Macintosh Help

[DJ_Benz]

Hey there, Im using an iMac intel core duo, running OSX 10.4.1.

All of a sudden, I'm having trouble viewing video and images (on webpages)... Firefox is my default browser and I've also tried restarting it, and my computer. I'm getting the quicktime logo with a question mark inside of it. I tried installing all quicktime updates and then uninstalling and reinstalling, still no help. This has happened before but I have no recollection of how the problem was fixed. Anyone have an idea?

[Bruce551]

Download "cocktail" and run "pilot" maintenance program.

Also, it might a problem with Firefox. Try "Camino" browser and see if you still same problem.

[Guest Tattoodude]

Using the palm of your hand smack it vigorously on the side of the monitor whilst screaming at the top of your voice:

"Work you bastard work!"

[CiaranM]

Using the palm of your hand smack it vigorously on the side of the monitor whilst screaming at the top of your voice:

"Work you bastard work!"

:shock: :shock: :shock: how much for A new monitor at Panthip ?? :evil: :evil:

[beej]

Ok a lot of people pass through my Studio and use the I Mac there, some **** wit the other day made the desktop go missing I also can't drag and drop anything on there any more its just blank.... what the fucks going on?

[Guest Tattoodude]

Ok a lot of people pass through my Studio and use the I Mac there, some f*ck wit the other day made the desktop go missing I also can't drag and drop anything on there any more its just blank.... what the fucks going on?

What are you getting now, a little TV screen icon with a question mark? Also is the hard drive making clicking noises?

[anenglishman]

I am not a techie, so can't help directly. If u have a serious problem I can recommend a Mac specialist called Dave Peterson. He has a small business specializing in Mac repair/installation etc. Not sure of the ethics of posting an email in a public forum so PM me if u want details.

Dave has fixed a number of issues on all my Macs. He's not a whizz kid but he gets the job done.

[zeusbheld]

Hey there, Im using an iMac intel core duo, running OSX 10.4.1.

All of a sudden, I'm having trouble viewing video and images (on webpages)... Firefox is my default browser and I've also tried restarting it, and my computer. I'm getting the quicktime logo with a question mark inside of it. I tried installing all quicktime updates and then uninstalling and reinstalling, still no help. This has happened before but I have no recollection of how the problem was fixed. Anyone have an idea?

first thing to check is whether it does it for *all* video and audio on the web or just particular sites. second thing to check is whether it happens on all browsers.

might be a security setting in firefox, or if you installed any security add-ins to firefox they may be blocking scripts.

also sometimes if you have a firewall, and the video is linked on another site, it sees it as some sort of invasive attack.

trash the permission file, that might do it, (but be careful you don't trash your bookmarks.)

i'd consider reinstalling firefox if that doesn't work.

lastly, one thing to always try on a mac is repairing permissions. use disk utility for this,

[beej]

Nope it all works fine, I use it as I normally would but I can't drag or drop anything onto the desktop it just shows the wall paper and thats all!

Some strange **** going on!

[zeusbheld]

Nope it all works fine, I use it as I normally would but I can't drag or drop anything onto the desktop it just shows the wall paper and thats all!

Some strange sh*t going on!

hmmmmmm

i suspect something wrong with screen size. your computer might think it has a bigger monitor or a second monitor.

did you try 'view/clean up'---does that do anything?

repairing permissions can't hurt but probably won't help either.

[paulgh3rd]

buying a real computer and not crappy mac. other then that hit mac user sites their to priprietary and a real pain in the ass. good luck the user groupps should be able to help though

[zeusbheld]

buying a real computer and not crappy mac. other then that hit mac user sites their to priprietary and a real pain in the ass. good luck the user groupps should be able to help though

a "real computer"? like a dual core 2 machine that can run windows? um... a macbook can do that, if you really feel the urge for a substandard operating system (which you might because there's a lot more software especially games for windows).

also macs are actually a lot easier to maintain than windows as they're built on unix and most of the stuff that ign'ant users can **** up are locked, unlike the windoze registry. they don't even have bullshit like that friggin outmoded registry to deal with.

thanks for the strong, definitive opinion based entirely on gnorance though, it's what keeps the TF forum bopping along. good luck repairing your registry, and have fun with all those viruses that target your "real computer".

as to sites www.macfixit.com is a good one.

[DJ_Benz]

It's definitely something with Firefox. I'm using Safari and everything's working fine. Although I still prefer Firefox.

I have another issue. I might need a pro to help with this. My friend set me up running Windows and allocated 10GB of my HD for this. I no longer want to use this and want my 10GB back to the OSX side. I have no idea how to do this. Can anyone walk me through this on the phone?

[zeusbheld]

to reclaim the 10 gigabytes you have to reformat the hard drive, no easier way.

what i do is use an external drive and a utility called carbon copy cloner (it's free; google it or go to www.versiontracker.com) to copy my existing hard drive(s) to it. if you have other partitions, partition the external drive accordingly. you need to use an external drive to copy the operating system because there are invisible files and stuff you don't have access to even logged in as administrator. i'ts simple and easy but takes time.

once you've gotten everything off the drive, partition it and put stuff back.

if it's a laptop i'd recommend at least two partitions, one for 'maintenance'. disk utilities like diskwarrior and idefrag have to be run from a separate disk; that way you can just boot from a partition to do disk maintenance (which you should do once a month if you use the computer heavily n my opinion).

as for firefox, most similar problems i've had have been a result of running 'noscript.' also check your security settings under preferences...

[JaiDave]

Yes, I've doing Mac assistance for over 10 years. Be happy to discuss whatever issues you're having.

dave (at) bangkokmac.com

[moo_noy]

your first problem is YOU BOUGHT A MAC, your second problem is you bought a mac.

i think the best way to fix it is to sell it to another sucker.

[zeusbheld]

your first problem is YOU BOUGHT A MAC, your second problem is you bought a mac

your first problem is your information is out of date, your second problem is you're so deeply entrenched you don't bother to do a reality check, and your third problem is you insist on posting your 'insights' with the force of moses carting tablets down the hill.

my guess is you work in IT, you're kinda dorky and resent all that snobbish stuff like ipods and designer jeans, and it never really occurs to you that computers can have uses other than programming work, net forums, porn and video games, nor does it occur to you that not *everybody* who thinks windows is shite and would prefer unix can be bothered to install, set up and tweak linux .

so there's a lot your'e not taking into account, yet your'e smugly self-satisfied. keep up the work.

[zeusbheld]

your first problem is YOU BOUGHT A MAC, your second problem is you bought a mac.

i think the best way to fix it is to sell it to another sucker.

i left out your fourth problem: you're in agreement with pault3rd, thus permanently damaging your reputation and credibility.

[CiaranM]

your first problem is YOU BOUGHT A MAC, your second problem is you bought a mac.

i think the best way to fix it is to sell it to another sucker.

i left out your fourth problem: you're in agreement with pault3rd, thus permanently damaging your reputation and credibility.

damaging ?? damaging ?? what the f**k r u talking about ??

if he agress with pault3rd he doesn't have any reputation or credibility !!

[zeusbheld]

your first problem is YOU BOUGHT A MAC, your second problem is you bought a mac.

i think the best way to fix it is to sell it to another sucker.

i left out your fourth problem: you're in agreement with pault3rd, thus permanently damaging your reputation and credibility.

damaging ?? damaging ?? what the f**k r u talking about ??

if he agress with pault3rd he doesn't have any reputation or credibility !!

technically, complete and utter destruction *is* damage.

[Bruce551]

Check out this url

http://applejack.sourceforge.net/

AppleJack is a user friendly troubleshooting assistant for Mac OS X. With AppleJack you can troubleshoot a computer even if you can't load the GUI, or don't have a startup CD handy. AppleJack runs in Single User Mode and is menu-based for ease of use.

Good first step to trouble shoot Mac problem.

Tech Tool Pro is also good.

[zeusbheld]

Check out this url

http://applejack.sourceforge.net/

AppleJack is a user friendly troubleshooting assistant for Mac OS X. With AppleJack you can troubleshoot a computer even if you can't load the GUI, or don't have a startup CD handy. AppleJack runs in Single User Mode and is menu-based for ease of use.

Good first step to trouble shoot Mac problem.

Tech Tool Pro is also good.

applejack is great. install it then hold command-s while restarting. this puts you in single user mode. don't be intimidated by the command-line, non techies. all you have to do is type "applejack AUTO" at the prompt. then go get coffee or something, it will run through a number of maintenance routines, including cache cleaning and permissions repair (a great many problems are caused by permissions errors, and this is fixed quite easily either by applejack or Disk Utility, which comes iwth the OS).

the original problem was not a disk issue most likely, but hard drives (regardless of operating system) need to be maintained or they turn to ****, especially if you download a lot of little junk like music or movies (movies start out as lots of little packets, it is hell on hard drives).

my monthly hard drive maintenance routine

(first, when setting up the computer, i partition into three. one for downloaded junk, one for the system and programs and actual work, and one for maintenance. you don't necessarily need to separate your download space from your app space, but you *do* need a separate partition for utilities if you want to do proper disk maintenance)

1. run applejack

2. reboot from maintenance partitiion (or external maintenance drive)

3. run the hardware checks from techtool pro. DO NOT use their disk maintenance/optimization it sucks. if you do find problems, you'll need to take it to a repair shop as even if you know how to do this stuff, you'll void your warranty.

4. run Disk Warrior. this is by far the best disk catalog repair utility for the mac filing system. it is utterly reliable and has saved data from a great many thoroughly f***ed hard drives.

5. run iDefrag, a very good disk optimization utility. get dinner while it runs, or sleep. it takes forever if you have a complicated hard drive.

6. reboot, as good as new. no... better than new.

7. repeat once a month.

8. if you have a laptop, depending on how much you travel, it's a good idea to dump a copy of your hard drive to an external drive and do a low-level format at least once a year. this applies to windoze as well. the reason is that the inevitable jostling and bumping can chip the magnetic coating on the hard drive, causing potentially serious problems that can be completely avoided by reformatting out the bad blocks.

9 a windoze maintenance routine would be very similar, but i don't know which apps are best.

10. contrary to popular belief macs do need antivirus protection.

11. don't install operating system upgrades until they've been available for a month or so, let someone else find all the little bugs that any new OS upgrade will have. check the net periodically for indications of hardware problems, recalls etc. www.macfixit.com usually covers this pretty well. www.versiontracker.com is a great way to watch for upgrades to your favorite software.

12. i won't tell you what you need to do in order to make bootleg software work. that would be illegal.

that may not be all you need to know about macintosh maintenance, but it's damn close.

[Bruce551]

Excellent recommendations Zeus,

A good virus checker for Mac "free" ClamXav

http://www.clamxav.com/

I'd like to add one more thing regarding Mac User Accounts.

My home user account (the one I use most of time) does not have "Administrator Privileges" this means that no software be installed without me typing in Admin account name & password, (downs loads OK) some utilities also require me type in Admin passwords. This provides extra level of security, but its a little bit of a pain in ass.

:wink:

[zeusbheld]

Excellent recommendations Zeus,

A good virus checker for Mac "free" ClamXav

http://www.clamxav.com/

I'd like to add one more thing regarding Mac User Accounts.

My home user account (the one I use most of time) does not have "Administrator Privileges" this means that no software be installed without me typing in Admin account name & password, (downs loads OK) some utilities also require me type in Admin passwords. This provides extra level of security, but its a little bit of a pain in ass.

:wink:

i'm too lazy for that; my user account is an admin account.

however, i use a program called "little snitch" (too lazy to provide a link but it's on version tracker). this not only tells me who wants to have traffic on or off my computer (by IP address) it also gives me the option of blocking them.

will check out that virus software; THANKS. i'm tired of NAV and have only been using it coz i'm too lazy to look for something better (and cheaper)....

[zeusbheld]

addendum to mac users: besides the obvious fact that you should check for viruses because even if they don't affect you, you can pass them to your windoze-using friends, you ARE affected by macro-based viruses if you use microsoft office... in the words of a TV cop from a long time ago.. "let's be careful out there."