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The Tekserve Mac FAQ

1. 77 Introduction The first Tekserve Mac FAQ was published in 1998 with 25 pages on floppy disk drive repairs SCSI woes and Apple bombs Over the last 13 years the technology has changed but most of our basic advice hasn t We re still teaching customers how to back up their computers page 38 what to do if liquid is spilled on their portable Macs page 19 and how to troubleshoot slow applications page 34 Al though these are timeless lessons of computer ownership we ll be the first to admit that computers have gotten a lot more complicated since we started Our advice for Mac users has grown tremendously as we ve expanded to serve the thousands of customers who visit us every week With 200 employees we have specialists in every field from Pro Tools to iPad accessories and a huge knowledge base In 1998 our 128kbps ISDN connection was something to brag about Today the Internet is the first resource we check when something goes wrong with our gadgets In the interest of saving more than a few trees only the first part of our advice has been printed here Everything else is available on our website at www tekserve com faq There you ll find hundreds of additional questions about getting the most out of your Mac or iPod s battery sharing files with Windows users printer troubleshooting avoiding Spam recognizing viruses and much more You can also download the previous ten editions with our advice for earli
2. 2 Put your Mac to sleep by going to the Apple menu in the upper left corner and choosing Sleep Then wake up the Mac after it has gone to sleep by pressing the space bar 3 Shut down your Mac by choosing Shut Down from the Apple menu If you are experiencing issues with your MagSafe power adapter or battery try this 1 Unplug the power adapter from the Mac and then the wall power outlet for a moment 2 Shutdown the Mac normally If you can remove your computer s battery do so and then re insert it Restart your Mac If you are still having problems with your Mac here s how to reset the SMC on different Macs Search www apple com support for reset SMC to get the latest info with pictures If you have a G4 or G5 Mac search for reset PMU for instructions INTEL IMAC MAC MINI OR MAC PRO If it s on turn it off Disconnect all peripherals and the pow er cord Keep it unplugged for at least 15 seconds Then plug it back in and restart ANY PORTABLE INTEL MAC WITH A BATTERY YOU CAN REMOVE If its on turn it off Disconnect the power adapter and remove the battery Press and hold the power button for five seconds and then release Reconnect the battery and power adapter and then restart I Can t Start My Mac 29 ANY PORTABLE MAC WITH A BATTERY YOU CANNOT REMOVE If its on turn it off Connect the power adapter to a work ing power source and your Mac On the built in keyboa
3. FireWire disconnecting 30 transferring files 45 58 68 69 versus USB 40 FireWire Target Mode See Target disk mode Firmware update 54 57 Flashing question mark 21 23 folder permissions 37 force quitting 28 31 freezing up 31 G Gestures 8 33 H hard disk drives data recovery see data recovery directory damage 25 39 40 permissions 37 full 66 view capacity 40 66 repair disk in Disk Utility 23 24 housecalls 13 I iCal 42 iMac see desktops iPad 11 12 17 40 41 77 iPod 11 12 41 77 image see monitors installation www tekserve com faq operating system 55 58 software updates 10 14 50 54 57 58 Internet 6 69 71 Internet Service Provider ISP 6 69 70 73 iPhoto 49 60 67 iTunes 15 36 40 54 63 67 iTunes Store 15 36 K kernel panic 32 keyboards not working 15 30 31 short cuts 9 special keys 9 spills 19 L liquid see spills logic board 20 22 32 M Mac Pro see desktops MacBook see portables MacBook Air see portables MacBook Pro see portables memory see RAM messenger service 79 microwave ovens 75 modems 70 73 monitors backlight 28 repair 18 motherboard see logic board mounting disk images 10 mouse freezing up 30 31 stuck buttons 23 N networks looking for 74 prefer 74 technical support 18 transferring files 58 wireless 74 77 NVRAM see parameter memory o Operating System 7 39 50 53
4. tion on your hard drive a system disc or recovery partition C while starting up This tells the com puter to start from a CD or DVD like a system or utility disc instead of the hard drive T while starting up This temporarily turns a Mac into an external drive that you can mount on the desktop of a second Mac to copy data or even run utilities When you are done eject the disk and press the power button on the Target Disk Mode Mac to shut it down Command Option Shift Delete while starting up some Macs ignore selected startup device Press and hold mouse button while start ing up left button if you have more than one Shift key while starting up only loads essential extensions at boot and disables login startup items try this if you just installed a new extension or driver and got a kernel panic Command V while starting up shows what s going on during startup Commana s while starting up brings you to Unix style text prompt Command Option P R while starting up Command Control Power button to re start after a crash on some Macs The Tekserve Mac FAQ Eleventh Edition Mac OS X 10 6 amp 10 7 The thousands of Mac users that visit Tekserve each week have one thing in common every one has at least one question about using their Mac The Tekserve Mac FAQ is our compilation of the most popular questions and the best tips to keep your Mac running smoothly Tricks and troubles
5. 43 44 importance of 38 incremental 43 online 54 simple copy 41 strategies 41 43 Time Machine and 48 54 Windows and 45 53 batteries maximize life 10 11 not charging 28 29 replacements 11 beeping 21 22 blinking 22 blue screen 25 26 booting see startup c cable modems 70 71 73 Classic environment 56 Clean Install 59 cleaning spills 16 19 clocks inaccurate 36 Consumer Reports 11 corporate accounts 18 78 corruption avoiding 38 40 data 39 permissions 37 crashes 13 25 30 31 D data backup see backup data recovery 17 22 25 69 78 79 Data Rescue 25 date time settings 36 Delete see erase DHCP 71 diagnostics 21 digital video 36 78 79 disk image applications 10 can t mount 37 Windows 53 Disk Utility See utilities disks See hard disk drives Index 81 DiskWarrior 24 25 displays see monitors Dock 8 10 35 documents backing up 38 40 location of 9 41 42 Drag and drop 8 drivers kernel panics 32 printers 17 18 56 59 updating 18 56 59 upgrading OS X and 56 E encryption wireless networks 75 erase applications 68 data 45 50 67 Ethernet DSL cable connections 71 72 transferring files 58 troubleshooting 21 26 33 extensions 27 57 61 external devices 17 18 21 22 F files see documents backups FileVault 54 62 63 Final Cut Pro 78 79 Final Draft 15 16 financing 80 Finder 9 82 Tekserve s Macintosh FAQ
6. 55 58 P paging out 34 Parallels Desktop 53 parameter memory PRAM 21 22 27 passwords changing 15 63 65 choosing 65 email 62 FileVault 62 forgotten 61 63 keychain 62 64 login 5 61 63 security 15 website 62 63 PCI cards slots 22 peripheral devices see Index 83 external devices permissions see corruption privileges phone support 11 13 Power Management Unit PMU 28 29 Pournelle Jerry 20 portables battery 10 11 28 29 clock 36 keyboard 9 19 spill 19 System Management Controller 28 30 trackpad 8 23 33 PPPoE 72 PRAM see parameter memory preferences data transfers and 60 location of 60 printer drivers see drivers printer repair 17 18 pro audio amp video 77 79 programs see applications Q question mark blinking 22 R RAM adding 36 beep codes 22 incompatible or bad 22 32 not enough 34 84 Tekserve s Macintosh FAQ OS X requirements 55 56 rentals 13 16 79 repair hardware 14 23 software 13 14 preparing for 14 16 42 44 estimate 16 external hard drive 17 18 printer 17 18 scanner 17 18 disk permissions 37 directory 33 repair programs 23 25 s Safe Boot 21 27 scanners 17 18 58 59 screen shot 14 setup service 59 slash 9 26 sleeping won t wake 20 28 29 spills 2 19 SuperDuper 42 software see applications security passwords 61 65 wireless networks 70 74 75 Spinning globe 21 Spotlight 8 35 49 s
7. Alternatively if you re running Lion you can restart your Mac while holding down Command R to boot into the Recovery partition without the disc 3 Once the Installer or Utilities menu loads you may need to select a language first choose Restore System from Time Machine Backup from the Utilities menu or window 4 In the Restore Your System dialog box click Continue Then select your Time Machine backup drive 5 Select the Time Machine backup you want to restore usually the most recent one 6 Follow the onscreen instructions Time Machine will perform a full backup of your system af ter it finishes the restore This is normal and won t delete your older backups unless you ve run out of space on your backup drive What should I do when my Time Machine backup drive fills up As your backup drive fills up Time Machine will delete older backups to make room for new ones Launch Time Machine and check how many weeks you are able to browse through If you don t mind loosing the older data then you don t need to do anything If you want to save the older files you ll need to connect a new backup disk Get Ahead by Backing Up 51 After you connect the new disk open Time Machine prefer ences and click Change Disk to choose it as your new Time Machine backup disk You ll be able to access your older backups anytime by connecting your old backup disk We recommend storing the old backup disk in another l
8. If you value your data back it up before you continue See How to Create a Bootable Clone Backup page 44 Clean house Take a few moments to organize any files you have laying around delete unnecessary items and empty your Trash Disconnect any external hard drives or peripherals You should only have a power cord mouse keyboard monitor and Internet connected at this point Tekserve s Macintosh FAQ www tekserve com faq 5 Update While connected to the Internet go to the Apple c menu in the upper left corner of your screen and choose Software Update Install all the Apple updates available and restart your computer This is to make sure that you have the latest Apple Firmware updates for your computer This is also the best time to update your third party software Open your important appli cations and look for Check for Updates in the menu Make sure to also check for updates of preference panes you ve installed menu extras Mail plug ins and browser extensions if none of those sound familiar you may not have any 6 Optional Repair Your Disk Just to be safe now is a great time to repair your hard disk using Disk Utility Sometimes small errors turn into big errors after a sys tem upgrade Read How do repair my Mac s hard drive using Disk Utility on page 23 to avoid any problems 7 Get the Installer If you re installing Lion 10 7 or later you ll need to download the installer
9. e Press the power button on your Mac e Before the gray screen appears hold down Command Option P R simultaneously e Keep holding those keys down until you hear the startup sound chime two or three times I Can t Start My Mac 27 How do I reset the System Management Controller SMC The System Management Controller SMC is used to con trol fans heat sensors and startup On earlier PowerPC based Macs this is called the Power Management Unit PMU You should not arbitrarily reset the SMC However you may need to reset your SMC if you encounter one of the following symptoms e Computer does not turn on when power button is pressed e Portable computer does not sleep or wake correctly when lid is opened or closed e Fans run on high when the Mac is not warm e Battery is not charging when it should be e Yellow and green indicator light on portable Mac s pow er adapter behaves incorrectly e Display or keyboard backlight adjustment does not work properly By default your screen brightness should change depending on the brightness of the light around you unless you ve turned that feature off in Display Preferences e System is running unusually slow even when not under heavy use Before resetting the SMC try these troubleshooting steps first 1 If any of your applications are not responding frozen press Command Option Escape to force quit them 28 Tekserve s Macintosh FAQ www tekserve com faq
10. Configure pop up box choose Using DHCP if you receive your IP address automatically Choose Manually if your service provider gave you a specific IP address DNS server or search domain to use Enter those items into the so named fields 5 Click Apply If these steps don t work for you you ll have to contact your Internet service provider s technical support How do I connect my Mac to a DSL modem Most companies will come in and set this up for you the first time but you may need these instructions to connect a new Mac later In order to connect to a DSL modem direct ly you ll need to know the user account and password for that DSL account Some DSL providers also require certain Domain Name Server DNS address es and or a static IP address to be entered Most providers will give you a soft ware setup CD that will helo you do this but here s how to generally connect to any DSL modem that uses PPPoE Verizon AT amp T and some others Getting Online and AirPort 71 bo Verify that your computer is connected to the modem securely with an Ethernet cable Turn off your DSL modem and computer for a minute Restart the DSL modem and make sure it connects to the Internet based on its status lights Then turn on your computer Open your System Preferences and select the Network pane Click the plus sign in the lower left corner Choose PPPoE from the Interface pop up select Ethernet from the second pop up me
11. HD Users YourName iCal data Library Calendars Mailidata Macintosh HD Users YourName Library Mail Macintosh HD Users YourName Safari bookmarks Library Safari Macintosh HD Users YourName Library Application Support Firefox Profile Firefox bookmarks If you re running Lion see How do access the Libary fold er on page 37 Complete Bootable Clones are an exact copy of everything on your computer created by using special software Your Mac has invisible files that you cannot backup by hand A bootable clone ensures that you have a copy of absolutely everything on your computer just in case We ve had good experiences with SuperDuper for making bootable clones Read our step by step instructions under How to Create a Bootable Clone Backup page 44 to set one up 42 Tekserve s Macintosh FAQ www tekserve com faq Pros lf you lose all your data to a thief or a hard drive crash this backup is the fastest way to restore all your files and applications A bootable clone can also be used to trouble shoot your Mac especially useful if you ve lost your system installation disc Finally a bootable clone can allow you to keep working if your Mac has to go in for a repair You can use the bootable clone with any similar Mac and continue using your applications and files Cons A clone is out of date almost as soon as it is made You need to remember to periodically update the backup This
12. Machine immediately choose Don t Use for now 2 Open Disk Utility from Applications Utilities 3 You should see the external hard drive listed in the left pane of Disk Utility It will be listed twice Once with the capacity of the drive and its technical name and then in dented below you ll see the drive s name as it appears on your desktop Select the first listing for your drive with its capacity and technical name Then select the Partition pane from the options in the upper center area 4 In the pop up menu under Volume Scheme or Parti tion Layout choose One Partition and then name it in the Name field 5 From the Format pop up box choose Mac OS Extended Journaled 6 Click Apply and then after reading the confirmation dia log click Partition B Create the bootable clone backup Download and install SuperDuper from www shirt pocket com It s free to create your first bootable clone without acti 46 Tekserve s Macintosh FAQ www tekserve com faq vating it but well worth the 30 if you plan to continue using it 1 Select your computer s internal hard drive usually Macintosh HD in the left drop down menu labeled Copy Select your newly created backup hard drive in the right drop down menu labeled to Start the backup by pressing Copy Now You may be prompted to enter your user login password before continuing The first backup should take several
13. a new number from the Channel pop up menu If you want to be more scientific and check which channels are being used near you download iStumbler www istumbler com donation requested If you have a third party wireless base station made by anyone else but Apple you will probably need to configure the base station through your web browser refer to the manual for your particular device If that doesn t help try to place your base station higher up and away from microwave ovens cordless phones and flu orescent lamps all of which can provide local interference Are AirPort Wi Fi wireless networks secure It is not the most secure network available During the 1980s my friend could listen in on wireless phone calls using a baby monitor Just keep in mind when your data is trav eling on a wire an intruder would have to tap it definitely possible but a bit of a hassle With AirPort your data is a radio transmission still not totally in the clear but a whole lot more available to the world If the information you trans mit online is confidential you should use an encrypted wire less network or another form of encryption Secure HTTP sites pages beginning with https like banking websites and such and Virtual Private Networks VPNs provide an extra layer of security even if you re using an unencrypted wireless network You can encrypt your wireless network by following your router s instructions on password protecting yo
14. book an appointment My Mac just died and I need a computer ASAP Tekserve not only repairs Apple computers we rent and sell them too Whatever you need we ll keep you working with a low cost rental or by transferring your information to anew Mac When Should I Bring My Computer to Tekserve Most repairs fall into one of two categories SOFTWARE REPAIRS Software repairs are required when an application data or your operating system is having a problem For exam ple you can t open a file or an application keeps crashing quitting unexpectedly These repairs are usually not cov ered under warranty and can often be solved at home Try calling AppleCare at 800 275 2273 if you ve purchased When Should I Bring My Computer to Tekserve 13 it for your computer or try checking Tekserve s support database at www tekserve com fag to solve your problem first If the problem is with a specific application check the manufacturer s website for software updates or support If those resources can t solve your problem backup your computer and bring it into Tekserve Or you may also call our Professional Services group to schedule a Tekserve en gineer to visit you HARDWARE REPAIRS If your computer is having an electrical mechanical or physical problem we can get it up and running again or ad vise you if it might be time to move on to a new one If the computer and its problem are covered by Apple Warranty an Apple R
15. connected to the Internet go to the Apple menu in the upper left corner of your screen and choose Software Update Install all the updates available and restart your comput er if required Then check Software Update again until you ve installed them all Pm upgrading to a new Macintosh how do I copy my files over When you first start up the new Mac the Setup Assistant will offer to transfer your old files from your old Mac If both computers have FireWire or Thunderbolt you just need a FireWire or Thunderbolt cable to connect them Although we sell a cable that will connect an older FireWire 400 port to a newer FireWire 800 port you can t connect a FireWire port to a Thunderbolt port You can use an Ethernet cable or wireless network to migrate files as long as both com puters are running Mac OS X Tiger 10 4 11 or later Unfortu nately the wireless network is the slowest method so you ll need to be patient The last option is to connect your Time machine backup disk from the old computer to the new 58 Tekserve s Macintosh FAQ www tekserve com faq one For detailed instructions on all these methods go to www tekserve com faq 4889 After your files are finished transferring and your Mac re starts you ll want to install updates to most of your soft ware Printers scanners and other peripherals may require installing updated drivers from the manufacturer s website We offer a setup service if you are buy
16. create backups for every hour of the last 24 hours every day of the last month and every week past that until your backup disk is full The important thing is to REMEMBER to back up Either use software that automatically schedules itself to back up frequently or put reminders in your calendar Why should I make multiple backups Most people don t test their backup until their computer fails and they need the data Often we see them find out too late that there was an error that made their only back up unreadable and they have lost all their files even though they thought they were backing up Additionally we recommend keeping a second backup ina different location work safety deposit box friend s house in case your computer is in a flood or fire or if your backup drive is stolen along with your computer HOW TO CREATE A BOOTABLE CLONE BACKUP We recommend making a bootable clone backup before any repair if you can In most cases you can continue to use your applications and data normally with any similar Mac during the repair You can rent a Mac from Tekserve if you don t have a spare Follow the instructions on pages 45 44 Tekserve s Macintosh FAQ www tekserve com faq to 47 to set up create and test your first bootable clone backup You ll Need 1 1 to 5 hours about 30 minutes of setup and hours of waiting depending on how much data you have on your hard drive It s usually easiest to set it up to
17. from the Mac App store Go to www tekserve com faq installos to be redi rected to the latest version of the installer Depending on your Internet connection s speed it may take a while for this to download After it finishes downloading an in stallation icon will appear in your dock click it to get started If you re installing Snow Leopard 10 6 or earlier insert the DVD into your Mac After a few moments the disc will mount on your desktop Double click the nsta Mac OS X icon and then click Restart to begin If you cannot start your Mac normally follow these instructions With the disc in your Mac hold down the Option key as you start the Mac After a few minutes you ll be able to select Install DVD on your screen and press Return 57 Upgrading and Reinstalling Mac OSX 5 8 Stuff nobody reads The Installer will display instruc tions read them and click the Continue button Then you will have to agree to the software terms and condi tions The Installer will scan your computer and ask you to select your hard drive usually Macintosh HD 9 Let the games begin Hit nsta to be on your way to wards a new operating system Make sure your comput er is plugged into an outlet and let it do the work Your computer may restart once or twice during the process don t worry installations can take quite a while 10 Update again Once you restart with the newly installed OS X you ll want to do another update While
18. hours be patient C Test the bootable clone backup Also how to start up your Mac from an external hard drive 1 Connect the external hard drive to your computer Re start your computer and hold down the Option key as the computer restarts A gray screen with two or more hard drives will ap pear Select your backup drive and press Return The computer will then start up from your backup drive instead of its regular internal hard drive This usually takes longer than starting up normally Once booted from the external hard drive open a few files and applications to make sure everything is work ing It s normal if these actions take a little longer than you re used to If everything looks good you re done Shut down your computer unplug the backup drive and put the drive in a safe place Don t leave the clone connected to your Mac since it can get confusing very quickly Get Ahead by Backing Up AT TIME MACHINE How do I start using Time Machine You will need a Mac running OS X 10 5 Leopard or lat er and an external hard drive or Time Capsule to use Time Machine You can also use an additional internal hard drive on a Mac Pro or a networked drive but an external hard drive is simple and portable The capacity of your ex ternal hard drive determines how far back Time Machine will keep data backups for you We generally recommend an external hard drive twice the size of your computer s h
19. instructions or use the cheap utility AppZapper from www appzapper com Target Disk Mode How do I use Target Disk Mode Target disk mode allows a Mac to mimic an external drive so you can access its data through another Mac Use this technique to quickly transfer data between Macs or back up data from an ailing Mac First connect two Macs with a FireWire or Thunderbolt cable Although we sell a cable that will connect an older FireWire 400 port to a newer FireWire 800 port you can t connect a FireWire port to 68 Tekserve s Macintosh FAQ www tekserve com faq a Thunderbolt port Then hold down the T key while you start the Mac you want to transfer data from The computer should enter a special target disk mode indicated by a disk icon on the screen It will show up as an external hard drive to your other Mac and you ll be able to access its data You can drag and drop files to and from the Mac You can also run data recovery or repair applications on a drive this way if your computer won t start up Just remember to eject the disk by dragging its icon to the Trash when you re done Then press the power button to shut down the Mac and disconnect the cable Getting Online and AirPort There are plenty of things you can do on your Mac but now it s time to start thinking outside the box There is a whole wide world out there just waiting for you to explore Whether it is looking for old friends playing video games with
20. it from Applications Then click the Purchased tab to re install your software Move only a few files at a time Test after each move so you can isolate any problems that may arise Before you replace an existing file with your saved copy think carefully In all likelinood you should keep the new er fresh copy avoiding possible corruption You won t need to move all your folders into your new sys tem Here are a few of our favorites 60 If possible use mport under the File menu in applica tions such as Mail iPhoto and iTunes to get your old data into your current system Most of your preferences live in the Macintosh HD Users YourName Library Copy those over first This will include Mail and bookmarks If you re running Lion see How do access the Libary folder on page 37 Some applications store important preferences in either Macintosh HD Library Preferences or in Macintosh HD Library Application Support so move those as well Tekserve s Macintosh FAQ www tekserve com faq e Additions to System Preferences are often in Macintosh HD Library PreferencePanes These are frequently incompatible with new versions of the operating system so now is a great time to check www download com or the Mac App store for up dates You should NOT move these but rather reinstall from original or updated installers e Applications infrequently put invisible but important ap plications in Ma
21. of contents for your data If the computer crashes loses power or experiences another problem it s possible that a file is written properly but its index gets corrupted There are a few precautions you can take It s best to not move a computer while the drive is spinning Ideally you would put a portable computer to sleep before moving it this is unnecessary if you have a SSD drive When you are finished with an external hard drive or USB flash drive you Get Ahead by Backing Up 39 should always eject the disk by dragging it to the Dock s Trash icon which will change to an eject symbol before disconnecting that external drive Or select the drive and hold down Command E Properly ejecting disks makes sure that their directories are properly updated before you dis connect them If you are shutting down the computer the system automatically ejects all disks when shutting down Finally if your computer starts to shut off crash erratically or you think you ve lost data you should quickly find and solve the cause of those failures Little problems can grow into big problems What should I back up my data onto We recommend an external hard drive at least twice the size as your internal drive for incremental backups such as Time Machine Select your hard drive and press Commanda to see your hard drive s capacity If you don t see the hard disk icon choose Finder gt Preferences click General and then select Har
22. password on page 64 for instructions 4 Bring your power adapter with your portable computer Apple display or Mac mini We don t need any cables for other desktop Macs Unless the problem you are expe riencing is related to the mouse or keyboard you don t need to bring those with you How do I avoid activation problems with iTunes Adobe Creative Suite or Final Draft after the repair Before major repairs you should deactivate any applica tions that required online activation when you installed them If you forget you may have to contact the software manufacturer to reset your activations iTunes Store Under the Store menu choose Deauthorize Computer After the repair choose Authorize Computer to play your iTunes Store purchases again You can authorize up to five different computers at a time If you forgot to deau thorize your computer before the repair you can reset your authorizations once a year See www tekserve com fag 1420 for details Adobe Creative Suite 2 or later Go to the He o menu to deactivate any Adobe software that you have installed Call Adobe at 800 833 6687 if you have problems When Should I Bring My Computer to Tekserve 15 Final Draft While connected to the Internet choose Deactivate from the Help menu Call 818 789 6281 if you have problems Do I need to make an appointment We know you can t predict when you might need help so there are no service appointments you have to bo
23. wind up at Tekserve for data recovery First try to zap the PRAM NVRAM with the instructions on page 27 If that doesn t work see How do repair my Mac s 22 Tekserve s Macintosh FAQ www tekserve com faq hard drive using Disk Utility below If none of those steps work you will probably need to bring your computer in for repair How do repair my Mac s hard drive using Disk Utility WARNING In some instances repair programs will make things worse Please read the next section carefully If your Mac won t start up normally you can start up your Mac using a system disc or the built in recovery partition introduced in OS 10 7 Lion For OS 10 6 or earlier you ll need a system install disc this is the first gray disc from the set that came with your Mac or any operating system installation disc you ve purchased With the system disc in your computer restart the Mac while holding down the C key If holding C doesn t work try holding the Option key during startup which should allow you to select the Mac OS disc icon and press Return If the disc is immediately ejected you may have a stuck button on your mouse or trackpad Turn off the Mac unplug the mouse and try again It will also be ejected if it isn t really a system disc and is lacking the software needed to start up your computer For OS 10 7 or later your Mac should already have a re covery partition installed Once your Mac is off hol
24. you go to select a network your Mac rescans to check if any new networks are available How can I ask my Mac to prefer a certain AirPort Wi Fi network or forget one You can tell it that certain networks are friendly and need to be connected to when you are in their proximity You can set up a list of preferred networks by opening your System Preferences Select the Network icon and then select AirPort or Wi Fi from the left bar Click on the Ad vanced button which can be found in the lower right On the AirPort or Wi Fi tab you can drag your preferred net works to the top of the list If you no longer want your Mac to connect to a network automatically select it from the list and press Minus My AirPort reception is very inconsistent and sometimes drops out This is a very common issue especially with people who live in apartments in NYC You may be experiencing inter ference from wireless phones other wireless networks in your building or even your neighborhood Home networks use radio frequencies and most wireless base stations de fault to the same channel or two You can manually adjust your base station s frequency and this may help with your reception problem 74 Tekserve s Macintosh FAQ www tekserve com faq If you re using an Apple wireless base station open AirPort Utility from Applications Utilities Select your base station on the left and choose Manual Setup Choose the Wireless tab and pick
25. AM Hard Drive HD Your hard drive is like your refrigerator Your files food stay in there until you re ready to work with them on the counter top RAM The larger your hard drive is the more files you can store Drag and Drop This is the action of selecting a file hold ing down your mouse button or trackpad and dropping it in another location Try this first if you can t figure out how to move a file into or out of an application For example you can drag a photo on top of the iPhoto icon in your Dock to add it to your iPhoto library Dock This is the bar of application icons found by default at the bottom of your screen You can add and remove ap plications from the dock by dragging and dropping them System Preferences This is where all computer wide op tions are located such as changing your desktop picture and managing printers You access it by choosing System Preferences from the Apple menu in the upper left corner of your screen Gestures This is what Apple calls how you move your fin gers on a trackpad to scroll rotate or secondary right click tap Select System Preferences from the Apple menu and then choose the Trackpad panel to learn the ges tures available on your Mac Spotlight This is the built in search tool for your Mac Think of it like Google search for your files Press Command Space bar to activate the Spotlight search bar Or you can click on the magnifying g
26. B you can end up filling up a backup drive pretty quickly This is because every time you edit a large file Time Machine will save the new version as a separate file You may want to exclude some files or use a different backup solution If you run Windows with Parallels or VMWare your comput er stores a large disk image of the entire operating system installation This file changes every time you do anything in Windows and will fill up your Time Machine drive fast You ll want to exclude the disk image from Time Machine backups and use Parallels or VMWare s snapshot feature to backup your Windows installations separately If you use Parallels exclude the file ending in hdd from Macintosh HD users YourName Documents Parallels virtual machine name f you use VMWare exclude the file ending in vmwarevm from Macintosh HD users YourName Documents Virtual Machines When I try to backup with Time Machine it fails immediately or after copying some of the data Most likely your external hard drive isn t formatted prop erly Follow the instructions under how to Reformat and partition a new drive for backup on page 45 I use FileVault and Time Machine doesn t seem to work In OS X 10 5 amp 10 6 Time Machine only backs up user data protected by FileVault when you log out This was fixed in Lion 10 7 You also won t be able to explore your past backups in the cool time travel window So if you only plan to use Time Mach
27. Macintosh HD Users YourName Library Launch Agents Login Items Open System Preferences click Accounts or Users amp Groups then Login Items If you re running Lion see How do access the Libary folder on page 37 26 Tekserve s Macintosh FAQ www tekserve com faq What is a Safe Boot and how do use it if my Mac isn t properly starting up Some applications start as soon as your Mac starts On rare occasions these may cause incompatibilities We mostly see this issue after a system update If your Mac has trouble starting up you can use Safe Boot to disable these addi tions and load only Apple required extensions Make sure your Mac is shut down and then press the power button After you hear the startup tone immediately hold down the Shift key If you re using OS X 10 6 8 or earlier you ll see the note Safe Boot on your screen Starting up this way can take several minutes so you must be patient Not all functions are available in Safe Mode To return to normal restart without holding down any keys How do I reset the PRAM NVRAM Your Mac stores certain settings like your screen resolution and startup disk location in special memory called PRAM on PowerPC Macs and NVRAM on Intel Macs If you re ex periencing difficulty starting up your Mac resetting the PRAM NVRAM may help e Shut down the Mac e Locate these keys on the keyboard Command Option P and R
28. TEKSERVE AEA Diw Wes Nt Eleventh Edition MAC OS X 10 6 amp 10 7 Edited by David Lerner and Jazmin Hupp The Tekserve Mac FAQ Edited by David Lerner and Jazmin Hupp The Tekserve Mac FAQ 11th Edition Edited by David Lerner and Jazmin Hupp Designed by Shirari Industries Copyright 2011 David Lerner All rights reserved Printed in Canada Published by Tekserve Corporation 119 W 23rd St New York NY Cover illustration by Shanti Seidel Special Thanks to Mike Edl While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book the publisher authors and contributors assume no responsibility for errors or omissions or for dangers resulting from the use of the information contained herein Contents INCROQUCTION a 6 2uAastioe i teaicea ping wade ead ae aes 2 THE BASICS sco toetsetecreecrgaras tans arr a ot e 3 Where Do Go for Help 0 0 cee eee 1 When Should Bring My Computer to Tekserve 13 SPINS ciate abeseead wb wad e ae wedges doa 19 Can t Start My Mac eee 20 Crashes Freezes and Kernel Panics 30 ANNOYANCES aahua naana naa 33 Get Ahead by Backing Up 05 38 Upgrading and Reinstalling Mac OS X 55 PassWord Si esaiar iee ni Oa ere a Ai 61 A Full Hard Drive is an Unhappy Hard Drive 66 Target Disk Mode 0 0 ccc ees 68 Getting Online and AirPort 05 69 Tekserve New York s Original Mac Shop
29. an eject the disk im age on your desktop by dragging it to the trash The last method is to buy application discs Occasionally once you ve followed the directions above you won t be able to drag the application s icon to your Applications folder Double click it instead It should run an installer that will place the application in the appropriate spot on your computer How can I maximize my portable Mac s battery life When you plug in a new portable computer or a new bat tery for the first time you should fully charge the battery Also run Software Update from the Apple menu to install any battery performance updates that Apple may have released for your computer To properly maintain the battery its important to keep the electrons moving occa 10 Tekserve s Macintosh FAQ www tekserve com faq sionally Apple does not recommend leaving your portable plugged in all the time Once a month you should run down your battery all the way and then charge it fully Macs work best in the same temperatures humans like from 50 to 95 F Storing your Mac in temperatures less than 13 or higher than 113 F can damage the battery so don t leave your Mac in a hot car For tips on how to use your portable computer on battery power for longer see www tekserve com faqg maxbattery Although the newest Apple batteries are designed to last up to 5 years your performance will vary Tekserve can re place your battery at an
30. ard drive First you ll want to follow the instructions under how to Reformat and partition a new drive for backup on page 45 Then with the drive plugged into your computer go to your System Preferences and select the Time Machine icon There you can turn Time Machine on and select your exter nal hard drive as the backup disk The first Time Machine backup will usually take hours so you may want to set it up to run overnight You can continue to work on your com puter while the backup runs Time Machine will continue making automatic backups for every hour of the last 24 hours every day of the last month and every week past that until your backup disk is full Just plug in the drive whenever you want Time Machine to work You can tell it is working by looking at the counter clock wise icon in the menu bar If you do not want an hourly backup then you can turn Time Machine off in System Preferences and manually tell it when to backup by selecting its icon in the menu bar and choosing Backup Now If you choose to do this you are responsible for remembering to backup on your own and it s easy to forget 48 Tekserve s Macintosh FAQ www tekserve com faq How do restore individual files from a Time Machine backup This is the fun space part The fastest way to recover a miss ing item is to use Time Machine together with Spotlight 1 Open a Finder window and type a word or phrase from the missing file into t
31. are the three methods of backing up data Choose a style that suits your needs and an external hard drive to go with it Time Machine included with OS X 10 5 Leopard and later is a great primary backup solution for most people We strongly recommend using two of the methods below on two separate storage devices and keeping one backup in a separate location Simple Copy Backups are the simplest and quickest method Just drag and copy your most important files to a USB thumb drive or an external hard drive You can t drag your computer s entire hard drive to an external hard drive because it will create an alias to the drive instead of copying it Drag your entire user folder Macintosh HD Users YourName to grab the most important files This folder s icon often looks like a house You don t need any special software to do this Pros This is the least expensive data backup method External drives and USB thumb drives are easy to store off site Get Ahead by Backing Up 41 Cons You may miss something important and you may for get to do it regularly If you are backing up your files by hand make sure to copy the following folders Data Location Music movies or applications that you have down loaded Keep and back up all the original files that you download especially if you paid for them Macintosh HD Users YourName Adoress Book Library Application Support Ad data dressBook F Macintosh
32. at 212 381 6381 to arrange an on site visit Can I set up a corporate account to simplify service Yes please talk to your Tekserve sales person call us at 212 381 6381 or email sa es tekserve com 18 Tekserve s Macintosh FAQ www tekserve com faq Spills I just spilled beer tea cough syrup on my keyboard well my cat threw up on it On a portable computer immediately do the following things e Immediately shut down the computer and unplug the power cord e Remove the computer s battery Cif you can e Disconnect any peripherals printers iPods scanners cameras etc e Lay the computer upside down on paper towels to get as much liquid as possible to drip out Note what was spilled on your computer e Bring the Mac into Tekserve as soon as possible Do not try to turn it back on Liquids can help electrical cur rent move about the components of your Mac in destruc tive ways Don t shake the computer this will only spread the liquid around Finally don t use a hair dryer on it even at a low setting a hair dryer will damage sensitive compo nents Liquid and spill damage is not covered by warranty or AppleCare but may be covered by accidental damage insurance home owners renter insurance policies and some credit cards You can learn more about Tekserve s spill cleaning service at www tekserve com faq spill If you ve spilled on a desktop computer s keyboard shut down the computer u
33. ate at installation This can be quite useful How do access the Library folder In Lion the Macintosh HD Users YourName Library folder is hidden To access it click on your desktop select Go to Folder from the Go menu Type Library into the result ing box Then select the revealed Library folder and wait a few moments for it to load Annoyances 3 Get Ahead by Backing Up In this section we ll cover the basics of data backup how to choose a backup strategy how to back up before a repair and how to use Time Machine THE BASICS OF DATA BACKUP What is a backup A backup is a copy of your files on another storage de vice external hard drive flash drive or even an online ac count Why should I back up Despite all the advances in modern technology a single fact remains true sooner or later everything breaks Even the most reliable computer can fail or experience data corrup tion Computers can be left in taxis dropped or damaged in fires You could accidentally delete your baby pictures A warranty may cover failure of computer hardware but there is no warranty protection for the operating system applications data loss or corruption While there are many causes of software and hardware problems the solution is simple Back it up We recommend making two or even three backups of pre cious files We also suggest keeping at least one copy ata different location in case of fire or theft It is a distur
34. bing fact to face but sooner or later you are guaranteed to lose data Protect yourself before it happens What makes hard drives prone to failure The most common causes of hard drive failure are 38 Tekserve s Macintosh FAQ www tekserve com faq e Mechanical failure of the drive caused by being dropped bumped while in use manufacturer defect or even sim ple day to day wear and tear e Data corruption or directory damage caused by forget ting to eject disks before unplugging or powering them down computer crashes power loss or plain bad luck e Environmental disasters like fires floods power surges or extreme heat and humidity Drive technology is improving all the time they have loading ramps and Sudden Motion Sensors and Perpendicular Recording and other new features Newer SSD disk drives don t have mechanical problems but are still susceptible to data corruption Every day they figure out how to cram more data into less space so while they are making the drives smarter and safer they are also mak ing the data denser and more fragile Backups are the safe ty net that can turn a disaster into no big deal Why does directory damage occur Is it my fault and can I prevent it The computer s operating system OS is responsible for reading and writing data to your drives Besides writing the actual data the OS has to update the indices that keep track of which file is where like a table
35. cintosh HD Library Startupltems This is uncommon enough that you may not have that folder at all But again we suggest reinstalling all applications from their original discs or downloads not trying to copy them over So don t copy these either We strongly recommend against copying kernel extensions or anything else from your old Macintosh HD System fold er since they may not be recognized by the new system and could get you in big trouble Passwords Pm being asked for my password and I don t know it What s my password It s your dog s name It s your high school s mascot It s your favorite of the Three Stooges Seriously if you have forgotten your password don t fret There are four types of passwords that you can forget and each requires a different tactic to recover 1 User login password This is the password that you need to log in to your machine as a specific user to install new software and even to change System Preferenc Passwords 61 es See the question How do reset my user login pass word if don t know it on page 63 Or you can try How do change my user login password if know my current password on page 64 2 Login keychain password This is the password that al lows you to access your keychain which stores all the passwords you asked your Mac to remember from web sites and other applications See the question How do reset my keychain password on pa
36. d Disks If your Mac has a FireWire port we recommend purchasing a drive with that type of interface as it can be more reliable than USB After you ve got that setup you have lots of options We used to recommend DVDs but we have to admit that they will probably go the way of the floppy drive in the next 5 years USB flash drives are ultra portable and are a great way to keep your documents with you If you have a fast upload speed on your Internet connection or are very pa tient you can use an online storage service like Dropbox or CrashPlan iCloud will backup limited iPad iPhone applica tion data and some iTunes files but isn t a complete solu tion A free alternative if you can remember to do it fre quently is to email files to yourself on a service like Gmail 40 Tekserve s Macintosh FAQ www tekserve com faq If you travel often or just don t have a lot of space take a look at a portable external hard drive NOT ONLY COMPUTERS NEED BACKING UP We recommend backing up all your digital devices with valuable data Your iPod iPad and iPhone should already be backed up to your Mac or iCloud sync them frequently If you don t have an iPhone sit down with your cell phone tonight and enter all your contacts into Address Book You can also check with your cell phone provider to see if they offer an online contact backup or a way to connect your cell phone to your computer HOW TO CHOOSE A BACK UP STRATEGY Here
37. d down Command R immediately after you press the power button to access it If this doesn t work try using the instructions above with the gray system install DVD that came with your Mac bo I Can t Start My Mac 1 Wait for the installer disc or recovery partition to finish loading We are not going to install the system now we are starting up this way so we can run Disk Utility In OS 10 6 and earlier look under the Utilities menu and choose Open Disk Utility In OS 10 7 and later a Mac OS X Utilities window should appear select Disk Utility WARNING Don t click Erase that will wipe out everything on your drive If you see your startup disk on the left side of the Disk Utility window you can try to repair it using Disk Utility Select your startup volume by name and then click Re pair Disk When finished quit Disk Utility If you re using OS 10 6 or earlier look in the Utilities menu and choose Startup Disk f you re using OS 10 7 or later look in the Apple menu and choose Startup Disk For either system if you see your disk in the list select it and click the Re start button If you still get a blinking icon you might need to reinstall your system If your hard disk or volume didn t show up in Disk Utility you can try using an application like DiskWarrior However make sure the repair program is up to date and read the next question before using it Can I make thin
38. different and can usu ally be found somewhere on the login page of the website How do I reset my user login password if I don t know it If you re using Lion 10 7 or later you ll need to make sure FileVault isn t enabled on your computer and your computer is connected to the Internet An Apple ID used to buy items from the Mac App Store and iTunes must be associated with your user account See www tekserve com faq 35901 for more information on Apple IDs At the login window that appears when you start your computer select your user and click the question mark in the password field Then click the arrow in the dialog that appears If there is no ar row the administrator of your Mac didn t allow you to do this Enter your Apple ID and password then click Reset Password If you re using Snow Leopard 10 6 or earlier you ll need an OS X disc or the first gray recovery DVD that came with your Mac Insert your Mac OS X System disc Reboot your Mac while holding down the C key This forces your Mac to start up from the disc After selecting a language look in the Utilities menu and choose Reset Password Select your hard disk and create a new password for yourself Then click Save close the window and quit the Installer to re start don t reinstall Mac OS X Now your keychain password and login password are dif ferent when you first created your user account they were the same Your Mac will ask you for your o
39. eless keyboard or mouse the batteries may have died or your Bluetooth may be off We like to check that the caps lock key lights up when we press it If that works then your keyboard is work ing perhaps your mouse has a bad connection Sometimes just unplugging and re plugging the mouse will cause the Mac to wake up If you re sure your mouse and keyboard are working then you can force the application that froze to quit Pressing Command Option Escape will let you force quit any application the one that froze You ll see a window that lets you select which application to quit When you force an application to quit you lose all unsaved work in that application but other open applications remain open and usable If these suggestions don t work you may have lost all your work since you last saved Restart by holding down the power button for a few seconds or press these three but tons together Command Control Power Button Crashes Freezes and Kernel Panics 31 My screen says You need to restart your computer in English French German and Japanese and now nothing responds That s called a kernel panic The kernel is the innermost lev el of the system software responsible for controlling hard ware like drives video networking and memory When the kernel receives instructions it doesn t expect it may panic and freeze the computer Your only recourse is to reboot your computer by holding down the
40. en your startup disk typi cally called Macintosh HD next double click Users then your User folder typically with your name and a house icon and then the folder Documents How do install applications on my Mac There are three different methods used to install applica tions on your Mac The newest method is to use Apple s App Store We d appreciate if you d search for the appli cation you d like to buy at www tekserve com store and The Basics 9 select Buy Now to launch the App Store From there you can select purchase and install Applications on your Mac with just a few clicks The second most popular method is to download the ap plication from the software manufacturer s website We keep a list of common applications we recommend to most Mac users at www tekserve com faq appstoinstall Anoth er good site to start your search is www download com Once you ve downloaded the application double click the file that has been placed in YourName Home Folder Downloads This will usually place a temporary disk image typically a rectangular icon on your desktop Double click the disk image on your desktop to get started Inside you ll find the application s icon Drag and drop that icon to your Applications folder That s it You ve installed the software Drag the icon from your Applications folder to your Dock if you want easy access to launch it often Once you ve cop ied the application to your Mac you c
41. epair Extension or AppleCare then Apple will cover the cost of the repair at Tekserve If your computer is out of warranty or was accidentally damaged we will give you a free estimate for the best solution We ll do our best to get you in and out in 30 to 45 minutes It can take longer after 5 p m and weekends Insider Tip Wait times are shortest when it rains or Snows What should I do before I bring my computer in for repair 1 Make notes about the problem s you are having When a problem occurs write a note with the time what you were doing on the computer and exactly what happened error messages odd sounds shut down etc If you can it might help to take a picture of your computer s screen You can save a screen shot to your Mac s desktop by pressing Command Shift 3 2 Back up your computer Cif you can If you are unable to back up your computer Tekserve can usually do so 14 Tekserve s Macintosh FAQ www tekserve com faq for an additional charge Many failures and repairs don t affect the hard drive or your data but without a backup you will not be able to access your data until the repair is completed See How to Create A Bootable Clone Back up on page 44 for details 3 Optional f your computers password is confidential change it We will need to know your administrative password so you may want to temporarily change it See How can I change my user login password if know my current
42. er operating systems Mac OS 8 to Mac OS X 10 5 and older machines This print edition covers the basics of caring for your Mac andhow to troubleshoot anything that would prevent you from going online to find an answer on 2 Tekserve s Macintosh FAQ www tekserve com faq www tekserve com faq If you re a new Mac user or need a refresher start with The Basics on page 3 Next try Where Do I Go For Help on page 11 and When Should I Bring my Computer to Tekserve on page 13 The next few sections deal with problems you may encoun ter starting with the most critical I Can t Start My Mac on page 20 the simply serious Crashes Freezes and Kernel Panics on page 30 and the just frustrating Annoyances on page 33 Next we cover a few major Mac ownership tasks with Get Ahead By Backing Up on page 38 Upgrading and Rein stalling Mac OS X on page 55 and dealing with Passwords on page 61 Finally we cover the last two topics that might prevent you from accessing our FAQ online with A Full Hard Drive is an Unhappy Hard Drive on page 66 and Getting Online and AirPort on page 69 We cover the most common questions from new and expe rienced Mac users but you might have one to add to future versions of this guide If you think the answer to your ques tion might be useful to other Mac users please send your suggestion to faq tekserve com The Basics I just got a Mac what should I write down about it It can be useful t
43. face It s better to quit bloated applica tions normally than use the Quit Process button you see here If you don t recognize the process search for it on line to figure out what it is Quitting processes can cause you to lose unsaved work and make your Mac perform strangely Annoyances 35 4 Add more Memory RAM to your system For OS X 10 6 amp 10 7 we recommend a minimum of 2 GB but prefer 4 GB If you are doing any graphic design or video work 4 GB of RAM is a minimum If you bring your Mac to Tek serve we ll helo you decide how much RAM you need and we ll install it for you while you wait Tekserve RAM is guaranteed for life 5 Revise your expectations A three year old iMac will never be as snappy as the latest Quad core Intel Core i7 processor The date on my computer keeps going back to 1 1 1904 or 8 27 1956 or 1969 or 1970 On some portable models serious crashes can sometimes cause the clock to reset The crashing may be a sign of a problem but the clock changing is normal If a portable computer s battery is completely discharged the clock may also reset My computer was just repaired and now I can t play files I purchased on iTunes Log into your account by clicking on your email address in the iTunes store or click the Sign In button Under the Store menu choose Authorize Computer You can authorize up to five different computers to play your iTunes purchas es Don t worry if you forgot t
44. ge 64 3 Website and email passwords See the next question to recover a password you asked your Mac to save for you 4 FileVault password The encryption for FileVault is very strong and there s not much you can do if you forget your user password and master password in Snow Leop ard 10 6 or earlier If you re using the FileVault with Lion 10 7 or later you were given the option to send a recovery key to Apple digitally when you turned on FileVault originally If you cannot find your recovery key but stored it with Apple contact Apple Support How do I recover a password I forgot for a website or email account There is a good chance that your Mac may have re membered it Take a deep breath and then open the Applications Utilities Keychain Access This keychain is where your Mac keeps your passwords when you allow it or ask it to Remember this password Sometimes it even saves them if you don t ask it to Scroll down through the entries and double click the password you want to recover Select the Show password checkbox at the bottom of the window Enter your keychain password this is the same as your user login password Type in the password here and 62 Tekserve s Macintosh FAQ www tekserve com faq click Allow Once or Allow You should now be able to see the password for that site at the bottom of the window Many websites offer an I forgot my password or a password hint option Each one is
45. go to the Accounts pane of System Preferences In Lion 10 7 or later go to the User amp Groups pane of Sys tem Preferences In either operating system click the lock in the lower left corner of the screen and enter your login password to make changes Then select the user you want to change and click the Reset Password button 64 Tekserve s Macintosh FAQ www tekserve com faq What is the best password The most commonly used passwords are password 1234 birthdays anniversary dates hometowns and pet names So don t use any of those Create a more secure password by mixing 8 16 letters numbers and punctuation marks to gether This should stop most people from being able to guess your password Now that you have a perfect password have some bad news You shouldn t use the same password across lots of websites The current trend in online account theft is that hackers attack a website with lots of members to steal usernames and passwords They take that login informa tion and try it across email financial and social networking websites So you need to use secure passwords and you ll need lots of them You can use the Keychain Access application to generate random passwords and save them to your Mac Open Keychain Access and press the p us button then click on the key icon to generate a random password If you need to access your passwords across multiple computers you ll need a third party password manage
46. gs worse by doing repairs with TechTool Disk Utility DiskWarrior or similar utilities Unfortunately yes In most instances these programs are good tools that help solve problems But repairing certain problems can leave you worse off than before in some 24 Tekserve s Macintosh FAQ www tekserve com faq cases even destroy a disk from which a professional could easily have recovered data Basically when your drive s di rectory is scrambled anything that writes to the disk has the potential to do harm Running TechTool Pro and some other utilities can actually write over the directory that it s fixing so occasionally it does damage Running a data recovery utility such as Data Rescue should be fine if you copy the recovered files to a different drive If you recover the files onto the same damaged drive you will be overwriting other data you wish to recover compound ing existing directory damage and making things worse A few utilities offer to save an Undo file so that you can go backward but we ve seen them crash in the middle of a re pair and the Undo file itself was corrupted or incomplete You can also use DiskWarrior to recreate a disk directory but don t rush to write the new directory to the disk In stead click the Preview button on DiskWarrior s last screen to mount the volume using the rebuilt directory and copy your files to another drive Check the files thoroughly be fore you wri
47. he search field in the upper right corner You may want to focus the search by selecting a search location where the file was located or adding search parameters by pressing the p us button 2 Open Time Machine from the Dock or Applications folder 3 Use the arrows and the timeline along the right side of your screen to browse through the Time Machine back ups Your search is performed in every window 4 When you find the item you want to restore select it and click Restore You can then choose to replace the cur rent file with the restored backup or keep both files If you don t know what the file you are looking for is called or what terms to search for it i e a photo stored in your iPhoto library you can still restore it with Time Machine Open the Apple application that the file used to appear in and then launch Time Machine You can then browse back wards through time and see how your files appeared in iPhoto iTunes Mail etc When you find the missing item click Restore How do I restore my entire user account all my personal files using Time Machine If you want to restore your personal files but not the oper ating system you can use Migration Assistant Get Ahead by Backing Up 49 6 While connected to the Internet run Software Update from the Apple menu in the upper left corner of your screen Install everything available and restart your com puter if required Connect the external ha
48. hooting tips for many topics including e can t start my Mac Crashes and kernel panics e Backing up data with or without Time Machine Getting online Upgrading or reinstalling Mac OS X Managing and recovering passwords Plus hundreds of more questions are answered at www tekserve com faq Tekserve is New York s largest independent Apple store and service facility Tekserve has been serving the local New York City community for over 20 years offering the newest family of Macs iPods the iPad the iPhone plus the City s best selection of accessories cases bags and gear Tekserve also offers while you wait configuration service and repairs software professional audio video and graphic solutions rentals seminars training data recovery on site service and good advice 119 West 23rd Street TEKSERVE New York NY 10011 Phone 212 929 3645 help tekserve com www tekserve com AQT A A Printed in Canada
49. hrough them The main thing to remember is that there is usually a monthly fee associated with any or all choices Most of these services are wired access and require a piece of equipment modem in your home from that company This modem is then connected to your computer using the built in Ethernet port on your Mac These days most people prefer to connect wirelessly See How do create a home wireless network on page 73 How do I connect my Mac to a Cable modem Most companies will come in and set this up for you the first time but you may need these instructions to connect a new Mac later If these instructions don t work you ll have to ask your Internet provider if they require you to enter a specific IP address subnet mask router address and or DNS server addresses to connect 70 Tekserve s Macintosh FAQ www tekserve com faq 1 Start by turning off all the computers connected to the cable modem Cycle the power on your cable modem by turning it off for a few minutes and then turning it back on Make sure an Ethernet cable is securely connected between your Mac and the cable modem 2 Wait for the modem to connect to the Internet as indicated by its flashing lights and then turn your computer s back on Try to open a website now If it works you re good to go if not keep reading 3 Open your System Preferences and select the Network pane Select your Ethernet port from the left bar 4 In the
50. in if you re the owner of the computer If you don t know check the Security pane in System Preferences To see if a master password has been set check the Security pane in System Preferences An Apple ID is used to purchase items from the iTunes and Mac App stores Keep this in a safe place if you record your password here The Basics My Internet Connection optional Who is my Internet Service Provider ISP What is my ISP s support phone number What is my ISP s support website If have an ac count with my ISP to connect to the Internet what is the user name and pass word What type of equipment do use to connect to the Internet via my ISP If usually con nect wirelessly to a password pro tected network what is the wire less network s name and pass word Such as Time Warner Comcast RoadRunner EarthLink This is common with DSL and dial up accounts For example do you use a modem router provided by your ISP Do you use a third party router or cable modem Do you use an Apple Air Port base station Do you connect wirelessly via Eth ernet or both 6 Tekserve s Macintosh FAQ www tekserve com faq I don t know what any of these computery words mean Learning a few techie words will help you understand how to read instructions on using your Mac in this book Operating System The operating system is the software that ru
51. ine to restore your entire system and you don t mind logging out to backup then you re OK If not you ll want to upgrade to Lion or choose another backup solution 53 Get Ahead by Backing Up Time Machine is giving me an error when I try to backup First make sure your software is up to date by choosing Software Update from the Apple menu If you re us ing a Time Capsule make sure to install any AirPort firm ware updates If that doesn t resolve your issue check out www tekserve com faq 3275 for resolutions to specific Time Machine error messages ONLINE BACKUP Today more and more people are acknowledging the need for an offsite backup in the event of fire theft or natural disaster Online backup has emerged as a potential solu tion that allows you to access your files from anywhere you can get online Apple s iCloud service allows you to backup iPhone iPad application data plus certain iTunes files but isn t a complete backup solution Customers tell us they ve had good experiences using CrashPlan which offers unlimited backup storage space for all your home computers at around 120 per year Windows amp Linux as well Dropbox is another popular choice offer ing 2 GB of online storage space for free and more for a monthly fee You can access your stored files through any web browser or through the Dropbox application Remember that backing up over an Internet connection is much slower than transferr
52. ing a new computer from Tekserve You can also transfer files after you ve al ready set up your new Mac by launching Migration Assistant in the Applications Utilities folder After a data transfer or clean installation how do I get my files and applications working again If you were able to use Apple s Setup or Migration Assis tant above this doesn t apply to you If you were forced to do a clean install to solve serious problems you may need to do this This could also be useful after some data recoveries NOTE This is a complex operation and prone to error which can leave your computer in a dysfunctional state and compromise your data We highly recom mend making separate external backups of both your new system and your transferred data be fore attempting to integrate them Unless you tend toward geekiness we strongly suggest getting pro fessional help with this The challenge is to get your old working software back without bringing back old problems Here are some hints Upgrading and Reinstalling Mac OSX 59 Make a backup of your new working system before you begin bringing back old software Or keep a system in staller disc handy if you re starting with a fresh operating system Copy as little as possible We highly recommend rein stalling all applications from original discs or down loads rather than trying to copy them over To rein stall software from the Mac App Store launch
53. ing files to an external hard drive 100 GB of data could take a month to backup online but after the initial backup updates are much faster If you have a lot of large files or a slow Internet connection an ex ternal hard drive will make a better primary backup It s also much faster to restore your entire system from an external hard drive than downloading all your files from the Inter 54 Tekserve s Macintosh FAQ www tekserve com faq net Once you do get all your files uploaded you ll have an updating off site backup that you can access around the world Upgrading and Reinstalling Mac OS X How do I upgrade or reinstall Mac OS X This article is for users who are upgrading their operating system to the newest version as well as users who need to reinstall their operating system If you are reinstalling the same operating system that you currently have on your computer you can skip to step three 1 NOTE You cannot install an operating system that is older than the one that came on your computer originally For example if your Mac came with Mac OS X 10 7 Lion you cannot downgrade to 10 6 Snow Leopard Check the system requirements Every operating sys tem has minimum requirements that your computer must meet Check the product s description to see if your computer has the right operating system enough memory RAM hard drive space and a compatible pro cessor Read www tekserve com fag oscomp for ste
54. lass in the upper right corner of your screen 8 Tekserve s Macintosh FAQ www tekserve com faq Finder The Finder allows you to access everything on your Mac When you are looking at files and folders in a window that window is called a Finder window You can access the Finder at any time by clicking on your desktop or selecting the first icon in your dock a blue smiling face Command amp Control and Option Keys These keys are in the lower corners of your keyboard They are used in combination with other keys to do a variety of functions and keyboard shortcuts If you re not sure where to find them visit www tekserve com faq keys for pictures Hold down Control and click with your mouse trackpad to do the equivalent of right clicking on a Mac we call it second ary click because we re cool like that Time Machine This is Apple s data backup application in cluded with new Macs It will back up your files music pho tos etc to an external hard drive in case your Mac is ever lost damaged or malfunctions See our chapter on Getting Ahead by Backing Up on page 38 to learn all about it Folders and Slashes File Paths We use the forward slash character as shorthand to indicate folders on your Mac This notation is called a path in Mac OS X Each word between slashes is a folder name Start in any Finder win dow then open each folder in order So for Macintosh HD Users YourName Documents op
55. ld keychain password every time you open an application or website Passwords 63 that uses stored passwords Follow the instructions in the next question to reset your keychain password How do I reset my keychain password You cannot recover your keychain password but you can sideline it By deleting the keychain it puts the original de fault keychain password file aside and creates a new one lf you have a burst of inspiration and recall the old password you can reactivate the old file Reset your keychain by opening Keychain Access in Applications Utilities Select the login keychain from the left side and then go the File menu and choose Delete Keychain login When prompt ed choose Delete References to allow the keychain file to stay on your hard drive for future re activation How can I change my user login password if know my current password Select System Preferences from the Apple menu and then click the Accounts or Users amp Groups pane Then select your account from the left and finally click the Change Pass word button on the right This will automatically change your login keychain password as well How can I change another user s password Log on as a user with administrative privileges usually the first user set up on the computer If you are not an admin istrative user then you shouldn t and can t change some one else s password If you re using Snow Leopard 10 6 or earlier
56. le if you use one If you are using a third party mouse or I Can t Start My Mac 21 keyboard disconnect those too Now that your external stuff is disconnected start the Mac and see if the exter nal devices caused the problem If so reconnect them one at a time to see when the problem returns 2 A series of beeps can indicate a hardware problem usu ally bad or incompatible memory RAM On some com puters the power LED will flash as many times as the beeps plus one repeating the sequence every five sec onds The current beep codes for most Macs are 1 beep No RAM installed 2 beeps Incompatible RAM installed 3 beeps RAM failed test 4 beeps Problem with the boot ROM on the logic board 5 beeps Processor is bad 3 If you recently added RAM to the computer you may want to try removing it if you are comfortable doing this and have the right anti static equipment If you still get the sad Mac tones your problems are more serious memory the logic board the hard drive or an add on such as a PCI card At this point if you still have trouble you should probably bring the computer in for service I turned on my computer and just see a little blinking prohibitory symbol a no smoking sign without the cigarette a flashing question mark or a blinking folder and happy face This means your Mac can t find a disk with the proper soft ware to start There are a few things you can try but these computers often
57. method also only backs up the current versions of your files if you accidently deleted a file three months ago you won t find it on your backup Incremental Backups make an initial full copy then incrementally and automatically copy changes Old files even ones you have deleted are kept around for a while Time Machine automatically backs up your entire hard drive every hour In rare cases if one backup increment becomes corrupted incorrect you may not be able to restore files created after that point Which is why you should test your incremental backup periodically by trying to restore files See How do start using Time Machine on page 48 to get started Pros Automatically backs up your work in progress so you don t need to think about it Recovery of an individual file is quick and easy Cons Requires lots of disk space to keep around so many versions of the same files If you need to restore all your files at once it can take a while Get Ahead by Backing Up 43 How often should I back up The answer to this question really depends on how often you use your computer Think about what you did with your Mac in the last 24 hours the last few days the last week and the last month If you would be unhappy losing data created within the last 24 hours you should back up at least once a day If you wouldn t start to sweat unless you lost at least two weeks of data you should back up once a week Time Machine will
58. nds and neighbors If you do choose to share your connection openly make sure you ve set up a good system password Mac OS X makes it very easy to browse any files on the same net work if you know the other computer s username and password So if your computer is named JohnDoe your username is John and your password is blank read How 76 Tekserve s Macintosh FAQ www tekserve com faq can change my user login password if know my current password on page 64 You can also prevent anyone from browsing your files over a network by turning off File Shar ing in the Sharing pane of System Preferences Tekserve New York s Original Mac Shop If you re in New York and need help with your Mac or want to buy a Mac or anything that works with it please stop by If you are outside New York City you can shop on www tekserve com or give us a Call 119 West 23rd Street between 6th amp 7th Avenues New York NY 10011 Phone 212 929 3645 Toll free Sales 888 929 3645 Fax 212 463 9280 help tekserve com www tekserve com What services does Tekserve offer Warranty and non warranty repair on all current Macs and iPads and older models going back many years but we ll try to dissuade you from spending hundreds of dollars to repair a computer no longer worth that much We do hard ware repairs hard drive and memory upgrades software work and data recovery We also offer out of warranty iPod iPhone re
59. ng your trackpad Recent portables feature a new trackpad that can recog nize two or more fingers as a command for scrolling zoom ing and more You may accidentally activate scrolling if you rest or hover additional fingers too close to the trackpad To learn the finger gestures that your Mac recongizes go to the Trackpad section of your System Preferences My computer takes several minutes to start up Upgrading your Mac with a SSD hard drive can dramatically decrease your startup time See www tekserve com faq ssd for a video demostration and more information If your computer pauses when the gray Apple appears it is trying to repair the hard drive s directory This usually occurs when the computer wasn t shut down properly If this occurs regularly read the question Why does direc tory damage occur on page 39 Make sure your Ethernet cable has a good connection or try unplugging it entirely Mac OS X doesn t need a net work but if one is present it needs to be working properly Unless you are on a corporate or educational network you can safely delete the Macintosh HD Library Preferences DirectoryService folder to see if that helps If you are on Annoyances 3 a large network check with your network administrator to see if they advise against this procedure as it will reset your connections to any master directory servers on your network You may also have a problem with the disks internal o
60. ng Cindi cated by a small triangle or ball next to the application s icon and quit the applications you aren t using Remem ber that closing an application s window does not quit the application To quit click the application s icon in the Dock open the application menu named Word iTunes Safari etc and choose Quit Word Quit iTunes Quit Sa fari etc You can also hold down the application s icon in the Dock for a few seconds and choose Quit in the small menu that pops up Always keep at least 10 GB of the storage space on your hard drive free Too little empty space on your startup hard drive will slow a system to a snails pace Most computers only have one hard drive which is your start up drive To check your disk space click once on the icon of your startup disk on your desktop If you don t see the hard disk icon choose Finder gt Preferences click General and then select Hard Disks Once you ve select ed your hard disk press Command l for Get Info Disk space used and available is shown under General You may need to click the triangle next to General to reveal the information Open Activity Monitor from Applications Utilities and select the column header labeled CPU The applica tion or process using most of your system will be list ed first Note mdimport is the process to add data to Spotlight and WindowServer manages your Mac s graphical inter
61. nplug the keyboard and turn it up side down Wait a day or two for it to dry It may all be okay now If not buy a new keyboard Former Byte colum Spills 19 nist Jerry Pournelle says to take it in the shower with you and rinse it thoroughly and then dry it for a few days but he also believes in Star Wars missile defenses New Apple USB keyboards start at around 49 and other brands are available at Tekserve for less I Can t Start My Mac What if my computer won t wake from sleep Macintosh portable computers may go into deep sleep mode and appear completely dead Wake them up by mo mentarily pressing the power button only press briefly don t keep it held down I press the power button and nothing happens More than we want to admit the problem is something simple Make sure the computer s power cable is plugged in your keyboard and monitor are plugged in your power strip or UPS is switched on and the circuit breaker hasn t been tripped If your computer s battery was completely drained let it charge for 15 minutes An old tech support joke ends with the punch line Of course can t read the manual there s a blackout If you have a portable reset the System Management Controller see How do reset the System Management Controller on page 28 If you are sure the power outlet is good the computer s power supply or logic board may have died Bring in the computer for an evalua
62. ns your computer and it comes with your Mac unlike applications which you can add later Apple computers use an operating system called Mac OS X The OS X oper ating systems have a version number and a cat nickname You can check which one your Mac has by going to the Apple menu in the upper left corner of your screen and choosing About This Mac e Mac OS X 10 5 Leopard released in October 2007 Cif you re running this operating system or ear ier download an earlier edition of the Mac FAQ from www tekserve com faq e Mac OS X 10 6 Snow Leopard released in August 2009 e Mac OS X 10 7 Lion released in July 2011 Apps or Applications These are the programs aka software that allow you do things on your Mac Microsoft Office iTunes and Safari are all examples of applications Memory or Random Access Memory RAM Your memo ry RAM is temporary storage that your computer uses to store information that you re actively using Ok that sound ed really complicated Think of RAM as your counter top in the kitchen and your files and applications as food The more space you have on your countertop the more food you can work with at one time If you have more RAM you can mix dough word process while you prepare appetiz ers watch an online video This is useful when you like to The Basics 7 work with multiple applications and files open at once If you get the rainbow beach ball often you may need more R
63. nu and then name your connec tion Click Create Type in your account name and password in the appropri ate fields If you want all users of your computer to use this connection select the checkbox labeled Remember this password If your Internet service provider gave you a static IP ad dress you ll need to do some additional steps Click the Advanced button Then click the TCP IP tab and choose Manually from the Configure IPv4 pop up menu Enter the static IP address in the IPv4 Address field If your Internet service provider requires a domain name server address es to be entered follow these steps Click the Advanced button Select the DNS tab and click the plus button in the lower left corner to add address es Click Ok Click Apply If you aren t automatically connected there is one more step You may need to click the Connect button near the area where you entered your username and password in the Network Preferences Tekserve s Macintosh FAQ www tekserve com faq If these steps don t work for you you ll have to contact your Internet service provider s technical support How safe is a DSL or a cable modem With the DSL and cable modems your computer is always connected to the Internet With some cable modems other users in your neighborhood may be able to access your shared files or networked printers You should turn off file sharing and web sharing or at least set complex passwords You can
64. o deauthorize your computer before the repair You can reset your authorizations once a year See www tekserve com fag 1420 for details I can t mount any disk images or I can t move applications in the Applications folder or I get errors in iPhoto Your hard disk drive s permissions may need to be repaired Open Disk Utility from Applications Utilities Select the 36 Tekserve s Macintosh FAQ www tekserve com faq name of your startup disk and click Repair Disk Permis sions What does Repair Disk Permissions do Every file folder and application on your hard drive has associated permissions that specify which users can read write or run that file For example you can set up your computer so that your cat can t delete your dog s files These complex permissions can become confused or cor rupt and even administrators can be prevented from open ing applications When your system was first installed and every time you install an application or update through an Apple Installer a receipt is left on your system This receipt in Macintosh HD Library Receipts lists what files were installed where and what the permissions were supposed to be Programs that were installed by dragging the application directly to the Applications folder or using a non Apple installer do not leave receipts The Repair Disk Permissions function reads all these re ceipts and attempts to reset the files on your disk to match their st
65. o have this information handy when buying accessories for your Mac or troubleshooting it later If you choose to record your passwords here make sure to keep this book in a safe place The Basics 3 My Mac hardware What kind of Mac do have How much memory RAM is installed in my Mac What kind of processor s does my Mac have How large is my Mac s hard drive My Mac s serial number is When was my Mac purchased For example a 13 MacBook Pro or 27 iMac For example 4 GB of RAM For example 2 4GHz Intel Core i5 For example 500 GB Check your sales receipt Check your sales receipt My Mac OS X Software and My Apple ID What version of Mac OS X do have installed currently In Mac OS X my account name is 4 Tekserve s Macintosh FAQ If you don t know choose System Preferences from the Apple menu then choose Accounts or Users amp Groups www tekserve com faq My Mac OS X login password is If my account is not an admin account which account is an admin and what is its password Does this account use FileVault My master password for this computer Cif set is My Apple ID name is My Apple ID pass word is Do use Time Machine to back up my computer Keep this in a safe place if you record your password here Fill this in only if you aren t using an administrator ac count usually you will be the adm
66. ocation in case of a disaster Time Machine fills up my backup drive too fast What can I do If your external hard drive is at least twice as large as the amount of data you are backing up you should be able to get through at least a month of backups If you can t there are a few very specific types of files that may be causing your problems and need to be excluded You can exclude items from future backups to save space Open Time Machine preferences and click Options Then click the plus sign to add items that you don t want backed up Make sure you have a separate backup plan for anything you exclude An incremental backup works by storing all the files you ve added or deleted since the last backup This works well with small individual files because each file is stored separately This works very poorly with applications like Entourage that use one large database file to store all your informa tion This was fixed in the 2011 version of Outlook for Mac With an application such as Entourage every time you re ceive an email it changes the database file Time Machine treats the changed database as a new file and backs up the entire database file If you have a large email database this can fill up your backup drive pretty fast You can exclude database files but make sure to setup another backup plan for any files you exclude 52 Tekserve s Macintosh FAQ www tekserve com faq If you edit a lot of large files 1G
67. ok in ad vance Please come on by we are open seven days a week We suggest that you come at least half an hour before our closing time We do close or shorten our hours on a few holidays you can check www tekserve com hours for store hours and directions How much do you charge for an estimate We will do an initial evaluation and give you an estimate for free Of course it is an ESTIMATE A technician may need to revise the estimate when they get inside the Mac Some times the repair turns out to cost less than we estimated Spills and accidental damage are the main reasons for hav ing to give a revised estimate on a repair So if we take apart your portable and the liquid sensors have been trig gered or we see the electrolytic corrosion we ll have to call you back and give you a new estimate How long will the repair take We understand being without your Mac can be tough so we strive to complete certain repairs and upgrades within an hour whenever possible If we are replacing a function ing hard drive with a larger one and transferring the data or installing a new drive with no data transfer we can do it in 24 hours weekdays Otherwise the standard turn around time for most repairs is three business days We offer flat rate computer rentals during a Tekserve repair 16 Tekserve s Macintosh FAQ www tekserve com faq currently 99 for an iPad 109 for a 13 MacBook 199 for a 15 MacBook Pro and 399 f
68. or a Mac Pro What if I can t back up my data files Many failures and repairs don t affect the hard drive or the data although you will not be able to access your data until the repair is done If you were unable to back up the Mac yourself and need the data while we are fixing the com puter or just feel better having a backup we can help One of the services we offer is to remove the hard drive from a broken computer and back up the data usually to an exter nal hard drive What if the data is very important but Tekserve can t back up the computer Sometimes the problem is the hard drive itself or the direc tory structures that allow data to be read from the drive If you want the data on the computer but there is a problem with the hard drive or the hard drive s directory we can perform a data recovery We charge a flat rate based on the size of the drive If we fail to recover the data even after many hours of effort we will not charge you anything unless you asked for rush service What if Tekserve can t recover my data If we were unable to recover your data we have partnered with other companies that complement our data recov ery options We ll advise you as to the best course to take based on your individual circumstances My peripheral device isn t working printer scanner external hard drive etc Can Tekserve help If it s a hard drive that s not working and the data is impor tant yo
69. p by step instructions on checking if your Mac is com patible Even if your computer meets the requirements you may not be happy with the performance we find that installing the latest operating system on a Mac Upgrading and Reinstalling Mac OSX 55 56 that s more than four years old can result in a slow user experience Check your current software and accessories Some software will work with a new operating system and some will need to be upgraded to continue working Go to the website of your software manufacturer to see if an upgrade is necessary to run on the latest operating system Some software manufacturers may charge for updates and some older software may not be available for a new operating system at all For example older PowerPC and Classic applications will not work after you upgrade to Lion Read www tekserve com faq ossoft to get an overview of your incompatible software and re placements for popular applications You also need to check for new drivers for your printers scanners and any other third party devices you plan to continue using Backup your entire computer Although many operat ing system upgrades go off without a hitch it is better to be safe than sorry We suggest using a backup ap plication and external hard drive to create a complete bootable clone of your hard drive That way you have absolutely everything from your computer in case a file is lost gets corrupted or the install fails
70. pairs and battery replacements Our Pro fessional Services group offers desk side network and au dio video support Tekserve Professional Services also has a team of engineers who specialize in configuring every Tekserve New York s Old Reliable Mac Shop Y7 thing from a Final Cut Pro System to an HD capable Xsan to an Avid Audio Icon based audio production facility Does Tekserve sell Macs and other products too Yes In addition to our depth of technical talent we have a strong team of systems consultants account executives and a huge inventory We have a 25 000 square foot walk in store and warehouse in New York s Chelsea neighbor hood We stock virtually every current Apple product and thousands of related hardware software and accessory items We re also a Verizon dealer for wireless Internet hot spots and phones We sometimes have special inventory of discontinued Apple products as well We don t sell everything we sell products that we are com fortable recommending that will work well with your Mac Do you offer corporate accounts Yes First we d like to team you up with one of our cor porate account executives so you have a single point of contact Please email business tekserve com to get con nected We accept written purchase orders from Fortune 1000 companies governmental entities and most educa tional institutions If your company s structure requires that you be billed and you have an e
71. people from around the world or looking at family photos Let s face it you want to get online but how The Internet is a great thing but it is not free You need to pay for access You need an Internet service provider ISP What are my options to connect to the Internet There are several ways to get connected to the Internet At Home A high speed connection is available in most homes through your ISP typically a telephone or cable provider This is called Broadband Cable or DSL e InTown amp Traveling You can usea wireless hotspot These can be found in airports most libraries and coffee shops The word Wi Fi is usually posted on the door Getting Online and AirPort 69 of the establishment or on the menu to let you know it is available e At Work You can usually connect at work but you may need permission from your IT person Also double check the acceptable Internet usage policy at your office e Anywhere A cellular modem for your Mac or cellular Wi Fi hotspot will allow you to get online most places Some cell phones can be connected to your Mac called tethering Your Mac can then use the cell phone s wire less data connection but extra charges may apply to your cell phone bill What are my options for Internet service providers ISP Most people use their Cable TV or telephone company for Internet service These companies tend to offer reduced rates when you subscribe to both of the services t
72. power button until it shuts off or even pulling the power cable in extreme cir cumstances Kernel panics should be very rare If they are frequent or repeatable you need to do some troubleshooting It helps if you can record the time and date of each kernel panic Note what the computer was doing at the time starting up shutting down performing a certain action Try to fig ure out if the kernel panic is intermittent or happens pre dictably when you do certain things Finally test if your external devices are causing the issues by disconnecting as many external devices as possible Finally you can fol low Apple s extensive troubleshooting instructions here www tekserve com faq 3742 Kernel panics can also indicate a bad RAM memory chip that needs replacing Tekserve provides a lifetime warran ty on all RAM that we sell Bring in your Mac not just the RAM and we ll test and swap the RAM if necessary If none of that works you may have more serious hardware problems such as a bad logic board or processor Bring in your Mac for evaluation Tekserve s Macintosh FAQ www tekserve com faq bo Annoyances My trackpad is jumping around Brushing a second finger against the trackpad can cause this Make sure you are only using one fingertip at a time to navigate the trackpad Trackpads also respond to the ca pacitance of your finger and are affected by moisture Try washing and drying your hands You may also try cleani
73. r ex ternal connected to your Mac Disconnect external drives eject CD discs and try again If the problem persists it s a great time to back up your data Then you can try Disk Utility covered in the Il Can t Start My Mac section on page 23 It s even possible that you could have a hardware problem at this point My applications run really slowly The attractive interface of OS X comes at a price every drop shadow translucent menu and spinning rainbow re quires processing speed and memory RAM to run We ve also noticed that since OS X is so good at multitasking us ers tend to run many applications at the same time That too requires more memory You will probably never see an error in Mac OS X com plaining that your Mac is out of RAM memory Instead your system will begin using more and more of your hard drive as temporary RAM storage This is called paging out and it slows down your Mac considerably To see for your self open Activity Monitor from Applications Utilities This shows every process running on your Mac its usage of the CPU memory and virtual memory At the bottom of the main window select System Memory Check that the number of Page outs isn t growing quickly over time Read www tekserve com faq 1342 for more details Here are some things to try to speed things up again 34 Tekserve s Macintosh FAQ www tekserve com faq 1 Check the Dock frequently to see what is runni
74. r like IPassword Just make sure you can remember the password that you used to protect your password manager Once a year print a copy of your passwords and store it with your confiden tial documents Passwords 65 A Full Hard Drive is an Unhappy Hard Drive I just got a message that my startup disk is almost full What does that mean Think of your hard drive as a file cabinet If you jam pack your file cabinets it creates clutter and crowding which can make reaching in to grab the correct file a slower task Startup disk is almost full means that you are running out of space on your hard drive and it s making your Mac run slowly Macs usually only have one hard disk drive and that is the startup drive To see how much space you have left on your internal hard drive select its icon on your desktop If you don t see the hard disk icon choose Finder gt Preferences click General and then select Hard Disks Then go to the File menu and choose Get nfo The info window will show your hard drive s capacity and available gigabytes We recom mend that you leave about 10 GB of your hard drive free for daily use If you have less than 10 GB of your hard drive s capacity remaining you have a few choices e Remove extra applications and data from your hard drive see instructions under the next questions e Purchase external hard drive s to provide additional storage space for your files e Have Tekse
75. rd press the left side Shift Control Option keys along with the power button at the same time You must use the keys on the left side of the keyboard Wait 5 seconds and press the power button to start the Mac Crashes Freezes and Kernel Panics My mouse and keyboard stopped working It may seem like your computer froze but quite often it s the mouse or keyboard that stopped responding If your mouse is plugged into a keyboard or hub try connecting the mouse directly to the Mac and restarting If you use a wireless mouse or keyboard you may need to recharge or replace the batteries If your wireless mouse or keyboard uses Bluetooth to connect to your Mac make sure you have Bluetooth turned on in your System Preferences and try to re connect to the device NOTE It is fine to plug in USB and FireWire devices when the computer is on However storage devices such as flash disks or hard drives should always be eject ed drag the icon to the Trash which will turn into an eject icon before you disconnect them 30 Tekserve s Macintosh FAQ www tekserve com faq My number keys aren t working You may have accidentally activated mouse keys in the Universal Access preference pane Open System Preferences then Universal Access then the Mouse tab and turn off Mouse Keys My Mac froze up Now what If it s a desktop Mac first check if the mouse or keyboard got disconnected If you re using a wir
76. rd drive with the Time Machine backup to your computer Open Migration Assistant from Applications Utilities En ter your administrative password if required Under the migration method choices choose From a Time Machine backup or other disk Select the external hard drive containing the previous Time Machine backups it may take some time to scan the disk Choose which User Accounts you would like to restore How do I restore my entire system using Time Machine If you re running Lion 10 7 all you need is your Time Machine backup drive If you re running Snow Leopard 10 6 or earlier you ll also need a Mac OS X Install disc to restore your system Disc one of the gray DVDs that came with your Mac works just fine as long as you re us ing the same operating system that came with your Mac originally WARNING Restoring your entire system will erase all existing data so make sure to back up any new data If you excluded your Applications or System folder from Time Machine backups you should restore user ac counts instead 50 Tekserve s Macintosh FAQ www tekserve com faq 1 Connect your Time Machine backup disk to your computer 2 Insert the Mac OS X Install disc and double click the in stall Mac OS X icon If your computer does not have an operating system installed you ll need to start up the computer from the disc by holding C while you turn on the computer
77. re out what is taking up the most space on your drive is with the shareware applications What Size or Grand Perspective They examine all the files on your computer and let you see which are the largest These ap plications will show you many system files that your Mac hides from you for good reasons Don t move or delete any files that you didn t create A Full Hard Drive is an Unhappy Hard Drive 67 How do I remove extra applications from my hard drive Make sure you have the original installation discs and installation codes for any applications you may want to run again Applications you ve purchased from the App Store will theoretically be available for download again if you need them but there are no guarantees that Apple will carry that software title in forever Once you ve confirmed that you have everything you need to run that application again you can uninstall it Some applications have an uninstall utility which is usu ally located in the Applications folder Applications that don t come with their own uninstall utility will need to be removed manually Drag the application s icon from the Applications folder to the Trash There will be small support files and any files you created using the application left over If there are preference files support files or a cache that the application has created those will not be removed by deleting the application You can check the application s website for uninstall
78. run over night 2 An empty external hard drive at least as large as your computer s internal hard drive If your computer has FireWire ports get a FireWire external hard drive if your computer only has USB get a USB external hard drive Stop by or call us to order one and have it delivered 3 SuperDuper from www shirt pocket com This share ware application is around 30 but you can use it for free to create your first bootable clone For Users with Windows installed via Boot Camp If you have Windows installed on a separate hard drive partition using Boot Camp these methods won t backup the Windows partition of your computer You need to back up any files applications or settings from Windows sepa rately A Reformat and partition a new drive for backup bootable clone or Time Machine Depending on the type of external hard drive you purchase it may not be formatted properly to work with your Mac The easiest thing to do is to reformat any external drive before you use it Get Ahead by Backing Up AB WARNING Formatting the drive will erase any data on the drive Make sure you back up any data on it you want to keep before proceeding 1 Connect the external hard drive to your Mac with the FireWire or USB cable if you have both use FireWire Some hard drives need to be plugged into a power outlet or have an on switch hidden somewhere You Mac may offer to use the hard drive to back up with Time
79. rve upgrade your computer to a larger inter nal hard drive usually completed in one business day If you have a Mac Pro Tekserve can add additional inter nal hard drives to your computer while you wait unless 66 _Tekserve s Macintosh FAQ www tekserve com faq you already have the maximum number of hard drives installed How do I remove extra files from my hard drive Take your time and be careful to only delete what you in tend to Do not move or rename files that you didn t create Mac OS X needs a lot of special files in special places and it put them there already Leave them be If you have files that you don t use frequently you can transfer them to an external hard drive For important files you should back them up using two separate devices After you ve confirmed that the files are working from an exter nal drive you can delete them from your hard drive Re member that moving files to the Trash doesn t make more room you also have to choose Empty Trash from the Find er menu If you use iPhoto you should check the trash of your iPhoto library Deleting a photo in iPhoto moves it to the iPhoto trash which is only emptied into the main computer s trash when you select Empty Trash from the iPhoto menu If you have avery large iTunes library you may want to get an external drive to store it and free up space on your internal harddrive check out www tekserve com faq itunesexternal An easy way to figu
80. s Do you provide a messenger service to pick up and de liver stuff Forgot a cable Need a new computer but don t want to carry it home To have your purchases delivered same day anywhere in NYC call us or order online If sending us com puters to repair we prefer that you use your own messen ger service but we can arrange to pick up and deliver for an additional fee If you send us stuff by messenger please attach a note telling us who what when where and why You d be surprised at the mystery parcels we receive Tekserve New York s Old Reliable Mac Shop 79 Do you offer financing on new computers For corporate purchases from 2 500 up to millions of dol lars we offer leasing plans from Apple Commercial Credit and others Please visit www tekserve com business financing to apply for a business lease All financing is subject to credit approval and lots of other fine print 80 Tekserve s Macintosh FAQ www tekserve com faq A activation problems 15 Adobe Creative Suite 15 AirPort connection problems 74 getting online 69 70 preferred networks 74 scanning 74 security 75 77 Apple ID 5 63 AppleCare warranty 11 14 applications apps after a data transfer 59 before a repair 15 deleting 68 force quitting 28 31 frozen 28 30 31 installing 9 10 slowness in 34 36 stalled or frozen 30 B backup before a repair 14 can t 17 cell phone 41 complete bootable clones 42 47 how often
81. s Otherwise visit www apple com support oss with your product s serial number If you aren t sure how to find your serial number visit www tekserve com faq 1349 Apple couldn t help or said it was a third party issue Now what If it is a third party issue try to contact the manufacturer or publisher of the item or check their website If that doesn t help we always recommend Google Type the whole ques tion into the Google search box If you re getting an error message type in the first line of the error message Some of the fixes listed in forums are complete nonsense so keep your data backed up and raise your shields Does Tekserve offer telephone support We haven t found a way to provide great phone support to individuals so we don t offer it We re sorry If you call we re probably going to tell you to bring it in for us to check 12 Tekserve s Macintosh FAQ www tekserve com faq it out in person You can also find answers to more ques tions at www tekserve com faq Tekserve Managed Services offers our business customers instant access to our professional technical support staff by phone email and the web Please call 212 381 6381 for more information How do I get someone to come to my office or home to help me with the problem Tekserve offers on site Professional Services starting at around 240 for troubleshooting and set up Call us at 212 381 6381 to learn more or
82. tartup beeps 22 Target disk mode 68 69 from external drive 47 kernel panics 32 www tekserve com faq key combinations 9 27 no video at 20 problems at 20 23 25 26 slow 33 startup disc see system install disc startup items 26 storage devices see external devices system install disc 23 50 51 60 System Management Controller SMC 28 29 System Preferences 8 60 system software see operating system T Target disk mode 68 69 TCP IP settings 73 TechTool 24 25 Tekserve 36 44 59 67 77 80 time see clocks inaccurate Time Machine 9 43 44 48 54 tools see utilities trackpad 8 23 33 trackpad gestures 8 33 U Universal Access 31 unsaved work 31 35 uninstall 68 upgrade operating system 55 59 USB 21 30 39 41 45 46 User folder 9 41 utilities Disk Utility 21 23 24 39 40 45 46 DiskWarrior 24 25 TechTool 24 25 v versions 3 WwW warranties 11 14 18 19 32 38 78 WiFi see AirPort won t wake from sleep 20 Index 85 Command Key Combinations Function Key Combination Startup Manager Start Up from Optical Disc Target Disk Mode Ignore inter nal hard disk drive Eject all removable media Safe boot Verbose Startup Mode Single User Startup Mode Software reboot lose all unsaved work Option while starting up Allows you to choose which volume to start up from if you have more than one startup parti
83. te the new directory or reformat the original drive If you are thoroughly backed up you can use any repair utility with confidence If you are not backed up and your files are essential to you consider getting professional help We re not trying to scare you into always hiring us we re trying to scare you into always making lots of backups When I start up my Mac it stays on a blue screen for hours and never shows me the desktop We ve listed some of the best bets on the next page I Can t Start My Mac 25 1 If you use an Ethernet cable unplug it and restart If the Mac starts up you should carefully check your network preferences for incorrect information 2 Unplug any external devices from your system and re start 3 Check for old and incompatible third party startup items preference panes and login items Perform a Safe Boot see the next question and look in the following places for items you may have previously installed Drag the suspects to the desktop to disable them If you are unsure it is best to leave the item in place ABOUT FOLDERS AND SLASHES Read the section on file paths on page 9 if you re not sure how to navigate to these items Preference Panes Macintosh HD Library PreferencePanes Macintosh HD Users YourName Library PreferencePanes Startup Items Macintosh HD Library Startup tems Macintosh HD Library Launch Agents Macintosh HD Library LaunchDemons
84. tion 20 Tekserve s Macintosh FAQ www tekserve com faq I turn on my computer and it only shows a persistent gray screen an Apple logo spinning gear spinning globe prohibitory sign or a folder with a flashing question mark 1 First shut down your Mac You may need to hold down the Mac s power button for several seconds to turn it off 2 Disconnect all external devices and Ethernet cables ex cept your mouse keyboard and monitor if applicable If you are using a third party mouse or keyboard discon nect those too 3 Now that your external stuff is disconnected start the Mac and see if the external devices caused the prob lem If so reconnect them one at a time to see when the problem returns If these steps don t resolve your problem try performing a Safe Boot on page 27 If a Safe Boot doesn t work try resetting your PRAM NVRAM also on page 27 Next try How do repair my Mac s hard drive using Disk Utility on page 23 If none of those steps work bring your computer in for service I turn on my computer and hear a series of beeps or I see the power LED blinking a repeating pattern Every time you start your Mac it performs some self diagnostics With these signals the Mac is telling you that it failed to pass those diagnostics 1 Turn everything off and disconnect all external USB and FireWire devices except your mouse keyboard and monitor if applicable Disconnect your Ethernet cab
85. turn on Mac OS X s software firewall in the Security Preference pane but that doesn t solve all problems De pending on the importance and secrecy of your files you may want to get a hardware firewall An AirPort Base Sta tion provides some firewall functions such as network ad dress translation NAT If you are not using AirPort a rout er provides these services and more while allowing you to share a single cable or DSL connection among multiple computers How do I create a home wireless network Once you have a wired Internet connection established with your ISP you ll need to connect a wireless base station like an AirPort Extreme or Time Capsule To configure your wireless base station please refer to the user manual for instructions or manufacturer s website Once you have your wireless network configured at home all you have to do is connect your Mac to it How do I connect my Mac to a wireless network Look in the upper right corner of your Mac s menu bar click your AirPort status menu and select the wireless network you have created If prompted enter the password for your wireless network Select the checkbox Remember this net q Getting Online and AirPort work to have your Mac automatically join your home wire less network When I go to select a wireless network the AirPort Wi Fi menu always Says it s scanning or looking for networks Don t worry this is a normal Every time
86. u may want to bring it to us right away We can test When Should I Bring My Computer to Tekserve 17 whether the hard drive s enclosure or the hard drive itself has failed for a fee The testing fee can then be applied to wards a new hard drive enclosure or data recovery services if you choose either For problems with printers scanners and other external widgets we d urge you to try to solve the problem yourself before schlepping it to us The first step is usually to check the manufacturer s website for software or driver updates The second step is to do a Google search on the problem you are having We just type into the Google search box things like Finjet 300 paper jam or R3660 problems The third step is usually to call the manufacturer These days most inkjet printers aren t repaired when they fail warranty repair usually means the manufacturer ships you a refurbished replacement And sad to say once the warranty is over it s rarely economical to repair a 50 300 printer or scanner Although we can help with connecting it to your Mac we don t do hardware repairs on printers non Apple monitors or scanners There are some websites full of information like www fixyourownprinter com but you can spend a lot of time and money and still end up with something that doesn t work so just be careful My whole computer network is down Can Tekserve help Yes please call our Professional Services group
87. ur network No wireless encryption standard is unbeatable but the new Getting Online and AirPort 75 er WPA encryption is much harder to beat than the older WEP if your router offers both How can I stop others from using my AirPort wireless network Some of us free information types try to keep our wire less network open to help out passing travelers However a freeloader that downloads tons of files may slow down your connection speeds Macs also make it really easy to connect between computers on the same network so a freeloader could access your home computers if they can guess your user password Every wireless base station manufacturer uses a slightly dif ferent process If you re using an Apple base station open AirPort Utility from Applications Utilities and select your device from the left side Click Manual Setup the AirPort icon and then the Wireless tab In the Wireless Security pop up menu choose WPA2 Personal A thirteen character password comprised of both letters and numbers is pretty secure and cross platform compat ible In addition current AirPort software will allow you to restrict access to your base station based on the MAC ad dress or AirPort ID of the AirPort cards you have in your computers You can find the unique 12 character AirPort ID on the label of each AirPort card or in the Apple System Profiler Or you may choose to openly share your broad band Internet connection with frie
88. xcellent D amp B rating email credit tekserve com and we ll send you a credit applica tion We also accept corporate credit cards and company checks subject to approval What makes Tekserve different What we think sets Tekserve apart is that we started out as a service provider and we still lead with service We have over 40 certified technicians including several data recovery experts and we maintain a very large inventory 78 Tekserve s Macintosh FAQ www tekserve com faq of parts Our approach to sales is based on service not just trying to move boxes but also actually meeting the customer s needs For instance we offer turnkey Final Cut Pro video editing systems with everything you need to plug in and start editing For corporate purchasers we can configure and ship computers to multiple locations with your standard software install already loaded and asset tags in place Our motto borrowed from an old Walker Evans photo is Honest Weights Square Dealings If you are ever dissat isfied in any way with our service please let us know and we ll try to make it right What if I just don t have time to wait for a repair If you need to keep working while you wait for your repair let us know We offer a wide variety of rental computers and can even help you transfer your data in some cases For more information about rentals and how Tekserve can as sist you give us a call or check www tekserve com rental
89. ytime or sell you an external bat tery for use between charges Where Do Go for Help What about Apple s own support Consumer Reports consistently rates Apple as having the best support in the business One place you can see that is on their website www apple com support There is a wealth of good and accessible information and you can drill pretty deep But they know to start simple What if the Apple website didn t help Most new Apple products come with a one year hardware warranty and 90 days of free telephone support AppleCare for computers and displays extends the phone support and hardware coverage to three years from the purchase date If you didn t get AppleCare for your iPod there s a 30 shipping and handling fee for hardware repairs after six months AppleCare extends your iPod iPhone or iPad Where Do I Go for Help 11 support and hardware coverage to two years from the pur chase date If you are entitled to phone support call 800 APL CARE aka 800 275 2273 How do I check my Apple warranty or AppleCare coverage If you are running OS 10 7 Lion or later click on the Apple in the upper left corner of your Mac choose About This Mac and then the More Info button In the resulting window select Service from the tabs on the upper right Click the arrow next to Check my service and support cov erage status to send your serial number to Apple and view your warranty statu

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