Self-Serve Troubleshooting
2. Application missing from dock
4. Lost your wireless connection
5. Force Quitting an Application
6. Using Disk Utility prior to and after installing Mac OS updates
7. Approach System Software Updates with Caution
8. Passwords and how to find the ones your Mac remembers
9. Is your email asking you for a Password out of the blue?
1. Lost your Internet connection?
If you can’t connect to the Internet you might need to restart your cable modem. Try this: unplug the power cable to the cable modem. Wait 30 seconds and plug the power cable back in. If you use an Airport Router (or another company’s router) you might need to do one more thing. After unplugging the cable modem, unplug the power on the router too. After you plug back in the cable modem, wait for the modem to get some solid, usually green lights. The most important lights are the power light and the cable/internet lights. Once you get the power and cable lights to stay solid green THEN plug in the router. Don’t plug the router until the cable modem is fully operational. Hopefully this will solve most of your connectivity issues. If you don’t get the cable light to go green you might need to call Cablevision to resolve the issue-631-267-6900 or 631-727-6300. One last thing; if you have a cable modem that has a standby button on the top make sure that hasn’t been pressed down. If it has you should see an amber light next to ‘standby’. Press the standby button and you should be able to get back online.
2. Can’t find that application in the dock anymore?
Sometimes an application’s icon disappears from the dock. Here is how to get it back and hopefully keep it there.
Let’s say your icon for Mail goes away. It’s pretty helpful to have it in the dock so let’s get it back.
Click on the Finder in the Dock - the Dock is row of icons on the bottom of your screen that looks like this:
The Finder is the happy faced guy on the left side of the Dock.
Once you click on the Finder you will see menu items at the very top of the screen. Locate the Go Menu, click on it and select Applications from the Menu. Now you should see in the window that just came up a list of Applications. Scroll around in the window until you find the Mail program. Double-click on its icon and the program should open up. If you look in the Dock the Mail’s icon (stamp with an eagle on it) should be on the right side of the Dock. Click and hold down the icon and you should see a menu pop up. From this menu you will need to choose ‘keep in dock’. That should do it. You can now quit out of Mail and the icon will remain in the Dock.
3. Printer not working?
Make sure the printer is on.
Make sure the printer is plugged in, unplug and re-plug both ends of the USB or Firewire cable into the computer and into the printer.
After doing the above steps if you can’t print, let’s check the printer preferences in the system preferences. At the top left of the screen you should see an Apple, click on it and choose System Preferences. In the window that comes up click on the print and fax icon located in the second row of icons under Hardware.
Now you should see a new window that comes up with a list of printers you have attached to the computer (if the computer sees the printer). Do you see your printer in the list?
If you do see your printer in the list click on it once (if you don’t see it read below). This should highlight the printer’s name. Once the printer is highlighted, look to the right of it and see what it says next to Location: and next to Status:. The location should say USB or Firewire or Ethernet and the Status might say Idle or more likely Paused (in pre-Leopard versions of OS X is says Stopped) since you are having problems in the first place. If it says Paused we need to double-click on the name of the printer on the left side of the list. This should open a new window like the one below.
In the window above you see that the Printer is Paused and the only way to get it to print again is to click on Resume Printer in the top toolbar. Hopefully pressing resume printing will start any jobs stopped in the queue.
Should you close the window before going back to the program? Well you can but first we should make it so that you can access it more easily than having to go to the system preferences first. Do this, find the icon in the dock of the printer you are using, it should have the name of the printer when you hover your mouse over its icon in the dock. Click and hold down on the icon and a menu should pop up. From this menu you should choose ‘Keep in Dock’. Once you do this you can safely close the printer window and the icon for the printer should remain in the dock.
This next part explains how to add a printer if you don’t see the printer in the printer preferences.
At the top left of the screen you should see an Apple, click on it and choose System Preferences. In the window that comes up click on the print and fax icon located in the second row of icons under Hardware. Once you have this window up you need to click on the + sign at the bottom left of the window. This will bring up the window you see below. Make sure you are in the Default section (directly under the red gumdrop in this picture). You should see your printer listed here…the name will depend on what model of printer you are using. If you see your printer listed that’s a good start. If you see your printer but at the bottom of this window it says “please select a driver or printer model” chances are that you will have to reinstall the printer’s software using the CD that came with the printer or go the manufacturer’s website and download new software to install (click here for links to common printer manufacturers' websites).
Is the printer you have hooked up to the computer or network listed in this list? If not then you need to check the cables again, turn the printer on and off, restart the computer, check once more to see if has shown up and if you still have no luck call a professional (that would be us - 631-723-3660). If you do see the printer in the list then select its name by clicking on it once and wait for the ‘Add’ button to become active (not greyed out). Click the ‘Add’ button and this should add the printer to your computer. It does take longer than you might think for the computer to actually add the printer so be patient (40-60 seconds). Now try to print. Make sure that you are choosing the correct printer in the printer dialogue box when you are sending a job to the printer.
When you choose File>Print you should see a box similar to the one above. The first choice you can make is to choose the printer, make sure it’s the correct one. Good Luck.
4. Lost your wireless connection?
Make sure your Airport is connected and connected to your network. Go up to the Airport symbol on the top right of the screen (upward radiating waves - in blue on image below) and click on it. You should see a list of available networks to join. The network name with the checkmark next to it is the one you are currently connected to. Obviously your network names will be different. In this picture all the networks listed are available to join without a password except one. If you look to the right of the iTero network name you’ll see a lock icon. That network is password protected and you’ll need to know the code to join it.
5. Need to Force Quit an Application?
Is the mouse cursor frozen or it just spins a colored wheel around? The program you are in is probably stopped responding. Here’s how to force quit the program. On the keyboard press the command (apple) + Option key and then press the ESC key (top left of the keyboard). Once you do this you should get a window up in front of you that offers to allow you to force quit a window. Click on the program that is giving you trouble and click on the Force Quit button. Another window will come up, press Force quit again. Hopefully you will now be able to restart the program and continue working.
6. Using Disk Utility prior to and after installing Mac OS updates
To prevent troubles when doing updates from the software update list remember these tips. Run a repair of permissions before and after you install updates. You need to open the Disk Utility Program in order to do this. The Disc Utility program is located in the Utilities folder. The easiest way to find the Disk Utility is to click on the Finder in the Dock and in the window that comes up click on the Applications icon on the left side. Scroll through the Applications folder window and find the Utilities Folder. Double-click on the Utilities folder, find the Disk Utility program and double-click on it. In the window that comes up, look on the left side of the window, you should see two silver hard drive icons. Click on the top most icon and then at the bottom of the window click on repair disk permissions. When it’s done it will say repair of permissions complete in the white box above the repair permissions button. You can now quit the Disk Utility. Perform this repair again after you install the updates. Running the Disk Utility can also help when nothing else seems to.
7. Approach System Software Updates with Caution
Beware and be cautious with Software Updates. Apple offers you updates for currently installed versions of software they make. Whether it’s for the operating system or for itunes or iphoto we have all seen these updates. Our advice is to check with us via email or phone before running these updates if you feel you need to install them. If you do choose to install the updates please follow these steps. Quit all other programs you may have running before beginning the software update process. Make sure you are plugged into power if you are working on a laptop. Also make sure the computer doesn’t go to sleep while the updates are running. This means being in front of the machine and paying attention to what is happening and moving the mouse to bring the computer out of sleep/screensaver mode if it starts going into one of these modes. So you are not running any other programs, you are paying attention so the computer doesn’t go to sleep or into screensaver mode. Now you can begin the software update process. After the updates have been run you may be prompted to restart the machine. Do so and after the machine restarts run the Disk Utility again. Hopefully your machine is behaving after the updates and you won’t need to call us to resurrect your machine. Good luck.
8. Passwords and how to find the ones your Mac remembers
Passwords. We all have them and mostly loathe the fact we have so many. Your computer remembers many of them even if you don’t though. If you can’t remember a password here’s where to look for help: Keychain Access. To locate keychain access we need to get into the Utilites folder again. See the tip above (finding the Disk Utility) for detailed directions. Open the Applications folder and find the Utilities folder in there. Open the Utilities folder and double-click on Keychain Access. You should now see a window with a list of names which correspond to places online you have registered with and have a username and password. They range from your subscription to the NY Times to your email account. Double-click on the item you want info about and a new box will come up. At the bottom left of the box is a checkbox next to ‘show password’, click in this box and a new window will appear. This window is asking you for your computer’s password. Hopefully you know this or else keychain access won’t be helpful to you. So let’s say you know your computer’s password. Enter the password in the blank field and press the Allow button. Once you do this you should be taken back to the previous box and the password should show in the field next to ‘show password’. If you don't have a computer password, and many of you probably don't, just leave the password field empty and press Allow.
9. Is your email asking you for a Password out of the blue?
Here’s the scenario: you wake your computer from sleep and try to get your email. A box then comes up and prompts you to enter your password for the email account. Your perhaps wonder why or worse panic and start entering what you think the password is. Despite your best efforts it keeps refusing your password. Here’s what we suggest you do. When the box comes up asking for the password, click cancel. Here is why. When the Mail tries to check for new email and can’t connect to your email server it prompts you to enter a password. Now if you are not connected to the internet then it doesn’t matter how many times you enter your password, it won’t be able to get your mail. After you click cancel in the password box, see that you are online. Open up Safari or Firefox and see if you can get a website to load. If you can then obviously you are online. Now go back and click the Get Mail icon in the Mail program. It hopefully won’t ask for the password and you’ll get your new email.
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