Troubleshooting Guidelines. Help us, Help you.

Vexel · Aug 5th, 2005, 02:54 PM

I just wanted to start a thread to let everyone know what might be helpful in instances where they need help. For many of us who like to help, there are a few things which will help us get to a resolution for your problems.

Try to include as much as possible from this list, it will make the troubleshooting go a lot faster, and you'll be on your way to using your machine again.

1) Please tell us which computer you are using. (ie: 14" G4 iBook 1.33 Ghz)
2) Which Operating System are you currently running? Including version. (ie: 10.4.9)
3) How much RAM do you have?
4) Do you have any 3rd party Peripherals? (ie: Mouse, HD's, etc)
5) Have you installed any 3rd party internal components lately? (ie: RAM, Burners, HD's, etc)
6) How much free space is left on your Boot Drive?
7) Can you provide a screenshot of the issue?
8) Tell us what you have tried already. (Permissions Repair, Disk Utility, Disk Warrior?)
9) Try and describe the instance leading to the event. Sometimes, things happen for no reason.. however, it's helpful if you post what you were doing at the time.

All of these steps will help others who want to help you with your situation get an idea of what the problem might be, even before doing any searching. The idea is to provide as much information as possible about the situation and the machine it's occurring on. Just keep in mind, something like the following isn't a good post!

"Ahhh...iTunes.. NOOOO! Help!"

Honestly, we have no idea what your situation might be.

Help us, Help you.

Cheers

edit: Edited to add additional corrections and include some suggestions.

MacDoc · Aug 5th, 2005, 03:08 PM

Good start - one caveat.

Exactly which OS ie 9.2.1 or 10.3.7 or 10.4.2

Vexel · Aug 5th, 2005, 03:22 PM

Thanks for catching that MacDoc.. I knew you'd find something

ptrix · Aug 5th, 2005, 07:55 PM

this link contains some excellent mac troubleshooting tips

http://macosxhints.com/article.php?s...04011205473937

iMatt · Sep 21st, 2005, 08:48 AM

Excellent, long-overdue thread.

I'd like to add one or two things:

Please put as much info as possible in the subject line! This will raise the likelihood of the right people reading your question.

"Help!" is so uninformative, many will just skip it.
"iTunes question" is a little better, but still vague.
"iTunes 5.0 crashing on iMac G5" is a good level of detail, but there might be room for even more.

Also, it often pays to search the Troubleshooting forum before starting a new thread. If you're dealing with very new technology (or the latest version of something), you can use the advanced search to filter out older posts.

MacDoc · Sep 30th, 2005, 02:33 PM

Also PLEASE if your drive has crashed etc do not attempt repair or recovery yourself until you've been in contact here or with us directly or another service familiar with this type of failure.

You could make it worse.
I've also seen situations where people have erased their entire drive needlessly.

as Marvin says

oooohhhh and as MacDoc says......BLOODY WELL BACKUP NOW!!!!

elmer · Nov 18th, 2005, 11:36 AM

Some examples of additional details that could be helpful
- The laptop was running on battery power
- I was in a sauna
- The following peripherals were plugged into the USB hub: scanner, etc
- My laptop's screen was closed, I was using an external VGA monitor
- I can make this problem happen again if I ...
- Here are the logs from my /Applications/Utilities/Console program:
- I'm using a DLINK 802.11g basestation, a 2.4 GHz cordless phone, which may be sources of interference
- I tried turning off all these extra things, and the problem still happens
- My friend has the same program or device, but uses a different version of Mac OS X, and she has no problems
- The last time I ran this program was last Friday. Since then I did the following things on the computer ...
- The hard drive sounds like it is accessing ...
- I think I smell something like ...
- Let me tell you about my level of experience with computers and/or Macs, so you know better how to communicate with me.
- I have the following other tools in my house that may help - a digital camera to take pictures and post, another computer that I could put the hard drive into ...
- the following other devices are on my home network: a Windows XP PC with various software modifications, a wireless printer, my PocketPC, a Google Mini...

Chealion · Dec 5th, 2005, 04:19 PM

	Quote:
	To take a picture of the whole screen, press Command-Shift-3. To take a picture of part of the screen, press Command-Shift-4, then drag to select the area you want in the picture. To take a picture of a window, the menu bar, the Dock, or other area, press Command-Shift-4, then press the Space bar. Move the pointer over the area you want so that it's highlighted, then click. If you decide you want to drag to select the area, press the Space bar again. If you press Command-Shift-4 and decide you don't want to take the screen shot, press the Escape key. Screen shots are saved as files on the desktop. If you want to put the screen shot in the Clipboard, rather than create a file, hold down the Control key when you press the other keys. You can then paste the picture into a document.

Taken verbatim from the Mac Help Viewer for Tiger. You can also use the program called Grab or if you're terminal savvy there is a command screencapture that works too.

elmer · Feb 1st, 2006, 02:56 PM

Quick tip for "such and such application is unstable"...
Run Preferential Treatment.

Randy B. Singer · Aug 6th, 2006, 01:26 AM

Here is a pretty good list of troubleshooting steps for OS X:

http://www.macosxhints.com/article.p...04011205473937

Aug 5th, 2005, 02:54 PM	#1
Vexel Digital DJ Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Sydney, Nova Scotia Posts: 5,282	Troubleshooting Guidelines. Help us, Help you. I just wanted to start a thread to let everyone know what might be helpful in instances where they need help. For many of us who like to help, there are a few things which will help us get to a resolution for your problems. Try to include as much as possible from this list, it will make the troubleshooting go a lot faster, and you'll be on your way to using your machine again. 1) Please tell us which computer you are using. (ie: 14" G4 iBook 1.33 Ghz) 2) Which Operating System are you currently running? Including version. (ie: 10.4.9) 3) How much RAM do you have? 4) Do you have any 3rd party Peripherals? (ie: Mouse, HD's, etc) 5) Have you installed any 3rd party internal components lately? (ie: RAM, Burners, HD's, etc) 6) How much free space is left on your Boot Drive? 7) Can you provide a screenshot of the issue? 8) Tell us what you have tried already. (Permissions Repair, Disk Utility, Disk Warrior?) 9) Try and describe the instance leading to the event. Sometimes, things happen for no reason.. however, it's helpful if you post what you were doing at the time. All of these steps will help others who want to help you with your situation get an idea of what the problem might be, even before doing any searching. The idea is to provide as much information as possible about the situation and the machine it's occurring on. Just keep in mind, something like the following isn't a good post! "Ahhh...iTunes.. NOOOO! Help!" Honestly, we have no idea what your situation might be. Help us, Help you. Cheers edit: Edited to add additional corrections and include some suggestions. __________________ 2.0Ghz '09 Mac Mini www.radioaddix.net Last edited by Vexel; May 13th, 2007 at 12:04 AM.

Aug 5th, 2005, 03:08 PM	#2
MacDoc Honourable Citizen Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Planet Earth.....on slow boil Posts: 27,970	Good start - one caveat. Exactly which OS ie 9.2.1 or 10.3.7 or 10.4.2 __________________ Are you backed up??? if not why not? - Superduper is FREE!! Find out more here Support Green- buy Bullfrog Power http://www.bullfrogpower.com/

Aug 5th, 2005, 03:22 PM	#3
Vexel Digital DJ Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Sydney, Nova Scotia Posts: 5,282	Thanks for catching that MacDoc.. I knew you'd find something __________________ 2.0Ghz '09 Mac Mini www.radioaddix.net

Sep 30th, 2005, 02:33 PM	#6
MacDoc Honourable Citizen Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Planet Earth.....on slow boil Posts: 27,970	Also PLEASE if your drive has crashed etc do not attempt repair or recovery yourself until you've been in contact here or with us directly or another service familiar with this type of failure. You could make it worse. I've also seen situations where people have erased their entire drive needlessly. as Marvin says oooohhhh and as MacDoc says......BLOODY WELL BACKUP NOW!!!! __________________ Are you backed up??? if not why not? - Superduper is FREE!! Find out more here Support Green- buy Bullfrog Power http://www.bullfrogpower.com/

Nov 18th, 2005, 11:36 AM	#7
elmer Honourable Citizen Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: York Region, ON Posts: 1,558	Some examples of additional details that could be helpful - The laptop was running on battery power - I was in a sauna - The following peripherals were plugged into the USB hub: scanner, etc - My laptop's screen was closed, I was using an external VGA monitor - I can make this problem happen again if I ... - Here are the logs from my /Applications/Utilities/Console program: - I'm using a DLINK 802.11g basestation, a 2.4 GHz cordless phone, which may be sources of interference - I tried turning off all these extra things, and the problem still happens - My friend has the same program or device, but uses a different version of Mac OS X, and she has no problems - The last time I ran this program was last Friday. Since then I did the following things on the computer ... - The hard drive sounds like it is accessing ... - I think I smell something like ... - Let me tell you about my level of experience with computers and/or Macs, so you know better how to communicate with me. - I have the following other tools in my house that may help - a digital camera to take pictures and post, another computer that I could put the hard drive into ... - the following other devices are on my home network: a Windows XP PC with various software modifications, a wireless printer, my PocketPC, a Google Mini... __________________ iSight G5 iMac 17" 1GB, Pentax K100D, Photoshop CS2

Aug 5th, 2005, 07:55 PM	#4
ptrix Full Citizen Join Date: May 2004 Location: GTA Posts: 67	this link contains some excellent mac troubleshooting tips http://macosxhints.com/article.php?s...04011205473937

Sep 21st, 2005, 08:48 AM	#5
iMatt Honourable Citizen Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Montreal Posts: 2,186	Excellent, long-overdue thread. I'd like to add one or two things: Please put as much info as possible in the subject line! This will raise the likelihood of the right people reading your question. "Help!" is so uninformative, many will just skip it. "iTunes question" is a little better, but still vague. "iTunes 5.0 crashing on iMac G5" is a good level of detail, but there might be room for even more. Also, it often pays to search the Troubleshooting forum before starting a new thread. If you're dealing with very new technology (or the latest version of something), you can use the advanced search to filter out older posts.

Feb 1st, 2006, 02:56 PM	#9
elmer Honourable Citizen Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: York Region, ON Posts: 1,558	Quick tip for "such and such application is unstable"... Run Preferential Treatment.

Aug 6th, 2006, 01:26 AM	#10
Randy B. Singer Full Citizen Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Sacramento, California Posts: 40	Here is a pretty good list of troubleshooting steps for OS X: http://www.macosxhints.com/article.p...04011205473937 __________________ Randy B. Singer Co-Author of The Macintosh Bible (4th, 5th & 6th editions) OS X Routine Maintenance http://www.macattorney.com/ts.html

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