{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.