In This Chapter
Mac OS X Snow Leopard is rugged, stable, and reliable — and as you can read in Chapter 7 of this minibook, practicing regular maintenance can help eliminate problems caused by everything from power failures to faulty software drivers to cats on the keyboard. However, sooner or later you will encounter what I like to call The Dark Moments ...a blank screen, a locked MacBook, or an external device that sits there uselessly like an expensive paperweight.
How you handle The Dark Moments defines you as a true Mac OS X power user because most folks seem to fall into one of two categories: Either you panic and beat your head against the wall (which really has little effect on the computer, when you think about it), or you set your brow in grim determination and follow the troubleshooting models that I provide in this chapter to locate (and hopefully fix) the source of the problem.
My friend, this is the first — and most important — rule of troubleshooting, and yet another of Mark's Maxims:
Note
Whatever the problem, you can fix it (or get it fixed).
Most computer owners seem to forget the idea that a hardware or software error can be fixed because they panic — they simply see The Problem, and somehow they feel that they'll never be able to use their computer again.
Although the situation might look grim, don't ignore these facts:
You don't need to scrap your MacBook. As long as you haven't taken a hammer or a chainsaw to your laptop, the problem is only temporary. Sure, individual components do fail over time — heck, so do people — but the problem is certainly something that can be tracked down and fixed without scrapping your entire computer.
Don't beat yourself up. As long as you haven't installed a virus on purpose or deleted half your system files to spite yourself, the problem isn't your fault. Sure, it's possible that you might have done something by accident, but don't blame yourself — it happens to everybody.
Trust your Apple dealer. As long as an Apple dealer is in your area, you can always get your computer repaired professionally if a component's gone south. (In some cases, professional help is a necessity: For example, swapping out a MacBook motherboard requires an Apple technician, unless you have copious experience.)
Rely on your backup. As long as you've made a backup, you won't lose much (if any) work. (You did back up your hard drive, didn't you? I harp about backups further in Chapter 7 of this minibook.) I'm talking about a backup to an external hard drive here, using either an application such as Disk Utility or Snow Leopard's Time Machine feature.
Commit these facts to head and heart, and you can rest easy while you track down and attack the real enemy — whatever's causing the problem.
When I first conceived this chapter, I had originally decided to divide this section into separate hardware and software troubleshooting procedures. However, that turned out to be impractical because often you won't know whether a problem is caused by hardware or software until you're practically on top of it.
Therefore, here's the complete 12-step troubleshooting process that I designed while working as a consultant and Macintosh hardware technician for 15 years. Feel free to add your own embellishments in the margin or include reminders with sticky notes.
Tip
If you're not sure quite what's producing the error, this process is designed to be linear — meaning that you should follow it in order — but if you already know that you're having a problem with one specific peripheral or one specific application, feel free to jump to the steps that concern only hardware or software.
Tip
It's always a good idea to create a completely default user account for troubleshooting. Techs call this a vanilla or clean account. You can use the vanilla account to test whether a problem occurs system-wide or is limited to a single user account. For example, this is a great way to determine whether an application is misbehaving because of a corrupted preference file: If the same problem doesn't appear when you use the application with the vanilla account, the culprit is likely the user's copy of the application's preference file. (Follow the instructions provided by the application for resetting or deleting the preference file it creates.)
You'd be amazed at how often a reboot (the process of shutting down and restarting) can cure a temporary problem. For example, this can fix the occasional lockup in Mac OS X or a keyboard that's not responding because of a power failure. If possible, make sure that you first close any open documents; otherwise, you might lose unsaved work. When troubleshooting, always do a shutdown instead of simply restarting the computer because when Mac OS X shuts down, all the hardware components that make up your system are reset.
Tip
If your MacBook is locked tight and you can't use the Shut Down command from the Apple menu (
Check all connections: the AC power cord, as well as any modem or network connections and all cable connections to external peripherals. Look for loose connectors — and if you have a cat or dog, don't forget to check for chew marks. (Yep, that's the voice of experience talking there.) If you've recently replaced a cable — especially a network, Universal Serial Bus (USB), or FireWire cable — replace it with a spare to see whether the problem still occurs.
If the problem continues to occur, the next step is to consider what you've done in the immediate past that could have affected your MacBook. Did you install any new software or have you connected a new peripheral? If your MacBook was working fine until you made the change to your system, the problem likely lies in the new hardware or software.
If you added an external device: Turn off your MacBook and disconnect the peripheral. Then turn on the laptop to see whether all proceeds normally. If so, check the peripheral's documentation and make sure that you correctly installed the driver — the software provided by the device manufacturer — and that you connected it properly to the right port. (You can also use System Profiler, which I discuss later in this chapter, to check to see whether your MacBook recognizes the external device.) To verify that the cable works, substitute another cable of the same type or try the peripheral on another Mac.
Tip
Make it a practice to check the manufacturer's Web site for the latest driver when you get new hardware. The software that ships in the box with your new toy could have been on the shelf for months before being sold, and the manufacturer has probably fine-tuned the driver in the interim. You should also run Software Update to verify that the drivers that Apple supplies are up-to-date.
If you installed new software or applied an update/patch: Follow the guidelines in Chapter 7 of this minibook to uninstall the application and search for any files that it might have created elsewhere. (Searching by date created and date modified can help you locate files that were recently created.) If this fixes the problem, it's time to contact the developer and request technical support for the recalcitrant program; you can always re-install the program after the problem has been solved by the developer.
Not all versions of Mac OS X are created equal. If you've recently upgraded to a major or minor new release of Mac OS X, some of the applications that you've been using without trouble for months can suddenly go on the warpath and refuse to work (or exhibit quirky behavior). If this happens, visit the developer's Web site often to look for a patch file that will update the application to work with the new version of Mac OS X.
If you recently made a change within System Preferences: It's possible that you've inadvertently "bumped" something. For instance, you might have accidentally changed your modem or network settings or perhaps made a change to your login options. Verify the settings screens that you visited to make sure that everything looks okay.
Next, run Disk Utility (as shown in Figure 9-1) to check for disk errors and permissions errors — especially permissions errors, which can wreak absolute havoc on just about any application on your hard drive. (Click the Disk Utility icon in the Utilities folder inside your Applications folder. Chapter 7 of this minibook provides all the details.)
Run your antivirus software and scan your entire system for viruses, including all system disks and removable disks. Although Mac OS X doesn't come with antivirus protection built in, Intego's VirusBarrier X5 (www.intego.com) can constantly scan each file that you open or download for infections.
Tip
If you haven't already set your antivirus application to automatically update itself, download the latest virus update — usually called a signature file or data file — to keep your virus protection current.
Check the contents of your Trash to make sure that you haven't inadvertently tossed something important that could be causing trouble for an application. Click the Trash icon in the Dock to open the Trash window and peruse its contents. (To see the file types easier, switch to List mode.) To restore items to their rightful place, drag them from the Trash back to the correct folder on your hard drive.
If you're connected to an Ethernet network, a cable modem, or a digital subscriber line (DSL), check your equipment to make sure that you're currently online and receiving packets normally. Your network system administrator will be happy to help you with this, especially if you're blood relatives.
Disable any Login Items that might be causing trouble. As you can read in Book III, Chapter 3, Login Items are launched automatically as soon as you log in. For example, an older application that doesn't fully support Snow Leopard can cause problems if used as a Login Item (such as an older version of a disk-scanning utility for use with Mac OS X Jaguar or Tiger). You can do this from the Login Items settings in the System Preferences Accounts pane (as shown in Figure 9-2); click the Apple menu, choose System Preferences, click Accounts, and then click the Login Items tab.
Unfortunately, if a Login Item doesn't display an error message, your old friend Trial-and-Error is just about the only sure-fire way to detect which item (if any) is causing the problem. Click an item to select it, click the Remove button (marked with a minus sign), and then press
Tip
You can also disable Login Items entirely when you reboot. If the login window appears when you reboot your computer, hold down the Shift key and then click the Login button. If you don't see the login window when you reboot, hold down the Shift key when you see the James Bond–style twirling progress indicator in the startup window and continue to hold down the key until the Finder appears.
Another candidate for intermittent lockups is your screen saver, especially if you're running a shareware effort written by a 12-year-old with a limited attention span. Display your System Preferences, choose Desktop & Screen Saver, and click the Screen Saver tab. You can deactivate the saver entirely (by moving the Start Screen Saver slider to Never) or choose the Computer Name saver (which is provided by Apple) from the Screen Savers list.
If you're running a multiuser ship, check to make sure that another user with administrator access hasn't accidentally write-protected your documents, your application, or its support files. If possible, log in with an administrator account yourself (as I describe in Book III, Chapter 5) and then try running the application or opening the document that you were unable to access under your own ID.
Tip
Trying an application under the aforementioned "clean" account is also a great way to determine whether your user-specific preference file for that application has been corrupted. If you can run the application using your "clean" account, contact the software developer to see how you can repair or delete a preference file that's causing problems.
If you've reached this point in the troubleshooting process and haven't found the culprit, you've probably experienced a hardware failure in your MacBook. If possible, display the Hardware category within the Apple System Profiler (see Figure 9-3) and make sure that it can recognize and use all the internal drives, ports, and external devices on your MacBook. To start the System Profiler, click the Apple menu, choose About This Mac, and then click the More Info button.
In case your MacBook is in sad shape and won't even boot from its hard drive, here's a last step that you can take before you seek professional assistance: Reboot your laptop from the Mac OS X Snow Leopard Installation disc. Hold down the C key immediately after you hear the startup chord (which boots your system from the DVD-ROM drive) and then run Disk Utility from the Installation DVD's Apple menu that appears. Because you've booted the system from the installation disc, you can verify and repair problems with your startup hard drive. (Some new MacBook models also come with a diagnostic DVD that can help you pin down hardware problems.) After you're done, restart your system.
To be honest, this is a difficult question to answer. Technically, you should never need to reinstall the Big X, but there's also no reason why you can't.
I can think of only two scenarios where reinstalling the operating system will likely solve a problem. One, if your system files have been so heavily corrupted — by a faulty hard drive or a rampaging virus, for example — that you can't boot Mac OS X at all. Two, if the operating system encounters the death-dealing kernel panic on a regular basis. A kernel panic displays a dialog that instructs you to restart your MacBook (in multiple languages, no less), usually overwriting whatever's on the monitor at the time. (This is analogous to the infamous Windows Blue Screen of Death — I've grown to hate that shade of blue with a passion.)
Warning
If you receive kernel panics on an ongoing basis, something is really, really wrong. Make sure that your documents are copied to a rewriteable DVD or network drive, and don't overwrite any existing backup that you have with a new backup because the backup application is likely to lock up as well.
To reinstall, you must reboot from your Mac OS X Snow Leopard Installation disc. Hold down the C key immediately after you hear your MacBook's startup chord. (Read the earlier section, "Step 12: Reboot with the Mac OS X Installation disc.")
As I mention earlier in this chapter, you can pursue other avenues to get help when you can't solve a troubleshooting problem on your own. Mind you, I'm talking about professional help from sources that you can trust. Although you can find quite a bit of free advice on the Internet (usually on privately run Web sites and in the Internet newsgroups), most of it isn't worth your effort. In fact, some of it's downright wrong. That said, here are some sources that I do recommend.
Although most Mac OS X owners tend to blow off the Help Viewer when the troubleshooting gets tough, that's never the best course of action. Always take a few moments to search the contents of the Help Viewer — click Help on the Finder menu — to see whether any mention is made of the problem that you've encountered.
Home to all manner of support questions and answers, the Mac OS X Support section of the Apple Web site (www.apple.com/support) should be your next stop in case of trouble that you can't fix yourself. Topics include
Startup issues
Internet and networking problems
Printing problems
You can search the Apple Knowledge Base, download the latest updates and electronic manuals, and participate in Apple-moderated discussion boards from this one central location.
Naturally, an Apple dealer can provide just about any support that you're likely to need — for a price — but you can usually get the answers to important questions without any coinage changing hands. Your dealer is also well versed in the latest updates and patches that can fix those software incompatibility problems. Check your telephone book for your local dealer.