{SOLVED} 5 MOST COMMON MAC PROBLEMS & SOLUTIONS.

As we know, when a Mac computer was first bought from the shop everything seems to be running very smoothly and there were no problems whatsoever to be found. But often after a few months of constant usage, you'll find some common problems showing up on your system. Well you are not alone facing such problems. Here in this article I am going to show you a few basic ways on how you can fix the following problems yourself for free.

1. APPLICATION NOT RESPONDING.

If an application is not responding or appears to have frozen, you may need to force quit it. To do this you need to hold down Command, Alt and esc key to bring up the Force Quit popup window or alternatively by choosing Force Quit from the Apple menu. After quitting the frozen program, you can try relaunching it and the program should work again. If that doesn't work, then you can try resetting the PRAM on your Mac. To reset PRAM, locate and hold down Command, Option, P, and R keys, and turn on your computer. Continue holding the keys down until you hear the startup sound for the second time, then only release the keys and your computer will startup. Resetting PRAM will help to refresh your Mac memory and
helps to make your Mac applications responsive.

2. EJECTING A DISC STUCK IN THE OPTICAL DRIVE.

If by chance you inserted a CD or DVD into the optical drive of your Mac and it refuses to eject, try restarting the Mac by holding down the left mouse button on the track pad. This should force the optical drive to eject the disk for you. 

3. CANNOT PRINT.

If you cannot print from your Mac, it is always a good idea to reset your entire printing system. To do this you can go to your Print & Fax System Preference, right click the printer list and select Reset Printing System. After resetting your printing system on your Mac, you should be able to print again. If the problem still persists, then it could be caused by a variety of different issues relating to your printer hardware or printer drivers, so you may need to contact the printer manufacturer for help.

4. FORGOTTEN PASSWORD.

This is a very common problem faced by most Mac users. Usually this situation happens when we have too many password used on various program that causes us to forget which password used on our computer.  To reset password on your Mac, just insert your Mac OS X install DVD disk into your computer and restart by holding down the "C" button. You will be prompted to select your language of choice. After selecting your language, go to the Menu bar and select Utilities>Reset Password. Just follow the instructions and you are done.

5. SLOW INTERNET CONNECTION.

A sluggish internet connection could be caused by your browser's settings. Try resetting Safari. To reset Safari just go to Safari menu and click Reset Safari. A popup window will appear explaining what will happen. Just click OK to proceed and it will reset Safari to default. You can also try changing Safari homepage. As we know by default, Safari homepage is Apple's site which usually takes a while to load up each time you turn your browser on. I would suggest you change that to Google homepage which will load up faster. When changing Google as your homepage, make sure you turn off auto complete function as it will slow down your browser. To do so just start up your browser and on the address column type: http://www.google.com/webhpcomplete=0&Hl=en. Once Google homepage is launched, you can set it as your homepage by going to your Safari Menu bar and click onto Safari, then click on Preferences, go to Homepage and click "Set to Current page". Now you are done and the next time you launch your browser Google will be your homepage, and you will notice how fast your browser loads up.

Next you can try power cycling both your modem and router, such as your Airport Extreme. Turn off or unplug the device, let it powered off and wait for 10 second, then plug it back on again and you are done.

Hope you find this article useful to you.

Joe
Sydney, Australia.

HOW TO STOP THE SPINNING RAINBOW BALL (CIRCLE) PROBLEM ON MAC

Is your Mac experiencing the spinning rainbow ball or circle very often while loading up any applications? Typically, when this rainbow circle is seen, the computer will not allow you to do anything for a few seconds and then resumed. This situation usually indicates that some task that is running on the background is blocking your operating system to interact with a program. In some cases, the whole computer system freezes and the only option left for you to do is to hold the power button down until the computer is forced to shut down. The spinning rainbow ball usually indicates an application not responding on your computer and if this situation happens very often on your Mac, you should resolve it immediately as it may leads to hard drive failure or any other underlying problems later. Here in this article I am going to show you how to get rid of and stop this spinning rainbow ball permanently without causing you to spend a dollar.

1. INSTALL iBOOSTUP.                                                                        iBoostUp

The most effective way to fix the problem is to optimize your hard drive by getting rid of unnecessary files. To do this, just download and install iBoostUp. You can download the application for free from: http://www.iboostup.com/download
iBoostUp tunes up and optimizes your Mac by purging unneeded files, fixing your hard disk, giving you performance recommendations, protecting your privacy by removing cookies, displaying system information and much more. Running iBoostUp regularly will ensure that the file structure on your Mac is organised and functioned correctly, hence results in your Mac working at optimum speed.

2. RUN DISK PERMISSION.

Disk permissions are a disk utility that helps to verify and repair your disk for permission differences. In Mac OS X Lion or earlier version, when the user run disk verification or repair disk permissions, Disk Utility searches and reviews each of the .bom files in /Library/Receipts/ and compares its list to the actual permissions on each file listed. If the permissions differ, Disk Utility will report and list out the difference (and corrects them) if you use the Repair feature. Running disk permissions regularly will definitely ensure that your Mac runs smoothly, efficiently and error free.

3. REMOVE UNNECESSARY APPS.

Most Mac users tend to download a lot of free applications and games to review and try out. Usually after a while, most of the Apps and games that are downloaded onto your Mac are not useful anymore and left in your system which takes up space and physical Ram memory. Regularly checking and removing unnecessary Apps that are not needed on your Mac will help free up your hard disk space and boost up your computer speed. I would suggest that you download and install AppCleaner 2.0.5 to uninstall any applications that you do not required. You can download the free application from: http://en.softonic.com/s/trash-app-mac:mac. This Apps help to clean up all unnecessary or related files that are left on your Mac whenever you delete any Apps from your computer system.

4. RESETTING PRAM.

In Mac OS X, a small amount of memory called PRAM (Parameter Random Access Memory) stores certain settings which Mac computer can access quickly. These settings include your Mac designated startup disk, display resolution, speaker volume and other vital information. Resetting PRAM will help to refresh your Mac memory and speedup your OS. To reset PRAM on your Mac, just shut down your computer. Locate and hold down Command, Option, P, and R keys, and turn on your computer. Continue holding the keys down until you hear the startup sound for the second time, then only release the keys and your computer will startup.

Hope this article is useful to you.

Joe
Sydney, Australia.

{SOLVED}"NO AUDIO DEVICE DETECTED" & SOUND MUTED ON WINDOWS 7 RUNNING ON MAC BOOT CAMP

Is your computer sound muted recently and you noticed a red cross appears on the speaker icon on your taskbar?  When you move the mouse onto the speaker's icon, is there a popup message appeared indicating "No Audio Device detected" on your computer? Well if you get this message, here is my solution! Just follow the following steps carefully to fix the sound problem on your computer.

1. UNINSTALL SOUND DRIVER

Click Start >click Control Panel and click Uninstall a program. Stroll down the list and browse for Windows Driver Package-Cirrus Logic, Inc. (CirrusFilter) Media (08/05/2009 6.6001.1.14) and double click it to uninstall it from your computer.

2. REINSTALL SOUND DRIVER

Insert your Mac OS X install DVD disk (that comes with your Mac) onto your computer. A popup window will appear. Select and click Open folder to view files, then click Boot Camp, Click Drivers and then double click to open Cirrus folder, select and double click CirrusAudioVista32 (if you are using Windows 7, 32bits) or CirrusAudioVista64 (if you are using Windows 7, 64bits) to install the audio sound driver back onto your computer. Just follow the onscreen installation instructions to install your audio sound driver.

When you have finished reinstalling the Cirrus Logic driver, you will need to reboot your computer. Once your system is up and running, go to your Windows taskbar and locate the sound icon. Double click it and Cirrus Logic audio driver will be installed back onto your computer again. Upon completion of the sound driver installation you will notice that the red cross on the speaker icon will disappear, indicating that your system audio sound is now enabled.

3. DISABLE "NVCPLDAEMON" FROM STARTUP

This program is not required to start automatically as you can run it when you need to. It is advised that you disable this program so that it does not take up necessary resources and in this particular case interrupt your audio device boot up. If you need to you can easily configure this program settings the way you want them in the Display Properties and not have to mess with them again.
To disable "NvCplDaemon" from starting up each time Windows bootup, just go to right click Start menu and on the empty Search programs and files box type msconfig and hit enter. A popup window will appear. Click on Start up and a list of startup items will appear. Uncheck  "Nvidia compatible Windows 7 display driver" and click apply. Close the popup window and choose to restart your computer and you are done.

Reboot your computer and your audio sound will not be muted on startup anymore. You can test out your computer sound and if you think is too low, you can go to the windows taskbar and locate the sound icon and right click it. Click on Speakers icon. A popup window will appear and on the top menu bar select Enhancements and just check Bass Boost, Virtual Surround and loudness Equalization. Click Apply, then close the popup window and you are done.

Hope this article will help you to resolve your Windows 7 sound problem.

Good luck!

Joe
Sydney, Australia.

HOW TO FIX MAC FREEZES AT START UP (THE WHITE SCREEN PROBLEM ON YOUR MAC ON START UP).


Nothing can be more frustrating than turning on your Mac only to find out that it won't start up. Instead of seeing the spinning wheel, you see a blank white screen that just sits there. What can you do? Don't worry. It could be a simple issue that you can fix it yourself. Just follow the following steps carefully and you might be able to fix the problem yourself.

TRY RESETTING THE PRAM.

1. Shut down the computer (by holding the power button).
2. Turn on the computer. Wait until you hear the boot sound.
3. Press and hold the Command, Option, P & R keys (simultaneously).
4. Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
5. Then release the keys.

If resetting the PRAM doesn't work for you, then try

RESET THE SYSTEM MANAGEMENT CONTROLLER.

1. Shut down the computer.
2. Unplugged all cables from your Mac, including the power cord.
3. Wait for at least twenty seconds and then plug the power cord back onto your Mac
4. Press the power button to start up your Mac.

Your Mac should startup normal now. If you still see the blank white screen and your Mac still doesn't boot up then your hard drive needs to be replaced.

REPLACE YOUR HARD DRIVE.

If you need to replace your hard drive on your Macbook and need to know how to do it yourself, just go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2CxSAVwFqE&noredirect=1 and just follow the instructions.  Alternatively for Macbook pro, you can refer to: http://www.tested.com/videos/how-to/5411-how-to-replace-your-macbooks-hard-drive/.

Now that you have replaced your hard drive on your Mac, you need to reinstall your Mac operating system back onto the new hard drive. To do that just insert your Mac OS X install DVD disk (which comes with your Mac) onto your computer. Hold down "C" key and press the power (start) button. Mac OS X installation will start automatically. Just let the installation completes and you are done.

Hope you find this article useful to you.

Good luck !

Joe
Sydney, Australia.