Becoming a Mac Survivor
MacLife.com has a great article called How to Survive the 17 Worst Mac Disasters. I’ll list the disasters, but by all means read the entire article for great tips to keep your Mac out of trouble.
Macs don’t cause trouble often, but when they do it’s never good for peace of mind. My business is to keep client’s Macs running and to help them stay productive and stress free, at least as far as their Macs are concerned. These tips will help us all keep our Macs healthy and running strong.
Here are the disasters and tips from the article:
Disaster 1
Keyboard, Meet Beverage
Ever spilled your beverage? We all have. Spilled it on your MacBook or Pro? This tip provides good info for saving your machine. The key, of course, is to use a regular backup plan, so your data is safe.
There is also a tip for keyboard dunkings, and there are several others that have been known to work. Older keyboards have been saved by placing on the top shelf of a dishwasher, and run through a single cycle (without soap, of course) with NO drying cycle, and left to air-dry for 24-72 hours upside down.
Number one rule - keep beverages well away from your Mac and keyboard!
Disaster 2
Stuck in Startup mode
Ever started your Mac and wound up looking at the startup screen for 5, 10, 30 or more minutes? This tip is to use a techie’s tool call “fsck” while booting in what is called “Single User Mode” and using a Unix command to check file consistency and fix problems.
The 2nd tip is to boot your Mac with the OS X install disk and open Disk Utility and to run Repair Permissions and Repair Disk. Some might argue that this is a good thing to do first, but I think it’s a toss-up, personally.
Disaster 3
It Won’t Power On
Push the button, but no startup chime and no power indicator light. No drive spin-up or fan. This is not good… but Mac Life gives you a number of possible fixes. One that they don’t mention is that a dead PRAM battery can occcasionally cause this symptom as well.
Disaster 4
It’s Just Too Slow
Sometimes your Mac will slow down imperceptibly, until you suddenly realize that your former race-car is now a dog… sometimes it happens more noticably. These tips are good… a cluttered desktop is like dragging an anchor… every icon uses the same resources as an open Finder window!
One thing not mentioned is that Time Machine backups can sometimes cause a bit of a performance hit. If you are doing work that will suffer from a slow-down like video or music or intense graphics work, turn Time Machine off temporarily for better performance.
Disaster 5
Ouch, Your Thighs Are On Fire!
This is something we all need to pay attention to… even desktop users. Too much heat will cause all kinds of symptoms, including slow performance, crashes, shut-downs and more.
Get the crud out
This fix may require more expertise than you have… some Macs are not easy to open up (iMacs and Portables in particular), so if you don’t feel comfortable playing surgeon on your Mac, call me or take you machine to the local Apple Store.
Dust, hair, pet fur etc. can really mess your machine up! Free air flow is essential to keep your Mac cool… temperature-wise, anyway. It’s a Mac, so it’s already cool in the other sense.
Disaster 6
An App’s Gone Haywire
Great tips here. If you have a misbehaving application, the suggestions in this tip are very good. If you do have a “bad” app and can’t sort it out, please contact me for more assistance.
Disaster 7
Mac-Scratch Fever
If you have a metal Mac - TiBook, AlBook, MacBook Pro or Air, or the new MacBook… even the new iMacs, you may have scratched, scuffed or otherwise marred the surface. This won’t hurt your machine’s performance, but they look so great out of the box! It’s a shame to have to live with this, so don’t. Just be careful, as you can cause more trouble if you aren’t careful! If your machine has a matte or brushed finish, it can be very difficult to match. Restoring a gloss finish is much easier.
Disaster 8
Mucky MacBook
White or black plastic MacBooks can use more care… the white plastic gets dingy, the black shows fingerprints. Both can become scratched. The Magic Eraser tip in this part of the article is very good. There are other products and methods if you have bigger problems with the finish, and of course, stay away from ports and other openings in the case, and be very careful around the keyboard.
Disaster 9
A Key’s Come Free
This tip is useful, but would be better with a diagram or 2. If you have any trouble, contact me for more help.
Disaster 10
Click, Klunk, Buzz
Strange sounds coming from you Mac are never good. After a week or so you should be able to know the normal sounds it makes, but anything unusual can be signals of coming disaster, particularly to the hard drive. If your drive is dying, make sure you are backed up and replace it immediately. It can’t be fixed.
Disaster 11
Your iPod or iPhone’s Screen Takes a Scratch
Be careful with scratch-repair on screens, and use these tips ONLY on the glass screens of iPods and iPhones, NEVER on matte-screen portables and monitors. Glossy displays… maybe. Be careful!
That said, the tip has solid advice, with suggestions for products that will help, without causing more damage. Just be careful, don’t use too much force and do a little work and then check your results, then continue if need be.
Disaster 12
This Time The Scratch Is On Your MacBook
DON”T try to repair your MacBook (or Pro) display. It has a protective coating that won’t stand up to anything. Replacement by TechRestore or PowerBookMedic is definitely the best way to go. It’s not cheap, but you wind up with a new, perfect screen instead of making it worse.
Disaster 13
Plop Goes The iPod (or iPhone)
It’s not a submarine! Don’t let your iPod/iPhone get soaked! That said, stuff happens and the advice in this tip is very good. It may not work, but chances are much better for a healthy recovery if you use these methods.
Disaster 14
Your Fonts Turn Feral
Fonts and font caches can become corrupted, and cause all kinds of problems, up to and including application crashes.
If you are using OS X Tiger and Leopard you’ll find Font Book a great resource to check fonts. This tip has good suggestions, particularly the one to use Extensis Suitcase Fusion or FontAgentPro to manage your fonts. They provide the option to turn funky fonts off, and in most cases make it easy to determine if you have a bad font. Font Doctor is a great tool to repair corrupted fonts… but it won’t always work. Back up your fonts when you acquire them, just in case!
Disaster 15
Safari’s Gone Sluggish
Safari is my browser of choice, and if it’s yours, you may have seen it turn into a sluggish mess. If so, this tip can help. If it doesn’t, contact me for more assistance.
Disaster 16
MobileMe Mayhem
MobileMe rolled out too soon, and caused all kinds of problems for .Mac users. That’s done, and Apple has worked hard to correct the flaws of the initial roll-out version. Still, if you rely on syncing your Macs and iPhones with MobileMe, or rely on it for backup or a Web site, you may still encounter some issues. This tip addresses basic sync troubleshooting. Again, if it doesn’t sort your problem out, let me know.
Disaster 17
More MobileMe Mayhem
This is a more advanced tip for sync problems. I’d have rolled it into the previous tip if I’d written the article, but then we wouldn’t have 17 disaster tips, and maybe that is an important number.
The article finishes up with 5 good tips to keep your Mac trouble-free.
1. Stay Dry
2. Stay Up-To-Date
3. Stay Secure
4. Stay Clean
5. Back Up. Period.
This is a fine article with good advice. If you want to learn more about keeping your Mac in tip-top shape, let me know. My clients always learn a little every time we speak, and you can too. I’m happy to direct you to more information, and you can use MacHelpMate and your phone (call me at 707-479-6170) for diagnosis and assistance.