Stepping through MacBook Troubleshooting

If rebooting your Mac hasn't solved a particular problem, follow these steps in order until either the solution is found or you run out of steps.

Step 1: Investigate recent changes

This is a simple step that many novice Mac owners forget. Simply retrace your steps and consider what changes you recently made to your system. Here are the most common culprits:

• Did you just finish installing a new application?

• Did you just apply an update or patch to an application?

• Did you just update Tiger using Software Update?

• Did you just make a change in System Preferences?

• Did you just connect (or reconnect) an external device?

If you haven't made significant changes to your system before you encountered the problem, proceed to the next step.

Step 2: Run Disk Utility

If you're experiencing hard drive problems, consider booting from your Mac OS X Installation CD or DVD to run a full-blown Repair Disk checkup on your boot volume.

Step 3: Check your cables

It's a fact that cables work themselves loose, and they fail from time to time. Check all your cables to your external devices — make sure that they're snug — and verify that everything's plugged in and turned on.

Step 4: Check your trash

Check the contents of your trash to see whether you recently deleted files or folders by accident. Click the Trash icon on the dock once to display the contents. If something's been deleted by mistake, drag it back to its original folder and try running the application again.

Step 5: Check your Internet, wireless, and network connections

Now that always-on DSL and cable modem connections to the Internet are common, don't forget an obvious problem: Your laptop can't reach the Internet because your Internet service provider (ISP) is down!

You can check your Internet connection by pinging Apple.com, as follows:

1. Open your Utilities folder (inside your Applications folder).

2. Double-click Network Utility.

3. Click the Ping tab.

4. Enter www.apple.com in the Address box.

5. Click Ping.

You should see successful ping messages. If you don't, your ISP or network is likely experiencing problems.

Step 6: Think virus

If you've made it to this point, it's time to run a full virus scan — and make sure that your antivirus application has the latest updated data files, too. If a virus is detected and your antivirus application can't remove it, try quarantining it instead — this basically disables the virus-ridden application and prevents it from infecting other files.

Step 7: Disable your login items

Mac OS X may be encountering problems with applications that you've marked as login items in System Preferences. Hold down Shift during startup (if your Mac doesn't display the Login screen) or hold down Shift at the Login screen while you click the Login button.

These tricks disable your account's login items, which run automatically every time you log in to your laptop. If one of these login items is to blame, your Mac will simply encounter trouble — automatically! — every time you log in.

If your laptop works fine with your login items disabled, follow this procedure for each item in the login items list:

1. Open System Preferences, click Accounts, and then click the Login Items button.

2. Delete an item from the list, and then reboot normally.

3. If your Mac doesn't start up normally, go back to Step 2.

4. When your Mac starts up normally with the remaining login items enabled, you've discovered the perpetrator — you'll likely need to delete that application and reinstall it.

5. Don't forget to add each of the working login items back to the Login Items list!

Step 8: Turn off your screen saver

This is a long shot, but it isn't unheard of to discover that a faulty, bug-ridden screen saver has locked up your laptop. Open System Preferences, click Desktop & Screen Saver, click the Screen Saver button, and then do one of the following:

• Switch to an Apple screen saver.

• Drag the Start slider to Never. If this corrects the problem, you can typically remove the screen saver by deleting the offending saver application in the Screen Savers folder inside your Mac OS X Library folder.

Step 9: Run System Profiler

Ouch. You've reached Step 9, and you still haven't uncovered the culprit. At this point, you've narrowed the possibilities to a serious problem, like corrupted files in your Mac OS X System Folder or hardware that's gone south. Fortunately, Tiger provides you with System Profiler, which displays real-time information on all the hardware in your system. Click the Apple menu and choose About This Mac; then click More Info. Click each one of the Hardware categories in turn, double-checking to make sure that everything looks okay.

Covering Common Mac Problems

our computer won't have to visit the emergency room or undergo major surgery, but a little first aid is probably in order here and there. The solutions to several Mac problems are offered in the following sections.

Fixing a jumpy mouse

The optical-style mice included with the most recent Macs don't get stuck like their ancestors because this kind of critter doesn't use the little dust-collecting rolling ball on its underbelly. However, optical mice don't particularly like glass or reflective surfaces, so if you find your mouse on one, use a mouse pad or slip a piece of paper underneath it.

If your mouse just doesn't respond, unplug it from the USB port and then plug it in again, just to make sure that the connection is snug. If you have a wireless mouse, make sure that the batteries are fresh.

Dealing with a stuck CD

When your Mac won't spit out a disc, take a stab at one of these fixes:

• Quit the program that's using the disc, and then press Eject on the keyboard.

• Open a Finder window, and click the little Eject icon in the sidebar. Or, try dragging the disc icon from the Mac desktop to the trash.

• Log out of your user account (under the Mac menu), and then press Eject on the keyboard.

• Restart the computer while holding down the mouse button.

Fixing your Mac's clock

If your computer can no longer keep track of the time and date, its internal backup battery may have bit the dust. You can't replace the battery yourself, so you'll have to contact the Apple store or visit an authorized service provider.

Making programs open nonnative files

The Mac makes certain assumptions about which application ought to open a particular file when summoned. But say that you want the Adobe programs Photoshop and Reader to be responsible for JPEGs and PDFs, and Mac's own word processor, TextEdit, to take care of Word DOC duties.

Here's what to do:

1. Highlight the icon of the program that you want to be opened by a different application and press Command+I.

2. In the Get Info panel that appears, click the right-facing triangle next to Open With and choose the application to handle the document from here on out.

Alternatively, access the Open With command by highlighting the file icon in question and choosing File --> Open With. You can also bring up the Get Info pane from the same menu. Still another way to get to Open With: Press Control while clicking the icon (or right-click if your mouse has two buttons).

3. If you want the application to open each and every file you beckon in the future, click Change All.

Handling kernel clink

Out of the blue, you are asked to restart your computer — in numerous languages, no less. Your machine has been hit with a kernel panic. The probable cause is corrupted or incompatible software.

The good news is that a system restart usually takes care of the problem with no further harm. If not, try removing memory or hardware you've recently added. Or, if you think some new software you installed may have been the culprit, head to the software publisher's Web site and see whether a downloadable fix or upgrade is available.

Fixing DNS problems

If you're surfing the Web with Safari or another browser and get a message about a DNS entry not being found, you typed the wrong Web address or URL, the site in question no longer exists (or never did), or the site is having temporary problems. DNS is computer jargon for Domain Name System. Similar messages may be presented as a 404 not found on this server error.

Curing the trash can blues

In the physical world, you may try and throw something out of your trash but can't because the rubbish gets stuck to the bottom of the can. The virtual trash can on your Mac sometimes suffers a similar fate: A file refuses to budge when you click Empty Trash under the Finder menu.

Try junking the files by holding down the Option key when you choose Empty Trash.

A file can refuse to go quietly for several reasons. For starters, you can't delete an item that is open somewhere else on your computer, so make sure that it's indeed closed. Moreover, you may be trying to ditch a file to which you do not have sufficient permission. The other most likely explanation is that a lockedfile is in the trash. You can unlock it by choosing File --> Get Info and making sure to deselect the Locked check box.