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Take Control of Troubleshooting Your Mac
Learn how to solve any Mac problem with Joe Kissell's expert advice!
We may love our Macs, but they can still suffer significant problems. In this essential guide, you'll learn 17 basic troubleshooting procedures and how to solve 9 common problems, along with an easy-to-follow way to troubleshoot novel problems. Whether your Mac won't turn on, kernel panics repeatedly, or is glacially slow, this book has the calm, friendly advice you need to find a solution.
This ebook contains a...lot of information for $10. Seriously, I thought it would be much lighter than it was. It's actually pretty much indispensable. Well done, Joe Kissel and Take Control, I say. —Mark Webster in his mac.nz book review
More Info
Contents & Intro
FAQ
Following in the footsteps of his other critically acclaimed books, Take Control of Mac OS X Backups and Take Control of Maintaining Your Mac, Joe starts by helping you prepare for trouble. You'll learn how to prevent problems from occurring, what tools you'll need to diagnose and fix problems, and the key troubleshooting techniques. Things you'll learn from this book include:
What do when your Mac won't turn on
How to deal with repeated kernel panics
Ways of fixing abnormal slowdowns
How to empty the Trash when the Finder balks
What to do when application grinds to a halt
How to handle an application crashing
Methods of fixing recalcitrant keyboards and mice
How to bring your Internet connection back online
How to get your printer to work again
Stock your troubleshooting toolkit with the included coupon worth $5 off any order at Small Dog Electronics!
Book Info
86 pages
Version 1.0
Check for Updates Web page updated for Leopard and MacBook Air: 02-Feb-08
Joe Kissell has written numerous books about the Macintosh, including many popular Take Control ebooks. He's also Senior Editor of TidBITS, contributes frequently to Macworld, and previously spent ten years in the Mac software industry.
Macs are easy to use, but they can experience problems like any other machine. When something goes wrong with your Mac, use this book to discover the solution. This book was written by Joe Kissell, edited by Adam Engst, and published by TidBITS Publishing Inc.
Introduction: Don't Panic!
You've always heard that Macs are easy to use and less prone to misadventures than Windows PCs. And that's true. But they're still only machines. And sure enough, one day it happens: you encounter a serious problem with your Mac and have no idea what to do. Perhaps, since you're reading this book, that day is today.
Repeat after me: Everything is going to be all right. Now take a deep breath and try again, this time with feeling! Everything is going to be all right. I want you to believe that. Even if you're feeling kind of panicked right now because your Mac is doing something wonky and you're facing a deadline, I want you to set aside your anxiety for just a moment.
Almost every Mac problem you may encounter has a solution. True, some solutions are more elusive, more time-consuming, or more expensive, than others, but still: don't worry. I've been solving problems with Macs for 15 years, and I'm here to tell you that solutions come more quickly and easily when you have a clear head and approach a problem systematically. That's what this book helps you to do.
Make yourself a nice cup of tea. (Keep the tea away from your Mac, by the way—let's not add to your problems, eh?) Close your eyes and take a few deep breaths. Then page through this book to learn the most efficient way to deal with whatever difficulties you may be experiencing.
I've seen more than one Mac troubleshooting book that was upwards of 600 pages long, and troubleshooting Web sites with thousands of pages of suggestions. By contrast, this book makes no attempt to be comprehensive, because merely listing vast numbers of problems and their accompanying solutions doesn't help one bit if you have a different problem or don't realize how your problem is like some other one. What I hope to do, then, is show you some handy troubleshooting techniques, provide instructions for solving several common problems, and then help you figure out what to do when a problem's cause or solution isn't immediately apparent. In other words, I want to teach you how to be your own technical support person—to do what I do when something goes wrong with one of my Macs.
Because my focus here is on getting your computer back into working order, I intentionally skip over lots of background information and technical details. So don't worry if you're unsure exactly why some technique solves your problem. If you're really interested in the deep background, some exploration on the Web will probably turn up oodles of detail.
As confident as I am that most Mac problems have straightforward solutions, I must point out that some problems can't be solved with a few mouse clicks or other clever fiddling. If flames are shooting out of your Mac or the screen is in a thousand pieces, you'll need more help than I can provide here. Even simpler hardware problems, such as a faulty component on your logic board or a busted power cable, may require a trip to the repair shop. And a few—very few—hardware problems are either entirely beyond repair or more costly to repair than is worthwhile. Nevertheless, don't panic. By the time you finish this book, you'll not only know how to solve most problems, you'll have the tools and techniques you need to prevent many problems in the first place, or at least to nip them in the bud. And even if you have a problem that requires professional help, following the steps in this book will help you talk to a repair person more effectively.
If you don't have any problems right now and are merely reading this to prepare yourself for future mishaps, good for you! You'll especially appreciate the information in the first couple of sections about preventing problems and preparing for an emergency.
Quick Start to Troubleshooting Your Mac
When your Mac has problems, you undoubtedly want to jump right to the solution. So feel free to skip immediately to Solve Common Problems and see if your symptom is listed there. If not, and time permitting, I recommend reading through this book in order, because earlier sections provide useful background information for later sections. However, you may also try the steps in Troubleshoot Novel Problems, following the cross-references as necessary to earlier parts of the book where certain procedures are described in detail.
Prepare for trouble:
Even if your Mac is healthy now, take steps to keep it that way. Read Prevent Problems.
When your Mac starts acting up, you'll be glad to already have a toolkit with which you can diagnose and fix it. Learn what you need to have on hand in Prepare for an Emergency.
Most of the steps you'll go through when a problem occurs rely on several common procedures. Learn how to do these tasks before problems arise so that fixing them will be easier. See Learn Basic Troubleshooting Procedures.
Solve problems:
If your Mac misbehaves, the problem may be something that many other people have experienced (and that's easily repaired). Start with Solve Common Problems.
Not all problems are common. If you encounter something not covered in the previous section, learn how to solve it--or find someone who can—in Troubleshoot Novel Problems.
Find more information:
For further instruction in troubleshooting, check out the electronic or printed books in Learn More.
What kinds of problems does this book help with?
The book will help you get more comfortable and efficient with troubleshooting on a Mac, so that you can more easily identify problems and possible solutions. So, even if your problem isn't one of the 9 common ones that the book specifically covers, you'll still find useful advice. (The 9 common problems are listed on the More Info tab - click it just above this paragraph).
The book doesn't particularly look at font-related problems, because there's another Take Control title - Take Control of Font Problems in Mac OS X - that offers over 100 pages of advice specifically aimed at helping you solve font problems. You can buy both titles together - look in the left column of this Web page for a bundle deal.
This book will help you identify if a particular application is causing a problem, and it offers some general advice for solving a problem caused by an application, but it doesn't delve deeply into specific problems with specific applications. So, if you need help with a problem such as making your columns work in Pages, making Excel behave, or figuring out if wacky InDesign behavior is a bug or a feature, this book isn't the one you want.
Does this book cover Leopard? What about the MacBook Air?
If this were a print title only, it couldn't cover these topics, because it would have been printed before either of these products had been released. However, if you buy the ebook, from page 1 of the ebook, you can click "Check for Updates" to access a nicely written list of updated information.
However, not much has really changed with respect to the ebook and Leopard, though a few minor bits are called out on the Check for Updates Web page. And the page offers a few paragraphs about troubleshooting with the the MacBook Air, since it lacks a FireWire port.
We do plan to update the PDF of this book at some point, but we are waiting for the need for an update to feel more compelling.
Please note that if you buy the ebook, you can also order it in print form, and your overall cost is the same as if you'd just bought the print book only. To do so, first buy the ebook and download it. Then, from page 1 of the ebook, click "Print" to go through the cart of our print service to order the printed version.
Will this book tell me how to fix the search function in Address Book that causes it to freeze everytime I search for a particular address?
Brendan F. wrote in to ask this question. Here's our reply:
The book doesn't specifically answer your question, but it does help you get into the troubleshooting frame of mind. For instance, you could check if it's just that one address (then likely everything else is fine, but that address needs to be deleted and rekeyed), or if it's several addresses (time to delete your Address Book data file and revert to a backup, with fingers crossed), or if it's all addresses (try deleting caches/preferences, updating the app if you are behind on updates, and/or reinstalling it). The book would give you somewhat more specific directions, but since it's general to all applications, it won't tell you exactly how to, say, find and delete the Address Book data file.
If you need help from an Address Book expert, checking resources such as the Apple Support Forums, a Macintosh consultant, or a Genius Bar, is probably the route to a solution. The book specifically notes these - and other - ways to ask for and find help.
Ask a Question
Feel free to ask us if you have a question about this book!
Joe Kissell has written numerous books about the Macintosh, including many popular Take Control ebooks. He's also Senior Editor of TidBITS, contributes frequently to Macworld, and previously spent ten years in the Mac software industry.