Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with osx and imac

Sharing Is Caring?

murtagh — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 17:54:25 -0800

Sharing a printer between an iMac (with printer driver installed) and a Windows laptop without installing any drivers on the laptop: can it be done? I have an iMac running OS X Leopard. My sister is using her work laptop. Unfortunately, her company has disallowed (blocked) installation of any new software on the laptop, which includes printer drivers. We need to share the printer between the iMac and the laptop. The iMac, to which the printer is connected, has the printer drivers installed.

Can the printer be shared between the iMac and the laptop without installing any drivers on the laptop?

The printer is a Canon Pixma MP145.

Please tell me this is possible (or any possible alternatives). Any help would be greatly appreciated!

A real Apple TV.

malaprohibita — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:14:10 -0800

Is it crazy and/or overkill to consider getting a 27 inch imac to replace my tv? I have a 10 year old 27 inch Sony CRT that still works well, but I'm running into its limits for adding peripherals (DVD player, xbox, etc.). I know I can probably get a mac mini or other small form factor pc plus an HDTV for less, but I'm really intrigued by the imac's possibilities. What little tv watching I do is usually Hulu, streaming Netflix, and dvds. I am not interested in Blu-Ray capabilities, as I see the format becoming obsolete sooner rather than later.

Pros:
--2560 x 1440 resolution led lcd.
--can add a tv tuner via usb if I really wanted to.
--a built-in computer and dvd player (convergence!)

Cons:
--may not be able to connect the xbox without some kind of adapter voodoo (although Crossover+Steam is possible).
--there are some issues reported regarding flash playback( = Hulu problems), which may be indicative of other system issues.
--diy repairs and upgrades may be difficult.

I don't really need a bigger display. My wife and I will be sitting > 8ft away, but not by much, and any HD resolution will be better than what I have now.

I'm looking forward to your pros, cons, and even any alternatives you might have.

How do I rescue files from an internal drive when OS X won't boot?

wheat — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 22:26:26 -0800

OS X won't boot. Time Machine stopped working at noon. How can I nab some files before I reinstall Leopard? Due, I think, to my son playing with the power strip one too many times, my iMac will not boot. I can boot from the Leopard system disc, and I've run Disk Utility. It repaired problems, but it still won't boot.

I run Time Machine, so I'm willing to restore from that and/or reinstall Leopard. But I got a lot done today and would like to copy some PDFs I crated today. The last Time Machine backup was at noon. But I worked until five. I don't know why Time Machine stopped backing up.

When I use the "burn" option in Disk Utility, I can see the files I created, including the ones that are not in the most recent Time Machine backup. Is there a way to get them? This is my only Mac, so target disk mode isn't an option. What should I try?

Please help resurrect my iMac?

mordecai — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 07:52:25 -0800

My iMac's seemingly gone kaput :( I'm getting a flashing folder icon with a question mark on bootup. Please help me save my iMac? It all started when my iMac hung. I got the spinning beach ball of death and I couldn't do anything except do a restart. And then, this flashing folder with a question mark came up and it refuses to boot into the OS.

I tried connecting my iMac to my Macbook via firewire target mode and I can access the drive, so I'm guessing it's not a hard drive problem.

I searched for solutions online and they mostly require me to do a clean install of Leopard, but the thing is, my Superdrive on my iMac is dead. I tried to install the OS via firewire target mode using my Macbook, but the Install Disc doesn't let me install the OS on the drive. My iMac's drive doesn't show up there.

I'm kinda in a fix here. I don't know what to do :( Please help?

Looking for a printer without the problems of finicky ink.

blueberry — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 21:36:09 -0800

[MomFilter] Looking for a reasonably cheap, reliable printer (for printing text) for an iMac. Leaning towards laser as the experiences with inkjets have been that bouts of little use lead to still full, yet dry and thus worthless ink cartridges. Looking for a printer for my Mom's iMac. She is wanting to print up a bunch of stories she has written, so the printer will only be used for text.
(No need for color, an attached scanner, or anything else)

She's had two cheap inkjets in the past where they were cheap to buy, but then you got gouged on the ink cartridges. These printers would up being a bit like "disposables" or white elephants—either getting gummed up after a while, or she'd not print anything for a month or two by which time the ink would have dried up or otherwise stopped working.

Fellow MeFites, do you own or know of any reasonably cheap (both pre- and post-sale), reliable b/w laser printers that you can recommend out there? Also, am I correct in guessing that laser toner has a longer "shelf life"?

Or, if lasers are too spendy, do you own or can you otherwise recommend an über-reliable inkjet that, say, you can just buy black ink for, and you've never had gum up or dry up on you?

Thanks all!

Cookies and Apple Juice

trueluk — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 13:47:58 -0800

I've been debating with myself for the last week or so about which Mac I should buy and when I should buy it. My brain could use a break from the back and forth, and that's why I'm asking for help. I recently sold my Asus laptop (offer was too good to refuse), and I've been computer-less now for about two weeks. I bought the Asus in December 2008, and during the six months I owned it, I rarely took it out of the house. This is partly due to the fact that I'm a programmer, work on a computer all day at work, and often have free time while there to do my 'browsing.' I don't have a current desktop computer, so anything I buy will be my main computer.

I like the idea of portability, but with a $2500 laptop I can't imagine I'd let myself take it out of the house during the first 6-12 months out of fear of breaking it.

I mention the MacBook Pro for $2,500 because the RAM is upgradable to 8gb in that model, and not in the $2,000 2.4ghz model. However, besides that fact, there is no other reason that I can think of for me to buy the $2,500 model (the extra vram is useless, minimal upgrade in processor speed, starts with 4gb RAM but I can upgrade the 2.4ghz model cheaply).

I've done a lot of thinking and have concluded that I could buy a 24" iMac (2.93ghz, 4gb ram, 512mb vram in the ATI card) for just over $1,800. And then also buy the smaller, 13" MacBook for just over a grand in a month or two if I feel like I need the portability. Or, I could buy a MacBook Pro now, and then buy an external display for that down the road if I feel like I need the screen space and am using the computer mostly at home. Those two options are practically identical in price when buying both components, however, in the first I'd have two computers, and in the second I'd have only one. I've also thought about buying a cheap netbook instead of a MacBook with the iMac, and that seems to make more sense financially.

The thing is though, money isn't an issue. But I am extremely cheap, and have a hard time making myself spend money in excess. And I have a history of being incredibly indecisive. Can anyone help me out here?

Oh, and should I wait until after the WWDC? What's the chance of Snow Leopard being released and for its distribution to start immediately? I don't want to buy a new computer and then have to upgrade the OS if I can help it.

Disk Utility error: false alarm, or bad omen?

so_necessary — Sat, 02 May 2009 16:26:36 -0800

In OS X on my iMac, Disk Utility asserts that my main, internal hard drive is "about to fail" and has been asserting this for several months. But my computer is running just fine... should I worry? The S.M.A.R.T status is failed, and the various helpful sounding options, like First Aid or Verify, are all unclickably greyed out. Using Boot Camp and HD Tune under windows, I can see the "bad" attribute is:

ID (01) Raw Read Error Rate
Current: 11
Worst: 1
Threshold: 51
Data: 59669
Status: Failed

A different utility just names the fields slightly differently...

1, Raw Read Error Rate
Raw value: 59699
Status: FAIL
Value: 11
Worst: 1
Threshold: 51

All the ther attributes (things like "seek error rate" and "spin up time" and stuff) are normal.

But my computer is running just fine. I can't work out if this is just some freaky one-time error that happened to the hard drive once which it won't forget about, reflects an existing (if seemingly benign) state of affairs, or is a sign of impending doom. This error has been present for several months now, perhaps even from The Beginning - the iMac is only 6 - 8 months old. The Man From Apple suggested I format my entire drive but that sounds pretty tedious if I don't really need to do anything / insufficient if my hard drive is actually about to die from mechanical failure.

Obviously I'd love for you all to tell me how I can safely ignore this, and even how I might be able to disabuse Disk Utility of the notion that things are messed up. On the other hand, if you think there might be trouble ahead, then do snap me out of my complacency and I'll promise not to shoot the messenger.

MobileMe ftw

mds35 — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 20:46:48 -0800

Make me love MobileMe. How do YOU use it? I'm half-way through a 60 day free trial of MobileMe. So far I'm not really impressed. Convince me to stay with it. Tell me why I need it.

I tried it not because I see any need but because I was curious. I have a very established Flickr page that I am not unhappy with in the least. I have my own domain and know how to use FTP so when I need to move large files around, I have a way (although MM does make it pretty easy).
I can sync contacts and calendars between my iPhone with my iMac using iTunes (and have yet to successfully do so using MobileMe--very buggy or disabled?). I have no need/desire to sync my personal machines with my box at work.

I think I don't need this, but I'm very curious to see whether & how any of you tech-savvy folks have put MM to good use.

Got them low down dirty Kernel panic blues

cosmicbandito — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 21:55:19 -0800

Mac OS X kernel panic shortly after boot on G4 iMac. How do I troubleshoot this? Every time I boot my G4, it kernel panics after about 5 minutes. Doesn't seem to matter what's running. I tried reading the kernel panic log, but don't see anything helpful. What's the best way to go about getting this fixed? I'm a Mac noob, but am good with Windows and reasonably proficient with *nix and command line stuff.

Windows XP-Boot Camp-File Checking nonsense

mdonley — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 17:54:38 -0800

We are having a problem with hours-long file checks when booting into Windows XP (Home Edition, with SP2) via Boot Camp on an iMac running Leopard. Here's what happens when we restart the computer and seek to go into Windows:

- Restart
- Hold down Option key
- Choose Windows XP image
- Windows XP "loading" screen appears (with progress bar moving)
- Blue DOS-ish screen asking if we want to perform a file check to weed out corrupted files (I don't have the exact text), with the prompt to skip it by pressing any key
- Sometimes pressing the key works and XP finishes loading and the desktop appears...
- But sometimes it doesn't and we wait anywhere from 6 to 12 hours for the thing to finally get to the desktop!
- During the interminable wait, a tally of files and a percentage-complete figure are displayed on the screen, still in blue DOS-ish mode.

Some other details which might be helpful:

- This problem didn't occur for the first few weeks we had the computer (which we obtained last year);
- We have wiped the partition and reinstalled XP once, which didn't seem to help;
- The Windows side of things is used to play a MMORPG, Final Fantasy XI, the vast majority of the time, and might have some sort of third-party software installed, while the Mac side is more productivity-oriented;
- We have all the original installation stuff for both OS X and XP but would prefer to not lose all our data;
- The word "FAT32" seems to figure prominently in the blue-screened file checks and I'm not sure why after reading the Wikipedia page on FAT, unless this is some sort of defragmenting thing (though that may be a red herring).

Finally, this computer is mostly manned by a teenager (*points accusingly at non-MeFite brother*) who's heavy on the gaming and light on the technical details of how it all works; rare excursions into the brother's lair have been my only encounters with the problem. We use the computer for games, internet surfing, and light office stuff, so we haven't really tinkered under the hood; any step-by-step/simple explanations or advice you can offer would be fabulous.

If you can help us solve this we will, no joke, send you (edible) cookies.

Thanks!

What are the Mac Software Must Haves

arniec — Thu, 29 May 2008 11:00:21 -0800

I just switched to Macs and I was a Windows power user (video editing, audio editing, scanning, graphic design, presentations, flowcharting, spreadsheets, databases, web design). What software can I absolutely not live without for the Mac? Being a fan of Open Source software (and excessively cheap) I'd prefer open source apps when possible.

unlocking the magic box

kerning — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 21:21:42 -0800

my work threw out an old g4 imac (the dome with the flat-panel type) and i took it home (with their permission). unfortunately, when i boot it up, the only option it gives me is to sign in under the admin, and i don't know that password. our IT guy wasn't too much help. how can i reset this imac? the IT guy seems reluctant to give me the pw, which i can understand. he's also pretty busy, so i can't really bring it in and ask him to do anything to it. i mean, i got it for free. :)

i have an os X install disk from my old g3 ibook (it's just 10.1). i'm also using a windows keyboard with it. i don't want to spend a lot of money trying to get this to work -- we're only using it until april, when we get our tax returns back and we can go buy a new imac. i tried holding down the "c" key while restarting with the os X install disk in the drive, but it didn't boot from the install disk like it's supposed to. what other options do i have? i can't even get past the login screen!

You ever do a google search for "iMac fan"? Yeah. Pointless.

sourwookie — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 00:15:26 -0800

So I just got the newest iMac today (the one that was announced last week). After 4 hours or so of use the fan has kicked on in a most noisy way and it won't shut down. Restarting does nothing. Take time to let it cool. Restart. Just more fan. So...anyone got a "here-n-now" fix or do I take it back to the store in the morning?

Is a new iMac enough for a graphic designer?

jeff-o-matic — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 12:41:24 -0800

New iMac: Good enough for a graphic designer? Convince me it isn't. I'm an art director/graphic designer at a mid-size ad agency. We use Macs at the office, and I'd like to be able to sometimes take home work for myself so I'm not always stuck doing it at work. Right now at home, I have an old G4 Powerbook that I use for surfing the web and as a music player. Definitely too small and unworthy to use for the pro that I am now.

I'd primarily use it to do Photoshop work and Indesign layouts. The kind of Photoshop I do is mostly for comps, so no crazy huge files or detailed retouching work. Indesign would be used to do storyboards, and sometimes collateral stuff, though I'd like to be able to do more than just that. Realize that I'm not looking to set up a full-time professional graphic design office at home- I just want to be able to do work there, and also be able to put my book together to look for new work. I'd also be using it to do stuff for my wife's business... Signage and card layout, simple elements for web design (I don't know interactive). I also want something that will be powerful enough to not be outdated in a couple years.

So I'm looking at the new crop of iMacs. Considering what I was looking to (possibly, down the road) spend on a G5 tower and separate monitor, these seem like a great choice. I'd be willing to shell out for the 24" model, probably just the 2.4GHz and max out the RAM to 4GB. Throw in a wireless keyboard and the AppleCare plan, it puts me at $2948. I get a 10% deal on macs through work, so it'd be around $2600.

Yeah I'll have to shell out a load of cash for Adobe CS3, but I was going to anyway.

Plus, I can set it up in our spare bedroom and not take up much space. I can connect wirelessly to the net, another minor plus. I'd rather buy a couple portable drives to take stuff back and forth, so I don't need more storage.

What am I unsure of? For one thing, the graphics card. I don't really know much about these in general. It comes with an ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO with 256MB of GDDR3 memory. I copied and pasted that out of their website. I don't know what it means or how it would affect what I need it to do.

Also, should I max out the processor as well, or just go with the 2.4GhHz?

What else am I missing? Is there any reason this wouldn't be a smart choice for me? Will it still be good to use a few years from now? To maybe freelance from if I lost my job? To put my book together to find a new job?

I don't want to cheap out on a computer and I don't want to just get by. But like I said, I don't need to pump out massive quantities of work on it either.

Thanks for your insights and replies. If I think of other questions about this, I'll post them here.

Quick fix iMac as monitor for another Apple.

Bengston — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 13:16:32 -0800

Is there any way that I can easily use my iMac Desktop (Current Intel Model) monitor as a second or primary monitor for my Powerbook using either the wireless network or a monitor adapter? Would using some sort of remote desktop allow me to utilize all the extra monitor space? I just want to use some software that I have on my 12" Powerbook on my friends much larger monitor that is unfortunately also attached to his iMac. Thanks.

A tough drive to mount . . .

drewcopeland — Sat, 30 Sep 2006 12:12:27 -0800

Every time I boot up my Intel Imac, I have to unplug and then replug my external hard drive in order for it to mount. It's a 160GB Seagate SATA internal that I put in an iRocks 3.5 enclosure (USB). When I open up Disk Utility, the drive is not displayed in the left column (until I unplug, then plug). It's just storage for my EyeTV files, but still annoying to have to do that every time. Ideas?

To buy or not to buy - even what to buy!

dance — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 07:01:30 -0800

Should I stick with my last July G4 iBook, buy a MacBook or an iMac or wait for untold delights? I'm thinking that now my iBook is a year old it might be an idea to sell it and move on to pastures more powerful. I was thinking of a MacBook, or even ditching the portable form factor now my lifestyle has changed and going for an iMac. Does anyone have any thoughts or advice? And should I be doing this now - is there something in the pipeline I should be waiting for?

Multiple Mac Migration

j-dawg — Fri, 14 Jul 2006 05:41:32 -0800

Is it possible/advisable/etc. to use Migration Assistant to migrate data to one Mac from more than one Mac? Here's my situation: I recently got a snazzy new laptop for work, and it seems silly to keep my personal laptop. So, I'm upgrading my home system to a new iMac Intel, and selling my existing Powerbook G4 and iMac G4.

As part of this process, I'll be consolidating files and applications from my existing personal machines onto the new iMac. What I want to know is if there's any downside to using Migration Assistant to move files from both computers? (What I'd REALLY like to do is have Migration Assistant automatically consolodate users, but I assume that's not supported... on the other hand there may be third-party tools that do this that I haven't found.)

Looking at Migration Assistant, I can't find any reason why this isn't possible... but I thought there might be folks out there who has tried this before and could advise me of any potential boondoggles or better ideas.

Thanks!

Any advice on reviving an iMac that stalls on bootup?

pzarquon — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 13:14:48 -0800

Any advice on reviving an iMac that stalls on bootup? I hit the knowledge base, chatted with a tech, ran various tests and tried the basic tricks, but still, no go. I'm not a Mac/OSX expert, but knew well enough to tap the Apple knowledge base (I reset the SMU, zapped PRAM, attempted a safe mode boot), chatted live with an Apple tech named Farida with a moderate grasp of English (we used the install disk to verify the disk, then run the extended hardware test, which took an hour, during which the tech abandoned me!), and I ultimately left my iMac "booting" overnight in the hopes that it'd eventually come through... but still, no go.

I have a 17" iMac G5 (Ambient Light Sensor). Basically, I get the startup chord, the Apple logo, then the spinning pinwheel... and that's it. The pinwheel spins and spins and spins, and nothing else. Nothing immediately preceded this problem... the iMac worked fine in the morning, I shut down, went to work, but when I came home, nothing.

Again, the basic tests/tools on the install disk seem to have found nothing. It's not a "forbidden symbol" or question mark or sad Mac... it just hangs at the Apple logo and pinwheel. (Hence the inability to boot in "safe mode," since I'd have to get past that step to see any indication that it took.) The tech suspected memory, since I upgraded from 1GB/512MB to 1GB/1GB a few weeks ago, but the iMac worked fine every day since then, until yesterday. I even went back to the original memory chips as part of my troubleshooting, with no change. And ultimately the memory passed the hardware test.

Any likely culprits? Corrupted OS, disk, or some unidentified hardware issue? Any advice? I'm guessing that my next step is pestering someone at the Genius Bar, but in case there are slightly more advanced tricks ("Hold down the command and 'V' key while reciting Vogon poetry!") I should try, I thought I'd tap the hive mind.

Can I use my iMac integrated monitor as a MacMini monitor?

AgentRocket — Sat, 10 Dec 2005 19:00:36 -0800

Can I use my G4 iMac (the one that has a round base and a swivelly flat monitor) as a monitor/second hard drive for a new mac mini? I have a 17" iMac that I got in mid-2002. I love the display and love the computer but with pictures and movies and music my hard drive is full and my programs (particularly iPhoto, with 2000+ photos) are super slow. We have not upgraded from Jaguar, because I don't have much confidence in the memory or processor (256 and 800, respectively). Rather than spend a bunch of money separately buying (1) RAM, (2) an external hard drive, and (3) Tiger, I thought I could buy the fancy Mac Mini ($700) and get all three. Paying $1700 for the new iMac is out of my price range. Here's my question(s):

(1a.) Can I somehow use my 17" swivelly monitor as the MacMini monitor (even though it is integrated into my iMac?) I figure it wouldn't hurt to just have 'em both on at once, right?
(1b.) Could I format my current iMac hard drive and use it as a second hard drive that is controlled by the MacMini?
(1c.) How hard do you think it would be to get the stuff on my current hard drive onto a MacMini hard drive?

As you can probably see from my questions, I am not terribly smart about this stuff. I thank you in advance.

Will Print Shop Deluxe 1.13 run on OS X?

Argyle — Fri, 21 Oct 2005 14:02:20 -0800

My mother uses Print Shop Deluxe 1.13 on her Umax SuperMac running System 8.5.1. When she gets her new 20" iMac, will the Print Shop Deluxe software work? Is there an emulator needed/available?

Can't burn a CD on external drive on OS X...

dobbs — Sat, 01 Oct 2005 17:26:56 -0800

Problems burning a CD on an external drive using an iMac G3 600 with Tiger Okay, so my mom has a g3 600 with 340mb ram. I plugged in an external firewire cd burner and tried to burn a disc (I'd yanked it out of a windows machine and stuck it in an enclosure). No dice. It tells me "Burning the disc failed because communication to the disc drive failed (Error code 0x80020022)."

I figured it was the drive was too old or crap. So today I went and bought a USB 1.1 drive off some guy who had it hooked up to a slower G3 iMac (I think it was a 300). This is a Lacie 4x4x24 external drive.

I get the same damn error.

When I bring up the Get Info box on the CD after it gives me the error, the disc is locked and I can't unlock it (it's greyed). It also tells me the capacity is zero kb (though it was empty when I checked the info before trying to burn it).

I went to Lacie's site to see if there were any drivers. Nope. Either it's too old or doesn't need them.

The drive appears in the iMac's system Profile under "Disc Burning" as

Firmware Revision 3.0D
Burn Support: Yes (Apple Supported)
Cd-Write: -R, -RW
Write Strategies : cd-tao
Media: No.

WTF? I have to deliver this machine and drive to another city tomorrow for my mom and it's driving me nuts.

All I can think of is that maybe my blank CDs are cd+r instead of cd-r but I would think if that were the case they wouldn't appear on the desktop as 'untitled cd' when I put them in, would it? (The discs have no packaging to confirm.)

Any help appreciated.

Mac Screen Readability

b1tr0t — Wed, 26 Jan 2005 12:41:56 -0800

MacFilter: How do you make the screen fonts bigger in OS X? I've just upgraded my grandmother from a virus-infested WinME box to a 17" iMac G5. Unfortunately, the text is much too small for her to read clearly, and she wants her WinMe box back. I've changed the resolution down to 1024x768. Other than seriously degrading the image quality, it doesn't make the fonts much larger.

I'm comfortable working with the command line and editing plists, so don't hold anything back.

Help, there's no more room on my Notebook!

caution live frogs — Mon, 08 Nov 2004 12:45:27 -0800

iMac notebook + OS9 + OSX = no hard drive space. Even more helpful, installing/reinstalling anything doesn't seem to work. iMore inside... My stepmom's iBook has a 10 gig hard drive with only about 200 megs free space - but the finder doesn't list enough stuff to account for the amount of the drive that is filled. my dad claims he installed OSX on it, which would account for the "missing" space, but (a) OS9 is the default boot, (b) OSX doesn't show up in the boot drive list, and (c) re-running OSX setup ends with an error message. Plus, (d) trying to upgrade OS9.1 to 9.2 (in an attempt to help fix things) ends in an incomplete download and an error, even though there is enough free space to get the 80-some MB file from the apple support server.

The main problem is that it's a school computer, the school wants things to be upgraded to OSX, but my stepmom keeps it in OS9 mode by default because none of the classroom computers she uses are running X yet... now we can't get it to switch back. I'm not a mac person - I can work with OS9 and have installed & configured OSX on a different system, but this is beyond me. Any help?

Remotely controlling a DSL connection

ShawnString — Tue, 12 Oct 2004 15:34:30 -0800

Here the short story...Is there anyway to remotely disconnect/connect dsl connections under OS X? the long story inside.... I have a G4 downstairs connected via dsl (which can be kinda flaky) to the interweb. It is a software base station (connected via Airport) for the imac upstairs.now short of installing VPC (which i really dont need ALL that for) is there anyway I can do this? btw both running 10.3.5