Mac Questions Thread. I killed my Mac today....

[24alpha]

Not sure if serious...

Video/photo editing is very CPU intensive. You can chuck 32GB of ram in a system if you want, but I've never seen mine use over 7GB, even using photoshop and playing BF3 at the same time on two screens.

Nope, but it sure makes it happen faster! lol

Tris, Think of the iMac as a MBP with a huge screen. The GPU's arn't the same as a desktop equivilant. Pump ur money into CPU and RAM. I have a 2010 27" with the i5 and 8GB of ram. Edits with Final Cut pretty well, have never had a issue with PS CS5 or lower. The spec you have mentioned will be fine.

 

[Hew]

Nope, but it sure makes it happen faster! lol

If you're going to go the whole 'omg download moar ram' route, then at least make sure you buy a high Mhz ram, not just 32gb of 600Mhz, because you'll be wasting your time.

 

[Troy Buswell]

Brain Space

Thats an easy one
for the hard drive you just right click on the desktop icon and a drop down menu appears. scroll down to the one that says 'get info' another window will appear and low and behold how much hard drive space you have and how much you are using are there.
Your Ram info is in the apple menu get info
Not sure which one you are after so I hope that helps.

Might go sniff at some ladies seats now........proudly

 

[hach_bee]

CASH REWARD FOR THIS SOLUTION cos jesus christ I'm about to throw my MBP through a window...

My trackpad is possessed. Or is at least acting like it. The cursor jumps all over the screen clicking randomly, responds to one finger actions as two, selects random shit and is a pain in the ass!! It can be intermittent but is playing up majority of the time. Currently trying to finish assessment and do exams and this is making word processing fucking impossible. Seriously, if anyone has ANY ideas I will swing you cash or a six pack for a solution!

I have: a MBP unibody 13", should still be under warranty... runs OSX 10.6.8... I look after this thing like it's my baby, it's never been dropped/wet etc. I've read forums suggesting battery swelling but after popping off the back I couldn't see anything unusual!? The only reason I'm not taking it in for warranty yet is if I have to pay for ANYTHING, I can't afford it right now (am lucky paying rent on time right now)

Again, desperate for solution as it's taken me 10min to write this, you can imagine me trying to get uni work done!

 

[3viltoast3r]

Is the pad filthy? And do you have a mouse plugged in? Plug a mouse in and see if it works then, If it doesnt then I would say it's a software issue - If it does I would guess that it's a hardware issue and should be fixed free of charge.

 

[cressa]

CASH REWARD FOR THIS SOLUTION cos jesus christ I'm about to throw my MBP through a window...

My trackpad is possessed. Or is at least acting like it. The cursor jumps all over the screen clicking randomly, responds to one finger actions as two, selects random shit and is a pain in the ass!! It can be intermittent but is playing up majority of the time. Currently trying to finish assessment and do exams and this is making word processing fucking impossible. Seriously, if anyone has ANY ideas I will swing you cash or a six pack for a solution!

I have: a MBP unibody 13", should still be under warranty... runs OSX 10.6.8... I look after this thing like it's my baby, it's never been dropped/wet etc. I've read forums suggesting battery swelling but after popping off the back I couldn't see anything unusual!? The only reason I'm not taking it in for warranty yet is if I have to pay for ANYTHING, I can't afford it right now (am lucky paying rent on time right now)

Again, desperate for solution as it's taken me 10min to write this, you can imagine me trying to get uni work done!

Plug in a mouse until you can get it looked at. That's all I got

 

[hach_bee]

Is the pad filthy? And do you have a mouse plugged in? Plug a mouse in and see if it works then, If it doesnt then I would say it's a software issue - If it does I would guess that it's a hardware issue and should be fixed free of charge.

Pad is clean and I've never used a mouse with this one... funnily enough it's stopped doing it... for now. Tonight was the longest it had since it started playing up, couldn't use it from 4 this arvo till about 11 tonight... taking it in tomorrow, but I can't be without it with all this assessment due!

 

[jayjay3032]

Do a hardware reset. Shut down then press and hold the power button. After about 10 seconds it will do a long loud chime. Release the button and it will boot as normal. This often clears up things like this.

 

[hach_bee]

Tried, didn't work took it in today but getting it looked at means losing it for 3 or 4 days which I cant do right now

 

[No Skid Marks]

Pardon my ignorance.
Can I use linkage on my Mac? and what do I use to open/use it?

 

[brisneyland]

1) A factor in this deliberation is that more and more programs are being released with multithread capability. That is they can use more than one CPU thread to execute a single command. So things happen more quickly. Some photo editors and video editing programs are multi-threaded, for example. However, the Internet browser you use to access Netbank or your email client is not, and is unlikely to be in the foreseeable future.

This is one of the many reasons why Core i7 processors are the creme de la creme. Not only are they quad cores, they also support Hyper-Threading. Thus, a total of eight threads can run on them at the same time. Combine that with 8MB of cache and Intel Turbo Boost Technology, which all of them have, and you’ll see what sets the Core i7 apart from its siblings.#

2) Some programs allow you to use the memory(ram) onboard the graphics card as well as your installed memory. Unless you are gaming you will see no difference between a 512mb card and 2gb card for 2d applications.

The ram on a gfx card preloads "Stuff" required to make a game / program do it pretty thing you wont be stressing this side of it for what you have said you want to do. However if your going to game get the bigger card.

Interesting. I'm thinking about picking up a refurb base model iMac 27" with the 512mb video card.

I don't game but I probably will have a cheapo external monitor plugged in - will the extra video ram make much of a difference?

 

[jayjay3032]

The first of the i series iMacs had a dodgy 512mb card. It was working pretty hard to run the massive display. This was more previlent when running windows.
If graphics is important to you and you'll be installing windows I'd go for the model after with the 1gb card. Sorry cant remember card models

 

[3viltoast3r]

Pardon my ignorance.
Can I use linkage on my Mac? and what do I use to open/use it?

Yes, Although it may require stuffing round and not work perfectly.

Easiest way is with vmware or parralels if you got the money/whatever.

Although the free way:
-Install xcode
-Install macports
-Use macports to install wine
-use wine to open linkage
-profit

It will work but takes a little bit of time..

 

[No Skid Marks]

Yes, Although it may require stuffing round and not work perfectly.

Easiest way is with vmware or parralels if you got the money/whatever.

Although the free way:
-Install xcode
-Install macports
-Use macports to install wine
-use wine to open linkage
-profit

It will work but takes a little bit of time..

Damn, I have no idea what this means. Linkage advised to use something(cant recall name), I came to a wall but. Sucks without knowledge. And I think I need Leopard, I'm still using some 5 year old thing.

 

[Kizzmtbr]

Damn, I have no idea what this means. Linkage advised to use something(cant recall name), I came to a wall but. Sucks without knowledge. And I think I need Leopard, I'm still using some 5 year old thing.

What about just using wine bottler? Takes away all the messing around.

 

[No Skid Marks]

What about just using wine bottler? Takes away all the messing around.

No idea what that is, but I'll google it and try. Hope it's retard proof.
Cheers

 

[PINT of Stella. mate!]

So all of a sudden whilst on Windows using Bootcamp, my laptop crashed. Everything seems to have loaded back fine except now my wireless magic mouse is no longer working.

This is the same for both Windows and OSX. In OSX the mouse appears to connect and disconnect normally when I use both the bluetooth icon and the on/off switch on the mouse however there is no movement from the mouse. I've discounted it being just a problem with the laser as the buttons are screwed as well. The battery level was at 50% and I've since put fresh batteries in and still no luck.

Windows also appears to pick up the mouse but there's still no function from it.

Any ideas?

 

[indica]

 

[johnny]

Hey guys, I need to mooch of your brilliance again...., flatter flatter.

I have a bunch of smaller pics that I want to turn in to collages for my screen saver. They're mostly jpgs but there will be other pic files mixed in.

I'm using preview Version 4.2 (469.5) and the project isn't important enough for me to purchase new software (and I don't DL bootlegs). The prob I'm having is that when I copy/paste in to a new screen or when that already has a file in it the new pic/file constantly centers in the frame, overlays the exisiting file and crops at the edges of the existing file as well.

Is there anyway of using preview, or even any other application on a normal mac when I can take a bunch of pic files and lay them out to create a collage for my screen saver?

Cheers and god love a Friday knock off!!

 

[Regan of Gong]

Hey guys, I need to mooch of your brilliance again...., flatter flatter.

I have a bunch of smaller pics that I want to turn in to collages for my screen saver. They're mostly jpgs but there will be other pic files mixed in.

I'm using preview Version 4.2 (469.5) and the project isn't important enough for me to purchase new software (and I don't DL bootlegs). The prob I'm having is that when I copy/paste in to a new screen or when that already has a file in it the new pic/file constantly centers in the frame, overlays the exisiting file and crops at the edges of the existing file as well.

Is there anyway of using preview, or even any other application on a normal mac when I can take a bunch of pic files and lay them out to create a collage for my screen saver?

Cheers and god love a Friday knock off!!

Picasa has a collage function, I'd reckon there's an app out there for it as well on the app store.