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Mac OSX Noob thread of OSX noobs
- Thread starter koam
- Start date
Really hoping the MBP revisions are coming next month...my current laptop screen just crapped out. It's barely (and I mean barely) perceptible, certainly not in usable condition. Guess the backlight blew out. Going to buy a VGA cable to hook it up to my 32in LCD TV and try to use it like that for a little bit...
Ken Masters
Banned
When I discharge the mbp battery, when its at 1% it says its using some backup battery power, should I just keep using it till it shuts off?
Mr. Wonderful
Member
Me too. I'm saving up currently, and I could really use a solid number that I'll be saving for to keep me on track.Bowser said:
weekend_warrior
Banned
Bowser said:
Yeah my Macbooks backlight is randomly going out, and I have to hinge it open close open close to get it to work again.
weekend_warrior said:
Yeah, that's what I was doing as well. It started in October, but stabilized and worked fine until like 3 days ago, when it seems to have just completely bit the dust. Can't complain though, it served me well (got it in June 2006). If only it could have held out a few more months...
Bowser/weekend_warrior, if you aren't/weren't getting a reddish tint on the screen to go along with backlight dropping out, it's probably the inverter and you can replace it yourself. If you're getting a red tint it's the CCFL, can probably get it replaced for $70-100.
Thinking about picking up the Air because I need a new machine, not sure if I can hold out for another month or so.
Thinking about picking up the Air because I need a new machine, not sure if I can hold out for another month or so.
Vinterbird
Member
LJ11 said:
Air won't get updated before this fall, no way they're gonna update it so soon. (what are people expecting for the next Air, big overhaul like the rumored total redesign of the Macbook or just small'ish upgrade?)
Yeah, I don't feel like sinking any money into this laptop because I'm definitely buying the new MBP when it comes out, already have the money set aside. I just got a VGA cable from monoprice for $4 and connected to my TV. Works fine, only thing is I can't surf the web and watch TV at the same time :|
I just bought a white MacBook off craigslist. 2ghz processor, 4gigs of ram, 320gig hdd. $600. Awesome right? Yea it is! But the damn thing either restarts itself randomly or tells me to hold the power button down until it turns off the press it again to turn the computer back on.
Is it broke or does it need the os to be reinstalled or ? If I have to pay a lot to fix it or it can't be fixed it's going back on craigslist.
This is my first Mac, and second apple product after my 2nd gen iPod touch. My iPod has been amazing even after being treated like shit for the last 2 years. I'm posting from it now because the laptop I just bought keeps restarting itself...
Is it broke or does it need the os to be reinstalled or ? If I have to pay a lot to fix it or it can't be fixed it's going back on craigslist.
This is my first Mac, and second apple product after my 2nd gen iPod touch. My iPod has been amazing even after being treated like shit for the last 2 years. I'm posting from it now because the laptop I just bought keeps restarting itself...
centracore
Member
Garou said:
Here are the instructions for resetting the PRAM: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1379
Also here are the instructions for resetting the SMC: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964
Try doing both of those and then reinstalling OSX with the discs that should have come with it.
jts
...hate me...
Fucking hell man. Exposé is not working for me, yet again. Happened once a couple of days ago, rebooted and it was fine.
But now again, damn. Doesn't work either with the 4 finger gesture or with the exposé app/launcher. Or even with the exposé hot key.
Any sugestions?
Because I don't know how to use a computer without exposé anymore.
But now again, damn. Doesn't work either with the 4 finger gesture or with the exposé app/launcher. Or even with the exposé hot key.
Any sugestions?
Because I don't know how to use a computer without exposé anymore.
It's an annoying bug. For future reference, the Dock controls most system wide features. Expose, Dashboard, minimizing windows, etc... It's stupid to dump so much control into one app. It's just as bad as iTunes. All those features should be their own processes.jts said:
It's gotten to the point I'm so used to opening Terminal and killall dock, I'm just going to set it to a hotkey.
Mecha_Infantry
Banned
Stores are all down. White iPhone expected but new iMacs, minis and air capsule shit probable too
Edit: only a site redesign
Edit: only a site redesign
centracore
Member
Is there a way to enable/disable the second monitor connected to my iMac other than connecting/disconnecting the Mini DisplayPort cable?
Not sure if this is a Mac or windows issue...
Im having a surround sound problem on an iMac running Win7 (64bit) via bootcamp - the problem is in Windows.
It's hooked up to my amp via optical and when i run a sound test through windows control panel it sends a DTS/DD5.1 signal, however when play Crysis (on steam) everything is stereo. What gives?
Is this something i've fucked up in windows or something to do with the hardware/drivers?
Im having a surround sound problem on an iMac running Win7 (64bit) via bootcamp - the problem is in Windows.
It's hooked up to my amp via optical and when i run a sound test through windows control panel it sends a DTS/DD5.1 signal, however when play Crysis (on steam) everything is stereo. What gives?
Is this something i've fucked up in windows or something to do with the hardware/drivers?
Well, I've temporarily gone back to my HDD while my SSD is being a big pussy. Past few weeks I've been getting errors, reformatting, restoring and having no problems for a few days before the cycle started over again. Tonight I booted up and it couldn't boot into the SSD. Booting into one of my 3 clones revealed once again it could not be written to. But thankfully, due to the way SSD is made, I was still able to read it. Not that I had any files that had been changed except my MineCraft world and Chrome history. A quick copy of the folders to the old laptop drive and it was fine. I just swapped the drives and am going to call Kensington tomorrow. Something tells me I'm going to make good use of this supposed 3-year warranty.
Now I'm back on HDD and it's sooooo sloooooow in comparison. I miss the instant loading and fast bootup of my SSD. I hope this isn't a common problem.
So glad I have multiple backups.
Now I'm back on HDD and it's sooooo sloooooow in comparison. I miss the instant loading and fast bootup of my SSD. I hope this isn't a common problem.
So glad I have multiple backups.
Welp. My Unibody Macbook's hinge has mis-aligned itself. Luckily I can still open and close it by being careful, but I've made an appointment with the genius bar to have it seen to as soon as possible.
Should I prepare myself to be Macbookless for a while or will it be a simple case of knocking it back in?
Should I prepare myself to be Macbookless for a while or will it be a simple case of knocking it back in?
centracore
Member
LCfiner said:
I just looked in there again and I'm still not seeing it, I could just be blind though.
edit: this is completely unrelated and kind of stupid.. but I accidentally deleted the 'Documents' stack. Does anyone know how it's set up by default on a new OSX install? I made a new one and it's sorted by name but it doesn't seem right, I liked it how it was before.
You did it right. Drag your Documents folder to the Dock. Change the icon to a folder or to show all the files. Sort by whatever. Make it look like a grid, a list or a bending arc. Those are all you can do. I think by default, OS X starts you with a grid? I can't remember.centracore said:
And to "disable" the second monitor, you need to turn on mirroring. It's the only way that I know of. It doesn't turn it off, but it makes it so the computer only has one screen area. You then simply turn the monitor off with its switch or turn the brightness to zero. Keep in mind though that the screen area will take on the size of whatever the smallest maximum resolution of the two is. (If your external display is less area pixel-wise than your iMac, it will make the iMac display shrink down its resolution.)
Placebo?Tr4nce said:
Are you quitting it and leaving it off? Or just restarting it? Seems silly that the Finder would be a bottleneck.
Speaking of restarting things, I finally made my hot-key "Kill Dock" script for when Exposé dies on me. Now whenever it happens (Exposé's all-window mode stops working) I just press Command+Shift+D to restart the Dock so I don't have to open Terminal and type it in anymore. Will be much less annoying as a workaround. I hope Lion fixes this bug. (Seeing as Exposé in Lion has been completely overhauled again, I am hopeful and positive.)
Well Ive been going nuts with the macbook that my girlfriend owns.
Lets start a little backround.
On September 16,2010, my girlfriends little netbook of over a year broke down and she needed a laptop for school. I went out and bought her a macbook considering Ive never had a problem with apple (Owned a macbook, 2 iphones, and several ipods) as an early christmas present. I thought that she would have no trouble at all anymore since these are supposed to be well made computers with hardly any problems.
Everything was fine for this first couple months, then it all went downhill. About 3 weeks ago, her computer kept starting to get random kernal panics upon opening it up from sleep. We brought it to the apple store, they ran it through their tests, and said nothing was wrong with the computer but they would reinstall Mac OSX just incase.
We thought all was fine but then a couple days later, the kernal panics started happening again. I brought it back to the apple store (Got there at 5, waited til 7 even though I had an appointment...). They said it was a problem with the sleep state virtual memory and they deleted and reset that. Once I got the laptop back to her at home, it would not boot at all. Needless to say, I was furious. I brought it back to the apple store and they girl at the counter just says "oh yeah that was my fault" and tells me they need to reinstall Mac OSX AGAIN! I said whatever and told them to do it. I was there from 5 pm to nearly 10.
Now, all should be fixed right? We brought it there three times, it shouldve been fixed. Nope! Today, another kernal panic. I brought it back and they tell me they need to send it out. Thats just great. School just started and my girlfriend has an online class and this is the only computer they have in the house. Why didnt they send it out when I brought it the first time? Thats ridiculous. Worst of all, the guy at the apple store told me if they cant get it to kernal panic, theyll just send it back without doing anything. They asked me how I get it to panic, but it just happens at random when opening the laptop from sleep.
So after spending 1069.99 for a laptop, Ive had nothing but trouble with it. She's had it for less than 5 months and apperently the Apple Store cant fix this problem after going there three times.
Is there anything else I could do? I just want her to have a working laptop. Hell, I couldve just bought her another $400 netbook that probably wouldve lasted longer than spending nearly $1100.
Lets start a little backround.
On September 16,2010, my girlfriends little netbook of over a year broke down and she needed a laptop for school. I went out and bought her a macbook considering Ive never had a problem with apple (Owned a macbook, 2 iphones, and several ipods) as an early christmas present. I thought that she would have no trouble at all anymore since these are supposed to be well made computers with hardly any problems.
Everything was fine for this first couple months, then it all went downhill. About 3 weeks ago, her computer kept starting to get random kernal panics upon opening it up from sleep. We brought it to the apple store, they ran it through their tests, and said nothing was wrong with the computer but they would reinstall Mac OSX just incase.
We thought all was fine but then a couple days later, the kernal panics started happening again. I brought it back to the apple store (Got there at 5, waited til 7 even though I had an appointment...). They said it was a problem with the sleep state virtual memory and they deleted and reset that. Once I got the laptop back to her at home, it would not boot at all. Needless to say, I was furious. I brought it back to the apple store and they girl at the counter just says "oh yeah that was my fault" and tells me they need to reinstall Mac OSX AGAIN! I said whatever and told them to do it. I was there from 5 pm to nearly 10.
Now, all should be fixed right? We brought it there three times, it shouldve been fixed. Nope! Today, another kernal panic. I brought it back and they tell me they need to send it out. Thats just great. School just started and my girlfriend has an online class and this is the only computer they have in the house. Why didnt they send it out when I brought it the first time? Thats ridiculous. Worst of all, the guy at the apple store told me if they cant get it to kernal panic, theyll just send it back without doing anything. They asked me how I get it to panic, but it just happens at random when opening the laptop from sleep.
So after spending 1069.99 for a laptop, Ive had nothing but trouble with it. She's had it for less than 5 months and apperently the Apple Store cant fix this problem after going there three times.
Is there anything else I could do? I just want her to have a working laptop. Hell, I couldve just bought her another $400 netbook that probably wouldve lasted longer than spending nearly $1100.
I hope 10.7 has an option where it would detect if it's running on an SSD and disable all caches systemwide. I've done some tests and deleted my caches multiple times with the same results. On a HDD, deleting the cache makes the computer slower for a while, as is to be expected. Cache is an old concept to help overcome the speed limits of HDD's. But on an SSD, deleting the cache actually had no impact whatsoever on application speed. It's just wasted read/write calls wearing the SSD down even faster. Disabling them would do wonders. And with the Air now being SSD only, it would make so much sense.
I tried a tip I found on Google where you create a RamDisk and put hard links to it for your cache folders, but I couldn't get it to work reliably. There is no program that I can find that will tell OS X to make a RamDisk at startup and keep it mounted the entire session then destroy it when power off. The only thing you can find is a crappy early OS X preference pane that creates one at log-in but it disappears when you go to sleep which just fucks up programs like Chrome that freaks out if you delete its cache while it's running.
I'm sure there's a way to make a script that can make one, put it in some folder to have it run immediately when the OS starts loading then create some sub folders to make hard links to for the System and User cache folders. If I could figure it out, it'd be amazing when I get my SSD replaced. There's absolutely no reason to have caches wearing down the SSD in this day and age. Keep them for HDD's, but for SSD's, it's just unneeded wear and tear.
The benefit of a RamDisk is that it acts like a HD, can be mounted on the desktop, but when it's unmounted, it disappears completely. Contents and all. So using the RAM for cache, especially on a computer with 8GB, would be very beneficial.
I tried a tip I found on Google where you create a RamDisk and put hard links to it for your cache folders, but I couldn't get it to work reliably. There is no program that I can find that will tell OS X to make a RamDisk at startup and keep it mounted the entire session then destroy it when power off. The only thing you can find is a crappy early OS X preference pane that creates one at log-in but it disappears when you go to sleep which just fucks up programs like Chrome that freaks out if you delete its cache while it's running.
I'm sure there's a way to make a script that can make one, put it in some folder to have it run immediately when the OS starts loading then create some sub folders to make hard links to for the System and User cache folders. If I could figure it out, it'd be amazing when I get my SSD replaced. There's absolutely no reason to have caches wearing down the SSD in this day and age. Keep them for HDD's, but for SSD's, it's just unneeded wear and tear.
The benefit of a RamDisk is that it acts like a HD, can be mounted on the desktop, but when it's unmounted, it disappears completely. Contents and all. So using the RAM for cache, especially on a computer with 8GB, would be very beneficial.
I have a ton of movies from dvd/blu ray that I've handbraked into h264 (via .m4v) for appletv/ipad/iphone ecosystem.
I would like to load these files into something and save out as clips and maybe string them into a giant file.
For example i want to save out a bunch of driving sequences from my movies/tv shows to use as reference.
Whats the bes way to go about doing this? imovie? old school quicktime? final cut?
I have an imac 27" for heavy lifting if need be, but would love a solution for macbook air but if there isn't one, there isn't one.
Thanks!
I would like to load these files into something and save out as clips and maybe string them into a giant file.
For example i want to save out a bunch of driving sequences from my movies/tv shows to use as reference.
Whats the bes way to go about doing this? imovie? old school quicktime? final cut?
I have an imac 27" for heavy lifting if need be, but would love a solution for macbook air but if there isn't one, there isn't one.
Thanks!
Is there SAS (Statistical Analysis System) equivalent for Mac?
Particle Physicist
between a quark and a baryon
I hope new mini's are coming soon. I need one, but I just know there's an update coming. Just know it. It'll happen right after I buy one. 15 days after so I can't take it back.
I've set a deadline for myself. But I can't decide between 18 days from now or 29 days from now. 18 will be the average update time according to MacRumors. (It's currently been 230 of 248 days average) 29 will be the end of February. After that, I will probably just buy one as long as the store has them. I assume the next update will just be speed bumps. The design was just updated and I doubt they'd bet i3's or i5's before the MBP 13" does. So it'd probably be the same model anyway with maybe a slightly faster processor.
So that's my deadline. Either February 17th or February 28th. If no updates by then, the current model will be mine. And with luck, they will either update within that time, or not for 5 months or so so as to avoid remorse. lol
Either way, by March 1st, I'm buying myself a Mac mini.
HandBrake for converting. (The latest can now export clips from any second to any second or frame to frame as well as chapter to chapter and is able to convert pretty much any video file.)
iMovie for sewing them all back together.
And with Plex/Nine and the $5 iOS app, you can set up a server to host those files and stream them over your network AND the internet directly to your iDevice.
All this software is free. (Aside from the iOS app.)
I've set a deadline for myself. But I can't decide between 18 days from now or 29 days from now. 18 will be the average update time according to MacRumors. (It's currently been 230 of 248 days average) 29 will be the end of February. After that, I will probably just buy one as long as the store has them. I assume the next update will just be speed bumps. The design was just updated and I doubt they'd bet i3's or i5's before the MBP 13" does. So it'd probably be the same model anyway with maybe a slightly faster processor.
So that's my deadline. Either February 17th or February 28th. If no updates by then, the current model will be mine. And with luck, they will either update within that time, or not for 5 months or so so as to avoid remorse. lol
Either way, by March 1st, I'm buying myself a Mac mini.
A combination of:kr2t0s said:
HandBrake for converting. (The latest can now export clips from any second to any second or frame to frame as well as chapter to chapter and is able to convert pretty much any video file.)
iMovie for sewing them all back together.
And with Plex/Nine and the $5 iOS app, you can set up a server to host those files and stream them over your network AND the internet directly to your iDevice.
All this software is free. (Aside from the iOS app.)
cooljeanius
Member
If you're a student you may be able to get SPSS (and VMWare Fusion) free: http://www.onthehub.com/spss/