Problem with iSight/webcam Not Being Recognized in iMovie
If you are unable to record videos using your iSight camera in iMovie ’08, try using the fix below. It worked for me!
1. In Finder, navigate to /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/
2. Select the file com.apple.mio.VDCAssistant.plist and delete.
3. Restart your system.
Illustrator paste CS3 bug
Today I had to help someone who couldn’t paste anything into Illustrator CS3 on a Mac. You could copy any picture from many programs fine, but whenever you selected/used the keystrokes for paste, the picture or object still wouldn’t appear.
After enough Googling, I found the following answer, which worked wonderfully (paraphrased from http://forums.adobe.com/thread/317769):
- Open an Illustrator file or create a new one
- Put an object on the page (any object, a square, a circle, you name it), then drag that object to the desktop to create a .pictclipping file. (You can then ignore this .pictclipping file, trash it, or do whatever you would like with it.)
- Now it is possible to copy and paste to Illustrator. It doesn’t like the default new office fonts, gradient fills or shadows, but it comes over as vector.
- The gradient fills and shadows paste in as raster objects. I just define a plain fill and get rid of the shadow before I copy. Change the font to Arial or something and it comes in fine also.
This may have to be done after every restart, but quitting AI doesn’t seem to affect the temporary fix.
EndNote and Word Issues
For Macs:
I still haven’t figured out a fix for EndNote and Word 2008 in which Word crashes upon quitting. Apparently, neither has Thomson Reuters. http://www.endnote.com/enosx.asp
For PCs:
I’ve had some issues where sometimes Word 2003 doesn’t want to launch when EndNote is installed. If you Word in safe mode though, or after uninstalling EndNote, Word launches properly every time:
How to start word in Safe Mode:
To start Word by using the /a switch, follow these steps:
- Click Start, and then click Run.
- In the Run dialog box:
- In the Open box, type:
- winword.exe /a
Safe mode information: http://en.allexperts.com/q/Microsoft-Word-1058/Word-opening-safe-mode.htm
Oddly enough, removing EndNote for Mac and Windows does not fix these issues. I haven’t found a fix for Mac yet, but I have found one for Windows.
The fix with EndNote X in Windows (I’m not sure with other versions):
If you are comfortable poking around the registry (if you don’t know what you are doing, stay away from it. This is an integral part of your system. Also, back it up before you edit it in any way), open it up, and delete the hive at the following location:
HKEY_Current_User\Software\Microsoft\Office\Word\Addins\EndNote 10.Word.Addin
If you have other versions of EndNote, they may be somewhere else, I have only experienced the problem with EndNote X. Someone else posted what they did here for EndNote X2:
http://lists.adeptscience.co.uk/endnote/endnote_Feb_2009/msg_13749.html
Once the hive is removed, reinstall EndNote. It should work.
If you have other issues with Word Add-ons, look at the following site:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/921541
Western Digital MyBook Studio Edition II
I was confused when a user recently decided to use a relatively new external hard drive, but it wasn’t mounting on her computer. It looked like the computer didn’t even recognize that the drive was attached. She was using a Mac, and Disk Utility wasn’t seeing the drive at all when connected via FireWire 400. The odd thing was that I remembered partitioning the drive on my computer. As it turns out, there is an interesting issue, where USB (the method I connected the drive) works fine, but FireWire wouldn’t see the drive. I started to wonder if I had to contact Western Digital about this issue, when I decided to check to see if there were any firmware updates. Sure enough, there were:
http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=114&sid=58&lang=en
The firmware update fixed the issue, and she is happily working with her external hard drive through FireWire.
Mac OS basic troubleshooting
I found one day I needed to go through some basic troubleshooting steps and couldn’t remember some of the basic key combinations, so I googled for something that would jog my memory. I have decided to re-post this below:
1. Reboot the Computer. – Simple, I know… but it will fix so many “issues” without the need for any other steps to be taken.
This should be done before any other step is attempted.
2. Run Software Update – Again, very simple, I know… but many times simply updating your software with the latest patches will again fix so many “issues” without the need for any other steps to be taken.
3. Clean Your Caches – There are several tools that will do this for you, Onyx, MainMenu, Quicksilver…etc. Even if you don’t have one of those you can still do it manually. Just delete everything in the folders Library/Caches and in Users/*Your User Name*/Library/Caches. When finished reboot.
4. Delete the .plist file – If it is a particular program that is giving you problems delete its preferences (.plist) in ‘Your User Name’/Library/Preferences
5. Uninstall then reinstall the offending application – If it is a particular program that is giving you problems and deleting the .plist file didn’t help, then uninstall and reinstall the application.
Important — If your application came with an uninstaller then use that to uninstall it first. Do NOT just move it to the Trash and do NOT use a third-party app to uninstall it. Use the provided uninstaller and then reinstall the application.
6. Repair Disk Permissions – Go to Applications|Utilities|Disk Utility and select repair disk permissions on your OS X drive
7. Run Disk Repair – Boot from your restore/install disc and run a Volume/Disk repair on your startup disk.
8. Resetting the PRAM: When booting, hold down Command-Option-P-R and wait for the triple startup chimes.
9. File System Check – When booting up your computer hold down the Apple Key & the S key and it will boot into single user mode. When the text is done loading on the screen type in /sbin/fsck -f and hit enter.
When that is done if it fixed things then do the check again to make sure it is cleared
When finished with that type in exit and it will start the computer in normal mode
10. Reset Nonvolatile Firmware – When booting, hold down Command-Option-O-F and wait for the command prompt. Type “reset-nvram” and hit enter.
11. Search the Forums – At the top of the forum you will find the ‘Search’ feature. Type in your keyword and have at it.
You can also use the ‘Advanced Search’ to narrow your search by sub-forum, thread prefix, date, etc.
You can narrow things down even more by showing your results as individual posts or full threads.
12. Search the Apple Support Knowledge Base – If none of the above have helped, point your browser to – Apple – Support
Once there, you will be able to perform a search and should be able to locate a remedy for your issue.
From: http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/os-x-operating-system/93819-basic-os-x-mac-troubleshooting.html
Model number for macs; internal battery test
I was looking to buy parts for an old mac, and I had the serial number but not the model number to get information about it. If he model number hasn’t been scratched off the case, you may be able to read it directly.
If you can’t read or find the model number, just enter your serial here:
http://www.powerbookmedic.com/identify-mac-serial.php
In the end, this was to find out how much an internal backup battery would cost. I then found out that I didn’t need a new one, it was the primary battery that was just too low. Luckily I hadn’t had them order a new backup battery yet. This page shows how to test that:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TA22660?viewlocale=en_US
iRed Lite to use Apple Remote with PowerPoint 2004
This entry is regarding the Apple Remotes that came free, or can now be bought, with MacBooks and MacBook Pros (or any Mac).
By default, you can’t use them with PowerPoint 2004. PowerPoint 2004 doesn’t know how to handle the signal. As it turns out though, There is a wonderful program called iRed Lite. It can be downloaded from here:
http://www.filewell.com/iRedLite/
1. To install it, I created a folder in /Applications called iRedLite. Then I unzipped the download, mounted the disc image and moved the iRed Lite application and the More Actions folder over into /Applications/iRedLite.
2. I launched iRed Lite (from Applications, not the disc image).
3. When running, a target looking icon is apparent on the Menu Bar at the top right-hand side of the screen.
If you would like to change what the buttons do:
1. From the OSD Panel (launches by default at startup or you can select it from the Menu Bar), click Edit on the bottom right hand side of the Panel.
2. In the bottom section, there should be different layers. Select PowerPoint 2004.
3. Click on the triangle in the bottom-right corner, and a whole bunch of customizations with the buttons come up. Click on the buttons in the left pane, and the options you can choose from will appear in the right.
Originally learned about this Application from:
http://discussions.info.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=2378036
Prohibitory sign on startup of mac
If when you start up your mac, you receive a prohibitory sign (a sign that is a circle with a slash through it–for some reason, i think of it as a do not enter sign, even though it doesn’t look at all like one) try starting it in safe mode. To do so, hold down the shift key at startup. If it boots, you can try either removing the automatic login items, or just restart from here. Sometimes just the restarting after safe mode fixes things. I’m not sure why. But I heard it from a guy at Apple, and found it to be the case.
Xakriel's Tech Support Blog 
leave a comment