nCity Startup Issues

PRAM battery (aka "backup" or "clock" battery):

This is a 3v or 3.6v battery used in computers to maintain date/time settings and other preference settings during down (off) time. While replacing these batteries is quick and easy in towers and many older Macs, some current models require extensive disassembly (see Services Section, "design flaw" for an example).

Notebook computers rely on main battery power to maintain pref settings for more than 10 minutes and have something more like a capacitor than an actual battery. First sign of a dying PRAM battery is a date/time error on startup, but some machines may refuse to startup at all (rare).

Typical PRAM batteries, commonly

available at camera and electronics stores.
Reading Symptoms:: Simple as it may sound, failure on startup arrives in a variety of ways with a variety of symptoms (and clues). Try to answer these questions:

Did you hear the normal startup sound? No sound (is sound turned down or off)? A different sound, chimes or beeps perhaps? If so, how many?
Does the power button light up (or change color)? Does it stay on or go off when released? Is it pulsing? Does any sound at all come from the CPU (fans, drives spinning)?
Does an icon appear onscreen? If so, what does it look like? If an Apple logo appears, is it intact or is it missing a few pixels from one side? Do you (repeatedly) get a message saying that you need to restart (in four languages)? Is the screen black, blue, or gray? What is the cursor doing?
How far do you get? Nowhere (black screen), to the Apple logo only, to a blank screen (usually blue) only? To the desktop with nothing on it? Desktop with only the Dock (no drives). Desktop with 1 drive only? Past desktop, but cursor refuses to move (does keyboard work)?

I could go on, but you get the idea. Even in situations where you'd expect to get no further information, there are always clues to the cause of a malfunction - if you know what to look for.
: If you've checked all the usual suspects and machine still refuses to boot (read on, and get more info under Solutions section), try starting up from your System CD/DVD:

Insert your System Install CD/DVD into the optical drive.
If machine is on, shutdown (hold power button down for 5 seconds).
Sometimes waiting 5-10 minutes with power disconnected helps.
Startup from optical drive by pressing "C" key during startup.
When you arrive at the Installer, launch Disk Utility from the menu bar.
Select your hard disk in DU's window and run Disk Repair function.
If repairs completed successfully, restart as you would normally. You're all done!

If you're still having trouble, call us for an appointment and bring it on in.....

Set your Startup Disk (in System Preferences):: If your startup volume is not specified in your System Prefs, your Mac may take quite awhile to startup as it searches all connected volumes for an OS; check your Startup Disk setting and make sure the proper volume is selected (as illustrated below).
: Some machines will not boot at all without a specified volume (blinking question mark). If this applies to you, boot from a System CD or DVD (hold "C" key during startup with bootable disk in drive), and set startup disk from the menu command.


File management and good housekeeping:: Even if nothing goes wrong for years..... eventually hard drives fill up with files (typically from massive downloads [music, movies, photos], unemptied trash and cache, or overgrown mail folders), drives become fragmented, or sometimes they fail from either bad media or mechanical malfunction.
: If it's causing failure on startup, it's too late to try weeding thru individual files - and we can't do that for you, anyway. If we can manage to mount the drive, all we can do is batch-copy everything off of it to safe storage, and reformat the drive, or replace and format a new drive. Then we copy your data back, where it may arrive defragged but will still retain every bit of trash it started with.
: If we can't mount the drive (and determine problem to be media or mechanical), we will most likely discuss the situation with you and refer you to Drive Savers.

UNIX cleanup routines:

UNIX-based operating systems were designed for communications (network) and security (multiple user login), and were designed to run nonstop, 24/7, continuously. Certain cleanup routines are built-in to such systems, running automatically on a daily, weekly and monthly basis (usually in the wee hours of the night). OSX is no exception. While these cleanup routines will not affect most users one way or the other, they may be manually triggered in the Terminal or by installing a utility (which provides a nice user interface).

Marcel Bresink's TinkerTool utility

Titanium Software OnyX utility

NOTE: These System utilities should be used with care.

Be sure to match utility version to OS version.
Pay special attention to the Operating System:: Having more than one Operating System per volume is not a good idea. In fact, it can be a disaster. The lone exception, of course, is OSX + OS9 Classic Mode. (See tech section for volume setup suggestions.) Having a backup means an exact duplicate of the OS in use resides on a backup volume along with all apps and docs. Any other leftover/duplicate/unused Operating System and/or System Folder should be burned to disk (if desired) but must be removed from Startup Volume(s). One, and only one, OS per volume.
Clean out cache:

Browsers in particular can collect massive amounts of cache files; check browser preference settings and empty cache files regularly and often. Safari has an "Empty Cache" command conveniently located in its Application menu (right).

Safari Reset, if necessary (clears _all_ records):

Resetting Safari erases _everything_ (default = cancel).

Empty Safari's cache periodically.

Empty Mail's trash:

Thanks to the unbridled onslaught of spam, Mail's trash needs to be emptied, too, both deleted messages and "Junk Mail" (aka, spam). Better yet, set Mails prefs to delete spam and/or empty trash on shutdown or on schedule.

Remove and Save eMails to disk:

Mail's messages are easily removed to disk for storage using "Save As..." and the Rich Text option to create nicely organized email records with all graphics and active links intact:

Launch Mail and locate messages you wish to save. If they all happen to be in a single mailbox (folder), great. If not, you may want to consider creating a box to put them in (Mailbox menu).

If all messages are in a contiguous list, select list top to bottom (Shift key + click). Otherwise select messages to save as convenient.

Select "Save As..." from File menu. Select location, name new file and make sure "Rich Text Format" is selected from popup to preserve headers, graphics, photos and links.

A newly-named TextEdit file will appear in a moment or two with all messages intact and inline. Drag these to disk, verify that they are intact, then delete original messages from Mail.

The TextEdit file can now be removed to a CD or other storage, with all photos, links, addresses and message headers complete and intact.

Maintain and repair files using Disk Utility:: Found in Applications/Utilities. Disk Utility should be used periodically (as machine use dictates), using its Repair Permissions function at the first hint of trouble. To run DU's Disk Repair option on your startup volume, it will be necessary to reboot from an OSX System CD (restart with "c" key) or from Disk Utility on some other bootable volume (you can only use the verify option when running from your startup disk).

: CAUTION! Some of the other functions of Apple's Disk Utility will overwrite data - Erase and Partition, for example - these operations should only be executed for initial drive setup or reformat purposes, where data loss is to be expected.

Software Update in Apple menu:

Under the Apple menu, Software Update can be set to operate automatically, on a fixed schedule, or it can be activated manually.

These updates apply to your installed Operating System version only; in other words, if you are running OSX version 10.3.4 (Panther), this function will update to OS version 10.3.9; if your installed OS is version 10.4 (Tiger), your OS will be updated to the latest version of 10.4.

Software Update in the Apple menu.

Software Update in System Prefs:

Also available from within your System Prefs window, opening the Software Update pane will launch the same update utility. Again, this function only applies to your installed OS; it will not update to a newer System version (Tiger to Leopard, for example). System updates should not be confused with a System upgrade, which requires purchase and installation of a whole new OS.

Software Update in System Preferences.: Updating is as easy as it could possibly be. You will need to enter your admin password (as you do when installing any software), then approve as many user agreements as there are updates, but once it gets started the process proceeds automatically, then optimizes your startup volume as the last step of installation.
: Unfortunately, these updates are so large as to make download over dialup all but impossible; as with many OS enhancements (starting with Tiger), Software Update requires a broadband connection to the internet. These updates are available online as compressed files that may be downloaded to a broadband-equipped machine, then burned to a disk; or, you may be able to obtain updates thru the mail direct from Apple (and elsewhere) on CD or DVD.
: Many of our rural clients choose to bring their machines to our shop for update installation over nCity's network. Updating the OS is also a routine step we include - as appropriate - when providing other repairs and services to our clients.

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