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Troubleshooting Extension Info Control Panel Info
The Macintosh Bible
(6th Edition)
Chapter 7 - Part 2
Preventing and Solving Problems
| Note: What follows is the complete text of Chapter 7 of the sixth edition of the Macintosh Bible. Only the figures have been omitted - so as to allow the page to load faster. The contents are copyrighted by Peachpit Press and may not be sold or distributed. |
Part 1
Part 2
What Are All Those Error Codes Anyway?
The Blinking Question Mark Disk Icon
The Sad Mac and the Chimes of Death
When Trouble Strikes
Okay. You've followed all of the advice in the previous parts of this chapter and you are as prepared as Boy Scout with a shirt full of merit badges. Or maybe you haven't had time to check out the advice yet because you are too panicked about your current Mac crisis. In either case, something is definitely wrong with your Mac.
Been there. Done that.
You've come to the right place. Here's a wealth of tips, tricks, and solid advice that should get you through most of your troubled times.
The Frozen Mac
You're merrily working along when WHAM! everything halts. If you are lucky, the cursor may still move when you move your mouse, but that's it. Pressing keys does nothing, clicking the mouse button does nothing. Nothing does anything. Your Mac screen is now a frozen still life. Here's how to thaw it out.
Force Quit
- Before doing anything else, Press Command-S. If you had unsaved work at the time of the
freeze, this might still save it (doubtful really, but worth a try) even though it won't
help you recover from the freeze.
- Next, press Command-Option-Escape. This is called a force quit. With some luck
(and you can't be having a lot of luck here or you wouldn't have had this problem to begin
with), you will get a message with a button that says "Force Quit." Now click
the Cancel button. I know. Officially, this should do nothing at all. But occasionally it
wakes up the Mac and gets things rolling again. I also have had similar success (even
before doing a Force Quit) by moving the cursor to the desktop and clicking on an icon
there and then switching back to the frozen application. If this works, immediately save
all your data. Then, to minimize the chance of another freeze returning all too soon,
restart your Mac.
- If, as is more likely, your Mac is still frozen, click the Force Quit button. You still
have to hope for some luck here, because this button only works maybe 70 percent of the
time. If it fails, either nothing will happen or the situation will get worse (such as the
cursor, which had been responding to your mouse movements, no longer doing so).
- If the Force Quit succeeds, the program named in the Force Quit dialog box (presumably
the one most responsible for the freeze) will quit and you will most likely be dumped into
the Finder. Your Mac should now be behaving fairly normally and any work you had going in
other programs (aside from the one you quit) should still be available to be saved. As for
whatever unsaved work you had in any documents you were working on in the application that
quit, well, my condolences to you.
- Once you are back in business and have saved all that could be saved, select Restart from the Finder's Special menu. This is just to be safe. You can continue working without restarting, but you are courting disaster. Another freeze is likely to occur soon, especially if you return to the application you force quit from.
Reset
If the Force Quit failed at any point in the previous steps (or you were never able to get the force quit alert box at all), press Command-Control-Power (the Power key is the one on your keyboard with the triangle symbol on it). This is called a reset. On most recent models of Mac, this should restart the Mac.
If this key combination does nothing, it is probably because you have a Mac model that uses a physical reset button somewhere on the Mac itself, rather than using this key combination. It is usually one of a pair of buttons on the front or rear of the machine (If your press the "wrong" one of the pair of buttons, don't fret. Whatever happens, press the other button next and the restart will happen.
Finding the exact location of the reset button can be a bit tricky, as Apple finds it amusing to keep finding new places to hide it. If you can't find it, check with the documentation that came with your Mac. Otherwise, you can simply turn the Mac off and back on again (either via its on/off button or, if absolutely necessary, by unplugging the Mac and plugging it back in again).
PowerBooks have a couple of unique twists to this reset drama:
- On 100 series PowerBooks (except the Model 100) and most 200 series Duos, the reset
button is recessed and can only be accessed by using something like an unbent paper clip;
in this case it's easier to use the on/off button. However, after a system freeze or
crash, you'll have to hold the on/off button for about 5 seconds or so before it actually
shuts down the PowerBook.
- If Command-Control-Power should ever fail to reset your PowerBook, and your PowerBook model does not have an on/off switch (such as for the 500 series PowerBooks), press Command-Control-Option-Power. This should shut down the PowerBook. Then turn it back on as normal.
After Resetting
After resetting, you may get a message during startup that says that your did not shut down the Macintosh properly. This is true. Shutting down by any method other than selecting on onscreen Restart or Shut Down command is considered improper. But don't worry. It doesn't mean anything bad has happened. Just dismiss this message and proceed as normal. Still, if you want to prevent this message from reappearing the next time you have a problem, go to the General Controls control panel and uncheck "Shut Down Warning."
After you reach the desktop, you'll probably find a folder called "Rescued Items" in the Trash. If you had some unsaved work that was lost in the freeze, there is a rat's whisker of a chance that a file in here contains the lost data. To find out, open the file(s) in the application(s) that you were working on at the time of the crash. Most likely, you'll find that the files are worthless. It's not a coincidence that these files are in the Trash. It's a hint as to what you should do with them!
Finally, you're back in business and your Mac should now be running fine again. But what if the freeze returns the next time you do whatever caused it to occur the first time? How do you figure out what is causing the freeze, so that it doesn't happen again? The depressing answer to that question is that there is no easy answer to the question. The happy answer (and I am sure the one you would rather hear) is that most freezes are due to just a few possible causes. The following steps should solve most freezes for you:
- Check for an extensions conflict (see the "Solving Extensions
Conflicts" sidebar).
- Check for problems with the program. If it's not an extension conflict, it's probably a
problem with the program itself (in which case you'll have to contact the vendor to see if
they have a bug-fixed upgrade) or with the application's preferences file (see "When
Programs Don't Work" later in this chapter). Occasionally, increasing the
application's memory Suggested Size (as described in "Not Enough Memory" later
in this chapter) may reduce the risk of a freeze, but don't bet on it.
- Make sure you have the latest version of Apple's system software. Also check if Apple
has released any special updates that fix your problem. For example, Apple has a special
set of printing update files to fix freezes and crashes that occur when printing from
System 7.5.2.
- Beyond this, you'll have to resort to the tried-and-true collection of possible cures.
Most likely to be helpful is reinstalling your system software (see the "Reinstalling
System Software" sidebar, later in this chapter). You might also update your disk
driver using your formatting utility as well as check for disk damage with Disk First Aid
or other data recovery utilities (as described in "Troubleshooting Tools").
- Finally, while not really a freeze, if your application suddenly quits without warning and an alert box appears that includes the words "unexpectedly quit," treat this as a sort of automatic Force Quit (see the previous "Force Quit" section).
System Crashes and Bombs
If you're wondering what could be worse than a system freeze, here's one answer: a system crash (or, as it is sometimes called, a bomb). Typically, an alert box appears with an icon of a bomb in it. The message starts off by apologizing for the intrusion, "Sorry...." But I doubt if that makes you feel any more kindly toward it.
Don't worry, the bomb icon does not mean your computer is in danger of exploding. You may laugh, but I know someone who, after getting their first bomb alert, refused to touch their computer for the next several hours, until she could get a hold of me on the phone, fearful of what might happen if she tried to use it further.
As with the freeze, the bomb puts an end to whatever you were doing. Actually, dealing with bombs is quite similar to dealing with freezes, except that the force quit option is so unlikely to ever work, I wouldn't even bother trying it (the Restart button that may appear in the bomb box also only works sporadically).
Your first step should be to restart your Mac. If you are lucky, the system crash won't repeat. If it does, the most likely cause of recurring crashes remain extension conflicts and buggy or corrupted software. Overall, the logic is similar to what was described for diagnosing system freezes (see the previous section).
If a crash occurs after all the extensions have loaded, but before the desktop finishes loading, try restarting from another startup disk. If you succeed, go to the Preferences folder inside your startup hard disk's System Folder, and throw away the Finder Preferences file.
What Are All Those Error Codes Anyway?
When you get a system crash or an unexpected quit, you'll often find that the accompanying error message lists a code number (such as "an error of Type 1" ) or an equally mysterious expression (such as "unimplemented trap" or "FPU not installed"). You may well wonder what the heck does all of this mean?
More printer's ink has been wasted answering this question than any other troubleshooting question about the Macintosh. I have seen books devote dozens of pages listing the meaning of almost every imaginable error code number. The information in these tables typically isn't any easier to understand than the error codes themselves. And they almost never contain any useful advice as to what to do if you get a specific error.
The plain truth is that these messages are meant as guides to programmers who routinely get these messages while debugging their software. They have little usefulness for the rest of us. Still, I know you won't be satisfied until you learn more about what these messages mean (and, yes, you can occasionally glean some helpful information from them). So here's my sixty second tutorial on the subject.
First, it helps to know that these codes (or IDs) come in two flavors: positive and negative. Positive error codes most often accompany system crashes or unexpected quits. Negative error codes occur after a variety of less disruptive problems, such as a failure to copy or delete a file.
Positive Error Codes
01 (Bus Error), 02 (Address Error), and 03 (Illegal Instruction) These are the most common errors on 680X0 Macs. To technogeeks, they mean that your Mac either tried to access a memory location that does not exist or execute an improper program instruction. Sometimes, you can prevent further errors of this type by increasing the memory allocation of the application in use at the time of the crash.
Otherwise, the exact cause varies with when the error occurs. If it occurs right as startup begins, it's probably a problem with an externally connected SCSI device (possibly an incompatible disk driver). If it occurs while the extensions are loading during startup, it's probably due to an extension conflict (typically the extension that is trying to load when the crash occurs). If it happens while in the Finder, it's probably due to corrupted system software. If it happens while in any other application, it's probably due to a bug in the application itself.
Depending upon your specific diagnosis, solve these errors by isolating the extension conflict (as described in the "Solving Extensions Conflicts" sidebar), determining the SCSI problem (as described in the "SCSI Troubleshooting" sidebar), updating the disk driver (by using your disk formatting utility), doing a clean reinstall of the system software (see "Reinstalling System Software"), or contacting the vendor for information on patches or updates for the problem software (or if that is impossible, stop using the software altogether).
09, 10 (Unimplemented Trap; No FPU Installed; Bad F-Line Instruction) and 11 (Miscellaneous Hardware Exception) These are the most common errors on Power Macs. The "No FPU Installed" and "Bad F-line Instruction" messages may appear if the software mistakenly calls for a floating point unit (FPU) while running in emulation mode on a Power Mac (as there is no FPU in emulation mode). It also may appear whenever the Mac can't figure out what the actual correct error message should be. The Type 11 error typically occurs anytime a Power Mac is running a native application and an error occurs that would have caused a Type 01�03 error on a 680X0 Mac.
In most cases, if the problem is specific to a single application, it again means there is a bug or corruption in some software. Try the solutions just previously described. Otherwise, for more randomly occurring Type 11 errors, zapping the PRAM (see the "Zapping the PRAM" box) sometimes helps. Defective memory (SIMMs, DIMMs and especially RAM caches) are also a common source of Type 11 errors. To check for this, you'll have to remove the suspected memory cards and see if the errors go away.
25 (Memory Full) and 28 (Stack Ran into Heap) As their name implies, these are often memory related errors. See "Not Enough Memory" for advice.
26 (Bad Program Launch) Probably due to a bug in the application itself or the application is damaged. Try replacing it.
Other positive errors Errors between 04 and 14 and most likely due to bugs in application software. Other errors between 15 and 31 are most often due to a corrupted System file.
Negative Error Codes
If you are lucky (and most often you won't be), these codes may point you in the right direction. For example, if you get a message that says you can't copy a file because of a -34 (disk is full) error, this does suggest why the copy attempt failed. While we can't list every negative error code here (there are hundreds of them), we can supply a list of the common category divisions. File system errors (33�61) are probably the most common category. These include: -39 (unexpected end of file), -41 (memory full) and -42 (too many files open). Several shareware utilities, such as MacErrors, provide a complete list of all error code numbers and their technical names.
0-8: General System Errors
9-21: Color Manager Errors
17-30: I/O System Errors
33-61: File System Errors
64-66: Font Manager Errors
64-90: Disk, Serial Ports, Clock Specific Errors
91-99: AppleTalk Errors
100-102: Scrap Manager Errors
108-117: Storage Allocator Errors
120-127: HFS Errors
126-128: Menu Manager Errors
130-132: HFS Errors (again)
147-158: Color QuickDraw and Color Manager Errors (again)
170-182: ColorSync errors
185-199: Resource Manager Errors (other than I/O)
200-232: Sound Manager Errors
250-261: MIDI Manager Errors
The Blinking Question Mark Disk Icon
Certain to generate heart-fluttering panic in a Mac user is when they turn on their Mac and are greeted with a disk icon that has a blinking question mark inside it. Nothing else happens. The Mac seems to be saying everything on your hard drive is lost and you will never be able to start up your Mac again, so what are you going to do? (blink ?, blink ?).
Fortunately, in most cases, things are not nearly as bad as they seem. What's happening is that the Mac is unable to locate a suitable startup drive, so it doesn't start up. The mystery of course is why your internal hard drive (which is typically the startup drive in question here), which was working just fine as a startup drive moments before, now seems to be on vacation. The answer is usually that some critical data on your drive, called the boot blocks, have gotten messed up so that the Mac no longer recognizes the drive as a startup drive. Here's what to do:
- If you can get your Mac to start from a floppy disk (such as your Disk Tools disk) or a
startup CD-ROM, cross your fingers and hope your hard disk(s) appear on the desktop (it
may take a long time). If not, and if you have SCSIProbe or a similar utility on your
startup disk, check whether it can see and mount your problem drive. If you succeed, back
up any critical files immediately.
- Next, find the System Folder on your startup volume (disk or partition) and drag the
System file out of it. Close the System Folder's window, then drag the System file back
into it. This may seem like pointless fiddling, but in fact moving the System and Finder
will make the Mac update the volume's boot blocks, and that in itself is sometimes enough
to make it bootable again.
- Whether or not your disk mounted, run Disk First Aid. Hopefully, the problem disk will
be listed there. If so, select the disk's icon, click the Repair button and hope for the
best. If Disk First Aid reports damage that it could not fix, start up from a disk that
has Norton Utilities or MacTools Pro installed and use it to check the disk.
- Run your disk formatting utility and update the hard disk's driver.
- Restart your Mac and see if it now starts up okay.
- If it doesn't, try zapping the PRAM (see the "Zapping the PRAM" sidebar).
- If you have external SCSI devices connected to your Mac, check for SCSI-related problems
(see "SCSI Troubleshooting" for more advice).
- Occasionally, the problem may be corrupted system software. To solve this, simply
restart with your system software Installer disk and do a clean reinstall of the system
software (see the "Reinstalling System Software" box).
- If you are still unable to start up, now is the time to panic. You may have a hardware problem and you may be in danger of losing the files on your disk. This may be a good time to call a company, such as DriveSavers (see Appendix D: "Contact Information"), who are expert at resuscitating drives that others have given up for dead.
The Sad Mac and the Chimes of Death (HN/TL)
Rarely, your Mac may halt its startup routine even before it gets a chance to show a blinking question mark. When this happens, your Mac typically plays an unusual startup chime (called the Chimes of Death-although on Power Macs the sound is that of a car crash) and/or you get the dreaded Sad Mac icon. When this happens, it may mean you have a hardware problem (most often with defective or improperly installed RAM). But this is not a foregone conclusion. Before you open your Mac or start calling your service dealer, there are several steps you can take.
1. Try to start up with a startup floppy disk. If this works, make sure you have the correct version of the system software installed on the problem disk. Do a clean reinstall of the software to be safe.
2. If that doesn't work, shut off your Mac and make sure all your cables are connected. If you have external SCSI devices attached, check out "SCSI Troubleshooting" for more advice.
3. Try zapping the PRAM (see the "Zapping the PRAM" sidebar).
4. Reformat any hard drive (internal or external) that you suspect as a possible cause.
5. If nothing has worked, it's almost time to call for help, but if you are even a little comfortable working with hardware, try opening the case of your Mac, touching the metal power supply casing (to discharge your static electricity), and then check to make sure that all cards and SIMMs are seated properly-that is, that they don't seem loose in their slots. Then put everything back together and try again. If you still get the chimes and the Sad Mac, and you know what you are doing, try experimenting with removing individual RAM cards to check if they are defective. If you remove defective RAM (assuming you still have sufficient RAM remaining), the Mac should start successfully. Otherwise, now is the time to call your dealer.
Not Enough Memory
You go to launch an application and you get a message that says: "There is not enough memory to open [your application]." This is one of the most common problems a Mac user faces-especially since application developers seem to double the minimum amount of memory their programs require every time they come out with a new version.
What can you do about this? First, it helps to understand exactly why you got this message and how much more memory you need to get the application to open. To do this, click on the application's Finder icon and select Get Info from the Finder's File menu (Command-I is the shortcut). From here, note the Minimum size listed in the Memory Requirements box. Next, while still in the Finder, select About This Macintosh from the top of the Apple menu. From the box that appears, note the size of the Largest Unused Block. If this number is smaller than the Minimum size, you don't have enough memory to open the application. What to do next depends upon how much more memory you need and what you currently have running on your Mac. Here are some guidelines that should get you through most memory hassles:
- Quit all open applications. Close all open Finder windows. Actually, the alert message
you get, indicating a lack of available memory, probably advises you to do this. So you
shouldn't need me to tell you. Still, it's good advice and worth emphasizing. It frees up
additional memory, which may be all you need to open that pesky application. It should
also resolve problems with memory fragmentation (where unused memory is divided
into small chunks rather than one large one).
- If you still can't get the program to open, go back to the About This Macintosh window
and sum the Largest Unused Block and the System Software allocations. They should add up
to approximately the same number as the Total Memory. If not, you may have a memory
leak (where an application does not release its memory allocation after you quit the
program). Programs that make use of shared library extensions may result in a
similar problem. Whatever the cause, the surest way to fix it is quite simple: restart. If
that seems too time-consuming, you can try a Force Quit (press Command-Option-Escape).
This usually works too, although it may leave your Mac in a state that is more prone to
system freezes and crashes. Another alternative is to try to free up memory via freeware
utility such as Mac OS Purge.
- If you are still stuck, you can reduce the amount of memory used by the system software
by starting up with all non-essential extensions disabled. To start with all
extensions off, simply restart by holding down the Shift key. Of course, you may want (or
even need) to keep some extensions enabled in order to use a memory hungry application
(RAM Doubler is an obvious example here). Here's another place where an extensions manager
(see "Extensions Managers," earlier in this chapter) comes in real handy. You
can make a minimal extensions set and shift to it for just these sorts of occasions.
However, to just load RAM Doubler without any other extensions, hold down Shift-Option
keys at startup.
- Still not successful? Go to the Memory control panel. Make sure 32-bit addressing is
turned on (on Power Macs you don't have this option; it is always on). Reducing the size
of the disk cache also frees up extra RAM, but unless you have it set quite high, this is
unlikely to be a critical factor. You'll have to restart after making these changes.
- If all of this fails, your remaining option is to increase the total amount of memory you have available. If you are using System 7, you can do this by turning on virtual memory from the Memory control panel (though there are some potential downsides to doing this, including the fact that some programs will not work with virtual memory on, as explained in "Should You Ever Turn Virtual Memory Off?"). Otherwise, go out and get Connectix's RAM Doubler (it works on all PowerPC, 68040 and 68030 Macs). Or, if you can afford it, simply buy more memory and install it in your Mac. (See Chapter 4 for more on virtual memory and RAM Doubler).
By the way, turning on virtual memory (or using RAM Doubler, which has the same effect) is especially helpful if you have a Power Mac. Turning on virtual memory, to even as little as 1MB, not only gives you more memory, but dramatically reduces the amount of memory needed by all applications that are "Power Mac native." You can tell that an application is in native code by opening its Get Info window. At the bottom a note will indicate exactly how much memory is saved by turning on virtual memory or RAM Doubler. Non-native programs do not have this note.
If you are fortunate enough to have the memory to spare, go to the Get Info window of your commonly used applications and increase their Suggested Size by as much as 50 percent. This will usually result in your applications running faster, make them less likely to cause system freezes or crashes, and will allow you to open a greater number and/or larger sized documents from within each application (though it also means you will be more limited in how many applications you can have open at one time). As a partial check as to how likely this is to be helpful, go back to the About This Macintosh window when a troublesome application is open. Pay special attention to the bars next to each application listed: The length of the bar represents the size of the program's memory partition; the darker, filled-in section represents what it is actually using at that moment. If it is almost full, it is a good sign that increasing its memory allocation would be helpful. (Don't worry if the bar representing the System Software is almost full; this is okay.)
Documents That Won't Open
Another all too common problem is when you double-click a document icon to open it from the Finder and you get a message saying that the document would not open because the "creating application could not be found." Most of the time, the document is just fine. Run through the following checklist, and you will almost certainly succeed in opening it:
- If this is a document that you created yourself, presumably the creating application is
on your disk somewhere. If it isn't, that's your problem right there.
- If the creating application is on the disk but the document still doesn't open,
try opening it from within the application itself, via its Open dialog box. As a possible
long term solution here, you might try rebuilding the desktop (see "Desktop Icon
Problems"). Now the document will probably open from the Finder.
- In the remaining cases, you are probably working with a document created by someone else
(maybe you downloaded it from an online service) and you don't have the needed creating
application. Not to worry. If the file is a plain text file, you may be able to open it in
TeachText or SimpleText. In fact, the alert message you get when the document refuses to
open may even ask if you want to try this. Go ahead. Unfortunately, if the file is more
than 32K, it still won't open.
- Otherwise, most word processors can open a variety of text file formats. Claris
applications, in particular, include special files (called XTND files) that are located in
the Claris folder in the System Folder, that allow Claris applications to open almost any
type of document. The simplest way to test this is to drag the document's icon to the
application's icon. Otherwise, you'll have to import the file from within the application,
typically from the application's Open dialog box.
- Macintosh Easy Open, PC Exchange and MacLink Plus software (all included with System
7.5) can also help to open foreign files (although Macintosh Easy Open causes so many
other problems that I never use it).
- Make sure you are not trying to open a compressed or encoded file. Use a utility such as
StuffIt Expander to check for this.
- If you are still having trouble opening a graphics, sound, or movie file, it is probably because the file is in some special format that none of your applications can understand. This is often the case for files that you download from online services or that you try to view on the World Wide Web. To solve this, you could get shareware applications that are designed to solve this problem. For example, programs like JPEGView or Sparkle are useful for graphics and movies. Commercial programs such as DeBabelizer and Photoshop are also good. SoundApp and SoundMachine are particularly good for opening sound files.
Can't Empty the Trash
The Trash can is bulging, but when you go to empty it, it refuses to cooperate. Calling your local sanitation department won't help you. However, one of the following solutions is almost certain to fix this glitch.
- If the problem is that the file is simply locked, the Macintosh informs you of this when
you try to delete it. It should also suggest the simplest solution: hold down the Option
key when you select to empty the Trash.
- If a message says that the file/folder can't be deleted because there is not enough
memory to complete the operation, just restart your Mac and try deleting again. It will
succeed.
- If a message says that the file/folder can't be deleted because it is "in
use," quit all your open applications and try deleting again. If this fails, create a
dummy file in another location on your disk and give it the same name as the problem file.
Now try to replace the problem file. If it succeeds, now try to delete the replaced file.
Otherwise, restart and try again.
- If even this fails, start up with another startup disk and try to delete the file.
- Whether or not you finally succeed in deleting the file/folder, you may still have
underlying corruption of your disk's directory, which is the underlying cause of
the problem. Left alone, the problem may return or get worse. To fix things, run Disk
First Aid from an emergency startup disk and make repairs as needed. If you have Norton
Disk Doctor or MacTools Pro's Disk Fix, use them as well.
- If none of the preceding steps have worked, you'll have to reformat the disk.
When Programs Don't Work
Basically, this is a catch-all category that covers those occasions when some command or some feature of a program doesn't work the way that it should. To be honest, there are dozens of possible explanations for why this might happen. Still, most of the time the following few steps will get you to a cure:
- Quit the problem program. If your problem program is a control panel, also restart the
Mac with the control panel disabled.
- Go to the Preferences Folder of the System Folder and locate the program's Preferences
file. It's almost always a file that has the name of the program as part of its name (such
as StuffIt Deluxe Prefs for StuffIt Deluxe). Delete the preferences file.
- Restart as normal. When you next use the program, it will re-create a new Preferences
file. Ideally, your problem will now be gone. However, you may have to reset any changes
you made to the program's default preference settings.
- If deleting the Preferences file did nothing, delete the entire application software.
Reinstall it from its original disks.
- If you still have no success, check for extension conflicts (see the "Solving
Extension Conflicts" sidebar).
- Otherwise, there is probably some bug in the program you are using. Contact the vendor for assistance. In the meantime, although not an ideal permanent cure, turning off one or more features of Apple's system software can sometimes act as a work-around. The most common culprits here are: Virtual Memory, Modern Memory Manager, AppleTalk and File Sharing.
Corrupted Files (HN/TL)
Occasionally, when you try to open a document file, you may get a message that it is corrupted or damaged or that a "disk error" has occurred. Don't despair. You may still be able to save the contents of the file. (For corrupted applications, just trash and reinstall them.)
- Duplicate the file in the Finder (select the file and press Command-D) and try to open
the copy.
- If the file in question is a Microsoft Word or Excel file, the FileFix module from
MacTools Pro may be able to fix it. Many databases and some other applications come with
special utilities to repair damaged files.
- CanOpener can extract text, PICT images, icons, and sounds from files of almost any
format, including from many damaged files. The recovered data may not look the way it did
in its native application, but at least you can recover some of its main components.
Otherwise, Norton Utilities' Disk Doctor or MacTools Pro's DiskFix may be able to recover
the file.
- If the file is on a floppy disk, you might first try to copy the entire disk, using the
copy utilities that come with MacTools or Norton Utilities. Then try to open the file on
the newly copied disk. If this succeeds, discard the problem disk; it is probably damaged.
- If the damaged file is on a hard disk, check it for media damage (bad blocks) with Norton Utilities, MacTools Pro, or your disk formatting utility. If damage is found, you will either have to lock out the block (to prevent data from being written there) or reformat the entire disk (check with your utility's documentation for more help).
Desktop Icon Problems (TL/HN)
If some of your files have lost their usual desktop icons in favor of those boring generic document and application icons, or if you double-click on a document icon and get a message that says the application that created it can't be found even though you know it's around, it's probably time to rebuild the desktop-the invisible files in which the Mac stores icons and comments associated with files, including the application to be launched when a document is double-clicked.
- Even before rebuilding the desktop, select Get Info for the file and then close the Get
Info window. Sometimes this alone does the trick, saving you the trouble of a rebuild.
- Otherwise rebuild your desktop. This fixes and updates special invisible Desktop files
that are used to keep track of all the icons and file and folder location information. To
do this, restart and hold down the Command-Option keys until you get a message asking
whether you want to rebuild the desktop. Say OK. Alternatively, you can use TechTool to
rebuild the desktop (see "TechTool," earlier in this chapter). In either case,
your custom icons should now be restored (except those for documents created by
applications not presently installed on any mounted volumes).
- To be extra safe, Apple recommends that you rebuild the desktop with Extensions Off. To
do this, hold down the Shift key at startup until the words "Extensions Off"
appear; then press the Command-Option keys.
- If you have several hard disks or partitions that appear when you start up, the Mac will
ask you about rebuilding the desktop for each volume in succession. True, your Mac has
only one desktop, but every disk or partition has its own Desktop files. Rebuild all
volumes that are giving you trouble.
- One of the longest standing complaints of the Mac operating system is that rebuilding
the Desktop erases any text in the Comments boxes of Get Info windows. If preserving these
comments is important to you, several utilities (such as CommentKeeper and Norton
Utilities) can do this. However, the happy news is that with System 7.5.3, the system
software finally preserves Comments text after a standard desktop rebuild.
- If you have just one or two files that seem resistant to all the previous methods, try
this almost never-fail technique: Launch Norton Utilities' Disk Doctor. Select the
"Add File To Desktop" command from the Tools menu and select the problem file.
Restart when you are done. The shareware utility Save A BNDL works similarly.
- Don't place icons on your desktop (not in any folder) that are for files located on
volumes other than your startup volume. Otherwise, they may appear as generic icons.
- If none of the preceding has worked, and especially if you also have trouble getting the document to open, the document itself or the disk's directory may be corrupted in some way. Use Norton Utilities or MacTools Pro to make any needed repairs.
The Printer Won't Print
When your printer mysteriously refuses to cough up your output, the fault almost always lies with the Macintosh, not with the printer.
- Make sure your printer is on and its cable is connected to your Mac. For a laser
printer, give it about a minute or so to warm up before trying to print. If you have a
problem here, you will get an alert message that asks if you want to try printing again.
If so, after making sure everything is ready, go ahead and select "Try again."
It should work.
- For AppleTalk connected printers, make sure AppleTalk is turned on. In most cases, you
turn this on from the Chooser or the AppleTalk control panel. If you have a Mac that uses
a Control Strip, you can turn it on from there.
- If you have an AppleTalk printer and a PCI Power Mac or other model that uses the new
AppleTalk control panel, make sure that the control panel's selected port (printer or
modem) is the same one that your printer cable is connected to. For other Macs, connect
the printer only to the printer port.
- Go to the Chooser and select the printer driver for your printer. If the printer driver
for your printer should somehow not be in the Chooser's window, check if it got moved to
the "Extensions (disabled)" folder. If so, move it back to the Extensions
folder. Otherwise, you'll probably have to reinstall the printer software. For AppleTalk
printers, your printer's name should appear in the Chooser window after you select the
driver. Click on the name.
- If you are trying to connect to a printer via PrinterShare, make sure that both the
printer and the Mac that is connected to the printer are on. Then check that the
PrinterShare extension is installed and that PrinterShare has been turned on from the
Chooser's Setup options.
- If you are using LaserWriter 8.x, and everything else you have tried has failed, go to
the Preferences folder, locate the LaserWriter 8 Prefs file and delete it. Now go back to
the Chooser and select Setup for the printer.
- With computers running Open Transport, starting up with extensions off will prevent you
from running any AppleTalk-connected printer (such as most LaserWriters!!). If you try to
select such a printer from the Chooser, you will get an error message saying that "The
printer port is in use. AppleTalk cannot be made active now." You need the Open
Transport extensions re-enabled in order to print.
- If you start up with extensions off and you use the desktop printer extensions
(see Chapter 21), the desktop printer icons on the desktop will appear with X's over them.
You can still print, but you don't have access to the special desktop printer features.
- Similarly, if you have installed QuickDraw GX, starting up with extensions off disables
it.
- Working with PowerBooks that have only one serial port can be a bit of a pain,
especially if you also have an external modem. For example, to print to an AppleTalk
connected printer, you have to turn AppleTalk on. To use an external modem, you have to
turn AppleTalk off again. For problems with non-AppleTalk printers and/or with internal
modems (such as Apple's Express Modem), check the documentation that came with your
printer and your modem. Exactly what to do keeps changing as software gets upgraded.
- Zapping the PRAM sometimes help solve these sort of printing problems. Try it.
- If all of the previous steps still fails to get your Mac to print, you may have corrupted printer software. Reinstall the software and try again. (For more troubleshooting advice on printing, see Chapter 21.)
Unreadable Floppy Disks
If you insert a floppy disk and the Mac says it is unreadable and offers you the chance to initialize it, don't panic-and don't initialize it. As long as you don't erase the data on the disk, the odds are generally good that you can recover the data, even if the disk itself turns out to be unsalvageable.
- Eject the disk. If it isn't already write-protected, do so now (slide the plastic tab on
the disk until you can see through the hole). Once it's protected, try inserting it in
another Mac (if you have one available)-often the alignment of the heads in two floppy
drives is just different enough to make a disk that's unreadable in one drive readable in
another. If the disk was last used in a Mac other than yours, try that drive in particular
if it's nearby. If another drive can read the data, copy the files to the hard drive and
then to a new floppy.
- Some newer models of Mac have trouble reading mass-produced 800K disks. If this happens,
and you don't have another Mac around that can read the disk, starting up with extensions
off or zapping the PRAM may solve the immediate problem.
- To read PC-formatted disks, make sure PC Exchange is installed (it comes with System
7.5).
- If the unreadable disk is an HD (1.44MB) disk that you are inserting into an old 800K
drive (such as on a Mac Plus), the drive can't read the disk. You will need to use a newer
SuperDrive floppy disk drive (used on all current Mac models).
- Otherwise, it's likely that the disk really is damaged. If you want to try to recover
data from the disk, your best bet is to first make a copy of the disk using Norton
Utilities' Floppier or MacTools Pro's FastCopy. The copied disk will
probably mount now with most or all files on it accessible. Copy the files to your hard
drive. If the copied floppy disk is also unreadable, or you still can't locate or open a
particular file, try using file recovery features of Norton Utilities or MacTools Pro. In
any case, when you are done with your recovery, discard the unreadable disk. Don't bother
trying to reformat it and use it again. It's not worth the risk.
- Occasionally, a floppy disk is unreadable because the floppy disk drive itself is dirty or malfunctioning. Disk cleaning kits manufactured by 3M (available separately or as part of MicroMat's DriveTech software) may fix this. From my experience, this will only rarely help, but it's cheaper to try this first than to take your drive in for an unneeded repair.
Floppy Disk and CD-ROM Disc Jams
You selected the Eject and/or Put Away commands but your disk refuses to budge. Try each of these in turn until one works.
- Quit all open applications. Try again to eject the disk, typically by dragging the disk
icon to the Trash icon.
- Turn off file sharing (especially if it is a CD-ROM you are trying to eject). Try again
to eject the disk. (Turning off file sharing should not be necessary if you are using
System 7.5.1 or later, but try it anyway).
- For floppy disks, press Vommand-Shift-1.
- Restart and hold down the mouse button. Wait for the disk to eject.
- For CD-ROMs, restart and immediately press the drive's eject button. Note that this
button will not eject a disk at any other time. Normally, the button only opens the tray
when there is no disc in it.
- For CD-ROMs, if you started up with extensions off and got an ID=-50 error when trying
to eject the disk, restart with extensions on. The disk should now eject normally.
- If all else has failed, manually eject the floppy disk or CD by inserting an unbent paper clip into the hole adjacent to the drive and pushing in gently. If it only comes partially out when trying this, you can gently pull it out the rest of the way. But don't try to force it too much or you may do more damage. If it seems hopelessly stuck, take the drive in for repair.
Some floppy disk jams can be caused by a floppy disk with a bent metal shutter or a partially unglued label. Check for these problems before inserting the disk.
Dealing With Hardware Problems (LL)
Okay, so not all your problems will turn out to be due to software. Sometimes, it really is a hardware problem. Here are some tell-tale signs that the insides of your Mac may need rehabilitation and what to do when disaster strikes.
No Sign of Life
You should hear your Mac's startup chimes and hard drive running when you start up your Mac. You should also see the green power light come on. If you see no sign of life at all, try plugging your Mac into a different surge protection device or wall outlet. Check if the surge protector is off, or if your wall outlet's fuse is out. Consider swapping power cables to see if this helps your Mac startup. If you have Mac peripherals, such as a monitor or hard drive, turn them on to see if they are able to receive power successfully. Check for disconnected or incorrectly connected cables to all components of your system. Doing all this will help isolate whether the problem is just with your Mac (a bad motherboard, power supply or hard drive), with your power connection (to the wall outlet or surge protector) or perhaps not even a hardware problem at all.
Isolating Dysfunctional Hardware
If you have largely ruled out software as the cause for your problem, you need to isolate which part of your Mac's hardware is not functioning. If your motherboard is the main problem, you naturally will not be able to do this because you will be unable to start up at all. However, if your power supply, hard drive, monitor and motherboard are able to start up your Mac, chances are you have enough of a computer functioning to help you isolate other dysfunctional hardware connected to your Mac.
Basic hardware components which may have failed include the following: CD, floppy, clock/battery, DRAM, display card, network ports or connecting cables and transceivers, serial port. Generally, a hardware failure will be symptomatic to the functionality you lose. For example, if you have your CD software properly installed, but the CD cannot be read by the drive, there's a good chance you may need to clean your CD-ROM drive, or have it serviced. For Macs which have been running for a few years, it is common for the battery (located on the motherboard) to run out of juice. Symptoms can include incorrect clock times, the clock not remembering the time you input, or other clock-related problems.
Replacing Internal Bad Parts
If a part is removable from the Mac's motherboard (such as DRAM or cards), you can buy a replacement from a Mac vendor. Batteries for the motherboard can be found or ordered at Radio Shack. Removing and installing some parts may be difficult, especially if you are not familiar with electronics or handling computer hardware (for example, in some Mac models, the motherboard needs to be removed from the Macintosh case before the part can be replaced). [For peripheral components other than the Mac itself, it rarely if ever pays to try to open them up at all-TL]
If a damaged part cannot be removed from the motherboard or is otherwise inaccessible, you'll probably need to go to a Apple certified repair shop. If the Mac or other Apple component is still under warranty, contact Apple at (800) SOS-APPL. For third-party products, contact the vendor directly.
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Copyright � 1996, 1997 by Ted Landau. All rights reserved.
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