely recovered another Firewire Hard Drive today, over the years I have probably recovered thousands of hard drives. Want to know one of my secrets? For external mechanisms, Zip, Jazz, and other removable mechanisms there is nothing better than Disk Warrior. The TRICK to using it is to load Disk Warrior before turning on the mechanism or inserting the media. Wait for it. Eventually it will show up in the menu allowing you to rebuild the directory. NEVER LEAVE A ZIP DISK IN THE DRIVE IF IT IS HAMMERING THE HEAD. UNPLUG the drive or whatever you have to do to stop it. If you leave it hammering be prepared to order a replacement mechanism since you will have trashed your old one. Oh yes, once you have recovered the hard drive backup the data and reformat the drive before using it again. If the recovery was on external media move off the data and discard the media. We can and will recover your old media and burn the data to CD. Call us for pricing. It is no charge (except for return shipping) if we are unable to recover the data.

UPS SMELLS BAD?

We run 4 servers in our office, all Macs of course. We have 4 large UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supplies) that provide backup power and surge protection. An important thing in this stormy season here in the South. The other night I noticed something that smelled like a permanent (you know those kits that women put on there head to make there hair look frizzy). Since Cheryn's hair is too short to perm, I really couldn't think of why someone would be giving a permanent in our server area anyway. Later on Cheryn grabbed me and asked me if I noticed a strange odor. The "it probably is your upper lip thing never works on women". I mentioned the permanent. She said she didn't think that was it. I turned off the ventilation fans and finally pinned it down to one of the UPS units. It was very very hot. I shut down the servers and moved all of them to the other UPS and unplugged the offending unit. I took it outside since it didn't seem to be cooling off, it of course eventually did once the power was removed. The next day we ordered a replacement battery for the unit and a few days later I pulled the old leaking one out (we shipped ground those things weigh a ton). Of course a thunderstorm took the power down the very next day after I removed the unit and we only got about 45 minutes backup on the single unit. Fortunately the power was only off a little over an hour, so we were not offline for long. I am hoping for about 90 minutes of backup power from the two units since this is about what they did in the past. Rarely do we have an outage any longer than that.

The only reason I am telling you this is that I am not sure if that unit would have caught on fire or not. I hope never to find out that they will. I expect there would be more information about it happening if it was a common thing. I would however recommend that you check your UPS by touching the exterior of it to make sure it is not running hot every so often and take notice if something smells bad. Also the good news is that most name brand units have replacement batteries available. I Googled up a few and found one that was pretty reasonable. It was less than 1/2 the cost of a new UPS. They also include drop off points for recycling the old ones.

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HOOK A PC PRINTER TO YOUR MAC

NO LONGER AVAILABLE - Try Ebay. Need to hook up a dot matrix printer to your G4 or any PC printer to your Mac? Try Strydent software's PowerPrint program. They offer both a serial and USB version. Includes drivers for many PC printers. http://www.strydent.com/strydent-software-products/powerprint-products.html

Is UltraWide SCSI Faster Than IDE?

We are in the process of adding an additional server and I was prepping the G3 Beige Box. I am running a G3/450 MHz processor overclocked to 466. I need two drives in the unit one to serve and one as a backup drive. I have been using UltraWide SCSI drives 10,000 rpm Cheetah models to serve and a simple Hitachi 7200 rpm IDE drive as a backup. I decided to using Norton's Sys Info to see which one was the faster. I started with an Adaptec 2940 and the Cheetah and got a score of 747. I then tested the Hitachi IDE drive on the stock G3 bus and got 1489. That meant the IDE drive was roughly twice as fast at performing the Sys Info drive test. I also tested a JackHammer UW Card, and an ATTO card and got roughly the same results and even tried a different SCSI drive. The ATTO UW Drive was fastest with 839 on the SCSI side. From the results in the future the SCSI drives will be the backup drives and the Hitachi 7200 drives will be my main server drives. I had suspected this but didn't have any real numbers to back it up. A higher performance SCSI UW Card may have performed better but the built in bus with a new high speed Hitachi does the job and the drives are ultra dependable and long lasting, not to mention more affordable. These results may not mirror what would happen on a faster bussed machine like a Blue & White, but perhaps someday I will get around to checking the performance levels on them as well. Of course the Sys Info test may not be the ultimate in drive tests either. I have been told by a few expert types that maximum sustained rates while writing and reading multiple files would be a better test for SCSI since Servers frequently see that type of action. For the home user though good news. High speed drives even on an older slower bussed machines like the Beige G3's give you great performance boost.

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I hear that accelerated Macs aren't as dependable?

I will answer that simply. Our companies entire livelihood comes from web servers. Our web servers are Apple Power Mac computers. We have 4. One of them is running a stock Apple processor overclocked (450's bumped to 500). A second is running a G3/500 Sonnet Processor. Our database is run on a system with a 1 Ghz Sonnet Processor. If they were unreliable would I be running them? We not only serve our business but many other business web sites, online stores and mail all on accelerated or overclocked (optimized) systems. They are online 24/7 and have been for years. Even our daily work machines are either accelerated or run stock bumped up processors. Why do slow if you can dependably run faster. Could Sonnet and FastMac stay in business with a liberal 3 year warranty if their products were shoddy? I think not and I suspect most of you don't either but you know how rumors are, usually started by some salesman trying to get you to part with a lot more money on something new rather than upgrade your existing or buy a much less expensive upgraded system from us.

One thing about accelerating any system though is a machine with bad or questionable ram or otherwise has problems will have those problems accelerated. A system in good condition with good ram and a good system install though will run fantastic though once bumped up.

A little further down read about optimization.

QUESTION: Is there any way I can get a bare bones Mac system from your company?

Sure but I will not ship anything that will not run. We can't warranty a non working unit. I get requests sometimes for units without hard drives, ram etc. because the user wants to put in their own. I repeat I will not ship a non working unit. On the other hand I will put in the original HD size, original ram etc. and price out a unit. Keep in mind whatever we do will not be that much less than one decked out. The parts are usually fairly inexpensive. What is expensive is labor and all machines get time spent on them. We put a lot of value in the units we sell by buying parts wholesale and using them to refurbish. It actually is cheaper many times to use a new part than to test the old parts. You can save money (maybe) on buying someone else's untested and uncleaned unit. Let me know what system you are looking at and I will price out a minimum spec unit. Even on our stock spec systems though we clean and thoroughly test all of it. Also remember the extra's we include like new mice etc. and the freight is always included in our bottom line prices.

 

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OSX Tips for All Users - updated 6/5/08

Since OSX is a user based system designed around BSD Unix, there are a few things that most Mac users haven't had to contend with. One of which is permissions. When you install software or fonts that you intend for everyone on your system to use you need to install them from the main user which is sometimes called Admin or Administrator account. It was the first account you set up when you first installed your software. If you install it from one of the user accounts it will only be accessible by that account.

BEFORE AND AFTER YOU INSTALL SOFTWARE and on a regular basis run the Disk Utility (in the Utilities folder) and repair permissions. You have to boot from the first install CD or DVD to run the disk repair feature (you should do this several times a year).

WHEN BOOTED FROM 9 do not throw away or move the little files that OSX puts on the desktop! I thought most folks knew that you should not mess with those files, but we have had several neatniks decide that it would be a good idea to put all of that stuff in a folder named OSX. Imagine their surprise when OSX failed to boot and they had to reinstall X. We named the problem after the first person to do it that we had to fix. Chucking your OSX install is now part of our vocabulary.

FIRMWARE UPDATES FOR X

A list of required firmware updates is listed on Apple's web site. Do this before installing X.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86117

If you are installing OSX for the first time:

1. Read the installer notes and make sure your system has the qualifications for the upgrade.
2. Backup all important work.
3. Run Disk First Aid or the repair utility of your choice. Rebuild the desktop.
4. Make ABSOLUTELY sure your firmware is up to date
5. Know how to zap the pram,
6. how to push the reset switch on your motherboard.
7. If you don't know how on any of the above don't start.
8. If you have trouble and have to try again, unhook everything except the keyboard, mouse, and monitor, and remove all but one stick of RAM. Zap the PRAM and try again.

Another handy program is System Optimizer X (for Tiger and Leopard I now recommend a program called Maintenance). It is on the OSX Kitchen Sink in the Utilities folder. It runs all of the maintenance on your system on demand. Try AppleJack. A bit geekier it does a fine job of running your OSX maintenance also in the OSX Kitchen Sink Diagnostics folder or available for download http://applejack.sourceforge.net/ Read the installation instructions and understand what it means to boot up in single user mode (still no Leopard Versions of either program).

APPLEJACK PREINSTALLED? IF YOU DON'T HAVE APPLEJACK INSTALLED FOR OSX YOU SHOULD!

We recently started preinstalling AppleJack on all OSX systems (No Leopard version at this time). This little utility (Kitchen Sink OSX Diagnostics Folder or downloadable from http://applejack.sourceforge.net/) allows you to repair your disk, repair permissions, validate the system's preference files, and get rid of possibly corrupted cache files. In most cases, these operations can help get your machine back on track. The important thing is that you don't need another startup disk with you. All you need to do is restart in Single User Mode (SUM), by holding down the command and s keys at startup, and then typing applejack, or applejack auto (which will run through all the tasks automatically), or applejack auto restart (which will also restart the computer automatically at the end of the process).

The only gotcha I have found so far is on Beige G3 systems. If you had to borrow someone's monitor to install X, then your other adapted monitor probably will show you a black screen at startup. Since you simply need to type applejack auto restart, I do just that blindly and then leave the system alone. It runs through the cycles and then restarts usually getting you back up and running. There are some other warnings in the documentation so read through them thoroughly before using on your system. This is an emergency repair program and I really would not run it all the time, but it has saved me more than a few times from the hours of reinstallation.

NOTE: It will take longer for your system to boot and synch with your monitor when booting into X. Be patient.

Lose Your X Password or Need to Change It?

Boot up from the first OSX install CD by placing it in the drive and holding down the C key. When it comes up choose Reset Password from the Menu and follow the instructions.

X and Norton or other utilities?

Norton for 9 and below, I love. I can't recommend Norton for OSX at all. In fact I STRONGLY recommend you avoid anything that says Norton on it, and if you want to know why try taking it off your system. All versions of Norton Utility will cause problems and early versions will kill your OSX install. I have used Tech Tool X and Disk Warrior for X, but my best advice at this time is the use the disk repair program when booted from the original X install disk at this time. Do this periodically and it will help keep your drive healthy. Disk Warrior is the only OSX utility I ever use these days and then only for recovery. Never as maintenance.

OSX - To Journal or not to Journal

I had someone ask about Journaling. If you run a server you already probably know about this and have it on your server since it gives you a bit of extra protection and reliability. If you hadn't noticed it became an option for your Mac Extended Hard Drive starting in Panther. Next time you repair permissions using the disk utility in Tiger look at the screen and you may noticing the Journaling option button. I have a rule of thumb about Journaling. I turn it on my boot drive and off on my data drives. What it does is keep additional information as you use your hard drive. In the event of a power dip or crash when you power back up it uses this info to restore the drive. Some folks think that everything should have it turned on but it costs speed. If you use your data drive for video project work for example it slows down the drive access enough it may cause you problems. Burning large amounts of data to an optical may be slowed down enough you may have a failure is another reason you may want to turn it off. Since the drive utility makes it easy to turn on an off you may want to use this to your advantage. Turn it off when you need max performance and on the rest of the time for safety.

HOW DO I BACKUP MY X INSTALL?

Carbon Copy Cloner (http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html) is on the X version of the Kitchen Sink. This puppy allows you to backup your OSX drive to an internally connected drive or an external Firewire drive. This will make a bootable backup! It can also be used to recover parts or all of your X install. This solved one of the main objections I had to X and why I was not an early adopter. Version 3.01 runs in Tiger and above and work with Leopard. It has more features and is more flexible if you are on Tiger or above. I still use the earlier version on everything except Leopard.

If you don't have an internal second drive or an external Firewire drive consider purchasing one. We will talk you through the install if you need help.

BEIGE G3 CLONER TIP: On older systems like your Beige DT and MT's and early iMacs you have to use a command in the menu of Carbon Copy Cloner called Bless Old World Target Drive. This is not well documented and is absolutely essential. If you don't bless it your drive will not appear and will show up as damaged under repair programs. Remember on older systems it has to be LESS THAN 8 GB partition for X to recognize it.

OSX RESTORE TIP

I assume all of you are running with a second drive or external bootable and have a cloned copy of your install. Lets say you just updated to 10.4.10 and stuff stopped working or the system is munged up period. A fast fix that won't interfere with your current files in the User or Applications folders is simply to boot from your backup and use Carbon Copy Cloner to ONLY REPLACE the Library and System Folders. You will be back up with the older working version of the OS in short order and you won't lose any changes. Make sure you run repair permissions after you complete the clone.

My OSX JUST SITS THERE SPINNING THE BEACH BALL AND NEVER FINISHED BOOTING? or maybe you get the Kernel Panic Screen (charcoal gray panel with printing).

ANYTIME YOU ARE HAVING TROUBLE BOOTING UNPLUG EVERYTHING FROM THE BACK OF YOUR COMPUTER except the keyboard and monitor, and of course the power plug. Fix one thing at a time. If you just installed hardware remove it.

• Try booting with the shift key held down. This is called safe mode. If it comes up okay then sometimes you can then simply reboot and things will work normally.
• Boot from the 1st OSX install disk by inserting it and holding the C key down after rebooting. Run Disk First Aid, then run Repair Permissions from the Disk Utility (from the menu).
• Last resort - install the OS again. Make sure you don't tell it to wipe the drive. Once you have reinstalled run the latest COMBINED update to get your system version back up to snuff.
• You can always recover from the backup you made using carbon copy cloner (assuming you made one).
• Run Repair Permissions before and after installing software.

 

KERNAL PANIC

Anyone running OSX may eventually see this appear on the screen. The first thing to do is try following the instructions. If it restarts and everything works again it may just have been time for you to restart your machine. If it does it again, I usually zap the pram and try it again. Some times machines get a bit crazy and zapping the pram restores their minds. If that fails I then simplify the machine by unplugging everything save the keyboard, mouse and monitor. If it repeats again, I go a step further and remove all but one stick of RAM, and all PCI cards. I then do a deep level reset.

If that fails I startup in single user mode by holding the command and s keys down at startup. If I get that far, I then run AppleJack and set it to Auto and Restart. If you don't have AppleJack installed (you really should) then you can type in FSCK and it will do a file system check on your hard drive and may allow you to get back up and running.

If that fails I restart from my backup. Once I identify the problem I start putting things back. Many times it appears to be nothing more than your computer punishing you for some unknown reason. Once I have everything running again I run Maintenance.

OSX MAINTENANCE

Run Repair Permissions before and after installing software. Run Repair Permissions anytime you have trouble with an Application or just any problem in general. If permissions are fouled up it can really munge up a system.

Periodically and before any major upgrades boot from the original X install disk and run the disk utility from the menu and run REPAIR.

System Optimizer X does a lot more than simply repairing permissions. It clears out old logs and runs other maintenance scripts at your command. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT for Jaguar and Panther. It is on the OSX Kitchen Sink in the Diagnostics folder. It runs all of the maintenance on your system on demand.

For Tiger and Leopard I now use an Automator Script that runs the built in maintenance at your command. http://www.titanium.free.fr/pgs/english/apps.html The 1.26 version is for Leopard but also includes the 1.17 for Tiger.

UPDATING OSX - MANUALLY DOWNLOAD THE COMBINED UPDATE!

Way too many of you call after you have munged your OSX system up by running the automatic updater. You can get away with this if you have a second drive with a cloned backup that you can use to restore. Most of you don't, so heed my warning.

ALWAYS RUN THE BUILT IN DISK UTILITY OR SYSTEM OPTIMIZER AND REPAIR PERMISSIONS BEFORE & AFTER INSTALLING UPDATES. I never do a major OS update from the built in updater and always download the COMBINED UPDATE instead. Even at that I wait a few days and visit MacFixit to see what problems folks are having. If you do this you will have less trouble. The small Application updates, security updates etc. are fine to run from the updater, but again always always run repair permissions before and after installing software. If you do kill your X then be prepared to reinstall from the installer disks. Run the Disk Utility from the Apple Menu of the installer disk and run Disk Repair first though.

The guy who wrote System Optimizer has "upgraded" the program. He now calls is SOCKS. While it has many more features it expires quickly and you will have to judge if you want to pay the shareware fee. I will continue to use System Optimizer for the foreseeable future and prefer its simplicity. SOCKS has a much more elegant interface and it has the same functionality and more.

For Tiger and Leopard I now use an Automator Script that runs the built in maintenance at your command. http://www.titanium.free.fr/pgs/english/apps.html The 1.26 version is for Leopard but also includes the 1.17 for Tiger.

There are still no active viruses or spyware for OSX. There are only rumors of possible ones. If you must send $50 to someone send it to me instead of these lying, cheating virus software producers. Sure the programs find viruses in your email but they are PC viruses and none effect the Mac. I personally don't worry about PC users since they are already infected anyway. There is an average of 3 new PC viruses/spyware/Trojans a day. No matter how up to date the PC virus software is, they are already infected. While the program do catch PC viruses in your mail they are worthless and some actually slow down your machine scanning all inserted media etc. DON'T BUY OR INSTALL THEM! Okay so you work in a mixed office and your techs insist you run virus software on your Mac. Download the FREE ClamXav software. They regularly update the definitions so your Mac can kill the PC virus attachments. There is no better virus software in my book and the price is right.. Check http://www.securemac.com/ the next time you start worrying about it.

iMac Black Screen of X - OSX iMac WARNING: Make sure your older Slotload or Trayload iMac's ROM is updated to the latest version before installing OSX. What you get is the iMac Black Screen of X (also called the iMac Black Screen of Death). I have repaired this for many people now. If you have installed the OSX software and only have a black screen to look at you know what I mean! v4.1.9. Use Apple System Profiler under product information to identify what version you have installed on Slot Load iMacs. Trayload iMacs should be at v3.0f3 (the 1.2updater).

I know how to fix iMac's (iMac Black Screen of Death) with this particular problem. If you installed OSX on your iMac and no longer have video display call us about getting it repaired (without having to buy an analog board most likely). Our flat rate (not including parts) is $85 plus return shipping and insurance. We do a thorough cleaning and tune-up included in this price.

iMac Trayload systems will hold up to 512 MB of ram. I have seen information out that says it will not. If yours doesn't your firmware isn't updated or you have bought ram from someone who doesn't know about iMacs. It takes two chips, one 256 MB in the bottom and one in the top slot. I recommend you fill them up if you are going to install X.

OTHER FIRMWARE UPDATES FOR X

A list of required firmware updates is listed on Apple's web site. Do this before installing X. http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86117

INSTALLING CLASSIC PROGRAMS ON YOUR OSX SYSTEM

When installing classic programs that work under OS9 it is always best to install when booted from OS9 when you are able to. If your system is only able to boot into OSX then first load classic mode before starting a classic install.

OSX notes Beige G3 Systems! | OSX Notes B&W G3 Systems | OSX Notes G4 Systems

ON systems that you have upgraded to OSX. If you call with an OSX related question please do us the courtesy of dialing on your dime. Please use the tech support line 901-591-1548 number. We are not OSX experts but have some experience and will do what we can to assist. You can also always drop us an email using the form.

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LaCie - Case Design by Porsche, Electronics by Mickey Mouse

A fellow brought his 400 GB LaCie Firewire Drive in. He was very upset since all of his commercial clients' images were on this drive. I was able to get the drive up and got Disk Warrior to rebuild the directory. He was very happy. The next day he brought it back saying he couldn't get it to mount on his system. I couldn't either. I had about given up and was preparing to take the drives out of the housing to mount in one of our bullet housings. When I opened his up both Firewire ports fell out into my hand. They were surface mount soldered with no other support. Once you see how they are fixed to the board it is hard to believe anyone could keep from tearing up the plugs simply by using them. I couldn't believe something as shoddy as this was in this expensive housing. After I showed the guy the problem I micro soldered one of the two ports back on and put tape around it to support it. We were able to move all of his files to two new 250 GB Silver Bullets. After I moved his files over I pulled the two Maxtor drives and formatted them in two separate Silver Bullet housings. He is happy as a clam. I asked him what he wanted to do with the LaCie housing. We both knew where it belonged. Out in the trash. Ask him how much he saved buying what was supposed to be the best. If you own one of these overpriced pigs be extra careful plugging and unplugging the Firewire cables. I have since worked on several more of these unit but never again. If you need material recovered from one of these pigs good luck. I will never again work on a LaCie product.

When I am out of them my price is 1/2 of what theirs is ...

Every so often someone will call and ask if I will match prices on an item. The latest item is the Pioneer SuperDrive. The prices are being footballed a lot. He said they had the same drive for about 1/2 what I sell them for. Of course the price he was quoting was before shipping, transaction fees, and possibly taxes. Many of the vendors have some rinky dink store front and only take PayPal which gives you little protection against fraud. On top of that while it may have been the identical drive it was just the bare bones unit with no software. I told him if he was going to buy or already had all the software and drivers needed then it was probably a good buy and that he should order it. He said that was the problem, they were out. Well when I am out of something my price is 1/2 of what their out of stock price is ;-)

We work hard to keep our prices sharp but also we want the items to include what you need to make them work with your system. We also understand you may have to call or email us a question or two. That bargain price usually ends up costing you many times since you may have to pay someone to help you install it or buy the software and drivers that were not included with that bargain unit. I know more that a few of you have bought that bargain and ended up sending it back and had to pay excessive restocking fees. Also remember Operator Headgap has been in operation for 18 years, and our retail Mac store has been online over 5 years now. You can call and talk to us during business hours and email us 24/7.

TIP: Many external devices like USB hard drives etc. as well as programs like QuickBooks and many more, use the Carbon Lib for operation. Make sure you have Carbon Lib 1.6 installed on all 8.6-9.2.2 systems. This is on the Kitchen Sink CD in the Apple File Folders. The Carbon Lib resides in your extension folder. Remember even if you are running OSX this is used by programs in classic mode.

Our G4 Towers a good buy or not?

I had a fellow write me that he had recommended us and that they had responded we were a rip-off. That we took old G4 Sawtooth Systems and put upgraded processors in them (of course that is exactly what we do). I hope that you read the descriptions on the products we sell. I NEVER WANT ANYONE TO THINK THAT COMPUTERS YOU ARE BUYING ARE NEW. They are used refurbished units. If you want new then go to Apple or one of the authorized dealers out there. Folks like MacMall, CDW etc. are all happy to sell you a new Mac. What we do sell and I hope is apparent to all is a thoroughly reconditioned system at a good price. We, unlike most others usually install brand new hardware into these USED REFURBISHED COMPUTERS. We warranty our systems for 90 days. For example all of our G4 Towers we sell have new Hitachi 80 GB Hard Drives in them. They have a full 1 year manufacturers warranty. All have new New Pioneer DVDRW/CDRW unit installed that carry their own 1 year mfgs warranty. If they have the Sonnet processor in them, it has a 3 year factory warranty. These components far exceed the original performance and we even advertise the systems SYSINFO ratings on our chart. These systems also all still run the older OS version. For many it keeps you from having to upgrade a lot of additional hardware and software.

Most of you know that you could chase down an older G4 Tower and could buy a new drive, a new optical, new ram, new clock battery, new processor, install all these things and could you yourself could thoroughly clean the system and polish and wax the case and you might save a buck or two if you are able to do this type of work. We think it is nice though that you are willing to pay us a bit to do this work for you. Since we buy in bulk and at wholesale prices and price our units as sharply as possible I think it would be hard for anyone to build a system and offer the performance for the delivered price we do with a warranty, phone and email support. Apparently most of you do as well as we have been hard pressed to keep up with demand on these units.

We appreciate your business and support and thank you for recommending us to your friends.

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PLAY TWO DVD's AT ONCE AND MAKE CHANGE:

This week a local customer of ours brought in his kids slot load iMac. He said the CD/DVD Player wasn't working. After pulling two DVD's out using forceps I had Cheryn order a new DVD mechanism. When we pulled the mechanism out a penny fell out. I am not exactly sure what killed the drive. It probably was the two DVD's at once but it could have been the penny. Always remember to eject by pulling the DVD icon to the trash before putting in a second CD or DVD in the drive. If it fails to eject and you tried restarting then using a paper clip to push the almost invisible button on the right side of the CD/DVD slot. Get out your drug store glasses, it really is there. Never put pennies or other items in your optical slot. As far as I know the iMac doesn't make change although you can do almost everything else with one. If you have two CD's or DVD's in your drive plan on buying a replacement mechanism as this always trashes it. We do this type of repair should you need it and even with shipping probably a lot more reasonable than your local shops.

OPTIMIZATION, WHY DO IT?

When I was 16 I bought my first car. It as an old Ford 6 cylinder. I was tuning it up putting in new plugs and points and a friend stopped by. He said we need to check your pedal. I didn't know what he was talking about. He told me to hang on to the throttle cable and got in the car and pressed the gas pedal to the floor. The throttle as about a 1/4" from being totally open. He helped me optimize my carburetor. He said that most car makers never give you all the pedal. I never did know why but perhaps they had their reasons or maybe the carpet stood up further than it should. From then on each new or used car I bought got optimized. I want all the pedal.

Computers have processors and that equates to an engine in a car. The manufacturers have to make sure your computer runs under a wide ranges of circumstance and that sometimes they compromise reliability over performance. Now I don't know about you but I don't run my computer in a 100 degree room. If I did I might have problems bumping up the processor speed. Some of the units we sell have had their processors optimized. We note them in the descriptions if this is so. We test them to insure that they are reliable at the higher speeds.

Motorola, and IBM manufacturer the processors. Apple many times set the speed levels at a very conservative level. We sometimes bump those processors one notch and thoroughly test them and check temperatures at the next higher rating. If they aren't rock solid we don't sell them. Many very possibly would be stable at even higher ratings. We also make sure that your heat sink is in solid contact with the processor and in some cases use a silver heat sink compound to insure your unit is running as cool as possible and many times cooler even at the higher ratings than the stock unit was running. Some of our servers and many of our work stations which run 24/7 for years have done so with optimized processors.

I think you deserve to have all the pedal your computer has to offer without sacrificing reliability.

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NOTES ABOUT THE NEW SONNET G4 ZIF UPGRADES:

We just installed a SONNET G4/800 ZIF Processor in our Beige G3 Tower FileMaker Server. I had to change out the 256 MB stick of ram that failed shortly after we restarted and began testing the server as it quickly failed. (Sonnet warned that some low quality ram would not make the grade). I am impressed by the quality and speed of the new processor. If you have been considering upgrading your processor the new Sonnet series of upgrades looks like a real winner.

I have already been asked about why they slow down the bus speed to 66 MHz in the Blue and White units. An unofficial discussion with one of their techs told me they weren't happy to do that but it still gave a great performance boost even running at the slower bus speeds. It seems the older machines just won't handle it and stay reliable. I think they are still a great upgrade value and you should consider it for your Blue and White if you haven't. Lets face it, running at 800 or 1 GHZ with a G4 processor@66 MHz Bus speeds beats a G3or4/500@100 MHz bus speeds. Up to now other than the Powerlogix upgrades it is the only choice you have had. I have already installed several of the 800's and more recently the 1ghz model and the customers are really pleased. Cheryn runs one daily.

TROUBLE:

Cheryn and I both have observed over a long period of time most problems and solutions occur somewhere between the keyboard and the chair when it comes to Macs (thanks to a recent Reader's Digest). If you wondered what Operator Headgap means, well if it is not a hardware problem, or a software problem, then it is operator headgap. We chose that name for our BBS over 18 years ago (we used Commodore's back then) because we felt like a lot of folks struggled to learn this technology just like us.

If you purchased a system from us we include a Troubleshooting Guide in .PDF format on most systems. Check there first. Mac systems have a powerful help system built in that even includes tutorials on how to do different things. Give it a try. It is in the menu bar at the top of the screen. Try typing in your question. It will try to give you an answer and does a good job most of the time.

When you need us try using the email form: Contact Us first. You will get your answer faster most often as we answer emails frequently and off hours. Make sure you include what system you have and what OS version you are running. We accept technical calls during business hours on equipment that we sell and if your system is down we realize this may be your only way to reach us. 1-877-639-1543 Toll Free 9-6 CST Mon-Fri. If you want advice please call on your dime. Our tech support number is 901-591-1548 and we answer this phone 9-6 Mon. - Fri.

ROM UPDATES:

Rom updates should be kept current on all Macs that use them. Check Apple System Profiler/Product Information/ROM Revision.

• If you have a Blue & White tower Yours should say 1.1f4.
• If you have an iMac Slot load should read 4.19, Trayload 3.0f2 or f3.
• If you have a G4 Tower yours should read at least 4.2.8. Generally you only have to update the Sawtooth, Gigabit Ethernet, and Digital Audio models. Newer towers will have a later version. The QuickSilver's firmware should read 4.25 but later models may have 4.33 or even 4.48.

Other rom updates are listed at Apple: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86117

The updates are available on the Apple Web Site or of course on the Kitchen Sink CD. Follow the directions. One note of caution: Don't do this during a thunderstorm. If the power goes off before flashing is complete you can ruin your computer. On the trayload iMacs you must install OSX on the first partition and it must be less than 8 GB's (like the Beige Boxes). I have not installed Panther on a trayload iMac. I would check the read me before installing.

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APPLE SYSTEM PROFILER:

Under the Apple Menu resides a great little utility on OS versions 8.6 and above called Apple System Profiler. Load it up and you will see a breakdown of what processor, how fast, how much ram and what size chips and a whole lot more. It also tells you about what devices and volumes you have connected. If you are having trouble with something check the profiler. If for example your new USB card isn't working it will tell you if it is plugged in properly and by using the menu selections it will also tell you why it isn't working in some cases. This is the best way to check to see if you got what you paid for when purchasing a system.

It will also tell you what rom version you have. In the beige boxes this is hardware but it later versions it is updated via software. You should always have the latest Boot ROM version update installed on your system. Read the instructions carefully when installing. Older Slotload iMac's should have 4.1.9. G4 Tower units should have 4.2.8 or later (QuickSilver 4.2.5 or 4.33 or 4.4.8). Blue & White units should have 1.1f4.

LIGHTNING, BROWNOUTS, POWER SURGES:

If you don't have your system on a surge suppressor you are asking for it. We sell low cost and better quality surge supressors that help protect your system. If you have a modem you should buy a surge suppressor that allows you to run your phone line through it since these are probably the most sensitive item on your system. Even with a high quality suppressor unplug your equipment (including the modem from the phone line) during strong thunderstorms. No suppressor will protect you if the strike is strong enough. Take no chances. Our warranty doesn't cover damages caused from lightning or power surges. If you have frequent black outs and brownouts do be aware that the little MOV gizmo's in the surge protection units wear out. You should replace them periodically. How often I can't say but I replace mine about every 2 years in our area which has a pretty stable grid and infrequent storms. The manufacturer of your surge protector may have a recommendation.

Remember though that the little MOV capacitors inside these units wear out and give you no warning when they are about to go. Buy a new one each time you replace your equipment.

If you are bucks up add a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) and this is really what you should do. This not only gives you spike protection it keeps your system from going down due to low power brownouts. It also gives you time to shut down if you should have a power failure. Because these weigh a lot you are going to get your best price at the local discount stores most often. Watch the sale papers for the discount stores. They are getting really affordable. We don't stock these because they are heavy and best bought using truck shipping. We have larger ones on our servers and they last about an hour keeping us online during short blackouts.

HELP LIGHTNING KILLED MY ETHERNET

If your system works fine otherwise but the Ethernet port is fried then simply buy a 10/100 Ethernet card or Gigabit card. You can get away with the cheaper Realtek card but have to install drivers. The Apple card requires no drivers in 9 or X and is easier to install but it does cost a little more. Add a network surge protector.

COLD (applies to Winter):

Please let your computer warm up to room temperature before turning it on. Sometimes problems incurred immediately after receipt of a machine go away when the unit is warm. A floppy drive in particular is sensitive to cold. The grease they use for lubricant thickens in the cold and causes perfectly good disks to ask to be formatted. Allowing things to warm up a bit usually fixes this problem. I used to think I was perfect, but as many machines as we ship I have missed plugging in the floppy drive during assembly of your machine. Hopefully I will never miss another. If your CD doesn't work after warming up then pull the cover and check the connectors on the drive and on the motherboard. These sometimes are stretched tight and when opening the case they pull loose.

NOISY CD:

We on occasion get a complaint about the noise a CD makes in a G3 Desktop (I guess the Tower cases dampen the sound better). If you are used to a 4X or 8X drive, the 24X mechanism makes more noise since it spins much faster. Apple had the same complaints when these units were originally sold as new and actually engineered a metal vibration damper that hooks to the plastic tray. Pull the drive part way out if (lift up on the plastic latch after removing the computer housing) and bend the metal legs a bit so that it contacts the housing a little more firmly and push the drive back in until it catches. You can also stick a rubber foot or a shaved down eraser above the mechanism wedging it in. It will help dampen the vibration noise created from these early 24X mechanisms. You may find some disks make more noise than others. I don't notice them so much since they all consistently are louder than some mechanisms. It doesn't mean they are mechanically bad, they generally function well. You can of course replace them with a new 52X SONY CDRW mechanism. (These days I like the Pioneer Optical Drives better) While even faster SONY engineered them well and these are brand new modern mechanisms and you will have the benefit of being able to burn your own CD's. Even those make more noise than the older slower mechanisms. We also have a different drive model that is a bit less noisy. You can call in an order and get a 24X replacement mechanism for $14.77 including shipping. Tell the order taker you need a quieter 24X CD for your G3.

I think the early iMac CD patch actually slows down the mechanism to fix the problem. While the patch does make things quieter I am quite sure the mechanism is now running at a slower rate.

Sometimes a CD will be slightly out of balance. If you have one that is noisier than others this is probably the case. Make a backup CD if you are able. The copy should run quieter.

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SYSTEM EXTENSION SETS:

If you purchased a system from us, we put three sets of system extensions on your system besides the factory ALL and BASE settings. When you install programs on a Macintosh many programs install their own system extensions. They sometimes conflict with other extensions that are already installed. Should you experience freezes or crashes after installing a program, going to the backup extension set and then adding the newly installed extensions one at a time after restarting is a good way to troubleshoot problems. Remember not to update the set since this will place all of the problem extensions into your backup set.

TO START WITH EXTENSIONS OFF: hold down the shift key while rebooting. Choose Control Panels under the Apple Menu and select extensions manager, use the pull down to choose an alternative set.

Once you have identified the problem extension, you may be able to live without the features it adds. If you can't try to find a newer or older version and see if you can get things working. Lastly try adding a z to the front of the name of the extension. By making it load later in the startup sequence problems can sometimes be averted, conversely you can add a space to the front of the name to make it load first.

Once you get your new items installed and working properly, why not create your own backup extension set that you can return to if things get fouled up?

OH GOD, nothing seems to help.... Boot from a back up and go into the system folder down to the preferences. Discard the Finder Preferences and restart your system. This sometimes fixes stubborn booting problems.

ANYTIME YOU ARE HAVING TROUBLE BOOTING UNPLUG EVERYTHING FROM THE BACK OF YOUR COMPUTER except the keyboard and monitor, and of course the power plug. Fix one thing at a time.

The last set of extensions we install are locked. When you select that set it will ask if you want to make a copy. Saying yes will create a set of extensions exactly as it left us. Make sure not to let the system update the set as it will add the extensions installed after delivery, which may be causing the problem.

NEVER remove anything manually from the System Folder. Use the extension manager (under control panels) to turn things on and off. Discarding a corrupt preference file is okay.

NEVER NEVER NEVER install Conflict Catcher. I know people who swear by, and a lot of books and Mac "experts" think it the best thing since sliced bread, BUT I will not work on a machine that has it installed without first wiping the hard drive to remove all traces of it. I will never use software that MODIFIES the system files. Learn to test extensions by using the built in extension manager. Maybe there is a reason these guys are no longer in business?

What other Disk Utilities are good? I run the Apple Disk First Aid utilities periodically. It sometimes catches are repairs problems others miss. I use Disk Warrior to repair removable disks like Zips and Opticals (and the X version for recovery in X). I also use Tech Tool but prefer their hardware diagnostic features over their disk repair. While some people swear by Disk Warrior I have recovered more damaged drives using Norton. Drives that Disk Warrior wouldn't even see. I do however use all of these utilities. If I had only one it would be Norton for OS9 and earlier. For OSX Disk Warrior pretty much exclusively.

(OS8-9 only) Never DEFAULT install Norton Utilities on your system. The default install puts what I consider crap all into your system. Crashguard, Filesaver, Live Update, and Disklight cause far more problems than they are worth. If you did a full install disable them. I love Disk Doctor and Speed Disk but I run them from the CD when needed.

NEVER RUN NORTON Disk Doctor 6.0.2 or earlier on an OSX system. Norton 6.03 or later for OSX systems was supposed to be okay and it has to be run from OS9 or by booting from the CD (IT IS NOT). Use the Get Info from under the file menu after selecting the Disk Doctor icon to see what version you are running. TAKE MY ADVICE, if you have X installed forget running NORTON AT ALL. Use the Disk Utility that comes with X by booting from your install disk. Run the repair. If that doesn't fix it buy Disk Warrior.

NEVER RUN NORTON 3.5 or earlier on an HFS+ Formatted Drive. "Where have all my file gone" is the results if you do. It will destroy the contents of the drive. You may be able to recover it with the patch someone put out for Norton called drive fix 1.1. A proper version of Norton 5.0 or later (preferably 6 or later on OS9 systems) will probably fix it as well. If you are using PowerPC and 8.1 or better on your systems discard this old Norton. It is fine for older 68K machines and the older OSes.

"Where have all my file gone" will show up on a drive that has been formatted HFS+ when being read on a system that doesn't support HFS+. Your files are still there most likely. You simply need to boot back up on a PowerPC with 8.0 or later to view the files. HFS+ saves space on a hard drive. It does require a PowerPC processor or better. Your old 68K Macs can't use HFS+.

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(OS8-9 only) HOW TO USE NORTON SYSTEM WORKS FROM THE CD:

Insert the CD. Open the Norton System Works Folder from the CD. Inside open the Norton Utilities Folder. Inside that folder open the Norton Tools Folder. Launch Disk Doctor and run it. It takes a while. Once it comes back with no errors (you can run it several times if need be and you can tell it to skip the Checking Media since once it has checked for bad blocks it is not necessary to keep doing it over and over. That will speed things up a bit. I do a quick check by having it skip the Checking Media. Once finished load Speed Disk and tell it to optimize the drive. (NEVER RUN NORTON ON A HARD DRIVE THAT HAS OSX ON IT).

In Disk Doctor, If the drive doesn't show up that you are wanting to repair:

Open the Disks menu and select show missing disks. If this fails try adding custom disks and click the arrow and select the disks partition name.

If the drive is not spinning up or is making the click or clack of death, move on. We have hard drives in stock.

To check viruses: Open System Works and find the Norton Antivirus. Tell it to Scan/Repair. I would be really amazed if you ever found one.

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Live software updates have bitten me on the butt often enough that I now manually download and install any updates I need. I highly suggest you not enable the software update features of any package including Apple. I generally wait a few days after the release of any major OS update and review the MacFixit.com web site to see how the installs are going and what trouble people are having.

If your Mac doesn't wake up from sleep you have an extension conflict most likely. Turn off all extensions except the base and then manually put your computer to sleep from the pull down menu. If it goes to sleep and wakes again you can then start going through the extensions a few at a time until you find the culprit. Some Beige G3 units came with a CD drive that caused this problem. Apple released a patch to update your 24X CD's rom (G3 CD Update 2.0.smi) on the Apple Web Site. Some hardware combinations may keep the machine from coming back up. Scanners, zip drives, CDRW's etc. USB 2.0 cards may cause this issue. Having them is obviously better than not. In this case don't use the sleep features, and disable them from the control panels.

MY MAC COMPUTER WON'T WAKE UP FROM SLEEP:

Go to the extension manager in the control panels select energy saver. Turn it off!!! Problem solved!

Oh yeah, if your computer doesn't wake up politely don't put it to sleep from the menu either.

Sometimes you can have it turn off the display but leave the hard drive running. You have that option in the later energy saver versions. Just click the show details button and change the settings.

What the real problem is, is you have installed software or hardware that isn't compatible with the sleep function. If you really want to fix it then try the following. Unhook everything but the keyboard, mouse and monitor. Manually put the computer to sleep using the sleep selection in the menu under special. Wake it up. If it wakes back up okay then it is one of the pieces of hardware you unhooked. Add one back at a time until you find the culprit. Internally it could be a card. You may have to pull all the cards and test it that way.

If it fails to wake backup with the hardware test, then it is a software conflict. Turn off half of the extensions and try it. If it fails try the other half. By process of elimination you can eventually discover the culprit. Most likely it is something you want so you should have just turned off the energy saver selection off to start with. You can then either leave the computer running all the time like we do or you can simply shut it down until you need it again.

The USB2.0 cards we carry including the Combo card do not allow full sleep in OS9. They generally allow full sleep in OSX, but certain USB2 devices may not. If you want a USB2 card then live with it, nobody else's cards do either.

Different models and hardware combinations make this a tough thing to troubleshoot. I personally don't waste time trying to figure it out. I have spent a few hours only to discover it was the CD Rom Driver on one unit for a guy that insisted that he needed it. I eventually found a patch for a G3DT 24XCD mechanism from Apple that fixed it. Generally though it will be something there is no fix for and is caused by something you can't live without.

John Kasper writes that the Apple support site recommends this: I trashed the Energy Saver and Finder Prefs and that has fixed the problem. At least it seems so.

Try deep zapping the pram. Don't know how. Type zap pram in the Mac OS help menu.

NEVER plug a PC Serial Printer into the SCSI port (I didn't even know it would fit!). It certainly keeps the computer from booting and may physically damage your system. Abuse like this is not covered under warranty.

Check to make sure things are plugged in. Sometimes in shipping the units get banged around. Open your computer and make sure the hard drive and CD are plugged in, both directly to the drive and where it plugs into the motherboard. If you need help doing this give us a call.

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INSTALLING PROGRAMS:

INSTALL X PROGRAMS FROM X, INSTALL OS9 Program booted from OS9! If your system doesn't boot into OS9 then you have no choice but to install from classic mode. Not all installers will work in classic mode. The older the program the more likely you are to have trouble.

There is no need to be afraid to add programs to your system. When I add a new program I run Disk First Aid from the utilities folder and get a clean bill of health on the drive before proceeding. If you are installing from the Kitchen Sink or one of our other CD's it is a good idea to copy the archive to your hard drive before unarchiving and installing. The program will install faster from the hard drive. You would not do this for OS or large program or game installs however since the components may take up most of the available hard drive space. READ THE INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS if they come with the program. Make sure your system meets the requirements, and that they apply to your system.

When installing printer drivers make sure they are current versions FOR YOUR OS. Don't assume the latest version if the one on the CD that came with the printer you just bought either. Check the manufacturers web site. Don't stick a 5 year old disk in your drive and install a printer driver unless you are sure it will work with the version of the OS you have installed. I can't tell you how many systems I have fixed that the only thing wrong was an OLD incompatible printer driver.

WHEN THE INSTALLER WON'T INSTALL - If you try to launch the installer but after starting it simply hangs up and does nothing, you most likely have something running that the installer can't quit. Try restarting the machine and then installing. If that doesn't work try installing after restarting with the extensions turned off. If you have an HP printer and have installed the drivers for it an extension called HP Background may be causing your hang-ups. Disable it from the extensions manager. On some programs you may simply want to copy the installer from the CD and place it on the desktop. Some programs will not install from a CD. I sometimes notice folks trying to install TO THE CD. The CD is a locked volume. You must select a hard drive to install to.

Remember if you use Adobe Type Manager (ATM) that versions earlier that 4.5.2 will not work with OS9 and will lock up your system on reboot if you do.

We presently only play in OSX, and test our components to insure they function properly. In case you haven't figured it out yet it is a Candied version of BSD Unix. It is a whole different operating system that looks and works differently. It looks great but requires 256 MB of RAM (really more) and 3 GB of storage space available (and that's just for the OS), and a G3 or better processor or better (I recommend a 400 MHz or better). There are HACKS that allow you to install it on older hardware but they are just that, HACKS! While many folks may swear by these I find them to be less than reliable. Before you install it on your system keep in mind that it may foul the machine at a deep level if things go wrong. Many of your existing accessories may not work including printers, graphics cards, scanners, floppies, and more. You will need to upgrade your software in most cases and some old favorites like PageMaker will not run under OSX. I am not saying that OSX is not the future it is, but go into upgrading with your eyes open. Study up before you make the move. Booting back into 9 and OSX's present ability to do that has saved a few folks.

PLEASE READ MY OSX Notes

OSX notes for Beige G3 Systems! | OSX Notes for B&W G3 Systems | New! OSX Notes for G4 Systems

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HELP MY CONTROL STRIP IS STUCK IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SCREEN:

If you select Help from the Mac Center in the menu bar at the top at type CONTROL STRIP it will tell you to move the control strip use the option key and move it by the tab at the end as well as a bit more information about using it. Always try Help from the menu bar anytime you have a problem.

CONNECTING WITH YOUR INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDER (ISP):

We are not your ISP. You pay them for Internet service and they are responsible for helping get you set up. If you bought the machine from us, it was thoroughly tested to insure that the hardware functions as it should. Because there are so many ISP's and each with a different way they hookup you will have to depend on them for getting connected and any troubleshooting. Find one that doesn't make a face when you say Macintosh. If you are using Cable or DSL then they will probably come out and install a cable modem. Most Macs have built in 10BaseT and some even have 100BaseT built in or it can be added with an optional 10/100 Ethernet Card (we keep them in stock). If your ISP seems to be unfamiliar with your Mac show him the TCPIP Control Panel (in the Apple Menu/Control Panels). That is where you enter the IP addresses and DNS numbers for Internet connectivity. Most PC users can't believe how easy it is to set up a Mac. Some require special software for connecting your system. When you order your connection make sure they know you will be using a Macintosh and let them know the version of the operating system you are running.

I don't think much of EarthLink by the way and they only support OSX nowadays. If you have OS8.5 through 9.2.2 their software doesn't work properly with it. Their web site does have instructions for setting up FreePPP and we include the program in your Internet Folder or on the Kitchen Sink CD. It is what we use for dialup connections and find it works as well as any method. Don't look to them for phone help.

DO YOU THINK ALL INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDERS (ISP) SUCK?

If you get totally fed up with ISP's who don't support older Macs try http://www.fastermacs.net/ They are Mac only and have local dialup numbers in most areas and are less than $10 a month with 24/7 support with folks that know what a control panel is.

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MODEM USERS:

If you are using AOL simply install the software and follow the directions. I put AOL 5.0 on most systems in the Internet folder which is the latest Mac version that will work with system 8 and 9. Don't go downloading or installing from their CD what you already have. If you have trouble call their support line, they have a good one and usually the folks who answer can help. Their installer puts the right pieces on your system automatically. Once you are connected to AOL you can then launch a REAL BROWSER like Internet Explorer or Netscape and use the AOL connection to surf the net.

If you are using other software be aware that Apple Remote Access is preinstalled on most systems we sell. You may need to turn on the components in the Extensions Manager since we usually disable it.

IF YOU ARE USING ARA (Apple Remote Access) to connect with your Service Provider you may need to turn on these extensions in the extensions manager. On many models we ship the units with them disabled. There are several control panels and several extensions (usually 3 of each). Simply open the extensions manager from the control panels and click the appropriate box to select them and turn them on. Restart.

ARA conflicts with FreePPP and some Fax software. If you decide to use FreePPP or your Service Provider requires it you may have to disable ARA extensions and control panels.

DID YOU KNOW IF YOU SELECT HELP FROM THE MENU BAR FROM FINDER AND TYPE IN MODEM IT WILL WALK YOU THROUGH SETTING UP YOUR MODEM FOR ARA?

If you are having trouble getting your modem configured try the built in help file! It will walk you through setting up Apple Remote Access (ARA) and configuring TCPIP for your Internet Service Provider. It has tips for helping you work through any problems you may be having.

We like and use FreePPP to connect to the Internet via modems. It is usually in the Internet folder though not installed and it is on the Kitchen Sink CD. If you decide to use it make sure that the Apple Remote Access extensions and control panels are turned off. Check with your ISP though to make sure they support using FreePPP. FreePPP is pretty dated and most folks these days are using ARA.

IF YOU HAVE CALL WAITING ON YOUR MODEM LINE:

I thought everyone in the world knew by now that if you have call waiting on your line to add a *70, before the prefix on the numbers your modem dials. This temporarily disables call waiting so someone won't call you while you are cruising the web and knock you offline. Dialing manually *71 reenables it if you think it got hung while using your modem. It normally resets itself.

DIRTY PHONE LINES:

No I am not talking about the 1-900 lines. If you pick up your phone and hear someone talking to their Aunt Jessie or pops and clicks in the background you have a dirty line. Your telephone service is required to give you a clean signal up to your box. I never tell them I am using the line with a computer. Just tell them you have interference on your voice line if you call to complain. You are responsible usually from the box into your home. I check my box a couple of times a year and clean out the creepy crawlers and make sure it isn't full of water etc. You might also check the connections in the box to make sure they are clean and tight.

Not too long ago I had someone buy a system from us and they could not get the modem to work although they could hear it dial and it would ring a voice line. We shipped a second modem and that modem would not work either. The guy finally took the system to another house and it worked fine. While they could not hear any trouble the line was dirty enough to keep them from getting a good connection with their ISP. Sometimes you just have to call the durn phone company.

MORE MODEM TROUBLESHOOTING (OS8-9):

USB MODEMS: Some devices need to reset with the computer. If you plug them into a powered hub they do not reset properly since the modem maintains power from the hub. At least for troubleshooting purposes plug the unit directly in one of the USB ports on the computer. The hub may work fine once you get things working properly.

If you bought one of our open box units, we took that modem and thoroughly tested it before we repackaged it. I doubt seriously that the modem itself is defective, your odds would have been higher of receiving a bad one on sealed unit. All things are possible though, but usually it is a configuration problem.

Are you able to select the proper modem driver from the modem setup? You should have copied the modem script into your modem scripts folder from the CD. I usually recommend running Apple Disk First Aid and rebuilding the desktop after installing software.

If you are using Apple Remote Access (ARA) I would recommend you make sure all the components are turned on in your extension manager. There are 7 pieces. 3 control panels, 4 extensions. To eliminate it as a source of problems I recommend you disable any fax software and its extensions while troubleshooting.

If you are using a USB modem you also need to make sure that all USB related extensions are turned on. I know yours probably are but I have to ask.

Sometimes discarding the modem preference file (from the System Folder/Preferences) and any associated prefs (like TCPIP etc.) and restarting will allow you to rebuild those preferences. Sometimes these get fouled. If you do this you will need to reselect the modem script and reset any preferences for the files you discarded.

One way I test a modem on a system is to use ZTERM (on our Kitchen Sink in the Telecom folder). Holding the shift key down immediately after launching the program allows you to choose the port you want to use. Once the terminal is up you can type in ATDT and any phone number and it should ring the line and try to connect (I make mine ring the wife's cell phone or connect with our BBS line). That lets you know the modem is functioning. This uses its own built in routines bypassing other system software. If it works then the problem is elsewhere, most likely software.

Fortunately not often but does sometimes occur for folks replacing a damaged internal modem is that sometimes the internal prevents you from using the modem software. Removing it may be necessary since it may be interfering with the software you are using. Because this involved partially disassembling your Mac I try everything else first.

NEVER PLUG A MODEM INTO A DIGITAL LINE

Did you take your system to the office and plug your modem into the companies digital phone line? Had to buy a new modem didn't you? I almost hesitated to tell you this because we sell more modems this way..... '-)

FAX USERS:

If you own FAXstf then install and use it with your modem. If not we include ValueFax (under Telecom) on the Kitchen Sink CD. It is a shareware program that works well and it is easy to use. We paid the shareware fee and it is the fax program we use in our daily operations. If you like and use this program make sure you register and pay the shareware fee. We all benefit if the author can profit from spending time keeping the program updated.

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NETWORKING NOTES:

If you are hooking up an internal network spend a few dollars more and get 10/100 SWITCHES rather than hubs. They look the same but a SWITCH handles the traffic like a stoplight rather than a stop sign. If you are on a budget and speed is not a real issue we have some bargain 10BaseT products available and these will work as fast as the internal Ethernet on most PowerPC or older systems.

We like and sell a 10/100 PCI Ethernet Card (8139C or D Chipset) that fits into a PCI slot on any 7200 and up PowerPC. These also work in PC's and are OSX compatible when you install the required driver! If you are on an internal network or a cable or DSL modem and have a PCI slot open you really should invest the less than $20 bucks it takes to upgrade your machine. Our genuine Apple 10/100 Ethernet Cards require no driver in 8.5-OSX. Your iMac and Blue & White G3 or better have 10/100 Ethernet built in. The Ethernet cards are simply to install, simply place it in an open PCI slot, and add the driver (from the Kitchen Sink CD/Ethernet Drivers folder into your systems extensions folder after unstuffing it. Restart your machine and choose the Ethernet slot in your TCPIP control panel and you are now working at 100BaseT speeds!

We recently added low cost Gigabit Ethernet Cards. They work in Beige G3 with the 45F roms, Blue and White, G4 Yikes and Sawtooth units to give the ability to those units to run 1000 base-T. Not a whole lot of folks will need 1000 base T for home networks etc. but I would still use this card anytime you could. Even on 100 base-T networks it is faster than 100 base T cards apparently due to a decrease in latency (they respond faster even if the pipe is smaller). These have the Realtek 8169 chips and we include the drivers for 9, 10.2, 10.3, 10.4 on CD. When we first found these cards we didn't have the 9 drivers available but I eventually ran it down and tested it down to OS8.6. These also are good replacement cards if you have a Digital Audio or later G4 to replace the built in 1000 baseT if it gets damaged. Every spring we have a rash of folks who lose their built in Ethernet due to lightning damage. Two of my servers that still run on OS8.6 have these cards installed.

HOOK UP TWO MACS:

If you have no need for a regular network but just want to hook up two Macs that both have Ethernet connections, to move files or whatever simply purchase a CROSSOVER CABLE from us. We also carry a CROSSOVER COUPLER that allows you to use two normal Ethernet Cables to hook two Macs directly to each other. Set up File sharing and have at it. If you don't know how the Mac OS Help includes a tutorial and will actually walk you through setting file sharing up. We also stock an item called a Dayna Print-T that allows you to use a PhoneNet connector to hook up an AppleTalk capable Printer (or small PhoneNet network, including your old classic Macs) to your Ethernet network to share resources. If your old Mac doesn't have Ethernet you can use this with a PhoneNet connector to hook up to an Ethernet network. We also carry the PhoneNet connectors, terminators and phone cables for connecting older equipment together. Turn on file sharing and start moving files etc. Turn it back off when finished.

TIP: Turn Filesharing off when you are not using it. There is a bug in the software that causes occasional lockups. Apple knew this and chose not to do anything about it and now that they are not supporting the classic OSes anymore it will never be fixed. Besides that, it slows down rebooting the machine depending on how much you are sharing. Also Filesharing only has to be turned on the host machine. The other machine(s) that are used to access the host does not need Filesharing turned on. It is best to share a folder rather than the whole hard drive and will actually speed up your operations if you learn to work this way.

DID YOU KNOW IF YOU SELECT HELP FROM THE MENU BAR FROM FINDER AND TYPE IN FILESHARING IT WILL WALK YOU THROUGH SETTING UP FILESHARING?

HOOK UP YOUR OLD SCSI POWERBOOK TO YOUR DESKTOP:

If your PowerBook has an HDI-30 SCSI connection (almost square with lots of pins) you are very lucky. By using our SCSI BUDDY you can use this to connect a 25 pin to 25 pin cable (like a zip drive uses) from your PowerBook to your Desktop system (as long as you have SCSI out). Your PowerBooks hard drive will appear on the Desktop when in buddy mode after you connect and restart both machines. This allows you to synchronize files easily or to run Norton Repair , or Speed Disk, or backup, or install new software using the horsepower of your desktop unit to drive it. We use this to set up and test PowerBooks. If you have a Firewire connection you can simply press command T at startup after hooking up your Firewire cable to your Desktop Firewire port and the PowerBooks hard drive will mount in the desktops window allowing you to run utilities, installs etc.

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HOOK UP TWO OR MORE MACHINES TO ONE CABLE/DSL CONNECTION:

Check the discount store ads in the Sunday paper. Find a LinkSys 4 Port Cable/DSL Router (about $39-$60 after rebate, Radio Shack actually carries them as well). You can also use the slightly more expensive Wireless LinkSys 4 Port. It will work in place of an Airport for much less if you think you might want Wireless access down the road or already have an Airport enabled machine. Other router brands may work but we know these work reliably. It is what we use! Order your Ethernet Cables from us. The discounters stick you on them after saving you on the LinkSys. Follow the instructions that comes with the LinkSys. Set your LinkSys to serve DHCP and then change your TCPIP settings on your Mac to DHCP. Your router will automatically assign your machines IP addresses then. This router has the added benefit of providing some protection against hackers (built in NAT firewall). Install 10/100 Ethernet cards for faster access. By the way NETGEAR sucks. I am not real happy about DLINK either but you already know this if you tried to get product support from them. LinkSys probably doesn't have any better support but you won't need it since the product works. UPDATE: Go ahead and spring for the Wireless N! Even if your current systems are B or G the N is substantially faster and it won't be too long before you want it.

WIRELESS

I like and use Linksys Routers for my Mac network. They are relatively cheap these days and since even Radio Shack carries them, we don't bother. I keep expecting to see an endcap of them any day in the Walgreens. Buy the LinkSys Wireless N (regular only not the Turbo crap). Hard connect via Ethernet one of your systems to set up the unit. First thing put in a password. The default password will result in every 12 year old on the Internet taking over your router. Second put in a network name. Make it simple so you can remember it but not too simple. No spaces. You will want to enter that name on each system you have wirelessly accessing your network so that it doesn't try to roam. That way your connection is solid since you have told your unit to hook directly to that network.

Wireless 802.11N is the latest and fastest 802.11G is equivalent to Airport Extreme and is the faster than the old B. 802.11b is your regular Airport connection and are sometimes available or even necessary for older equipment running older software.

Airport cards for older Macs are no longer produced. That is why the price is higher today on those units than they were new. I never used Airport choosing instead industry standard items where possible (I'm cheap). For iBooks though you really don't want something hanging on the back that you have to plug in, so the Airport card is about the only option.

I hate DLINK. While some of their stuff is advertised as Mac compatible I have always had trouble. Perhaps you haven't and I guess good for you.

We have both N and G solutions at value prices. They do require 10.3.9 or later. ALWAYS CHECK OUR WIRELESS SECTION FOR THE BEST LOW COST SOLUTIONS!

ADD WIRELESS G TO YOUR OSX DESKTOP VIA PCI SLOT (hard to find the Broadcom chip these days).

Ben Dittman (a Headgap reader) writes: If a person uses a PCI based wireless card that uses the Broadcom chipset in a Sawtooth G4, it will often work using Apple's Airport Extreme drivers since Airport Extreme cards are based on the Broadcom chipset. One card in particular that I know works is the Buffalo WLI2-PCI-G54. I have personally seen it in action in a Sawtooth. Theoretically, any Broadcom based card should work, but I definitely can't guarantee that since I haven't tested them all. 802.11g speeds for less money than an Apple Airport (802.11b) card. As long as you have a free PCI slot this is a great option. That is a tech tip from me.

I might add that Sonnet makes a card that we sell that works great. The above tip should save you some money though since the Sonnet item is a bit pricey.

Finding these Broadcom chipsetted cards is becoming increasingly difficult since most manufacturers are using a newer cheaper chipset. If you buy a card to try pick a retailer who will let you return it. Check our Wireless section of the store to see if we have a cheaper solution.

ALWAYS CHECK OUR WIRELESS SECTION FOR THE BEST LOW COST SOLUTIONS!

MAKE YOUR WIRELESS CONNECTION ROCK SOLID

I think many people leave their network connection roaming instead of using the networks name. Once you determine what network you want to connect with enter the networks name and it will substantially improve your connection speed.

If you have an internal card you can take off the little pigtail antenna and add a high gain external antenna that allows you to place it up higher and away from the system assuming it has the correct little connector and most cards do. These same antennas 's work great on many routers in place of the pigtails as well extending your service range. Buy a pair for your LinkSys Wireless G Router and spread them up and out.

CAN I HOOK MY PC TO MY MAC?

But why would you want to? Yes you can hook up your PC and your Mac using an Ethernet network or CROSSOVER CABLE but the PC won't talk to the Mac or vice versa. DAVE from Thursby is software that enables your Mac to communicate with a PC. It is expensive however. Check their web site http://www.thursby.com for a demo version. OSX Panther and Tiger RENDEZVOUS allows to see and connect to PC networked systems and printers.

We used to stock and item that allows a USB capable Mac and PC to communicate and exchange files. We don't stock it anymore but can special order it. It runs about $35 or so and comes with the software for Mac and For PC's. You can send data to and from any combination using this connector. I had someone email and remind me of this and it certainly is an easy and affordable way to exchange files. Give us a call or drop us an email if you are interested.

Remote Desktop Connection Client 1.0.3 and up for Mac OS X

Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac allows you to connect to a Windows-based computer and work with programs and files on that computer from your Macintosh computer. To connect to a Windows-based computer, you need network access and permissions to connect to the computer, and the computer must be running Terminal Services or Remote Desktop Services. The following Windows products support Remote Desktop connections:

• * Windows XP Professional
• * Windows Server 2003
• * Windows 2000 Server
• * Windows 2000 Advanced Server
• * Windows 2000 Datacenter Server
• * Windows NT Server 4.0, Terminal Server Edition

OUTLOOK EXPRESS PROBLEMS? REBUILD YOUR DATABASE

I don't like Outlook Express. It keeps all of your messages in one file. If you save all of your old messages this file gets humongous, and then it craps itself and dies. When this happens you probably are going to lose everything. Your prefs and the files you need to back up are in the Microsoft Folder inside the Documents folder. Most people don't know this and end up without a backup. If you get into trouble try starting Outlook Express and hold down the option key. It should ask you if you would like to rebuild the database. Say yes. This may fix it. If you would have done this periodically you may not be having this trouble. I like and still use Eudora which keeps its messages separate.

FIND AN OLD NETWORK CARD IN YOUR MAC BUT DON'T HAVE THE DRIVERS?

I would rather you bought one of our Realtek 10/100 and Gigabit Ethernet Cards since they are less than $19 to $25 or less including shipping, but you may find a driver that will work with it. The guy that runs this page has done a great job collecting a lot of the older drivers for Mac accessories. http://www.macdrivermuseum.net/

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SETTING UP FIREWIRE OR USB CARDS AND ACCESSORIES:

We have a set of the latest USB and Firewire Components individually on the Kitchen Sink. Manually replace these extensions in your system folder is the best way. These components work on systems with 8.6 through 9.2.2.

Your equipment may already have the proper USB and or Firewire drivers installed. Mac OS 8.5 will nominally support USB and Firewire. Mac 0S8.6 through 9.2 are recommended. Since 8.6 is a free update from Apple, you should update to it anyway. My suggestion is that you install the equipment (using proper antistatic procedures) and restart your system. These cards simply plug into any open PCI slot. Make sure the card seats squarely and firmly. You probably will have to remove a protective cover by removing its small screw (some just friction fit). Replace the screw after carefully seating the card. After you restart your system, If it works then no further installations are necessary. If your card fails to recognize a mouse, keyboard etc. then download the following files or pull them from the Kitchen Sink CD if you received one:

• if you have system 8.5 Download http://biz.headgap.com/USBCardSupport1.2.smi
• if you have system 8.6 through 9.2. Download http://biz.headgap.com/USB Card Support1.4.1.smi

The same programs are available from Apple's site: http://download.info.apple.com/Apple_Support_Area/Apple_Software_Updates/English-North_American/Macintosh/USB_Updates/

Install by double clicking the program. It should mount the installer on your desktop. Simply follow the instructions. These cards have been tested with OSX and work straight up with no additional installation required. To use them with the "classic" applications the support files must be installed. These enablers are also required for notebooks who also need the Cardbus Enabler turned on.

When using the 4 or 5 Port USB card always plug in your devices from the bottom up. These cards seem to disregard items plugged in the upper slots especially when not done in sequence (on some cards it matters not).

If you are installing a USB card to drive a printer, you must have the updated printer drivers installed. They may have come with your USB printer on CD. If you don't have the CD or you think the drivers may be old visit the printer manufacturers web site and download the latest release for your printer.

The Firewire updates included on the disk range from 2.1 through 2.5. Install the latest your system will allow. System 8.6 will take the 2.3.3 update, 9.0 and up uses 2.5. OS9.1 and up already has the proper components installed. You may also download these files directly from Apple at: http://downloAd.info.apple.com/Apple_Support_Area/Apple_Software_Updates/English-North_American/Macintosh/FireWire

These will allow your system to work with the Firewire portion of the card. The Firewire/USB combo card you purchased use latest technology chips and are tested Mac compatible.

If you purchased the Logitech I-Opener USB Mouse you can download the drivers at: http://biz.headgap.com/Mouseware35smi.sea (on the Kitchen Sink, also.) While this is an older version I prefer it to the current version.

You must have the card support files installed or the installer will not work properly. If you have trouble installing let me know I can send you the individual components via email.

We are here to help you and provide solutions should you have problems with the products you buy from us. Remember to run disk first aid, rebuild the desktop and zap the pram before calling. This fixes a multitude of problems. Another thing to try is to restart with the device plugged in already powered up.

We search hard for quality hardware at the best prices and use the items we sell in our everyday business. Thanks again for your purchase. REMEMBER WE HAVE THE BEST PRICES ON USB & FIREWIRE CABLES! Check with us first! Check the cable if you are having problems. If you have a spare try using it and see if your problems go away. While rarely do you get a bad cable it does happen.

TIP: USB 1.1 is too slow to reliably burn CD's (you can use it if you must but slow it down to 4 or 8X).

Can't get your new HP printer to work with your USB Card?

You need later USB components installed. The components that come with the 9.2.1 and 9.2.2 updates are necessary for your printer driver to install and work properly. These same components can be copied to a system running 9.1 as well and you can still use your earlier OS. Use Tome Viewer to pull the parts out of the archives if you must stay with 9.1. If you can though go ahead and install the 9.2.1 and 9.2.2 upgrades if your machine will support it. You might also look in the USB folder on the Kitchen Sink. Don't forget to update your carbon lib to 1.6 or later.

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FIREWIRE TIPS:

We have a set of the latest USB and Firewire Components individually on the Kitchen Sink. Manually replace these extensions in your system folder is the best way. These components work on systems with 8.6 through 9.2.2.

Firewire Cards and Devices are fast and reliable once they are set up properly. Sometimes though you may have trouble getting a device recognized. It seems that once it recognizes it from then on it magically works from then on. Sometimes I think the machine purposely does this just to get you irritated. If you installed a Firewire Card you may need to install drivers. We highly recommend OS9.1 or later. While Firewire works on 8.6, use the files on the Kitchen Sink to install the Firewire Drivers. Apple finally got things right in OS9 and later. If you are on 9.0 or 9.04 upgrade to 9.1. It is a free update and the Firewire Drivers are much improved. If you have 9.1 installed no additional software is necessary to enable the card. It should show up in the Apple System Profiler.

MAKE SURE THE FIREWIRE EXTENSION ARE TURNED ON! Firewire Enabler, and Firewire Support must be enabled!

Depending on the device you are hooking up, you may or may not need to install specific drivers for the item. I usually simply plug in the device, power it up, and restart the machine. If it doesn't show up, then install the drivers for the device. Restart again. If it still fails to show up try rebuilding the desktop. Last resort, ZAP the pram. This forces the machine to look at all the hardware again.

Check the cable. If you have a spare try using it and see if your problems go away. While rarely do you get a bad cable it does happen.

If the external is an optical, put in a bootable CD and restart. It seems once a Firewire device shows up the problems go away.

If you have discarded the original Firewire extensions you can use Tome Viewer (from the Kitchen Sink/Diagnostics Folder) to pull just those pieces from the installer tome archive on your install disk or one of the OS upgrade tome files and yes the 9.1 Firewire Enabler and Firewire Support drivers work on 8.6.

TIP: Does one of your Firewire Ports work and the other doesn't? Many times the Firewire ports don't get used on a system. They do oxidize over time if you don't regularly plug and unplug cables in and out. I make sure the port looks okay (isn't bent up etc.) and that there isn't dust bunnies in it and I then simply plug and unplug a Firewire cable in and out repeatedly. Generally this is good enough to get the connectors working again. The same holds true for speaker ports, mic ports, and even Ethernet.

TIP: My Firewire Ports are dead. Maybe not. Try cleaning the ports first if they haven't been used in a while. If you have been using them and they have quit working try the deep level reset. I recently had a Mini owner that thought he was going to have to buy a new motherboard but he went in a removed the battery and discharged the system and let it sit. The next morning he put it back together and his ports are back. If lightning damaged your ports and you have a PCI slot you can install a Firewire Card.

WE HAVE A GOOD LOW COST FIREWIRE 800 to 400 ADAPTERS. See the Firewire section.

Quick Firewire File Transfer:

This only works on systems that at least one of the systems is Firewire bootable which includes Sawtooth G4 Towers and above. Need a quick way to transfer files between two Macs? Start up one computer with the T key held down, then plug it into another Mac with a Firewire cable. The "target" computer's disk appears on the second Mac! Be sure to 'gracefully' unmount the target computer's disk by dragging it to the trash before unplugging the Firewire cable. Press the power button on the target computer to turn it off.

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USB TIPS:

If you bought a card from us then all you have to do is insert the card into any open PCI slot. You must be running 8.5 or later. We recommend that if you are running 8.5 you use the Kitchen Sink to upgrade to 8.6 before installing the card (run Repair first). You MUST install the card enabler software included with your card purchase on the Kitchen Sink. Version 1.4.1 is for 8.6 and all versions of 9. Your card should show up in Apple System Profiler in Devices and Volumes. Some devices (printers, scanners, CD's etc.) require their own drivers. Rather than use the CD that came with the device I usually check the manufacturers web site for the latest version, but use the CD if it is the current version.

When preparing to install your printer drivers run disk repair first from the Utilities folder. Once you complete installing the driver, restart your computer and hold down the command and option keys and force the desktop to rebuild. Turn on your printer and then restart. Check devices and volumes in Apple System Profiler. Your printer should show up. Select your printer from the Chooser and you should be good to go.

MAKE SURE THE USB EXTENSIONS ARE TURNED ON! *

Should you have trouble make sure the card is seated, and that the device is plugged in. Restart with the Device already on and warmed up. If you still have problems try rebuilding the desktop and lastly zap the pram.

TIP: If you are having trouble getting a device to work (HP Printers for example) with USB on OS8.6 through 9.2.2 use the USB components we supply in the (later Sink version in the USBFirewireUpdates Folder) of the Kitchen Sink CD. These contain the latest versions of all the parts and pieces needed to operate more modern devices. Also make sure you have carbon lib 1.6 installed (Apple Folder of the Kitchen Sink). You will have to manually replace these parts in your System Folder/Extensions. Restart and hold down the command and option keys to rebuild the desktop so your replaced components can be seen by the system. You may also want to disable other older odd pieces and parts as they may interfere.

* Cheryn discovered that the installer doesn't always put all the pieces on some OS versions. If you don't have USB Mass Storage Extension and USB Mass Storage Support in your system extensions some hard drives, card readers etc. don't work properly. Use tome viewer from the Diagnostics folder of the Kitchen Sink CD to extract that extension from the USB Card Support1.4.1.smi install tome and manually drag it into the system extensions. USB Storage1.3.5.smi is a program available from the Apple Support area that will install these pieces. If they are not present on your iMac, G3, or G4 and you want to use devices like these you will need to run this program as well.

We now include USB Storage1.3.5.smi in the USB folder of the latest Kitchen Sink CD as an individual file. This contains the Mass Storage extensions and will install them.

Check the cable. If you have a spare try using it and see if your problems go away. While rarely do you get a bad cable it does happen.

TIP: Apple System Profiler under Devices and Volumes in the Command menu has a selection called Show USB Alerts and events has a button that says show All USB Events. It may help you trouble shoot a problem. If it shows shutting down port it means that the device you are attaching may be defective or drawing more power than the bus can supply. If so try one of our high powered hubs as a solution.

ABOUT USB 2.0:

Be aware that USB2.0 devices are not normally supported by the older Mac OSes. OSX is required for USB2.0 support. Some devices may work if they fall back to 1.1 mode. Don't buy 2.0 USB devices thinking they will work, as they probably won't unless you are running OSX. If you happen to have a USB 2.0 device you might try it with 9 to see if it works. While the USB2 specs are better than Firewire, rarely if ever (Okay lets just say never) do they perform as well as a Firewire device. You see Firewire using STREAMING TECHNOLOGY, while USB used packet and USB also uses the processor. That is why high end movie cameras are Firewire. If you have a choice between Firewire and USB always pick Firewire. We stock high quality PCI USB 2.0 Cards for anyone including G4 Towers that wants to run USB 2.0 devices under OSX. No drivers required. These cards require a PCI 2.1 bus which means Beige G3 or better PCI slots. They will run in 1.1 mode under OS8.6-9.2.

TIP: If you have more than 2 ports on your PCI card it is best to plug things in from the bottom up. On most cards these days it doesn't seem to matter, but I still plug the heaviest drain item in the bottom plug and always start from the bottom up.

One more note. The USB 2.0 cards we carry will cause a machine not to wake from sleep in 9. I have tested these units under Mac OSes from 8.6 through OSX, and in systems from a lowly 266 G3 Beige DT to a G4 Tower. The cards we carry feature the good NEC chipset. You see while the device you buy may have the good chipset that is only part of the story. The manufacture has to write their own version of firmware so that the device will work. There are good programmers and there are STUPID programmers. We test the housings we use and will not sell badly designed, badly implemented housings and drives. That super low price deal you got from that discounter just may bite you on the butt and sometimes even the name brand expensive units.

TIP: If you have a choice between Firewire and USB2 always pick Firewire, even if you have to spend a few dollars more!

TIP: USB 1.1 is too slow to reliably burn CD's, although you can get it to work in a pinch. Just slow down the burn speed to 4X and be prepared to wait a while.

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USB HUB TIPS:

There are cheap ones and there are good ones. Find one with a GOOD power supply (LIKE THE ONES WE SELL with the oversized 2+ AMP power supply) if you expect to run external hard drives, CDs, Scanners, Printers etc. from it. We carry a good powered hub. Simple lower power requirement items like mice and trackballs don't have to have a powered hub and we carry the inexpensive non-powered hubs for that purpose. Also purchase from a reputable dealer. A bad hub can take out your root ports and destroy either the card or your computer if the USB is built onto the motherboard.

If you are having trouble with a USB device plug it directly into the root port of the computer and see if the problem goes away. If it does then your hub is either defective or simply doesn't carry enough juice to power the item. If you start having problems with items on the hub simply unplug its power supply and replug it back in. Many times simply powering on and off is enough to reset the items. Apple System Profiler (OS9) under devices and volumes has a command menu. Pull it down to Show USB Alerts and events and then choose Show all USB Events. Sometimes it can help you identify the problem.

A customer recently shipped us his system and camera. He had tried everything but just couldn't get it to work. I tested it on his system and then on a couple of ours. It would not work on a system that had the card installed but would work on a native USB system. I had Cheryn pull a powered hub we sell and put it back on his system via the hub. It works perfectly. The camera was drawing more juice that the card could supply and in this case a good hub with its own high capacity power supply was the solution.

HAVING TROUBLE GETTING A USB ITEM TO SHOW UP CONSISTENTLY?

Some cameras, scanners and newer printers (and even some of the larger thumb drives) seem to draw more power than can be supplies via the PCI USB Card. Some even say they will not work with a card and require "native USB". Most times it is because the device tries to draw more power than the bus can supply. The card keeps itself from damage by shutting down. The solution is a GOOD POWERED HUB. The hub we carry is good for both USB 1.1 and 2.0 devices and supplies 2.+ AMPs of additional power. This makes many problems go away. Don't be suckered into buying a lower powered hub at a bargain price. 450 milliamps is not enough for many high demand items.

If a device doesn't work with one of our USB2 cards and you have tried a high powered hub, most likely the problem is software related or device related. If your iPod isn't mounting make sure you have the latest iPod software installed before looking for other problems. It is amazing how well things work when the proper software is installed.

TIP: Many external devices like USB hard drives etc. as well as programs like QuickBooks and many more, use the Carbon Lib for operation. Make sure you have Carbon Lib 1.6 installed on all 8.6-9.2.2 systems. This is on the Kitchen Sink CD in the Apple File Folders. The Carbon Lib resides in your extension folder. This is also used by the Classic Mode in OSX.

USB FLOPPY TIPS:

Hey, my USB Floppy I added won't read my old Mac disks. No USB Floppy Drive will read the old 800K floppy disks (they will however read 720K DOS disks). They will read both Mac and PC formatted 1.44 Hi Density floppies with no problems. If you have information on old 800K floppies that you would like moved as disk images (using Apple's Disk Copy Program) to a CD we can help for a small and reasonable fee. If you have lots of data you need to convert I recommend you buy one of our Big Sister systems that still have floppies and include a burner so you can burn them off yourself. Give us a call.

FLOPPY TIPS:

Got an old floppy disk that asks to be formatted every time you insert it? Slap the side of it a time or two and move the disk inside by spinning it with your fingernail from the back. They get stuck sometimes and loosening up is usually all it takes.

If this happens to you make a disk image of the floppy using Disk Copy (in your OS9 utilities folder) and then make a new floppy using a new disk. If you have lots of material on floppy convert them all to disk images on your systems hard drive and burn them off to CD if they are important to you.

If your floppy drive is frequently misbehaving use a little canned air to blow the dirt out. If that doesn't do it, pull it out and open the top. Use a q-tip and or brushes and a little alcohol to clean it up. Then relube the small shaft that moves the heads back and forth with light machine oil. The old grease gets gummy with dirt and age. If the drive is cold letting it warm up by formatting a disk or two will help get things moving again. If it still doesn't work or doesn't respond at all buy a replacement mechanism from us.

You can use Disk Warrior to recover a bad floppy. Just load Disk Warrior first and then insert the bad disk. It should show up and let you rebuild the directory. If that doesn't work it will sometimes give you a preview allowing you to copy the individual files off and put them on a freshly formatted new disk.

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HARD DRIVE MAKING BAD NOISES:

Shut down your machine immediately. If you let the drive head continue to damage itself your chances of recovery are substantially reduced. Send us the hard drive. We will see if we can recover the data. If so you pay a $35.00 bench charge (large full drives may be more) and we will put your data on a replacement drive (you pay for of course). If we can't recover it you only pay return shipping for your drive back. You can then deal with the high end drive recovery people. Be cautious though many are worse than Automatic Transmission Repair Shops. They charge you $XXX.XX and then after you pay they say it will be $XXX.XX dollars more to get your data and drive back. Best you have backups. We are careful with your drive but we cannot guarantee results. We simply do the best we can. It is always best to have backups. One other note. I will not work on LaCie drives at all.

COMMERCIAL MAC HARD DRIVE RECOVERY

If you have data that absolutely must be recovered, for Mac HD recovery we suggest a place called DriveSavers. Tell them we sent you and get a 10% discount by giving them the number DS20072. They have a no data, no charge, policy on single drives. I would get an estimate. Call them toll free at 1-800-440-1904. To request an estimate by e-mail, log on to our website at http://www.drivesavers.com/estimate

Remember here at Headgap we do what is called level 1 recovery. If the drive isn't making bad noises and is just not mounting we can likely get your data back and possibly simply restore the drive.

HARD DRIVE LIMITATIONS:

If you haven't noticed the largest bare drive we presently stock (ATA) is 120 GB's.

NEVER INSTALL A 160 GB or Larger Drive internally and format it to a smaller size. This will bite you on the butt, guaranteed. I don't care if you did get it for a nickel after rebate.-

WARNING: If you are planning on buying a large-capacity 3.5" internal hard drives above 128 GB, you need to be aware of this issue, in case you are not already:

The ATA controllers in Macs up through the PowerMac G4 Quicksilver 2001 models cannot properly format a drive larger than 128 GB, and entire drive will not be recognized. For example, when upgrading a G4 Quicksilver 2001 with a 160 GB hard drive, only 128 GB of storage will be recognized if using the native ATA controller. Sonnet's Tempo line of products are the solution for this issue.

All Tempo ATA133 controllers allow large capacity hard drives to be formatted for their full capacity, even in systems where this was not natively possible (Quicksilver 2001 and earlier). We or course keep the Tempo 133 Cards in stock.

If you are looking for the ultimate and have a few more bucks to spend search out the new Serial ATA drives and the new Tempo ATA150. These are probably a waste of money for anything but the fastest hardware though. They do offer convenience.

External Firewire drives do not always have this limitation but you should check with the manufacturer before buying a housing with plans to put in a larger drive. Some el cheapo housings may not support large drives.

LARGE HARD DRIVES GOT ME AGAIN. OS9 HAS A 190 GB BARRIER!

Most of you probably know about the limit on the size of drives installed in PowerMacs. Only the QuickSilver 2002 and Mirror Door G4 or above can handle drives larger. That is why we normally only carry up to 120 GB drives for internal installation. One way around this is with the Sonnet Tempo ATA133 card. You can install any size drive internally with the Tempo installed in one of your PCI slots. THE GOTCHA though is you can't have a partition any larger than 190 GB's and expect to boot from OS9. Of course I never run across this before since the affordable 160 GB drives don't have this problem. I just installed a 250 GB drive with the Tempo and while the machine booted nicely into X, I could not get it to boot into 9. After tearing out my hair and a few reinstalls, I finally dug down into Sonnet's tech notes and they pointed this out. Would have been helpful if they would have added this little gem in the product description since drives up to 400 GB's are more affordable these days don't you think? They do advertise breaking the 137 GB barrier but they don't mention that 190 GB OS9 barrier until you hunt it down.

HARD DRIVE TIME LIMIT?

Some folks would say wait until your hard drive dies to replace it. With drives as inexpensive as they are why not replace your hard drive before they die and you lose your work. I take good care of my drives running repair at least quarterly and optimize them a few times a year. Even so I replace my drives about every 3-4 years (think of them as a car battery in terms of longevity). Usually I am about ready to have more space anyway and some times the new drives are substantially faster than the old ones. Retire the old drive or relegate it to use as a secondary drive. It is a lot easier and usually cheaper to move your data from a working drive. Don't misunderstand, I have Mac drives here that are over 10 years old running just fine. It is just that economically it is cheaper to replace them early and keep your data safe. Remember that old car battery. It worked fine all the way up until that one cold morning and I bet you were in a hurry too.

SATA DRIVES & CARDS FOR MY MAC - TWICE AS FAST!

Almost TWICE AS FAST as your stock IDE bus and drive! Serial ATA or SATA hard drives are getting cheaper and cheaper these days and they offer better performance. We now are offering our G4's (or any compatible system for that matter) with a Firmtek SATA Card and Hitachi or Seagate SATA Hard Drives as an install option. I quickly tested copying a 60 MB folder on both our regular Hitachi 80 GB 7200 rpm IDE drives and the new 250 GB Seagate SATA Drive and found that the SATA was almost TWICE AS FAST. You folks that deal with large files all the time, like musicians, artists, photographers and videographers will want to seriously consider this option. Works equally well in 9 and X and no drivers are required. I have installed drive sizes up to the new Seagate 750 GB and they work perfectly. OS9 users will have to remember the 190 GB partition limit for bootable partitions though. See the new IntDrivesSATA section of the online store. We now stock Seagate SATA Drives from 160 GB to 750 GB.

New Feature - Add a 2 Port SATA Card and 500 GB Seagate SATA Drive to any G4 for $159.77! Access your data twice as fast with drive sizes up to 2 TeraBytes's all internally in your G4! See the IntDrivesSATA section of the store. We will make up complete package for any size drives you want to add.

DRIVEJUMPER.COM = Links to the manufacturers sites to find out more about your hard drive and how to set it up

I set up http://drivejumper.com to make it easy on myself to find the links to the hard drive manufacturers web sites to find out how to set up your hard drive. I also have the links to the G3 overclocking which also use the jumpers, along with the G4 overclocking sites. I just added charts for IDE drives so you don't have to bother going through the rigmarole of looking through the web site.

I JUST BOUGHT A NEW IDE HARD DRIVE:

Good for you. I just hope you didn't succumb to buying the El Cheapo special at the discounter. These units many times come back to bite you. I respect Maxtor, and Seagate mechanisms. The best are Hitachi and that is what we mostly sell. The worst is that other brand that starts with the initials Western Digital. I know you may have always gotten good performance for your WD drives and they probably have continued to improve, but you should see what goes out in the trash here. We deal with thousands of drives each year and I know what we spend time on recovering data for customers.

You can only put two devices on one IDE bus (unlike the SCSI of old which 7 different devices fit on one bus). You don't have to worry about numbers but one must be set as MASTER and the other SLAVE. Your boot drive and it should be your fastest should be the MASTER. The slower older device should be relegated to SLAVE. There is no such thing as CABLE SELECT on a Mac (except QuickSilver 2002 (4.33 ROM or later), Mirror Drive Doors, iMacG4's and above), disregard CS or CABLE SELECT. Most drives these days come with a diagram on the drive showing you how to configure the drive jumpers. If yours doesn't go to my other web site http://drivejumper.com. It has all the good links to where to look up the jumper info. Also we carry drive jumpers. I think jumper is a good name for them since every time I pull one off of a drive it jumps out of my hands into the great unknown. It doesn't hurt to have a few spares around.

I spent time getting a Seagate and Western Digital on the same bus the other day. I set the Seagate to Master and the WD to slave. The system refused to boot. I finally looked up the Seagate jumper settings and they had a special jumper setting for non compliant ATA items (they were referring to the Western Digital, I guess I am not the only one who dislikes these drives). It required an additional jumper before it would work properly. If you are having trouble take the time to look up the settings on the manufacturer's web site. While the drive had the settings displayed on it the information was not correct for this application.

TIP: If you are having trouble take the time to look up the settings on the manufacturer's web site.

On Maxtor and Quantum you make a drive MASTER by installing an upright jumper on the two pins furthest from the power plug. To make it a SLAVE take all of them off. Some models vary so look it up but if you can't find info try it. If you did it correctly both drives will show up in Apple System Profiler. Any device uninitialized may then be formatted by Apple Drive Setup. On modern systems, you want to make sure and format them HFS+ or Extended Format. Oh yes, OSX installs should always be installed on the master drive on the first bus in the first partition. While it will boot from slaves and even externals on many machines you will have less trouble if you remember this. It is an old holdover from UNIX.

I JUST BOUGHT A NEW SCSI HARD DRIVE:

Good for you. SCSI drives are in short supply these days and it is getting harder for us to find good quality units. SCSI devices require each have a unique number and jumpers must be set properly. Also the SCSI bus must be terminated properly or you will have all kinds of grief. If your machine uses the 50 pin Drives then you should try to stick with it. Adapted 68 pin and 80 pin drives may be your only choice for a large drive in an older machine. If so just make sure the adapter is shallow in profile and has the ability to be terminated on the adapter. Some of the bargain adapters don't and are no bargain. Make sure they are seated well as be careful with them. They break easily and using take the drive with them.

http://drivejumper.com has all the good links to where to look up the jumper info. Also we carry drive jumpers. SCSI drives use jumpers for several functions. The main reason most people change the jumpers on a SCSI drive is to give it a different SCSI ID. There are usually 3 locations and on the Quantum for example they are labeled A2, A1, and A0. Default is generally no jumpers which makes the drive 0. By adding jumpers to different positions you can number the drives anywhere from 0 to 7. The main thing is to make sure that the number you make the drive is different than any other device on the chain. For example a typical installation would be a base drive with the number of 0, a CD drive with the number of 3, a zip drive with a number of 4, and a scanner with a number of 7. If you were to add an additional drive to this chain it would have to be numbered 2,5, or 6.

The other reason to jumper a drive is for termination. It seems systems like to know where the beginning and ending of the chain is. To accomplish this the first device on the chain generally should be terminated as well as the last device. See the notes on your system for specifics. I like to have my scanner as the last device in the chain and I always terminate it. Want to know more about termination? Try http://www.scsita.org/aboutscsi/SCSI_Termination_Tutorial.html

Startech has a SCSI School which is a great place to learn about all the flavors of SCSI http://www.startech.com/scsischool/

Another great area to research: http://scsifaq.org:9080/scsi_faq/scsifaq.html

ABOUT THUMB DRIVES

You may call them something different but the little USB Thumb Drives are quite the convenience. They are so cheap these days most people I know own several. Just pop them in a USB port and they come right up. You can buy up to 4, or 8 GB's and even larger, but the little San Disk units in 512 MB and 1 GB are certainly affordable and in my experience reliable. We may offer one every now and then when we find a good buy on them and we test them in both 9 and X before we offer them for sale. If you bought one and are using it on an old system and it isn't mounting you probably need to add the USB Mass Storage Drivers and make sure you have Carbon Lib 1.6 or later installed. LARGE CAPACITY DRIVES DRAW LOTS OF POWER! If you just bought one and it doesn't mount it may be swamping your power supply. Add a good quality POWERED HUB.

ALWAYS make sure you drag your Thumb Drive to the trash before removing it. After you use one for a month or two you may notice they take longer to mount and some of the files may become garbled. It is a good idea to erase them periodically. Just select them and then from the special menu in OS9 select erase disk. These are DOS devices and should always be formatted DOS. I have also learned never to rebuild the desktop on these. If you do it shreds the files. I keep a backup folder of the files I like to keep on my thumb drive in case I need to erase the drive. I expect in OSX you can use the Disk Utility to format these. Again specify DOS. These work well with the USB 2.0 cards we sell since they are USB 2 devices they will be slightly faster under X.

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IS IT OKAY TO CLONE MY SYSTEM FOLDER? IT DEPENDS.

You can copy your system folder from your old backup drive to the new one (in the same computer). I would run Norton Disk Doctor and then run Speed Disk (on 9 and below systems) to optimize the files on the new drive. I sometimes hear someone saying you shouldn't clone a system folder. That info is ancient. Back in the day an install set a special bit to make the drive bootable. Those days are no more. You can use Carbon Copy Cloner to back up your OSX installation. On 9 and earlier just make a copy.

If you are moving an old drive from say a 6100 to a G3 or G4 then no never copy the system folder. There are pieces required by the newer hardware so a clean install is the best in this case. You should always do a clean install on a machine if it is a different model from where you are moving the drive.

There is a program in the 9 Kitchen Sink CD utilities folder called Clean Install Assistant that will move your old System components over to the replacement. Handy!

ZIP DRIVE NOTES - MY RECOVERY TRICKS

Want to know one of my secrets? For external mechanisms, Zip, Jazz, and other removable mechanisms there is nothing better than Disk Warrior. The TRICK to using it is to load Disk Warrior before turning on the mechanism or inserting the media. Wait for it. Eventually it will show up in the menu allowing you to rebuild the directory. NEVER LEAVE A ZIP DISK IN THE DRIVE IF IT IS HAMMERING THE HEAD. UNPLUG the drive or whatever you have to do to stop it. If you leave it hammering be prepared to order a replacement mechanism since you will have trashed your old one. Oh yes, If the recovery was on external media move off the data and discard the media. I never trust a Zip or Jaz disk once it has failed.

ZIP DISK RECOVERY SERVICE - Do you have data on a Zip or Jaz disk and need it repaired and or archived to CD? We can provide this service for a small free. Give us a call. There is no charge if we don't recover (except for return shipping if you want your media back).

On systems with SCSI or Internal ZIP drives use the Iomega Zip Tools to make a bootable backup disk and boot from it. You can then install from the CD to the systems hard drive. I keep one of these around with a copy of Norton Disk Doctor and Speed Disk along with the required (Norton Shared Lib) extension, since you can use Command-Option-Delete-Shift (CODS) to make it boot from the zip disk. CODS is the answer. Just think greasy fish. Command - Option - Delete - Shift.

The new Iomega 750 drives are supposed to read the 100 and 250 disks but my experience is maybe. That is why I only carry and sell 250 or 100 MB Zip Drives. They both read and write the appropriate size disks.

Zip and Jaz Drives are okay for backup of general data. I have learned that they are not reliable enough for mission critical backup. If you need something more solid I recommend a second hard drive for immediate backup and recovery. I use optical for monthly and offsite storage of files. I use the thumb drives for a quick backup and to move files around.

 

INSTALLING A BATTERY:

We provide a bit more information on our site http://mac-batteries.com. Also try Apple's Customer Installable Parts Page at: http://www.info.apple.com/usen/cip/

How To Change Your Clock Battery

Changing out a battery is not difficult on most Mac systems. Simply pry off the retainer and pull the battery out.
Reverse the procedure with the new battery making sure the + is positioned correctly.

Restart your system and reset the date and time and other control panel settings as needed. Note 4.5V Batteries are small square and black. They are stuck down with Velcro. Simply pull up the old battery and unhook the cable. Reverse the procedure. There is only one way the cable plugs back in. Press the motherboard reset while you are in there.

We have illustrated instructions available for iMac Tray load and Slot load systems, available on request with purchase.

Read about proper battery disposal

Once you've replaced the battery, you will want to reset several settings. If you're on a network, you'll want to open the Chooser and enable AppleTalk. Note some Macs may not support all these control panels (preferences in OSX). These are the control panels you'll need to use:

1. Startup Disk. Always reset your startup disk. Your system may not boot well or give you the flashing question mark if it gets confused. SET THIS ONE FIRST IT IS IMPORTANT.
2. Date & Time. First, choose your time zone, then set the date and time. SET THIS ONE SECOND IT IS IMPORTANT.
3. Memory - Mac OS 8.5 and later will usually set this automatically. Set your cache to a Meg if you have plenty and 1 meg over on virtual.
4. Network or AppleTalk. If you're on a network that isn't LocalTalk, you will need to reset your network connection on any Mac with a LocalTalk port.
5. Mouse and Keyboard. You'll need to reset the mouse tracking and double-click speeds, as well as setting the keyboard delay and repeat.
6. Energy Saver or Auto On/Off. Energy saving settings, power-up time, etc. are stored in PRAM and need to be reset.
7. Monitors and Sound or Monitors & Sound. You need to reset speaker volume and monitor bit-depth -- and possibly resolution.

Slot Load iMac's EZ BATTERY SWAP - while the official instructions have you take the machine apart my wife's hands are small enough she changes them out from the memory access port. I do it the same way using a pair of forceps. Tray Load iMac's require you take the machine apart. We have illustrated instructions available for iMac Tray load and Slot load systems, available on request with purchase.

More information is available at our site http://mac-batteries.com

SPECIAL NOTE ON IMAC FLAT PANEL BATTERY REPLACEMENT - The newer Desk Lamp iMac's are starting to have their batteries go out now. Replacing them should really be handled by a service center. You have to remove the entire base of the unit which requires special tools and when replacing the base you have to clean off and reinstall thermal paste (we have it in stock). Not tightening the screws properly and not applying the paste can critically damage your system and most of all probably void any warranty. We will sell you the battery but if you change it yourself make sure you have the proper tools and thermal paste before starting the job. You do this at your own risk. While you are in there why not install a larger cheaper ram chip. I would put a 512 MB chip in and the ram is right next to the battery. I also recommend a larger faster hard drive and a faster optical drive like the Pioneer unit we sell if you are upgrading.

Mac Batteries

We know that many of you rely on us for the freshest highest quality 3.6 Volt 1200 mAh Mac PRAM/Clock batteries. We are now buying our 3.6V cells from ABLE Battery as they make a top quality product. Our battery specs meet or exceed system requirements. We think you will be very happy with our new label. Remember nobody sells fresher batteries that we do. The manufacture date is stamped right on the battery.

NOBODY SELLS FRESHER BATTERIES THAN WE DO! NO ONE SELLS THE SAME BATTERY FOR LESS DELIVERED!

Beware of Substandard Batteries

I was looking at some of the pram batteries sold by our competition. No one sells batteries for less than we do (delivered price), and no one sells fresher batteries that we do. I saw a couple who advertised lower prices but by the time you paid shipping and handling you end up paying substantially more. What really bothers me though is some of these low priced specials were lower milliamp batteries. Before buying any 3.6 V Lithium Battery that fit in most of the Macs make sure the batteries you are getting are 1200 mAh. Remember we import these batteries direct and they are not made before we order. While lithium batteries have a long shelf life (up to 10 years), most batteries in the states these days are several years old. Ours are no more than 6 months from the date they were created. The manufacture date is stamped right on the battery.

When pricing laptop batteries you should always compare the milliamp hour rating (shown as mAH). Sometimes a bargain is not a bargain if it doesn't last long in your laptop. More is always better.

Battery Safety

I recently had someone ask if we had the safer Lithium Ion Batteries in the standard 3.6V 1/2AA configuration. He wondered why Apple hadn't moved to this configuration. Here is my reply:

After handling many many thousands of both old and new 3.6V Lithium batteries, and pulling them from 20 year old machines up to today's latest, I can't say I have ever worried about the safety and reliability of the Lithiums. What amazes me is to find batteries still holding the proper charge after all that time. I read almost as much about Lithium Ion batteries exploding as I do the regular lithium. It seems that if you expose batteries to high heat, certain types of punctures, or shorting, you can expect bad results not matter what they are made of. I know of no one who makes a Lithium Ion of the proper size. It seems like whatever physically is close to that size is only 3 Volt and any with the proper voltage are twice that size. It may be the nature of the materials but I am no engineer.

Good rule to live by: I highly recommend you not puncture, heat up, or short out any type of battery.

COIN CELL CLOCK BATTERIES

The new Mac Mini, iMac G5's and certain G5 Towers use a different style clock battery. We stock the lithium coin cell batteries for these units. Some folks have had trouble finding these and when they do find them they are sometimes really expensive. We carry these and have them at a fair price $7.44 including shipping. As always from us they are factory fresh and high quality. Our low price includes printed instructions for your model. It is sometimes difficult to tell unless you really know what model your G5 Tower is. Take a look inside your G5 Tower if you are in doubt and see if you can see the regular 3.6V that Macs have almost always used, or if yours takes the coin cell style.

Coin Cell Lithium

• Power Mac G5 (Late 2005) Single 2.0, Single 2.3, Dual 2.5\
• Power Mac G5 (Late 2004) (Single 1.8 Ghz) (600 MHz System Bus)

Half Height AA 3.6V Lithium

• Power Mac G5 (G5 - 1.6, 1.8, Dual 1.8-Dual 2.0) (800, 900, or 2x1.0 Ghz system bus)
• Power Mac G5 (June 2004) (Dual 1.8, Dual 2.0, Dual 2.5)
• Power Mac G5 (Early 2005) (Dual 2.0, Dual 2.3, Dual 2.7)

 

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More about Power Mac G4 Power Supplies

ZAPPING THE PRAM:

Usually one of the last things I will try when having trouble is zapping the pram. Zapping the pram forces the machine to relook at all the hardware devices and restores the machine to factory defaults. You will need to reset the clock, possibly network settings, memory and mouse settings, and most importantly identify the startup device after zapping.

To zap the pram: restart your machine and hold down the command key, option key, and the p and the r key. COPR (say the word copper and think of a shiny penny and you will remember it).

The system will chime, keep holding down the keys until the unit chimes three times.

On our Classic Kitchen Sink CD in the Utilities folder is a small program called Tech Tool. It actually ZAPS your PRAM at a deeper level than ordinary keyboard zapping and is easy to use. I usually install it on G3 or better systems we set up in the utilities folder. Check first before installing it from the CD. It is also a better way to rebuild your desktop.

If your computer takes a long time before the screen changes from black to white you might want to zap the pram once to see if it shortens the boot up time. This occurs more frequently on the G3 or better systems. This could also be a symptom of ram not being seated properly though so If it doesn't improve try reseating the ram chips or taking out that one you recently installed.

Type zap pram in the Mac OS help menu if you forget easily, or see this page on the Apple Website http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379

ANYTIME YOU ARE HAVING TROUBLE BOOTING UNPLUG EVERYTHING FROM THE BACK OF YOUR COMPUTER except the keyboard and monitor and of course the power cord. Fix one thing at a time.

BEFORE YOU GET TO THIS POINT, you may want to ask yourself what happened just before the computer quit working. Perhaps taking out that new stick of ram or that new PCI card will get your system working before going to extreme measures.

DEEP RESET TIP: On G3 and G4 Machines especially when aborting an OSX install really scrambles the computer. You can super reset the computer by Zapping the PRAM 3 times in a row. Then move your fingers from the P R keys to the O F keys (in other words Command - Option - O - F). COOF will bring up a machine language screen. <return> means press the return key you don't type the characters out. At the prompt type the following:

set-defaults <return>
reset-all <return>

On iMac's, Blue & White, G4 Towers you may want to include resetting the NVRAM.

reset-nvram <return>
set-defaults <return>
reset-all <return>

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PUSHING THE CUDA SWITCH (PMU): The CUDA or motherboard reset switch is a last resort. If your computer doesn't come up at all before replacing the power supply usually pressing the switch will restore life to your dead computer. If you don't hear a chime after that then it may be Power Supply time. If your computer fails to come up after a processor swap, overclock, or ram install then it may be time to try the CUDA switch. The CUDA switch looks like a little gray (sometimes red) doorbell button. It is indeed a momentary switch like a doorbell button. This is always done with the POWER OFF!

Where is the CUDA or PMU Switch?

• On PCI based Macs like the 75, 76, 73, 85, 86, 95, 9600's etc. it is directly under the back of the processor. You may have to pull the processor to see it.
• On Beige G3's it is directly left of the PCI slots near the edge of the motherboard.
• On Blue and Whites they are left of the processor and there are two. One really isn't a CUDA it is a reset. The CUDA is on the left as you are facing the front of the computer.
• ON G4 Sawtooth systems it in in the left rear of the motherboard near the battery and is called a PMU switch. It other G4's it is always near the battery. You should only hit this button once. If you are still having trouble unpower the system and let it sit a while.
• On iMacs - look for the small aluminum square with the round gray button. it is on the same side as the battery on the motherboard but more toward the front of the machine.

Hold it down and count slowly to 5, button up things and push the restart while crossing your fingers. If you are on a 6100, 7100, 8100 etc. you are out of luck. There is no CUDA switch on these models. I remove the battery and unplug the power supply connectors from the motherboard and let the thing set for 10-15 minutes to reset the motherboard (if that doesn't work let it sit overnight). You may have to resort to this on your Blue and White or G4 at some point and it works on other units. Doesn't make sense to me but it works.

HELP MY EARLY MAC DOESN'T HAVE A CUDA SWITCH

I can't tell you how many older systems like the 6100's I discarded after I could not get them to work. Then I learned that if you unplug the battery, and unplug the power supply from the motherboard and let them sit for a good while (usually overnight). I then put in a good tested or new battery, plug back in the power supply and amazingly they work again. Since many older units don't have a CUDA reset switch the only way to discharge them totally is to take away the battery voltage and the stored power from the capacitors in the power supply. Once discharged they return to factory defaults and boot normally once again. Oh yes that is why most people replace the power supply and their system works once again. Usually though the old power supply tests good. All they did was allow the system to discharge during the installation of the new power supply.

HELP! I NEED A NEW POWER SUPPLY (hopefully not):

Try the CUDA (PMU for G4's) switch first and other options first. The Power Supply is sometimes fused on PowerMacs and Beige G3's, BUT NOT G4's EXCEPT Mirror Drive Doors (thanks Don King) (usually the little glass cylinder with metal ends like they used in cars way back when) and while difficult to work on you can usually get to it after removing it from the unit and taking out most of the apparent screws. I usually pry the power supply apart slightly and remove and install the fuse with forceps. You can check the fuse visually and if you see the internal wire burned or broken, you know the fuse is bad. Buy the replacement fuse at Radio Shack (ask the clerk if he can test the old one if you can't tell for sure) and try it again. Most techs won't tell you this and will sell you a refurbished power supply and give you a bit for your old power supply when they sell you a new one. They will simply replace the fuse and resell the unit again. Not all power supplies are fused and I know of no way to tell without opening them up and looking. The specs on the fuse: 20mm (I think that's 1/4 inch), 250 V (volts), 8A (amps). Radio Shack part number 270-1050

I had a customer bring by a G4 that the Ethernet port was becoming worn out on. I was going to simply install an Ethernet Card, but we couldn't get the machine to power up. I tried all the tricks. I plugged up another power supply and sure enough the G4 chimed and came up. She said she was going to take it back to the last place that worked on it so I buttoned it back up. After I sat in on the floor I notice her switching the little red switch on the back of the power supply. Sure enough the 230V/110V switch had been pushed out of place. I put it back on the bench after making sure it was switched to 110 and it came right up. CHECK THAT RED SWITCH ON THE BACK OF THE POWER SUPPLY TO MAKE SURE IT IS FULLY IN THE 110V position!

Help! I pushed the CUDA Switch on my G3 or G4 and it still is not working

LET ME REPEAT: BEFORE YOU GET TO THIS POINT, you may want to ask yourself what happened just before the computer quit working. Perhaps taking out that new stick of ram or that new PCI card will get your system working before going to extreme measures. Even items that were working okay but recently installed may be suspect. Sometimes things fail. Try taking them out first.

Sometimes computers lose their mind. Don't ask me why or how it happens but it does. Sometimes you simply have to totally discharge the computer. One thing I have learned about the Blue and White G3 and G4 computers is that sometimes pushing the CUDA is not enough. If your machine still is dead, then try the following.

• Unplug the Unit
• Remove the Battery
• Push the CUDA Switch (count to 5 slow)
• Push the Start button on the front of the computer (count to 5 slow)
• Let the unit sit for 15-30 minutes
• Replace the Battery
• Plug it back in, and push the start button

Amazing! It works again!! If it doesn't I usually repeat the steps above, pull the ram, and let it sit overnight. Make sure you only have the keyboard, mouse and monitor plugged in. I usually also remove PCI cards and leave only one stick of ram. If it doesn't work after this it is take it to the shop time (or ship it to us).

Reader John Dilbeck had a few kind words about his QuickSilver coming back to life in his February 10th, 2009 blog addition http://johndilbeckandfriends.com/

IF YOU HAVE TO END UP REPLACING YOUR POWER SUPPLY CONSIDER THIS

There may be a reason your original power supply died. Putting in a replacement without fixing the problem may result in another one failing immediately or perhaps soon thereafter. Apple power supplies are tough and well made. Why would I say this? After dealing in the used market for many years now I rarely have to replace a power supply in the used units we buy in pallet lots. If you have frequent brownouts (lights dim a little several times a day), frequent thunderstorms in your area, or have other power problem symptoms like having to replace light bulbs frequently do yourself a favor and buy a good UPS (battery backed uninterruptible power supply) and plug your computer into it. They are generally available from discount electronics and office supply dealers. Because they use lead acid batteries we don't stock them since shipping would be prohibitively expensive. It not only provides time for you to shut down your system should the power go off it also keeps the voltage up in brownout periods and provides surge protection.

I would also check to see that your ram, graphics card, processor, pci cards etc. to see if they are running excessively warm. Replace any questionable piece. I have seen a single ram stick fail and begin overheating on a working machine. Eventually it should just stop working but in rare instances I imagine it could short itself and cause damage. Other components of your system could be in the process of failing so make sure you check especially after having to replace a power supply.

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REBUILDING THE DESKTOP:

OS9 and below: I ALWAYS run Disk First Aid (or Norton Disk Doctor) before rebuilding the desktop. This insures that your desktop will be written to a healthy drive. I know people who have never rebuilt the desktop after using the system for years. It is like flossing, you may get away with not doing it but you really should do this regularly. You should do this monthly or after installing new programs or deleting a lot of files.

To accomplish this:

• Restart your machine and hold down the command and option keys.

A dead giveaway that you need to rebuild the desktop is when you have generic icons showing up where regular icons should be showing up. The desktop database is an invisible file that stores information. You really should rebuild your desktop every few months and more often if you add and delete lots of files. I rebuild anytime I install new software. This is easy to do and may speed up your computer, especially if you have never done this and the desktop file is large and possibly corrupted.

OSX DESKTOP REBUILD - use the classic preferences and go to advance and use the rebuild. It is much faster and really the only way you should rebuild the desktop for classic.

OS9 TIP: Tech Tool (Kitchen Sink Utilities) is a small program that deletes the desktop files allowing a complete rebuild. It does a more thorough job. Just make sure you run a drive check before running it.

NEVER KEEP FOLDERS OR APPLICATIONS ON YOUR DESKTOP! MAKE ALIASES!!

All classic and even a few X Mac users I have ever met end up dragging all kinds of files and applications from the hard drive to the desktop. STOP IT! Use the alias feature (command m) to create an alias of whatever you find convenient and place the alias on the desktop. I have had users send in systems or hard drive with literally thousands of items on the desktop and they wonder why the drive failed and their machines slowed down to a crawl. Files on the desktop are in a form of limbo. They are stored in an invisible file in classic (user folder in X). If you make a copy of your hard drive thinking you are backing up everything you are not. The files on the classic desktop are not on the drive (after a fashion) and are stored in an invisible folder. Just don't do it. Not only are you slowing things down you are substantially increasing the risk of causing severe problems and losing your data. Learn to make aliases and use them instead.

Another practice I frequently see is folks pulling the application out of its original folder and move them to the desktop. They can't figure out why all of his plugins quit working. When you pull the app from its original location it loses its links with plugins and other components that are contained in that application folder. Make an alias instead and move it to the desktop if you find it convenient. NEVER MOVE AN APP OUT OF ITS FOLDER.

BLESSING A SYSTEM FOLDER:

You may know how to curse the computer but blessing the system folder is something you may have to one day do. If you install a new drive and copy your system folder from the old drive, you may have to bless the system folder. A System Folder must have a System File and a Finder File in it to be blessed. If a System Folder is blessed, there will be a tiny MacOS logo on the folder. If it is unblessed, it will be a plain folder. To bless the new one open the folder and double click the Finder File. It will tell you something stupid, but just close the folder back and notice how the MacOS logo has now appeared on the folder. Use the Control Panel's Startup Device to choose the new drive and restart. It is a good idea to rebuild the new desktop after making installations. To unbless (or make inactive) a system folder simply pull the Finder File out of it.

BOOTING FROM AN EXTERNAL DRIVE:

You probably know that holding down the C key will force your system to boot from a CD. What if you wanted to boot from a Zip or an External Drive? CODS is the answer. Just think greasy fish. Command - Option - Delete - Shift.

TROUBLE BOOTING FROM A CD?:

You probably know that holding down the C key will force your system to boot from a CD. Holding down the Option key during startup will bring up the Startup manager on later systems. Select the CD and start again. This works sometimes when the CD refuses to start with the C key.

I can't get my B&W G3 to boot from a CD:

WHEN BOOTING THE INSTALL CD YOU SHOULD TRY A USB KEYBOARD AND MOUSE!

I am not sure why some Blue and White systems are so obstinate about not wanting to boot from a CD. Apple used a different type of bus for the optical and that is why they are less friendly with aftermarket drives (we recommend Pioneer if you want a burner cause we know they work!) I have went so far as to unplug the internal hard drive to force the machine to boot from a CD (this is not a solution though). Generally though if you zap the pram 3 times and then hold the C key down while booting the machine will boot from the CD. You may also try mounting the CD before turning off the machine and then choose it from the control panel startup.

You probably know that holding down the C key will force your system to boot from a CD. Holding down the Option key during startup will bring up the Startup manager on later systems with current firmware. Select the CD and start again. This works sometimes when the CD refuses to start with the C key.

On systems with SCSI or Internal ZIP drives use the Iomega Zip Tools to make a bootable backup disk and boot from it. You can then install from the CD to the systems hard drive. I keep one of these around with a copy of Norton Disk Doctor and Speed Disk along with the required (Norton Shared Lib) extension, since you can use Command-Option-Delete-Shift (CODS) to make it boot from the zip disk. CODS is the answer. Just think greasy fish. Command - Option - Delete - Shift.

The Blue & White and Yikes G4 systems are NOT FIREWIRE BOOTABLE. I suggest you run a second internal drive for bootable backups (Rev 2 only on BW). Don't purchase an external DVD or CD unit and expect to be able to boot from it. If you need a DVD/Player or Burner see our web site and install it internally. We include pictured instructions and it is easy to do. We have the stock DVD Player mechanisms in stock for cheap. If you want the best the Pioneer SuperDrive will be bootable and allow DVD movie playback with our patched player on systems with ATI16MB Graphics cards or better (most had these).

DEEP RESET TIP: On G3 and G4 Machines especially when aborting an OSX install really scrambles the computer. You can super reset the computer by Zapping the PRAM 3 times in a row. Then move your fingers from the P R keys to the O F keys (in other words Command - Option - O - F). COOF will bring up a machine language screen. <return> means press the return key you don't type the characters out. At the prompt type the following: On iMacs, Blue & White, G4 Towers you want to include resetting the NVRAM.

reset-nvram <return>
set-defaults <return>
reset-all <return>

You may have to repeat this several times to get it to work but you must get the deep level reset completed. It is amazing how many odd problems disappear when you get the machines deep level settings cleared.

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http://www.drivejumper.com - Good links to the sites you need to configure your hard drive or optimize your Mac G3 system all in one place!

Optimize your G4, Click here for:
Sawtooth and Gigabyte Ethernet Single and Duals
Digital Audio Single Processor
QuickSilver Single Processor

New! OSX Notes for Power Mac B&W G3 Systems

 

REV1 or REV 2 Blue and White Motherboard?

This is the left rear corner of the motherboard Here's how you can tell if you have what logic board you currently have in your Blue & White G3: Check the number printed on the CMD chip at location U1. The CMD chip on Rev. 1 logic boards is PCI646U2 and on Rev. 2 logic boards is 646U2-402. To find the location of the CMD chip on the logic board, get a flashlight in shine it on the chip near the left rear of the motherboard as you face the open case. I just look for the hyphen in the number. If you have a hyphen you are on a rev. 2 motherboard.

Blue & White Revision 1 logic boards only support one internal IDE hard drive. However, this limitation can be easily conquered by adding a PCI ATA card. I would run disk repair frequently on these systems to insure the drive is healthy.

Here's how you can tell if you have what logic board you currently have in your Blue & White G3: Check the number printed on the CMD chip at location U1. The CMD chip on Rev. 1 logic boards is PCI646U2 and on Rev. 2 logic boards is 646U2-402. To find the location of the CMD chip on the logic board, get a flashlight in shine it on the chip near the left rear of the motherboard as you face the open case.

These were earlier slower versions of the system. If you have a system with one of these old mboards in them and plan on upgrading, I would put an Sonnet ATA 133 card in if you plan on large or dual drives to be safe. I would also make sure they have the Boot ROM v1.1f4 installed.

I recently have attempted to install Panther (OSX 10.3) on several Rev. 1 motherboarded Blue and Whites. I had all kinds of trouble and ended up installing an Sonnet ATA card in one. The other I upgraded the guys system to a Rev. 2 motherboard. I had installed several Panther versions on a few others but the user ended up having trouble a few weeks later and even after reinstalling the problems repeated. I really can't recommend you install anything later than Jaguar 10.2 on a Rev 1. system and really suggest you stay with 9. Upgrade to a Rev 2 system if you want to run Panther.

REV A or REV B etc. Beige G3 ROM?

REV A ROM's only support one internal IDE hard drive per bus. However, this limitation can be easily conquered by adding a PCI ATA card like the one from SONNET. In fact it really is a good upgrade since it gives you faster access to the drives.

Here's how you can tell if you have what ROM version you have. Go to Apple System Profiler (OS8.5 and up). At the bottom of the front page click on Product Information. If your ROM Revision shows $77D.45F2 then you have a good ROM. This supports 2 devices per IDE bus (a Master and a Slave). If yours shows $77D.40F2 then you have Rev. A ROM and are limited to one device per bus. Add an IDE card to overcome this. The ROM chips are in short supply and are overpriced usually if you do find a B or later ROM.

There actually is quite a few variations in ROM's. I have seen many different labels on these chips and some report $77D.45F1. I consider these A minus roms. Most stuff works and you can have more than one item per bus but they aren't as compatible as the 45F2.

One odd note. The new USB2.0 5 Port Cards we stock which are designed along the PCI 2.2 Bus architecture require the Good ROM to function properly. When installed in an earlier machine it crashes at boot up with a type 11 error. This may be true of all USB2.0 cards. I have not had time to test them all yet. If you have the earlier rom it is probably best to stick with the USB1.1 Cards.

BEIGE G3 DESKTOP NOTE:

If your machine crashes on startup, or you get odd ram errors and bus errors most likely your personality card is pulled up in the front (the large upright card that has the plug for the microphone and speakers in the back). Also NO SOUND OR FLAKY SOUND is a definite clue that this card is not seated. This sometimes happen when you open the machine to work on it. Open your machine and push down on the front of the large upright card (personality card). Properly seating this card makes all kinds of odd problems go away.

If your CD or CDRW isn't showing up in Apple System Profiler it has become unplugged. The cables are too short to allow the case to open all the way and it pulls the IDE cable from the back of the drive or the motherboard connection. Open the case and check the back of the CD and make sure the cable is fully seated. Also check the motherboard cables to insure they are plugged in. Check these each time you work on your machine before buttoning it back up.

IMPORTANT NOTE ON UPGRADING YOUR BEIGE PowerMac G3 TO G4 PROCESSORS:

If you plan on upgrading your Apple, Mac® computer with a G4 accelerator processor (or one of the new faster FX series G3's), you may need a replacement Voltage Regulator Module (VRM). An unknown number of Mac computers were produced with a VRM which will over voltage and permanently damage the accelerator processor. If your VRM has the words "ROYAL" on them then you MUST change out for a replacement unit. While these units are indeed rare you should check. The models affected are those referred to as the "Beige G3" manufactured around 1999. These models include:

• Power Macintosh G3 All-In-One
• Power Macintosh G3 Desktop
• Power Macintosh/Server G3 Minitower

To solve this problem, Creative Connections, manufactures VRM UltraTM, a replacement VRM which meets after-market Mac accelerator processor power requirements. VRM UltraTM is a direct replacement for Apple, PN 922-3292. THIS IS NOT A COMMON PROBLEM BUT SHOULD BE CHECKED. Out of the thousands of Beige G3's I have worked on not one has had the Royal VRM. I always have a used unit for sale which will save you a buck or two, call or email and ask.

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THERMAL GREASE GOOD OR BAD?

I had one of the Powerlogix G3/800 MHz Processors returned. I couldn't and Powerlogix couldn't figure out why the customer's Beige G3 wouldn't work. When I got the processor back and checked it I realized the problem. The customer had put what he considered a small amount of thermal grease on the processor as the instructions said. It was way too much. It actually worked under the gasket and contacted all of the small capacitors that surround the processor (shorting them out). No permanent damage was done but it took me 20-30 minutes to remove the gasket and all the thermal grease.

If you use thermal grease a small amount is simply a very tiny amount. Keep in mind that when the heat sink is clamped down it is going to spread. A thin film covering the processor is all that is required. Too much and it gets under the gasket and shorts the capacitors.

PowerLogix is now NOT recommending thermal grease be installed on their new 800 and 900 ZIF processors. Thankfully the have added some type of aluminum looking cover that acts as the contact point for the heat sink!

The first things I do before overclocking a unit it to make sure the processor heat sink if in good contact with the processor. I actually bend the clamp (slightly & evenly) so that it puts a bit more downward pressure on the heat sink to insure good contact. REMEMBER the dimple in the clamp should be directly over the processor! I have seen machines with these clamps put on backwards and I am surprised the machine didn't overheat and die. I don't recommend that you use thermal compounds since Apple uses a special contact pad on the heat sink. If that contact pad has holes in it do use heat sink compound to fill the voids. I know that some folks do used the compounds but I have seen no major benefit and have cleaned up a few messes of those who tried and used too much. If I have one running a few degrees warmer than I like I may put a microscopically thin layer of silver thermal grease on the special contact pad (I actually put a small dab and spread it around with my finger until I can see through it). NEVER turn on the machine with the heat sink off of the processor.

I recently had a guy call who broke the plastic catch that the heat sink spring attaches to. If you are a bit ham fisted it pays to have someone with experience do this for you. The guy bought another system. I would have used epoxy (super glue won't work!) to repair a break like this but again you need experience using epoxy on delicate materials. If you aren't comfortable doing your own repairs there are always folks like us who are happy to help.

How to optimize your Beige Mac G3 system | Optimize your Blue & White G3

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HOW MUCH RAM IN CLASSIC OS's?:

As much as you can afford is the best answer. Let me explain though. When you get up above 512 MB most people don't know how to work with that much ram. If you only have 2 or 3 applications open at once then adding more ram will not likely do you much good. I have 512 MB in my machine. I constantly have 10 or 12 applications open and once and move back and forth between them. I also have assigned much more memory to each application.

If I were running say Illustrator, Photoshop, Quark, Word, and Explorer all at once I might consider adding more memory. I would assign a 50 MB to each program and perhaps 100 MB to Photoshop. Still I would only be using half the ram for Applications leaving the other half for the MacOS and a few other ancillary program I might use.

I can't tell you how many machines I have worked on stuffed full of ram and none of the applications had their memory partitions turned up.

If you are in publishing and frequently work with Photoshop and file sizes 20 to 40 megabytes you may want to add that extra ram and assign a large amount of it to Photoshop. That and rendering 3D, Music Recording and Video Production are all exceptions to the memory rule. Fill up your slots if you can afford to. If you are working in OS9 though you will need to manually assign your applications to use that ram. X handles it differently and requires no further action on your part.

I know folks who have install 1-1/2 GB's of memory in their G4 and only load one or two apps at a time and don't know how to change the memory partition on an Application or why they should. I guess if it makes you feel good. Kinda like having a Lamborghini and driving around in first gear though.

I have often heard "Internet Explorer said I didn't have enough memory". What I say is consider the source. Most likely you may not have opened the memory partition up. See the Mac Help File built into your system about how to do that. So you say I have 50 MB assigned and I still get this. My advise is stay off that web site. Your browser has so many windows open that the memory it has allocated is constipated. A quick fix is to quit and reopen the App. Adding more memory to your machine won't fix this problem. Assigning more memory to the app will help but sometimes you just have to quit and restart an App even in X.

The Mac OS Help File has a Memory category that can teach you how to take advantage of the memory you have and perhaps help you learn how much memory you really need.

OSX handles memory differently and allocated memory automatically. It also is a fat toad and takes quite a bit more memory for itself. Running X? My advice is 512 MB or more. Fill it up if you can afford it. You will see that annoying beachball much less.

ADDING MEMORY TIPS:

Power PC users (this includes G3 and G4 machines) your system is designed to run with Virtual Memory ON (1 MB over the installed ram). Leave it on unless the program you are using absolutely requires it to be off. If I have trouble burning a CD sometimes I will turn off Virtual Memory. Some games also run faster with it off. When you add over a GB of ram though it will not allow you to run virtual memory.

Remember this stuff is sensitive to static discharge and always take precautions. Wear a wrist strap or at least touch the machines power supply or the case metal before you start handling the ram. It is best to leave it in the anti static bag until time to install. Keep your fingers off the gold contacts. Acids from your skin oxidize them and prevent good contact.

All memory is notched to match the slot they plug into. You should not have to use an extraordinary about of force to insert them. Some may require a fair amount of pressure however. Just make sure the notches in the ram are matched up to the notches in the slot. If they don't line up perfectly you have the wrong ram.

FOR HOW TO INSTALL MEMORY on G3 and later systems try Apple's Customer Installable Parts Page at: http://www.info.apple.com/usen/cip/

TIP: ALWAYS INSTALL THE LARGEST CHIPS in the first slots accessed. Use Apple System Profiler to show you which slots are used first. Usually the one nearest the processor is the first slot if you have to guess.

TIP: TEST YOUR NEW MEMORY on the Kitchen Sink CD in the Diagnostics folder is an old program called TestMemory1.0. Run it in OS9 after installing with virtual memory turned off. Use the repeat mode. Watch the progress bar. You can visually see it change from one chip to the next. If you notice it slowing down you might want to consider pulling that old chip out.

TIP: SLOWER STARTUP? If you have added more memory to your computer, the startup time can increase substantially. This is because the machine is performing memory tests. You can bypass this memory startup test by disabling it in the memory control panel under Mac OS 8.6 and up. To do this open your control panels folder, and press the command and option keys while double clicking on the memory control panel. At the bottom of the memory panel a hidden command will appear that will allow you to disable startup memory tests. Turn it off and will boot more quickly. Turn the test back ON if you add more memory to your system to check the new memory and then disable it once things are working smoothly.

Even turning the test off your system will still require more boot time. If you think it is an inordinate amount of time you might try reseating the ram. Ram not making good connections will slow the startup process to a crawl.

Zap the pram 4 or 5 times in a row. It should get faster and faster between resets. This many times will fix slow startup problems. Don't know how? Type zap pram into the Mac OS help menu. I have had "so called experts" tell me that once is all that is necessary. Well why the difference in times especially on the older Beige Desktops and Towers. After repairing a few thousand machines once is never enough and a couple of extra never hurt anything.

While we all like to have the most ram possible, sometimes keeping that older small chip in with the newer large chips you installed slows them all down to match the speed of the slowest chip. Leaving that old small chip out may be the best thing you ever do it terms of improving your performance.

Use Apple System Profiler to determine what size chips you have installed and in what slots they appear (OS8.6 or later). Guru or MacTracker are both excellent resources for finding out what size and how many and what type of ram your system uses. They are both on the Kitchen Sink CD.

Put your largest chips in the first slot that appears in Apple System Profiler. For example on the 7600 you might think that A1 would be the first slot used when it is actually B4.

Some machine have the ability to use its ram "interleaved". This can substantially improve performance so it is worth doing. For example putting matched ram in both A1 and B1 "interleaves it. You should pair up ram whenever possible. Guru or MacTracker will tell you if your machine uses "interleaving". Both programs are on the Kitchen Sink CD in the Diagnostics Folder.

The 128K FPM DIMM ram we carry is designed for systems that use upgraded processors. It will work fine in slower machines but if you put in a G3 or G4 upgrade later on the ram will work with the faster processor. Many bargain ram chips will not.

If you are having trouble getting ram to show up, and you are sure that it is seated properly (because you did this twice already), you may want to clean the contacts (only on older ram). I use a paper towel dampened with alcohol to clean the oxidation and oils from the gold contacts. I always hold the chips by the chip surface and never touch the contact surfaces. Skin oils are acidic enough to cause oxidation. If the sockets are oxidized I use a piece of small card stock and slide it back and forth in the slots to remove oxidation. Use caution since these are delicate and static sensitive areas. Contact the metal case frequently to prevent static charge build up.

If it still isn't showing up, zap the pram. Don't know how? Type zap pram into the Mac OS help menu.

BAD RAM or improperly seated RAM, causes all kinds of grief. If your machine crashes frequently and you have nothing external hooked to the machine, begin taking out one ram stick at a time (assuming your unit doesn't require pairs) and restarting. If your unit straightens up you probably have located the problem. Don't assume the ram is bad at this point though. Try the chip in a different slot. Still bad? Try cleaning the contacts. If it still doesn't work with that chip installed retire it or return it.

New ram sometimes will fail after a short period of use in a machine. If your machine quits working and you installed ram recently before doing anything else pull out the new chips and try booting again.

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ABOUT MONITORS:

We recently started carrying some of the LCD type monitors. We look for bright sharp units at good prices and personally test to see that they perform well with the Macs. These monitors feature the regular VGA HD15 connectors that hook right up to most Macs. We have adapters even for the old Beige Macs but you may also need to upgrade your video ram a bit to be able to display on these larger units. We stock both VRAM upgrades and graphics cards if you are in need. Refresh rates under 10, brightness over 300, contrast over 500 etc. doesn't necessarily make the best monitor. Synching up with your Mac with a resolution you can read and giving you legible sharp text and vibrant colors are more important to me than stats.

We don't carry much in CRT monitors. You see old Apple Monitors out there are 6-13 years old now. They are heavy to ship and the larger ones are subject to damage in shipping. If you can dig up a 15 to 17" CRT PC monitor we recommend you use our low cost Mac to PC monitor adapter (see our monitor section). Easily adapt most any PC monitor to your Macintosh including flat panels LCD's that use the HD15 VGA connector. Compare at $24.99 to $44.99 our Special Price $19.99 includes domestic shipping.

There are some PC monitors that simply will not work with a Mac. Some of the bargain 14" simply will not support a standard sync rate. Beware of any small OEM PC monitor. Get permission to return it if it doesn't work or don't buy it.

Older Macs normally had a 2 row 15 pin connector called a DB15. PC monitors use a 3 row 15 pin setup called an HD15 and are sometimes referred to as VGA.

Blue & White and later Mac usually take an HD15 three row. There were a few educational units that had the traditional DB15 and usually also have TV out features. The 16 MB cards have enough VRAM to even playback DVD movies with the appropriate drive and software.

Early G4's have both HD15 and DVI. If you are bucks up buy a DVI capable monitor or LCD flat panel since these use the straight digital output from the card without having to convert the signal to analog of the older style HD15 connections. The later G4's have ADC which work nicely with the older Apple Cinema Displays and with an adapter will connect to a DVI monitor. All also have the HD15 connectors though that are common to the PC market.

Now I find out there are many different forms of DVI and that the industry will be moving to pure digital. Pure digital is called DVI-D. Apple used DVD-I on their G4's and probably all of the G5's (I haven't personally seen all the G5 models out there). DVD-I can use an adapter to go to VGA (we carry them). The pure digital DVI-D cannot use adapters. I have never seen a pure DVI-D monitor yet. Most are still the older standard.

HELP, I LOST MY INSTRUCTIONS FOR MY 10 SWITCH MONITOR ADAPTER

I just ask Cheryn, she knows the settings in her head. If you do have the little book use the MODE 5 settings column. For a 17" generally the settings 1,4,6,7,8 will work. For a 19" 1,4,6,7,9 usually works. Just remember you have to restart the computer for it to synch up after you change the switches. If you are still having trouble sometimes zapping the pram will force the computer to synch to the changes.

 

I JUST GOT A GREAT DEAL ON A CINEMA DISPLAY BUT DON'T HAVE ADC ON MY GRAPHICS CARD! WELL MAYBE IT WAS A GOOD DEAL, BUT MAYBE NOT.

I don't like talking about ADC. Even Apple finally gave up. Their newest Cinema Displays are all DVI. ADC requires additional power to the monitor via the ADC connection. You will find this on later model G4's and some G5's. Personally if you have an ADC model computer I would buy a DVI adapter (from us) and a DVI LCD Display from one of the discounters or use one of the LCD Flat Panels that work via the HD15 VGA connector.

If you have an ADC Cinema Display and an ADC supporting computer good for you. They go together and work wonderfully.

If you have a DVI system and need to hook up your ADC display, we do carry an adapter to supply an ADC Style Cinema Display. This has its own high quality power supply. They are getting harder to find and are selling in excess of $120. Add that to the cost of your bargain and you probably could have had a brand new high performace DVI monitor from the discounter that is bigger, brigher, faster, and sharper.

By the way, you can't just stick an ADC card in your unit and have it work. The internals are different since ADC requires additional voltage. That goes for the ATI cards that feature DVI and ADC on one card. It will not work via ADC since the voltage is not there. I learned this one the hard way! Read that ATI fine print.

HELP, MY MONITOR IS ALL WAVY

Move the fan dummy. Any device that has a small motor in it can cause monitor interference, including an unshielded PC nearby. I learned this the hard way after spending time trouble shooting a machine and 100 pound 22" monitor. Every time I put it on my bench there were no problems. When I moved it back to the employees area it would start wobbling and waving but only in the afternoon. I eventually found out that one of the gals on the other side of the cubicle would run her fan after lunch. Once we moved the fan it cleared right up. I had a sore back moving that stupid thing back and forth for no reason.

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ABOUT VRAM:

TIP: DON'T USE BIG BACKDROPS or SCREENSAVERS! I had a system returned. The user said he couldn't get Photoshop to work or even install and he was having all kinds of trouble. He had zapped the pram and performed numerous activities that normally would fix a minor problem. Come to find out after much expense and trouble, the problem was he installed a 1 MB background file. He only had 2 MB of VRAM in the machine. The machine was choking on the background. The largest background file I would install on a system with 2 MB of VRAM is about 200K. That's what size Apple makes there stock background photo's. The real solution though is to use a solid background and install more VRAM. Why work your system to death while it is sitting there. Over the years I have learned that large backdrops and many screen savers are more trouble that they are worth. Just don't use them. If you must have your babies, pets, or other backdrop then open the original in your graphic program and save it out at screen size (1024x768) at 72 dpi. This should make a file around 200K or so. Smaller is always better.

If your work is color critical always use a neutral gray background. It will allow you to see the colors of the images and pages you are working on. I think it is best for the eyes as well. I would worry if the graphic artist working on my new layout had a large purple background and would bet any color adjustment done would be bad.

Video RAM is where the computer stores the images displayed on your screen. On some earlier Macs with built-in video (Mac 128, IICI) this was kept in main memory. However it's considerably more efficient and faster to store the screen image in its own separate RAM. Generally the more VRAM you have the more colors or shades of gray you can display and the larger the monitors you can use. The chart below shows the number of colors that can be displayed at a given resolution with the specified amount of VRAM. Monitor size has no direct relation to the amount of VRAM required though larger monitors normally support higher resolutions. Larger monitors just have fewer dots per inch than smaller monitors with the same resolution. Also note that simply because a particular video card or Mac has sufficient VRAM to support a given number of colors doesn't mean that it actually can though more modern cards and monitors typically do support several resolutions.

Resolution	512x342	640x480	832x624	1024x768	1152x870	1280x1024
VRAM
256K	256	16	16
512K	32768	256	256	16	16
768K	32768	32768	256	256	16	16
1024K	16MIL	16MIL	32768	256	256	16
2048K	16MIL	16MIL	16MIL	32768	32768	256
4096K	16MIL	16MIL	16MIL	16MIL	16MIL	32768

If you are on a Beige G3 Desktop or Tower and only show 2 MB of VRAM in Apple System Profiler you are in luck. The little 4 MB VRAM chips are still available for around $23 delivered giving you a total of 6 MB. While this doesn't sound like a lot it does make a difference in performance. The built in ATI Graphics perform very well and can drive good sized monitors. We can no longer find a supplier for new VRAM DIMM's or VRAM SIMMs for that matter. What is available from us is used and tested and because of the limited supply the prices are always climbing. For most folks adding a Video card is a better solution and sometimes cheaper. BUT, some of the older Video cards out there may not work properly with the later OSes. We do have a good supply of NuBus video cards and it really does speed the machine up and are affordably priced. If you are on an older NuBus Mac then by all means add the NuBus Video Card! Most all of the cards we have in stock will work up to OS9.2.2. Not many PCI based cards will work with OSX. If you are planning to run OSX you should by the ATI 7000 PCI video card or the now discontinued 9200 model (see below). It is powered by the RADEON™ 7000 graphics processor and 32 MB DDR memory will go into any open PCI slot from the old 7200 up to the Blue & White G3's. It will improve video performance on all OS versions including OSX and offers dual-display support for multiple combinations of CRT monitors, TV's and video devices. Plus RADEON™ 7000 MAC EDITION supports OpenGL® for superior graphics and 3D textures in gaming and workstation environments. IT REQUIRES: Mac® OS 9.0* or later. Besides Apple Monitors it works with a CRT monitor, Digital flat panel monitor, TV, CRT monitor and CRT monitor, CRT monitor and TV, Digital flat panel and TV, CRT monitor and digital flat panel monitor. These are no longer manufactured but we get a used one or two on occasion. If you are on a budget for OS8-OSX the ATI 16 MB Rage 128 16 MB PCI Video Card is sometimes available, but getting rare. We provide a FREE (9.99 value) Kitchen Sink CD includes drivers! It will let you add primary or secondary pallet monitor even in the Blue and Whites. Remember the Blue and Whites and newer bus speeds are 100 MHz. Some of the early PCI Video cards will not work in the newer machines or not work for long.

If you have any of the 7200-8600 PowerPC systems you are in luck. We have the upgrade VRAM chips in stock now for less than $10 each. You can double the normal 2 MB of VRAM to 4 MB by adding two chips in all but the 7200 which takes 3 chips and is well worth doing if you still use your system heavily.

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Using OSX Quartz Extreme with your Radeon 7000 PCI Card

I recently discovered a utility that will let you do what is listed below a lot easier and it works from Jaguar all the way up through the latest version of Tiger.

Hack to Enable Quartz Extreme on Radeon PCI Cards - For those that don't want to edit the config file manually, there's now a utility to do that called PCI Quartz Extreme.

http://www.insidemacgames.com/news/story.php?ArticleID=6141

Manually Enabling Quartz Extreme for PCI Macs?

I recently added a Radeon 7000 to my beige desktop system running 10.2.8 and enabled Quartz Extreme. I can't tell a lot of difference but it probably didn't hurt anything. This will probably work for the newer 9200 (no longer available) as well although I haven't tested it.

A recent post to the Ars Technica Mac forums revealed it is possible to enable Mac OS X 10.2's Quartz Extreme on Macs without AGP video cards. While not necessarily game-related, many gamers have upgraded Beige or B&W PowerMacs with PCI Radeon or Radeon 7000 cards from ATI , and those brave enough can now try it out.

The modification requires the user to change one file and restart, though please only do this if you're well aware of the dangers it could pose to your system, and understand that it's not an official Apple practice .

While many IMG readers have verified it does work, there are reports of some glitches with movies playing in the background and stuttering on terminal transparency windows. If you're up to the task, first make sure you "su root" and follow the instructions from the Ars poster:

Open the config file

/System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/CoreGraphics.framework/Versions/A/Resources/Configuration.plist ...

Change IOAGPDevice to IOPCIDevice

Restarting should enable Quartz Extreme, which can be verified with a simple "Quartz Extreme Check" application available at Versiontracker. Creative users are also finding they can enable Quartz Extreme on a secondary PCI card if they have something else like a Radeon 8500 in the AGP slot by adding the IOPCI line instead of overriding the AGP line, but as always, be very cautious with any such modifications.

For those concerned Quartz Extreme might negatively affect game performance, OpenGL guru Kenneth Dyke recently made a very informative post to the IMG forum explaining exactly how VRAM is used in Jaguar. He notes that for full screen games, the VRAM is used the same by any OpenGL application --whether it be a game or OS X 10.2-- so there is no danger of the OS "hogging" memory from a game. Check it out for the full scoop.

CORE SUPPORT - QUARTZ EXTREME - GRAPHICS CARDS

With Tiger Apple introduced Core Support. Not many older graphics cards have Core Support even if they do have a lot of memory. It takes one of the newer Graphics Engines to handle it. We now stock a few replacement cards that offer this feature and they really make a big improvement in high end programs. OSX offloads its graphics handling to the GPU of these cards allowing the processor to do its job and letting the graphics card do what it does best. See our monitors/video section or give us a call.

Another lower level of graphics support is called Quartz Extreme. They say that OSX speeds up 10-15% with a Quartz Extreme enabled graphics card. The requirements are much less (32 MB of VRAM) in a normal AGP Graphics Card will do the trick. Unfortunately there were lots of G4 machines sold with the 16 MB card. These work fine but for less than a $100 you can pick up a bit of speed in OSX if your card is enabled.

Unfortunately for Mac users there are not too many choices out there when it comes to these cards. You might be able to find a good used pull from a later model G4 that meets the Quartz Extreme requirements but they aren't usually cheap. Finding a Core Enabled Card means you shell out over $250 for an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro Mac Edition which are in short supply. Check with us we may have alternatives that are more affordable and will meet your needs.

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ABOUT VIRUSES:

Work for Microsoft, buy a PC

We had an Apple Engineer visit our local Mac User Group a short while back. He said that SARC.com reports that there are over 71,000 known computer viruses. Of those 26 affect the Macintosh (all of those 26 only affect classic mode or the older OS versions), and of those only 3 do anything significant, most are simply nuisances. I am glad that I don't have to download virus updates and system updates every other day. I wonder when a PC user has time to do anything other than work on getting the viruses off or updates loaded to his system. Wouldn't you rather buy music in the iTunes store (or whatever you enjoy doing) instead of spending money on antivirus software?

First let me say that Macs are as a rule virus free! I don't normally run Virus software on my systems as they interfere with most normal work flow. There hasn't been a new virus for Macs since 2001, and most of us missed it. It was email based and running it was supposed to let you view unreleased versions of the Simpsons.

I picked up nvirus-a and nvirus-b the other day (very very old) from a machine we purchased. It wrote itself to my diagnostic hard drive I use to boot systems from. I didn't catch it immediately because I run a program that checks the hard drives of the repaired or refurbished systems when we prep the machines initially. I only do a quick check before we ship a system (since I already tested it). Once I discovered it I ran Norton Antivirus on it and the other systems I had prepped that day. It cleaned it off quickly. I had to remember to check all zip and floppies that I may have used that day. I made up a few bootable disks with Disinfectant 3.7.1 on it as well as a system folder and locked the disk. Disinfectant is in the Anti Virus folder of the Kitchen Sink CD and does a good job of removing "classic" viruses like the nvirus variety. You need to boot from another CD or Floppy for it to thoroughly clean off a system. You can run it from your utilities folder though just to check to see if you are safe. The virus came from a school computer by the way. If your kids bring home media and use your system you should be more diligent. Disinfectant is a small program and while not completely up to date it is fairly fast to run and takes care of many virus types. Keep a copy in your utilities folder and run it every once in a while, especially if you recently get files on disk from others.

The AutoStart virus was a big thing several years ago. Worm Gobbler from the Anti Virus folder of the Kitchen Sink makes short work of it. You should also turn off both boxes in the AutoPlay section of the QuickTime Control Panel. If you bought a system from us it is already turned off.

Macro Virus are something else. I don't use Microsoft products because of it. If you do you should run Norton Anti Virus periodically and only if you run OS7-9. There are still no viruses for X.

A Mac virus or worm is a fairly rare thing. Unless you are an ISP or Service Bureau I would not install a virus program on my Mac (the kind that runs all the time), especially on a home unit. I would run the program from the CD a few times a year. While not impervious to problems, the Mac is not nearly as vulnerable and the installed Virus programs interfere with the machines operation. I like and use Norton Antivirus from the CD. I don't use Outlook for Mail or Microsoft Office. You may be a bit more vulnerable if you do. I recommend Eudora as an alternative mail program. Never forward emails with .pif, .bat .scr or .exe files to your PC friends. These are most likely virus programs and they won't find it funny. Check http://www.securemac.com/ the next time you start worrying about it.

Mac Spyware Removal

Sorry to disappoint you. There is no Mac spyware either for the classic OS or X. Clean out your cookies under your browsers preference file periodically and remove any you don't recognize as they can and do store information about you. This can be a good thing when you do business with someone so leave those you recognize. Use a GMAIL or other secondary email account for the return address in your browser.

NORTON UTILITIES - Just don't use any version of Norton on an OSX system period.

(OS8-9 only) Never DEFAULT install Norton Utilities on your system. The default install puts what I consider crap all into your system. Crashguard, Filesaver, and Disklight cause far more problems than they are worth. If you have already done this disable from the extensions manager: Crashguard, Filesaver, Disklight, and the auto update features. I love Disk Doctor and Speed Disk but I run them from the CD when needed.

NEVER RUN NORTON 3.5 or earlier on an HFS+ Formatted Drive. It will destroy the contents of the drive. You may be able to recover it with the patch someone put out for Norton called drive fix 1.1. A proper version of Norton 5.0 or later will probably fix it as well.

NEVER RUN NORTON Disk Doctor 6.0.2 or earlier on an OSX system. Norton 6.03 or later for OSX systems was okay, but actually cause damage to later versions of OSX. Norton no longer supports the Mac. Just don't use any version of Norton on an OSX system period.

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BACKUPS:

Before getting up from your computer make a copy of the files you just worked on to another media, before quitting! Floppy, Zip or CDR or DVD-R it matters not. JUST DO IT.

There are two types of computer users. Those that are going to have a hard drive crash and those that have had a hard drive crash. Everyone should back up their work. Retrospect is the premier backup utility but really requires a supported Tape Drive or some type of external hard drive to be all that useful. Backing up with an automated program and a CDRW is a ludicrous idea. They are not dependable enough and Retrospect may not support your CDRW. Even if it does it is not dependable enough to automate. I use CDRW's to make backups but I use Toast and only do it periodically and I sit there while it does it. If you are a large business you should keep and offsite copy of the CD's in case of major catastrophe. I back up everything frequently to an external hard drive using Retrospect.

Simply making a copy to a Zip Disk (or even a floppy) of your work is what most people need to do. Simply drag and drop and copy to a Zip Disk periodically. We include a program called SilverLining on the Kitchen Sink CD, that will help if you want to back up more than that.

We now carry a small low cost USB drive that makes it cheap and easy to back up your files and or move them around. Check the external drive section. Use the free SilverKeeper utility (Kitchen Sink Utilities Folder) to make backups. Even easier simply drag and drop the files you want to back up. Any version of Retrospect that will work with your OS version will allow you to compress files backups on the fly.

THUMB DRIVES - Cheryn and I both recently purchased USB Memory Chips (we call them Thumb Drives). They plug into an open USB port and mount on your desktop like a hard drive. We use this for quick backups and to move files around the office. They come in 32, 64, 128 and 256 sizes (probably even larger). While I have a few smaller units in the store, the discounters have been almost giving them away with rebates. We use these to move large files around to other machines rather than tying up the network and we copy and carry any mission critical data with us in our pockets. They are not 100% dependable so use other methods to back up your crucial data as well. Periodically you should format the drives as they have a tendency to become corrupt with lots of usage.

Periodically replace your main hard drive (they are not that expensive these days and we can move your old material to a new drive if you want) and relegate the old drive to slave or store it. I know folks who were happy they did since they lost their main drive but still had the old drive they retired and at least were able to recover some material.

FOR OSX - I recommend a second (Firewire External) or internal slave drive. It can be slightly smaller but should be as fast as the one you are using. Maybe put a new larger fast drive in and use your old drive for backup. I use Carbon Copy Cloner (OSX Kitchen Sink) to make a complete bootable copy of my system installed on the other drive. Use it to move your X system to your new drive and then make the new drive master and the old one slave and reboot from your new faster drive. Some folks like SuperDuper I guess because they don't mind hunting down an OS version specific program and having to pay for it. Recently I started using RsynchX 2.1 (on the X Kitchen Sink) to do incremental backups on my OSX systems and servers. I still use the older version of Carbon Copy for Tiger and below but you must use the newer version 3 for Leopard.

If you don't have the money or room for a second drive at least burn your user folder to a CD.

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UPDATING Mac OS 8.5 to 8.6

We include the Apple 8.6 update on the Kitchen Sink CD. It is a free download from Apple but it is a sizable amount of files to download. I usually install from the CD. Run Disk First Aid or Norton Disk Doctor 5 or later, on your system to insure your drive is healthy before starting. Insert the Kitchen Sink CD and Open the Apple Files area. Find the 8.6 Update and launch the first file. Follow the directions.

You should also install the following updates with 8.6:

Font Manager Update 1.0.smi - This program insures your fonts are healthy and does minor fixes (A MUST with 8.6!). Keep your font count below 90. Add a FontsUnused folder to your system folder if you must have a large collection and move them in and out as you need them. Restart your application after you have made changes to the font folder.

CarbonLib 1.6.smi - Insures compatibility with newer programs.

MRJ 2.2.5.smi - Updates the Java used by Internet Explorer.

You can consider also installing the QuickTimeInstaller5.05.smi or later but be advised it is takes up a lot of real estate and memory. Stick with the older version unless you have a 200 mhz or faster processor and a lot of ram and hard drive space.

After restarting a time or two and when everything is working properly you should run disk repair again and rebuild your desktop to insure all the new system components are showing up properly.

FONT PROBLEMS: 8.5 and 8.6 introduced a problem that actually damaged fonts under certain circumstances. That is why the Font Manager Update was released (it is not needed after this, since they incorporated the fix into the later OSes). Remember you really shouldn't have more than about 90 fonts in your font folder. You can combine fonts in font suitcases to keep under the limit. If you have too many make a folder named Fonts-Unused in your system folder. Pull what you consider unneeded fonts into this folder. They will still be there in case a program you use needs them and to reactive them all you do is move them back and restart your application. Run the repair program that Font Manager installs and run it again anytime you install new fonts.

You can pull the USB components and Firewire components out of the newer OSes and they will improve performance and reliability on your older system. I use TOME VIEWER to pull them out of the freely downloadable 9.2.1 update and manually install them. The latest versions though are on the OS9 Kitchen Sink and I recommend you manually install them on any 8.6 system you plan to run Firewire and or USB. I highly recommend you do this as it will improve both USB device and Firewire device compatibility.

OS8.6 is a good lean operating system for the PowerPC Mac. I still run one of our four servers on 8.6 since it gives unparalleled performance with the software we run. With high speed processors, faster drives and loads of ram there is no reason not to run 8.6 if the software you need allows it.

UPDATING Mac OS 9 to 9.1

If you check about this computer and only have OS9 on your system you will need to install the 9.04 update before installing the 9.1 update. Some systems may require a ROM update but your system will notify you if it is required. 9.1 update is a free download from Apple but it is a sizable amount of files to download. I usually install from the Kitchen Sink CD. Run Disk First Aid or Norton Disk Doctor on your system to insure your drive is healthy before starting. Insert the Kitchen Sink CD and Open the Apple Files area. Find the 9.04 Update and launch the first file. Follow the directions. Proceed to the 9.1 install and do the same.

You should also install the following updates with 9.1:

CarbonLib 1.6.smi - Insures compatibility with newer programs.

MRJ 2.2.5.smi - Updates the Java used by Internet Explorer.

QuickTimeInstaller5.05.smi or later - updates QuickTime to the later version. Go on to QuickTime 6 if you have plenty of ram.

After restarting a time or two and when everything is working properly you should run disk repair again and rebuild your desktop to insure all the new system components are showing up properly.

TIP: Remember if you use Adobe Type Manager (ATM) that versions earlier that 4.5.2 will not work with OS9 a