Re: Scanners

[Nichole Shervington]

Hi David,
My brother purchased an Epson V350 that I have been using.
It scans 35mm filmstrips, and also does a great job with colour and B/W
It is great and very quick. I think he bought it from a computer shop at
www.myshopping.com.au
I think it was around the $200 or so mark

Kind regards

Nichole


On 3/01/10 7:20 PM, "David Wood"  wrote:

> Hi All,
> 
> Some time ago... 2008 I think... I enquired with the list about scanners to
> use for old colour and black and white photos.  Ronni came back and
> recommended the Epson Stylus Photo TX700W MFP Wireless Printer.  I am now in
> the market to buy and wondered whether in the time that has lapsed there are
> any other recommendations?  I have done the usual trawling of review sites and
> it seems that there is no one standout unit.  Would appreciate anyone's input.
> 
> Thanks,
> David
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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Re: S L O W Leopard

[Michael Waldie]

Hi Lloyd,

Just on the Sandisk Cruzer.
The Sandisk CD will stay there. As far as I'm aware it has to be formatted with 
Windows software or through their website which only works with Windows, to get 
rid of this partition. This used to be the case and by the sounds of it, still 
is.


Michael




On 04/01/2010, at 1:37 PM, Lloyd White wrote:

Hi James & Ronnie,

Thanks for all this info.

I rebooted in Safe Mode. My USB thumb drives then refused to show up at all,
nor did the ext drives. But I think the computer was marginally faster.

The two Google sites took roughly the same time but I had to move the cursor
to make the site open fully otherwise it just sat half through. Took about 4
seconds. No problems with that.

In Activity Monitor both disk and CPU show almost no activity.

With a normal boot the visualiser works fast enough as does a file transfer
and there seems to be nothing hogging the RAM.

The problem seems to be with ext disks and USB drives only.

I was given a 16Gig USB SanDisk Cruiser drive. It appeared on the desk-top
after about 2.5 minutes as well as a CD icon which had .exe files and
others. I reformatted it to get rid of all the exe files etc. But now when I
insert it two strange things happen; the CD still appears with the .exe
files, and my ext Time Machine back-up  disk disappears.

I don't know whether these things are connected. The problems appear to be
around ext drives.

Lloyd



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Re: G5 iMac Lack of Connectivity

[Diana & Graham Stevens]

Hi Ronda

Yes I did, and I tried Safe Boot which was very slow to start up and 
showed no improvement in connectivity. I was not sure how relevant 
the messages were as Lloyd was referring to Snow Leopard and Graham 
uses Leopard.


We bought the iMac on 23/11/04 and it is described as M9249X/A, I 
have no idea what that means.


The lack of RAM means that it is slow to start up but once there the 
applications seem to run normally. Originally the iMac was running 
Panther but he was forced to upgrade because there were no Browsers 
which worked with the Banks etc. When Leopard was first installed all 
was well and he was very happy with Firefox but recently it has 
stopped working.


I have worked out that the bits of the iinet Home Page that don't 
load are the ones which are not local like the news and weather, I 
don't know whether this is significant.


He probably needs a new computer but cash is a bit of a problem for 
us self-funded retirees, and the ducted air-conditioning (which is 12 
years old) has just failed and now we are waiting in trepidation for 
the repair man to come!


On New Year's day Graham was unwell and I said blithely "it will be 
all up from here in 2010", I should remember to walk humbly before 
the gods!


A belated Happy New Year to the list and I must remember to pay my sub!

Diana


Hi Diana,

Have you read yesterdays posts Subject: SLOW Leopard?
Especially James Devenish last reply.

The lack of RAM would be attributing to the slowness.
Plus, older drives are significantly slower than current drives.
But, it certainly sounds "sick" ...

How old is this iMac, 2003 / 2004 model?

Cheers,
Ronni



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Re: S L O W Leopard

[Lloyd White]

Hi James & Ronnie,

Thanks for all this info.

I rebooted in Safe Mode. My USB thumb drives then refused to show up at all,
nor did the ext drives. But I think the computer was marginally faster.

The two Google sites took roughly the same time but I had to move the cursor
to make the site open fully otherwise it just sat half through. Took about 4
seconds. No problems with that.

In Activity Monitor both disk and CPU show almost no activity.

With a normal boot the visualiser works fast enough as does a file transfer
and there seems to be nothing hogging the RAM.

The problem seems to be with ext disks and USB drives only.

I was given a 16Gig USB SanDisk Cruiser drive. It appeared on the desk-top
after about 2.5 minutes as well as a CD icon which had .exe files and
others. I reformatted it to get rid of all the exe files etc. But now when I
insert it two strange things happen; the CD still appears with the .exe
files, and my ext Time Machine back-up  disk disappears.

I don't know whether these things are connected. The problems appear to be
around ext drives.

Lloyd



> 
> Hi Lloyd,
> 
> Your computer is unwell. It should never be that slow, regardless of
> OS. You have the option of starting up in Safe Mode which is quite
> limited but turns of any optional plug-ins.
> 
>  At the end of this e-mail, can I
> suggest that you unplug as many USB accessories as possible, then boot
> into Safe Mode?
> 
> Just to be clear with the Activity Monitor: do the 'disk', 'cpu' and
> 'network' summaries show relatively zero activity? Problems are
> generally-speaking due to a bottleneck in disk (low disk space - not
> in your case; or bad blocks), RAM (run-away programme consuming memory
> and causing virtual memory to be used), network (uncontactable DNS
> server; or remote attacker flooding the computer), wifi/bluetooth
> (similar to network), CPU (rogue process), or due to corruption of
> files, drivers or filesystem.
> 
> What's critical is what's going on *while* the delay is occurring, not
> what's happening You've mentioned that "everything" is slow, but your
> only examples were starting up and opening disks for the first time.
> Can you test these tasks before booting into Safe Mode, and then test
> them again in Safe Mode (if it lets you):
> 
> - Disk: Try copying a very large file (one that takes at least 10
> seconds). Does it start pretty quickly and proceed evenly toward the
> end, or does it sit idle?
> - CPU: Try running the 'visualiser' in iTunes. Do you get a reasonably
> smooth frame rate, or does it take forever to load and then perform
> jerkily?
> - Network: If you visit  does it take a lot
> longer than ?
> 
> James
> 
> On 03/01/2010, Lloyd White  wrote:
>> 
>> Hi Ronnie,
>> 
>> Thanks for your continued support.
>> 
>> iMac
>> HD  500 GB  -388 available.
>> 4 Gb memory (2+2)
>> OS 10.6.2
>> I don't think Rosetta is installed - can't find it. No programs have asked
>> for it.
>> The Console  shows hundreds of messages in the last few days. All sorts of
>> errors and failures to do with Internet Clean-up menu,  iTunes, Osacript,
>> Software update check, system U1 Server and a host of others. Not sure what
>> they mean but it does not look good !
>> 
>> Nothing in the System Startup items folder.
>> 
>> Font book has reported some duplicates but nothing corrupted.
>> 
>> I did a Snow Leopard upgrade. Perhaps I should bite the bullet and do a
>> complete CLEAN install of Snow Leopard. I have  the bootable backup on my
>> ext hard disk, plus my Time Machine backup on another ext disk.
>> 
>> Lloyd
>> 
>> 






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Re: G5 iMac Lack of Connectivity

[Ronda Brown]

Hi Diana,

Have you read yesterdays posts Subject: SLOW Leopard?
Especially James Devenish last reply.

The lack of RAM would be attributing to the slowness. 
Plus, older drives are significantly slower than current drives.
But, it certainly sounds "sick" ...

How old is this iMac, 2003 / 2004 model?

Cheers,
Ronni

17" MacBook Pro Intel Core 2 Duo
2.4 GHz / 4GB / 800MHz / 500GB
OS X 10.6.2 Snow Leopard
Windows 7 Ultimate (under sufferance)

On 04/01/2010, at 10:21 AM, Diana & Graham Stevens wrote:

> 
> Graham's iMac [PowerPC G5(3.0), 1.8 GHz, 1 GB RAM running Leopard] is still 
> connected to the Network but it is very slow and most sites won't load.
> 
> Firefox is unable to load the iinet Home Page. It will load small pages like 
> the  BOM Weather Forecast.
> 
> Sometimes Safari will load the iinet Home Page straight after a restart but 
> it slows right down and sometimes doesn't quite make it, last time it 
> reported 116 items of 121 (1 error) and after about another 5 minutes I 
> stopped the download. If you quit and reopen it does not load.
> 
> Collecting email (Eudora) is very slow.
> 
> Other applications run normally but won't print.
> 
> I repaired permissions and ran Disk Doctor but that has not helped.
> 
> There is plenty of hard drive space 38.4 GB left out of 74.4 GB available.
> 
> The Internet is connected as my G5 is not having problems so I swapped ports 
> on the router with Graham but that made no difference.
> 
> I tried a new EtherNet lead, no difference.
> 
> I just tried pinging my computer and the printer and got the message:
> 
> PING 56 databytes
> 36 bytes from nexthop.wa.iinet.net.au (203.59.14.16): Communication 
> prohibited by filter.
> 
> When I ping in the opposite direction from my G5 I get times of ca 0.35 ms 
> for Graham's Computer and ca 3.27 ms for the Printer (printing from my 
> computer has become very slow too).
> 
> Can someone explain what is happening. Graham's Firewall is set to allow 
> everything through.
> 
> Any suggestions about what to do next will be very gratefully received.
> 
> Diana




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RE: Qpix FS170 handheld scanners

[Paul Weaver]

A couple of people have mentioned to me off-list that they had disappointing 
results when scanning negatives.  My experience has been good.   I've just put 
a couple examples of scanned negatives in the comments of a blog post I 
originally did about the scanner on 16 December  - see 
http://fremantlebiz.livejournal.com/540677.html?view=196357#t196357

I suggest the problems people are having might be because their SD cards are 
not large enough.  I use a 4 GB card.  I have noticed that  my Pentax compact 
camera does not like SD cards from the scanner, but my Nikon compact and Nikon 
SLR are happy to act as go betweens for loading the scanned images to iPhoto.

Kind wishes, Paul.

Dr Paul R. Weaver
http://fremantlebiz.livejournal.com/calendar




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Re: My Magic Mouse is a dog

[Paul K]

Hi,

I tried both these and of the two only MagicPrefs has been stable,
after a few launches the prefs window for BetterTouchTool would no
longer load.
Removing it's prefpane and restarting seems to have uninstalled it.

MagicPrefs increased the tracking speed and enabled the greatly missed
middle-click upon first launch, cheeky.
Tracking speed adjusted back, tapping enabled and sensitivity
decreased a little and it seems pretty good, so far.
Scrolling seems to have been affected by this but I may just need to
get used to the set up.
Gee, there is lots you can enable on a Magic Mouse ;-)

Cheers
Paul


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G5 iMac Lack of Connectivity

[Diana & Graham Stevens]

Graham's iMac [PowerPC G5(3.0), 1.8 GHz, 1 GB RAM running Leopard] is 
still connected to the Network but it is very slow and most sites 
won't load.


Firefox is unable to load the iinet Home Page. It will load small 
pages like the  BOM Weather Forecast.


Sometimes Safari will load the iinet Home Page straight after a 
restart but it slows right down and sometimes doesn't quite make it, 
last time it reported 116 items of 121 (1 error) and after about 
another 5 minutes I stopped the download. If you quit and reopen it 
does not load.


Collecting email (Eudora) is very slow.

Other applications run normally but won't print.

I repaired permissions and ran Disk Doctor but that has not helped.

There is plenty of hard drive space 38.4 GB left out of 74.4 GB available.

The Internet is connected as my G5 is not having problems so I 
swapped ports on the router with Graham but that made no difference.


I tried a new EtherNet lead, no difference.

I just tried pinging my computer and the printer and got the message:

PING 56 databytes
36 bytes from nexthop.wa.iinet.net.au (203.59.14.16): Communication 
prohibited by filter.


When I ping in the opposite direction from my G5 I get times of ca 
0.35 ms for Graham's Computer and ca 3.27 ms for the Printer 
(printing from my computer has become very slow too).


Can someone explain what is happening. Graham's Firewall is set to 
allow everything through.


Any suggestions about what to do next will be very gratefully received.

Diana


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RE: My Magic Mouse is a dog

[Alan Smith]

Thanks Ronni

 

I installed  the MagicPrefs utility using default preferences.   Magic Mouse
now quickly tracks full screen with small hand movements on a standard mouse
mat.

 

Cheers, Alan

 

From: wamug-ow...@wamug.org.au [mailto:wamug-ow...@wamug.org.au] On Behalf
Of Alan Smith
Sent: Sunday, 3 January 2010 7:24 PM
To: 'WAMUG Mailing List'
Subject: RE: My Magic Mouse is a dog

 

Thanks to Roger for your user experience.   

 

Thanks to Ronni for the MagicPrefs link.  The link leads to an expanding
discussion on "fixing the tracking speed" issue experienced by SOME Mac
users, and also to other commercial Magic Mouse replacement software.   

 

I am very reluctant to download third party software for what should be a
basic built-in and problem-free Apple utility.   However it does confirm
that I am not alone in the world with a most inconvenient mouse.   I didn't
mention it earlier, but one apple.com discussion item recommended entering
some code in Terminal to fix the problem.  I'm even more reluctant to type
code in Terminal, particularly if it doesn't come with an authoritative
recommendation, copy-and-paste code, and clear "how to" instructions. 

 

I will spend more time reading about MagicPrefs and Better Touch Tool.  Will
probably then install the utility.  And hope it just fixes my problem
without forcing me into three button mode and other unwanted "enhancements".


 

Thank you

Alan

 

On 03/01/2010, at 6:11 PM, rkor...@iinet.net.au wrote:

 

Hi

 

I have a magic mouse on my office MacPro that has 2x20" screens and my desk
is a pine desk!  I have no problems at all and 

to go from one screen to the other is just a flick of the wrist. I am not to
sure what to suggest in your case but it works fine 

for me :)

 

I am using 10.6.2 as you are and all the tracking changes I make are
reflected in the mouse, so I can't see a problem here at 

all.

 

Best regards

 

Roger

 

 

On Sun Jan  3 16:27 , Ronda Brown  sent:

 

 

On 03/01/2010, at 3:03 PM, Alan Smith wrote:

 

I have two serious problems with the Magic Mouse on my near-new iMac 21.5"
Snow Leopard 10.6.2.  Can you help?

 

1.  The mouse tracking speed does not seem to be adjustable.  No difference
is noted between a Tracking Speed of Slow or Fast (or any point between)
when adjusted via System Preferences > Mouse.   I even Restarted the iMac
after making changes, but without effect.

 

2.  The tracking problem creates the need for a larger mouse mat to traverse
the screen.   How on earth do the enviable owners of an iMac 27" manage?
Mac literature tells us that a mat is not needed - but my wooden desktop is
not suited for tracking.  The Magic Mouse works on most surfaces (white,
coloured or patterned) but it scrapes and feels rough.   It glides and
operates best on high gloss printed card, but this surface is not very
durable.   Magic Mouse doesn't work at all on transparent glass or on a
glass mirror.  My old fabric coated rubberised (wetsuit material?) mouse mat
from roller ball days is good - at least it doesn't slide around the desktop
when the mouse is used.

 

The Discussions forum on apple.com seem to offer a range of contradictory
opinions but no real answers to tracking speed problems.  There is a
suggestion that this problem started after an OSX upgrade.   I could find no
formal acknowledgment of the problem, or word that an official fix is on the
way from Apple. Much of the discussion on Magic Mouse problems were
noted following upgrades via Tiger and Leopard.   I point out that my iMac
was delivered new with Snow Leopard 10.6 installed.

 

A search of the WAMUG archives and on apple.com discussions show that mouse
mat solutions are of the quick workaround kind, not an elegant long term
solution that I am looking for.   

 

Regards, Alan

 

Alan Smith

  iMac 21.5" Nov 2009

  Intel Core 2 Duo 3.06 GHz / 4 MB

  OSX 10.6.2 Snow Leopard

 

Hi Alan,

 

A lot of people have had success using "MagicPrefs":

 



 

"If you're using Apple's latest and greatest little peripheral, the Magic
Mouse, you don't want to be without MagicPrefs. 

Our good friends over at TUAWstumbled on this free and extremely useful
utility that gives you control over every aspect of your mouse experience.
>From adjusting your tracking speed to assigning functions to buttons and
gestures, MagicPrefs has you covered."

 

Cheers,

Ronni

 

17" MacBook Pro Intel Core 2 Duo

2.4 GHz / 4GB / 800MHz / 500GB

OS X 10.6.2 Snow Leopard

Windows 7 Ultimate (under sufferance)

 

  _  


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Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
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Re: Airport Extreme Card

[Murdoch Allen]

I have one lying around here somewhere I will have a look tommorrow  
and get back to you

On 03/01/2010, at 7:03 AM, Joe Mastrella wrote:

Greetings! Happy New Year! I am in need of an airport extreme card  
for my new to me eMac. Does anyone have one for sale.


Cheers, Joe


If you can smile when things go wrong
You obvoiusly have someone in mind to blame



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RE: My Magic Mouse is a dog

[Alan Smith]

Thanks to Roger for your user experience.   

 

Thanks to Ronni for the MagicPrefs link.  The link leads to an expanding
discussion on "fixing the tracking speed" issue experienced by SOME Mac
users, and also to other commercial Magic Mouse replacement software.   

 

I am very reluctant to download third party software for what should be a
basic built-in and problem-free Apple utility.   However it does confirm
that I am not alone in the world with a most inconvenient mouse.   I didn't
mention it earlier, but one apple.com discussion item recommended entering
some code in Terminal to fix the problem.  I'm even more reluctant to type
code in Terminal, particularly if it doesn't come with an authoritative
recommendation, copy-and-paste code, and clear "how to" instructions. 

 

I will spend more time reading about MagicPrefs and Better Touch Tool.  Will
probably then install the utility.  And hope it just fixes my problem
without forcing me into three button mode and other unwanted "enhancements".


 

Thank you

Alan

 

On 03/01/2010, at 6:11 PM, rkor...@iinet.net.au wrote:

 

Hi

 

I have a magic mouse on my office MacPro that has 2x20" screens and my desk
is a pine desk!  I have no problems at all and 

to go from one screen to the other is just a flick of the wrist. I am not to
sure what to suggest in your case but it works fine 

for me :)

 

I am using 10.6.2 as you are and all the tracking changes I make are
reflected in the mouse, so I can't see a problem here at 

all.

 

Best regards

 

Roger

 

 

On Sun Jan  3 16:27 , Ronda Brown  sent:

 

 

On 03/01/2010, at 3:03 PM, Alan Smith wrote:





I have two serious problems with the Magic Mouse on my near-new iMac 21.5"
Snow Leopard 10.6.2.  Can you help?

 

1.  The mouse tracking speed does not seem to be adjustable.  No difference
is noted between a Tracking Speed of Slow or Fast (or any point between)
when adjusted via System Preferences > Mouse.   I even Restarted the iMac
after making changes, but without effect.

 

2.  The tracking problem creates the need for a larger mouse mat to traverse
the screen.   How on earth do the enviable owners of an iMac 27" manage?
Mac literature tells us that a mat is not needed - but my wooden desktop is
not suited for tracking.  The Magic Mouse works on most surfaces (white,
coloured or patterned) but it scrapes and feels rough.   It glides and
operates best on high gloss printed card, but this surface is not very
durable.   Magic Mouse doesn't work at all on transparent glass or on a
glass mirror.  My old fabric coated rubberised (wetsuit material?) mouse mat
from roller ball days is good - at least it doesn't slide around the desktop
when the mouse is used.

 

The Discussions forum on apple.com seem to offer a range of contradictory
opinions but no real answers to tracking speed problems.  There is a
suggestion that this problem started after an OSX upgrade.   I could find no
formal acknowledgment of the problem, or word that an official fix is on the
way from Apple. Much of the discussion on Magic Mouse problems were
noted following upgrades via Tiger and Leopard.   I point out that my iMac
was delivered new with Snow Leopard 10.6 installed.

 

A search of the WAMUG archives and on apple.com discussions show that mouse
mat solutions are of the quick workaround kind, not an elegant long term
solution that I am looking for.   

 

Regards, Alan

 

Alan Smith

  iMac 21.5" Nov 2009

  Intel Core 2 Duo 3.06 GHz / 4 MB

  OSX 10.6.2 Snow Leopard

 

Hi Alan,

 

A lot of people have had success using "MagicPrefs":

 



 

"If you're using Apple's latest and greatest little peripheral, the Magic
Mouse, you don't want to be without MagicPrefs. 

Our good friends over at TUAWstumbled on this free and extremely useful
utility that gives you control over every aspect of your mouse experience.
>From adjusting your tracking speed to assigning functions to buttons and
gestures, MagicPrefs has you covered."

 

Cheers,

Ronni

 

17" MacBook Pro Intel Core 2 Duo

2.4 GHz / 4GB / 800MHz / 500GB

OS X 10.6.2 Snow Leopard

Windows 7 Ultimate (under sufferance)





  _  


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16:22:00



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Scanners

[David Wood]

Hi All,

Some time ago... 2008 I think... I enquired with the list about scanners to use 
for old colour and black and white photos.  Ronni came back and recommended the 
Epson Stylus Photo TX700W MFP Wireless Printer.  I am now in the market to buy 
and wondered whether in the time that has lapsed there are any other 
recommendations?  I have done the usual trawling of review sites and it seems 
that there is no one standout unit.  Would appreciate anyone's input.

Thanks,
David




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Re: My Magic Mouse is a dog

[rkor...@iinet.net.au]

Hi

I have a magic mouse on my office MacPro that has 2x20" screens and my desk is 
a pine desk!  I have no problems at all and 
to go from one screen to the other is just a flick of the wrist. I am not to 
sure what to suggest in your case but it works fine 
for me :)

I am using 10.6.2 as you are and all the tracking changes I make are reflected 
in the mouse, so I can't see a problem here at 
all.

Best regards

Roger


On Sun Jan  3 16:27 , Ronda Brown  sent:

>
>On 03/01/2010, at 3:03 PM, Alan Smith wrote:I have two serious problems with 
>the Magic Mouse on my near-new iMac 
21.5” Snow Leopard 10.6.2.  Can you help? 1.  The mouse tracking speed does not 
seem to be adjustable.  No difference is 
noted between a Tracking Speed of Slow or Fast (or any point between) when 
adjusted via System Preferences > Mouse.   I 
even Restarted the iMac after making changes, but without effect. 2.  The 
tracking problem creates the need for a larger 
mouse mat to traverse the screen.   How on earth do the enviable owners of an 
iMac 27” manage?   Mac literature tells us that 
a mat is not needed – but my wooden desktop is not suited for tracking.  The 
Magic Mouse works on most surfaces (white, 
coloured or patterned) but it scrapes and feels rough.   It glides and operates 
best on high gloss printed card, but this surface 
is not very durable.   Magic Mouse doesn’t work at all on transparent glass or 
on a glass mirror.  My old fabric coated 
rubberised (wetsuit material?) mouse mat from roller ball days is good – at 
least it doesn’t slide around the desktop when 
the mouse is used. The Discussions forum on apple.com seem to offer a range of 
contradictory opinions but no real answers 
to tracking speed problems.  There is a suggestion that this problem started 
after an OSX upgrade.   I could find no formal 
acknowledgment of the problem, or word that an official fix is on the way from 
Apple.     Much of the discussion on Magic 
Mouse problems were noted following upgrades via Tiger and Leopard.   I point 
out that my iMac was delivered new with 
Snow Leopard 10.6 installed. A search of the WAMUG archives and 
on apple.com discussions show that mouse mat solutions 
are of the quick workaround kind, not an elegant long term solution that I am 
looking for.    Regards, Alan Alan Smith  iMac 
21.5" Nov 2009  Intel Core 2 Duo 3.06 GHz / 4 MB  OSX 10.6.2 Snow Leopard
>Hi Alan,
>A lot of people have had success using "MagicPrefs":
>
>"If you're using Apple's latest and greatest little peripheral, the Magic 
>Mouse, you don't want to be 
without MagicPrefs. Our good friends over at TUAWstumbled on this free and 
extremely useful utility that gives you control 
over every aspect of your mouse experience. From adjusting your tracking speed 
to assigning functions to buttons and 
gestures, MagicPrefs has you covered."
>
>Cheers,Ronni
>17" MacBook Pro Intel Core 2 Duo2.4 GHz / 4GB / 800MHz / 500GBOS X 10.6.2 Snow 
>LeopardWindows 7 Ultimate (under 
sufferance)
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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>



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Re: Unable to lower Print Head Lock Lever

[Joe Baker]

Hi All

Thanks for the replies

Yes, I removed all the tapes and the orange protective cap leaving just the 
Print Head, turned on the printer and inserted the Print Head into its carriage 
- (although the Head itself has a white part at the bottom _ I did not attempt 
or think to remove this as it appears to be part of the Head).

No way can the Lock Lever be put down as it is stopped immediately by the sides 
of the Print Head. (It looks like the Print Head should be lower down in its 
carriage but it is now firmly wedged where it is and will not move any lower or 
can even be extracted back out).

Looks like I will have to ring the manufacturer. Rather frustrating as I 
believe I have followed the instructions to the letter and have come stuck. How 
can something so simple go so wrong? There is nothing in the instructions that 
even suggests such a thing could happen, let alone what to do if it does.

Regards Joe




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Re: MOUSE WITH A MIND OF ITS OWN

[James Devenish]

Hi Julie,

On 03/01/2010, Julie Bedford  wrote:
> It may not occur for an hour, but then the mouse takes off on its own
> accord and it can take me a minute or two to gain control of it again
> and that is with the use of two mice.  It's ridiculous.  It's like the mouse
> is possessed !!

I agree with you that it is ridiculous! If you mean you are using two
mice at the same time, as well as Mouse Keys, without success, then
there are two likely situations.

Firstly, it's possibly a software problem (e.g., an unknown virus) and
would be solved by an "Archive and Install" of your Mac OS X.
Secondly, it's possible that your computer is receiving erroneous
hardware signals, either from an intended device or a unintentional
device. For instance, if your computer is somehow shared over
Bluetooth, WiFi or Internet, there is the possibility of remote
interference. This can be checked by going into the relevant
preferences and isolating your computer from the outside world.

Out of curiosity, when the problem occurs, can you see the mouse at
the bottom of the screen, and does it slide side-to-side horizontally
but never go up-or-down? Or does it bounce around a bit along the
bottom of the screen? Or is it not visible at all? (If it's not
visible at all: open your Displays system preferences and check that
your computer does not think it has two screens. If it does, the mouse
can get stuck on the other screen...sometimes happens to me when I use
an external projector.)

James


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Re: S L O W Leopard

[James Devenish]

Hi Lloyd,

Your computer is unwell. It should never be that slow, regardless of
OS. You have the option of starting up in Safe Mode which is quite
limited but turns of any optional plug-ins.

 At the end of this e-mail, can I
suggest that you unplug as many USB accessories as possible, then boot
into Safe Mode?

Just to be clear with the Activity Monitor: do the 'disk', 'cpu' and
'network' summaries show relatively zero activity? Problems are
generally-speaking due to a bottleneck in disk (low disk space - not
in your case; or bad blocks), RAM (run-away programme consuming memory
and causing virtual memory to be used), network (uncontactable DNS
server; or remote attacker flooding the computer), wifi/bluetooth
(similar to network), CPU (rogue process), or due to corruption of
files, drivers or filesystem.

What's critical is what's going on *while* the delay is occurring, not
what's happening You've mentioned that "everything" is slow, but your
only examples were starting up and opening disks for the first time.
Can you test these tasks before booting into Safe Mode, and then test
them again in Safe Mode (if it lets you):

- Disk: Try copying a very large file (one that takes at least 10
seconds). Does it start pretty quickly and proceed evenly toward the
end, or does it sit idle?
- CPU: Try running the 'visualiser' in iTunes. Do you get a reasonably
smooth frame rate, or does it take forever to load and then perform
jerkily?
- Network: If you visit  does it take a lot
longer than ?

James

On 03/01/2010, Lloyd White  wrote:
>
> Hi Ronnie,
>
> Thanks for your continued support.
>
> iMac
> HD  500 GB  -388 available.
> 4 Gb memory (2+2)
> OS 10.6.2
> I don't think Rosetta is installed - can't find it. No programs have asked
> for it.
> The Console  shows hundreds of messages in the last few days. All sorts of
> errors and failures to do with Internet Clean-up menu,  iTunes, Osacript,
> Software update check, system U1 Server and a host of others. Not sure what
> they mean but it does not look good !
>
> Nothing in the System Startup items folder.
>
> Font book has reported some duplicates but nothing corrupted.
>
> I did a Snow Leopard upgrade. Perhaps I should bite the bullet and do a
> complete CLEAN install of Snow Leopard. I have  the bootable backup on my
> ext hard disk, plus my Time Machine backup on another ext disk.
>
> Lloyd
>
>
>
>
>
>>
>> Hi Lloyd,
>>
>> What are the specifications of your Mac?
>> How full is the hard drive?
>> How much memory is installed?
>> Are you running OSX programs or those that require the use of Rosetta?
>>
>> 1. The most obvious is check Activity Monitor for signs of applications or
>> utilities that may be chewing up CPU time under Snow Leopard.
>>
>> 2. You should also check your system.log (viewable via
>> Applications->Utilities->Console) to make sure something isn't logging
>> continuous errors, also slowing down your machine.
>>
>> 3. Look in Library > StartupItems and in System > Library > StartupItems.
>> Move
>> whatever you find in them to the desktop to see if your problem is
>> resolved.
>> You can move whatever you want back one at a time to test which, if any,
>> is
>> your problem.
>>
>> 4. Use Font Book to eliminate all bad and duplicate fonts.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Ronni
>>
>> On 03/01/2010, at 4:31 PM, Lloyd White wrote:
>>
>>
>
>
>
>
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Re: S L O W Leopard

[Lloyd White]

Hi Ronnie,

Thanks for your continued support.

iMac
HD  500 GB  -388 available.
4 Gb memory (2+2)
OS 10.6.2
I don't think Rosetta is installed - can't find it. No programs have asked
for it.
The Console  shows hundreds of messages in the last few days. All sorts of
errors and failures to do with Internet Clean-up menu,  iTunes, Osacript,
Software update check, system U1 Server and a host of others. Not sure what
they mean but it does not look good !

Nothing in the System Startup items folder.

Font book has reported some duplicates but nothing corrupted.

I did a Snow Leopard upgrade. Perhaps I should bite the bullet and do a
complete CLEAN install of Snow Leopard. I have  the bootable backup on my
ext hard disk, plus my Time Machine backup on another ext disk.

Lloyd 





> 
> Hi Lloyd,
> 
> What are the specifications of your Mac?
> How full is the hard drive?
> How much memory is installed?
> Are you running OSX programs or those that require the use of Rosetta?
> 
> 1. The most obvious is check Activity Monitor for signs of applications or
> utilities that may be chewing up CPU time under Snow Leopard.
> 
> 2. You should also check your system.log (viewable via
> Applications->Utilities->Console) to make sure something isn't logging
> continuous errors, also slowing down your machine.
> 
> 3. Look in Library > StartupItems and in System > Library > StartupItems. Move
> whatever you find in them to the desktop to see if your problem is resolved.
> You can move whatever you want back one at a time to test which, if any, is
> your problem.
> 
> 4. Use Font Book to eliminate all bad and duplicate fonts.
> 
> Cheers,
> Ronni
> 
> On 03/01/2010, at 4:31 PM, Lloyd White wrote:
> 
>




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Re: MOUSE WITH A MIND OF ITS OWN

[Julie Bedford]

Thanks Yvonne and James.  I have done everything you suggested, but
still have the problem.

It may not occur for an hour, but then the mouse takes off on its own  
accord and
it can take me a minute or two to gain control of it again and that is  
with the use

of two mice.  It's ridiculous.  It's like the mouse is possessed !!

I did wonder if I had picked up a virus of some sort, but seems the  
computer is
clean.  My husband is the only person in the house and he has not a  
clue about

computers.  Also the white paper trick does not work.

I really think my only solution is to upgrade the Mac, as crazy as  
that sounds.


Anyone else with any ideas please ?

Jewels

On 03/01/2010, at 6:35 AM, James Devenish wrote:



Hi Julie,

On 02/01/2010, at 10:11 PM, Julie Bedford wrote:

I have a problem with my mouse for the past year or so.
The problem is that my wired mouse sometimes takes off to the
bottom of the screen...I then bought a Microsoft one (has a plug
in USB so one can use without wires)...It is getting to the point
where it occurs every minute or so.


Sorry to hear of your long-term problem. You've obviously tried a
number of things to fix it.  But in every case I've heard of, mouse
problems are due to a physical issues such as using an unsuitable
mouse pad (or lack of mouse pad), dirt on the bottom or inside the
mouse, or low batteries (for wireless mice).

As Yvonne suggested, I recommend you try the blank piece of paper
temporarily, to see if it makes a difference. Wood is not a good
surface for mice. For some people, the back of the mouse pad (i.e.,
the black rubbery side) works better. (But for some people, it makes
the problem worse. I'm just suggesting it as another last resort.)

The other thing is...and this is very unlikely...someone could have
played a prank on you. There are some prank programs that can be put
onto your computer that cause this to happen. I temporarily had one
installed on my own laptop just for fun (really) but I can't remember
the name of it.

You might also wish to resort to trying SteerMouse
, which is a programme that lets
you adjust the motion sensitivity of your mice.

Alternatively, Mac OS X has a feature that allows you to control your
cursor with your keyboard (it's intended to help people who have
physical disabilities). You might like to enable this feature, so that
you can use the keyboard to move your mouse back to the middle of the
screen. To do this, open your "System Preferences", go into "Universal
Access", then click on the "Mouse & Keyboard" tab, and turn on "Mouse
Keys". To use Mouse Keys, you will need a full-size keyboard with a
numerical keyboard on the right, or enable "Num Lock" on a smaller
keyboard. Depends on your keyboard.

- James


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Re: S L O W Leopard

[Ronda Brown]

Hi Lloyd,

What are the specifications of your Mac?
How full is the hard drive? 
How much memory is installed?
Are you running OSX programs or those that require the use of Rosetta? 

1. The most obvious is check Activity Monitor for signs of applications or 
utilities that may be chewing up CPU time under Snow Leopard.

2. You should also check your system.log (viewable via 
Applications->Utilities->Console) to make sure something isn't logging 
continuous errors, also slowing down your machine. 

3. Look in Library > StartupItems and in System > Library > StartupItems. Move 
whatever you find in them to the desktop to see if your problem is resolved. 
You can move whatever you want back one at a time to test which, if any, is 
your problem.

4. Use Font Book to eliminate all bad and duplicate fonts.

Cheers,
Ronni

On 03/01/2010, at 4:31 PM, Lloyd White wrote:

> 
> Hi Ronni,
> 
> Thanks for your help.  I checked the Activity monitor and nothing seemed to
> be taking too big a percentage.
> 
> Nothing is taking more than 0.8% of CPU.
> The largest items of Real Memory are 148 MB for Earth Desk Core, 109 MB for
> iClip, 70MB for Entourage and 30 MB for URL Manager.
> 
> But I trashed the .plist file anyway and restarted.
> 
> I know this depends on the applications set to launch on boot but it took
> one minute 35 secs to launch everything.
> 
> It still took 35 secs for a 1 gig USB drive to show up and 45 secs for my
> Firewire 250 gig ext disk to show up.
> 
> That is an improvement but still much longer than under ordinary old
> Leopard.  I quit all those applications and it made no difference to the
> time it takes for the ext drives to show up.
> 
> Thanks 
> 
> Lloyd 
> 
> 
> 
>> 
>> Hi Lloyd,
>> 
>> If you Mac is running slow since Snow Leopard installation, check in Activity
>> Viewer to see if "Core Audiod" is using a heap of available RAM.
>> If so, delete this preference file  /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/
>> com.apple.audio.coreaudiod.plist
>> 
>> Then Restart your Mac and it should run a fast responsive Snow Leopard.
>> 
>> Cheers,
>> Ronni
>> 
>> 17" MacBook Pro Intel Core 2 Duo
>> 2.4 GHz / 4GB / 800MHz / 500GB
>> OS X 10.6.2 Snow Leopard
>> Windows 7 Ultimate (under sufferance)
>> 
>> 
>> On 03/01/2010, at 2:58 PM, Lloyd White wrote:
>> 
>>> 
>>> I hear people say that Snow Leopard should be faster but since upgrading
>>> everything is v e r y slow.
>>> E.g. it takes 50 sec and up to 90 secs for a CD or a USB thumb drive to show
>>> up on the screen.
>>> 
>>> My 250 gig ext hard drive takes more like 2 minutes to appear.
>>> Is there some way of speeding this up? Clean the spark plugs? Lube and oil
>>> change?
>>> 
>>> Done the normal things using Snow Leopard Cache Cleaner to no avail.
>>> 
>>> Lloyd (whose life is slipping away waiting).
> 





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Re: My Magic Mouse is a dog

[Ronda Brown]

On 03/01/2010, at 3:03 PM, Alan Smith wrote:

> I have two serious problems with the Magic Mouse on my near-new iMac 21.5” 
> Snow Leopard 10.6.2.  Can you help?
>  
> 1.  The mouse tracking speed does not seem to be adjustable.  No difference 
> is noted between a Tracking Speed of Slow or Fast (or any point between) when 
> adjusted via System Preferences > Mouse.   I even Restarted the iMac after 
> making changes, but without effect.
>  
> 2.  The tracking problem creates the need for a larger mouse mat to traverse 
> the screen.   How on earth do the enviable owners of an iMac 27” manage?   
> Mac literature tells us that a mat is not needed – but my wooden desktop is 
> not suited for tracking.  The Magic Mouse works on most surfaces (white, 
> coloured or patterned) but it scrapes and feels rough.   It glides and 
> operates best on high gloss printed card, but this surface is not very 
> durable.   Magic Mouse doesn’t work at all on transparent glass or on a glass 
> mirror.  My old fabric coated rubberised (wetsuit material?) mouse mat from 
> roller ball days is good – at least it doesn’t slide around the desktop when 
> the mouse is used.
>  
> The Discussions forum on apple.com seem to offer a range of contradictory 
> opinions but no real answers to tracking speed problems.  There is a 
> suggestion that this problem started after an OSX upgrade.   I could find no 
> formal acknowledgment of the problem, or word that an official fix is on the 
> way from Apple. Much of the discussion on Magic Mouse problems were noted 
> following upgrades via Tiger and Leopard.   I point out that my iMac was 
> delivered new with Snow Leopard 10.6 installed.
>  
> A search of the WAMUG archives and on apple.com discussions show that mouse 
> mat solutions are of the quick workaround kind, not an elegant long term 
> solution that I am looking for.   
>  
> Regards, Alan
>  
> Alan Smith
>   iMac 21.5" Nov 2009
>   Intel Core 2 Duo 3.06 GHz / 4 MB
>   OSX 10.6.2 Snow Leopard

Hi Alan,

A lot of people have had success using "MagicPrefs":



"If you're using Apple's latest and greatest little peripheral, the Magic 
Mouse, you don't want to be without MagicPrefs. 
Our good friends over at TUAWstumbled on this free and extremely useful utility 
that gives you control over every aspect of your mouse experience. From 
adjusting your tracking speed to assigning functions to buttons and gestures, 
MagicPrefs has you covered."

Cheers,
Ronni

17" MacBook Pro Intel Core 2 Duo
2.4 GHz / 4GB / 800MHz / 500GB
OS X 10.6.2 Snow Leopard
Windows 7 Ultimate (under sufferance)



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Re: S L O W Leopard

[Lloyd White]

Hi Ronni,

Thanks for your help.  I checked the Activity monitor and nothing seemed to
be taking too big a percentage.

Nothing is taking more than 0.8% of CPU.
The largest items of Real Memory are 148 MB for Earth Desk Core, 109 MB for
iClip, 70MB for Entourage and 30 MB for URL Manager.

But I trashed the .plist file anyway and restarted.

I know this depends on the applications set to launch on boot but it took
one minute 35 secs to launch everything.

It still took 35 secs for a 1 gig USB drive to show up and 45 secs for my
Firewire 250 gig ext disk to show up.

That is an improvement but still much longer than under ordinary old
Leopard.  I quit all those applications and it made no difference to the
time it takes for the ext drives to show up.

Thanks 

Lloyd 



> 
> Hi Lloyd,
> 
> If you Mac is running slow since Snow Leopard installation, check in Activity
> Viewer to see if "Core Audiod" is using a heap of available RAM.
> If so, delete this preference file  /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/
> com.apple.audio.coreaudiod.plist
> 
> Then Restart your Mac and it should run a fast responsive Snow Leopard.
> 
> Cheers,
> Ronni
> 
> 17" MacBook Pro Intel Core 2 Duo
> 2.4 GHz / 4GB / 800MHz / 500GB
> OS X 10.6.2 Snow Leopard
> Windows 7 Ultimate (under sufferance)
> 
> 
> On 03/01/2010, at 2:58 PM, Lloyd White wrote:
> 
>> 
>> I hear people say that Snow Leopard should be faster but since upgrading
>> everything is v e r y slow.
>> E.g. it takes 50 sec and up to 90 secs for a CD or a USB thumb drive to show
>> up on the screen.
>> 
>> My 250 gig ext hard drive takes more like 2 minutes to appear.
>> Is there some way of speeding this up? Clean the spark plugs? Lube and oil
>> change?
>> 
>> Done the normal things using Snow Leopard Cache Cleaner to no avail.
>> 
>> Lloyd (whose life is slipping away waiting).




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