The Mac Observer Forums

Problem with Mac Outlook/Exchange account

2013-05-16T13:19:53+00:00

At the company where I work, there are only two Macs: I have one, as does a senior executive. Yesterday, I was asked to help out the senior exec, who was having trouble with his email. He’s running Office: Mac 2011 and Outlook, just as I am. (Both of us are running Mountain Lion, and all software updates are installed on both machines.) His problem is that Outlook keeps freezing up when trying to sync to the Exchange server.

I added his account to my own Outlook on my Mac, and sure enough, Outlook froze up on my Mac, too, when trying to sync his account to the server. I also have a Dell running Win 7. When adding his account to Outlook on it, the Windows machine was able to sync the account. However, after adding the account I noticed the Dell was running the fan much more than ever before, to the point where I could hear it really start to whine then back down at regular intervals. Bear in mind that Outlook was the only app running on the Dell. (I deleted his account from it today, and sure enough, the fan noise is gone.)

So…it’s a day later and neither myself, the senior exec, or others in my IT department have been able to figure this out. We think it has something to do with his calendar, maybe a corrupted file attachment. Anyone have any ideas?

blank display when nothing is connected to display port

2013-05-09T21:47:05+00:00

I have a mac mini (Mac mini 3,1) that runs os x mountain lion server that I used to run without a display. I connected remotely and all was well. Occasionally, I would connect my old cinema display, mouse and keyboard but most of the time there was no monitor attached. I then purchased a 15” vga lcd for ease of hookup to use for those rare times when I needed a display. I used a vga to mini display port connector. When I moved, I temporarily attached a 24” led display using a dvi to display port connector. Here’s where it gets weird. If I disconnect the 24” led display, I cannot get the screen to display on the 15” display. Further, I get a blank screen when connecting remotely.

It has been a while since I tried to resolve this but I believe I reset the PRAM and didn’t have any luck. Is there a way to reset the display preferences so that it completely forgets about the displays that had been attached?

Java use of CPU

2013-05-03T01:41:38+00:00

John, Dave,

I recently added the new Java app to Safari, enabling it again after the recent security issues caused me to trash it. But when watching streaming video in Safari, I found my Mac Air running 10.6.8 would almost immediately start the cooling fan. This wasn’t happening watching the same type of streaming video on Chrome. So I checked the CPU usage in Activity Monitor and found that Chrome running YouTube was using a bit over 7% of CPU time and Safari running Java to show the same video was over 40% of CPU (and the roar of the fans). I like using Safari for most of my browsing, if for no other reason than the implementation of 1Password is much smoother than Chrome’s. I don’t going back and forth between two browsers, so I’m wondering if my analysis is correct, or there’s some other reason why Mac Air fans are spinning up?

Thanks for a great program.

Chuck

Advice on RAM Upgrade

2013-04-28T14:14:43+00:00

Hello all,

I have a late 2010 iMac that has become noticeably sluggish since upgrading to Mountain Lion. (Really, it started with the upgrade to Lion, but it’s gotten considerably worse since then). I considered selling my computer and upgrading to a brand new iMac, but my needs don’t presently require that, and I’d rather wait for the new product launches and upgrades coming late this year and in 2014.

So, I’m looking for some advice on a RAM upgrade to my current machine. Are there any particular brands you folks recommend? Also, any pointers to useful how-to videos for my particular model would be much appreciated.

Thanks,
Xwintelslave

miracle cure for arthritic dinosaur?

2013-04-18T13:09:49+00:00

I have a Mac Pro 2008 quad core intel xeon 2 x 2.8 ghz with 14 gb of memory, 4 massive internal hard drives and 4 even more massive external lacie hard drives.

I have neglected it and so am still on 10.5.8. I also have Final Cut Pro 6.06, and Logic Pro 8.02. And whilst all these things work together, even Firefox is telling me it can’t cope with such an ancient OS.

So I am thinking that I would like to bring the OS and these two Pro softwares right up to date. Can anyone give me any advice on where to go from here?

In other words, how I get this dinosaur to move smoothly and without hiccups towards a better, more paradisic life from

OS 10..5.8 to OS Mountain Lion;
Final Cut Pro 6.06 to FInal Cut Pro X;
Logic Pro 8.02 to Logic Pro 9

Given the cost and dangers involved in modernising three big old applications, might it be a better option to keep it as it is, use the machine woth 10.5.8 simply for when I use Logic and Final Cut and get a new smaller mac to use for the internet?
best
Martin

Ordering prints in Aperture 3

2013-04-15T01:34:31+00:00

My wife needs to order prints from our Aperture photo library stored on my iMac. Ok, so I get it all setup through screen sharing, so my wife can connect to my iMac in the attic from her Macbook in the living room. She goes through our Last 12 Months album and flags the images she wants to print (103! It’s been a while), and selects them all. And then she says “where’s the “order prints command like in iPhoto?” I start hunting around and I can’t find it. Anywhere. What the hell? So, just as an experiment, I select only one photo and right click it, and there in the menu is Output>Order Prints. Huh? So I select all 103 again, and right click, Output> ... Order Prints is gone. It’s also greyed out in File>Order Prints. Looks like I can select only 20 different photos before the Order Prints command gets greyed out. This makes no sense, since I know she has ordered more than 50 different images before using iPhoto. When I setup Aperture 3 I made sure to use the new shared library feature. So I quit Aperture, open iPhoto 11 and head to the Flagged album. There are the 103 photos. Select all, File>Order Prints… No problem! Works! What the hell is going on? So right now my solution is to just use iPhoto to pick and order stuff. Ok, that’ll work, but what is going on with Aperture? Is it not possible to order more than 20 different prints at a time? I’m glad I kept iPhoto around, but I didn’t realize it would be necessary. Anyone have any insight on this? Did I run into a bug? With my new RAW workflow since I just got a new camera, I’m not sure how my adjustments will translate now that I have to throw iPhoto back in the mix. Thanks for any ideas.

Mike

Quicktime X Export for Web options

2013-04-12T09:34:33+00:00

I am certain geek gabbers use Quicktime X to export iMovies for consumption on the Web. I’m looking to learn from what you’ve done so I don’t have to spend hours attempting to find the best combination of options. If you do export movies with Quicktime X, I’d like to know what your workflow is.

Don’t use Quicktime X? Tell me what software you use and why.

Thanks,
Ernie

Safari’s AutoFill—How can I cause it to capture User Name and Password on certain sites?

2013-04-11T15:09:40+00:00

I’m using a MacBook Pro, early 2011, Mountain Lion, Safari 6.0.3.

AutoFill pops up and asks if I want it to save the log-in data on some sites; on others it doesn’t. How can prompt AutoFill to capture log-in info on those other sites?

Music File Organization Workflow

2013-04-06T16:38:42+00:00

I’m in a major project trying to manage the massive amount of music that I store in iTunes, and finding it quite daunting. The first thing I’m trying to do is organize the files by file type and move them into folders that categorize them by extension, aiff, mp3, flac. Right now they are housed in one master folder on an external just called “music”. I can’t have iTunes manage the files for me because it would wreak havoc on my lossless files, especially FLAC. Does anyone know of a workaround to search and batch move files by extension type, keeping the files in the folders they are in (e.g. Artist or Album Name) but moving them into a new master folder? I’m trying to avoid having to do that by hand as I have more than 75,000 files on my drive. I wish someone had good documentation on varying user scenarios and best practices for keeping music well organized and backed up. Any help greatly appreciated for a workaround to the situation I’ve described.

Terminal Command Question

2013-03-29T17:45:34+00:00

What would be the terminal commands to copy an image file on my Macbook pro. The image file is here
/Volumes/Mac SATS (File Name) AppleTVDrive.img) the image is here on this drive

/dev/disk1
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *500.1 GB disk1
1: EFI 209.7 MB disk1s1
2: Apple_HFS Mac SATS 499.8 GB disk1s2

to a Hard drive connected to a USB port on my mac.

/dev/disk2
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *40.0 GB disk2
1: EFI 209.7 MB disk2s1
2: Apple_HFS Apple TV 39.7 GB disk2s2

The hard drive on my 1s gen Apple tv carped out and I really don’t want to replace the Apple TV, I like the internal hard drive.

Thanks For the help