Q; Is it safe to leave my computer on all the time?
A: This question has existed for years and years. With earlier macs, their hard disks had a MTBF (Mean Time Before Failure) rate of about 2.3 years. More current Hard Disks like my 1.6 GB Western Digital AC21700H that shipped in my HD last a *lot* longer than 2 years. WD says the HD has an average failure rate of 300,000 hrs. <34 years>, that's if the drive is kept spinning 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year!
Another issue to think about is how long the computer's main logic board is going to last. Most newer macs are made to last for many, many years, but older ones seemed to die more quickly, especially when it comes to the life of the PRAM. Other system components such as RAM, cache chips, etc. are now made to last longer and work more efficiently, so that's one more thing to consider.
myth, booting a computer on and off on a regular basis is safe (because systems are designed for it), but it does put more *stress* on those components. Under most circumstances, the computer will not fail, but the components of it are more likely to fail. -ER
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Q: In Apple's Disk First Aid program, but not in Norton Disk Doctor, I notice that I see a message with something related to the catalog ID record coming up. Next to backing up the entire disk and initializing it, how do I fix this?
A: Using an ancient shareware program called File Kit <available at www.realmac.org/software/filekit.sit>, you can fish through your hard disk, get info on individual files, make invisible files visible, erase them, etc. If you're a beginning Mac user, we strongly recommend that you don't use this file, because if it's used on an open file like your system suitcase or the finder, it can cause it to crash, instantly.
What you need to do to get the error message to vanish is to "surf" through your hard disk and look for files with the ID numbers that show t
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Q. Well, call me old fashioned, but I have a Quadra 660AV and it is giving me
a hassle. When I start it up, it plays the chimes but then does nothing, black screen, no accessing the hard drive, nothing. I so far have managed to get it started after a few times turning it on, and each time it informs me that the date and time are not right. (August, 1956 at 8:30 or so at night). Is this a sign to replace the little battery, or that the
power supply is getting faulty (Yes I know smarty pants, its a sign to get a powermac or g3 or something, but I would like to know how to fix this first...)? What else might it be? Once it is up and running it is fine, it can handle what I ask of it. I have run Norton disk doctor and Disinfectant (and the benchmark tests that Norton has on the CPU and FPU,which were normal, for what that is worth) just in case, but nothing
there. Any help with this would be appreciated.
A. Your problem is the battery. I had the same problem with my Quadra 660av when my battery went dead, it would do like you said, no hard disk access but when you shut it down and start it back up, it would startup. Bring the battery
to a mac store or CompUSA. The battery is 22 dollars. -JS
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Q. Any help would be appreciated on this one:
I have a Quadra 630 with a 250Mb IDE Hard Disc. I am in desparate need
of some extra capacity. Which of the following options would be fastest
(and cheapest):
1) Simply replace the existing HD with a new PC IDE HD (2Gb for $100?)
2) Add an external SCSI HD
3) Add an internal SCSI HD (is it possible to piggy-back this with the
existing IDE?)
4) Any others?
A. You can use any IDE hard drive that is supported by a 3rd party formatting
utility. I like to use FWB Hard Drive ToolKit 2.5. I will include the support drives
so you can get the type of drive you want that will work. -JS
Q. I'm getting alot of bombs in the form of "Error Type 11's," and I was
wondering if there was a typical cause for these. Sheesh, I never had
these problems on my 040 Quadra w/ 7.1! :( My Mac is a 7200/90/32/500/512kL2cache/7.5.5
A. You should upgrade to System 7.6 or later, and you will notice fewer errors. -JS
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Q. Is there a hotline server that I can go to, to get some of the latest Mac OS software updates and find things like your cool e-zine, etc.?
A. BoffoMac <hotline address: hotline.boffomac.com, web address: www.boffomac.com>, is a great source for some of the most recent Mac OS software updates. They also have a very educated staff that is there to help assist you with a variety of problems which you may have with your computer.
