Helpdesk Challenge – basic Mac troubleshooting
So you’ve bought your shiny new Mac computer, surely your troubles are over? Gone are the crashes, error messages and slow start ups of using a PC. Well, not always.
We’ve heard from plenty of readers who say they’d never switch from Mac to PC, but that’s not to say that Apple computers can’t throw up the odd error message.
Here are some straightforward fixes to help new Mac owners troubleshoot their computers.
Start in Safe Boot mode on a Mac
While many Windows 7 users will be familiar with Safe Mode, it’s a little-known secret that Mac OS X also has a Safe Boot mode. This is a great place to start if your Macintosh computer is crashing, freezing or just behaving oddly.
Safe Mode reboots the system and loads only the essentials to get you up and running. To activate Safe Boot, shut down the Mac.
To do this, click the Apple icon in the menu bar and then select Shutdown from the menu. Wait 30 seconds, then press the Power button and hold down the Shift key until you hear the startup chime. Keep holding the Shift key until a grey progress bar appears on the screen. This is the Mac disabling the hardware acceleration, clearing out cache files and performing a directory check of the hard drive, all of which can help resolve the problem.
After a few minutes, you’ll see a log-in screen to enter your details and then you can access your files. From here you can restart normally, without pressing the Shift key.
Force Quit on a Mac
If an application, such as a web browser, crashes and won’t even close, then you can force it to quit and this often fixes the glitch as well. You’ll lose any unsaved work, but you’ll be able to reopen the program afterwards.
To force quit a program, click the Apple icon in the top menu bar, then select Force Quit from the menu. A window appears that lists all running applications, with the words ‘Not responding’ in red next to the crashed application. Select the application from the list and click the Force Quit button.
In the event of the operating system freezing and you can’t click any menus, press Cmd + Alt + Esc to launch the Force Quit menu, then select Finder and press the Force Quit button. This will relaunch Finder (the heart of Mac OS X) and usually with any glitches fixed.
Using the Activity Monitor on a Mac
Irksome applications can cause problems by using too much memory or processor power. Applications and Mac OS X use processes to control everything.
To inspect all running processes, click Applications > Utilities and then launch the Activity Monitor. This shows all processes, including applications, running on your Mac.
If one looks suspicious, such as a program taking up most of the CPU power, click it then press the red Quit Process button.
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Ben
What about the infamous ‘Grey Screen Of Death’ which happened to me on Monday? I ended up hard rebooting – is that alright to do in that situation?
Phil
The simple fact is that a Mac is FAR superior the software just works. The number of hangs or crashes is minimal, and usually only needs a restart to sort it out.
I still get Windows Blue Screen of death on the machine I don’t even use – just with auto updates turned on for Anti Virus and Windows.
I got my life back when I switched!
durkbennet
This sort of thinking infuriates me; “Mac is FAR superior” you are representing your opinion as fact, which in my mind is quite ‘simple’.
gabrielle Sherwin
I agree with Phil, its not just his opinion, its a fact Macs don’t really crash. If something goes wrong and force quitting them doesn’t work, a simple re-boot will do the trick. But always be careful what you download from the web as some of the so-called Mac improvers can cause all sorts of problems. Stick to aps from the apple store or tried and trusted like Amazon.
Martyn Evans
Having had PC’s for around 20 years, starting with Windows 3.1, we switched to an iMac in 2010. The difference is immense. Two years on it is just as fast as it ever was. It is a pleasure rather than a struggle to use. If businesses were to switch to Macs there would no longer be a case for anyone to use Windows. Unfortunately, with so much invested this is very unlikely. My advice for home users is switch anyway.
Crazy John
“Mac is far superior” That is a matter of opinion!
1. If any part of the Mac goes faulty you have to take it to a “Mac authorised” dealer or post it off and wait for it to be repaired, usually at a cost of a few hundred pounds.
2. If a pc goes faulty it can usually be repaired by replacing the faulty part, which is usually fairly cheap.
3. Mac’s don’t have the ability to update graphics cards,monitors, etc. So are simpler in construction.
4. Apple write their operating system to work on a “known configuration” of machine.
5. Pc’s have to cope with a lot of different hardware configurations and, as such, more inclined to have the odd bug that crashes the operating system.
Both Mac’s and Pc’s have their advantages and disadvantages.
Peter
“That is a matter of opinion!”
Spot on John. There are plenty of good reasons to choose PCs in preference to Macs.
And would Which magazine please note that PC is not a synonym for MS Windows.
Richard
“1. If any part of the Mac goes faulty you have to take it to a “Mac authorised” dealer or post it off and wait for it to be repaired, usually at a cost of a few hundred pounds.
2. If a pc goes faulty it can usually be repaired by replacing the faulty part, which is usually fairly cheap.”
Not true. I recently had a problem with my 6 year-old iMac. It was diagnosed that the hard drive had packed up. Both my local independent computer repair shops fix macs as well as PCs so I chose the cheapest and had the faulty part replaced. Took it in and picked it up the next day.
Eyelid
Freeze-ups, unintelligible error messages, weirdo geeky gobbledygook on-screen requests: if that sort of stuff is meat and drink to you, you’re welcome. But for ordinary people who want a machine to do stuff reliably and relatively smoothly, get a Mac. I switched from Windows machines two years ago and rarely have computer rage now, and then it’s nearly always my fault. It’s not totally perfect, probably because I haven’t learnt it properly, but the iMac just works and is a pleasure to use. Same goes for the iPad. Beautifully designed and gimmick-free!
Helen Harris
I have a problem in that my email icon (ie. the postage stamp) has stopped working for all five family users. Click on it and you just get a “?” Help!
Colin Sheen
As somebody who owns and uses several PCs and several Macs there is no question about which is better. The Mac just works; it rarely crashes, (although of course it’s not totally unknown) and the software is generally more intuitive. I started out on PCs 35 years ago, but if I were starting out now I wouldn’t touch one with a barge pole. Macs are just better, and many of the reasons for this seem to have been used as counter arguments by people above: “PCs have to cope with many different configurations”. Yes, they do, and that’s why they don’t work very well. Apples are stable because the hardware is well made. “PCs are cheap to repair”. Yes they are, because they are often cheaply made in the first place.
It is simply not true that you cannot replace the graphics card or monitor on a Mac. Yes, it’s true if it’s an iMac, but the same is true of a laptop PC. If you but a Mac Pro you can change anything you wish.
I use PCs for my office work, they crash constantly, and by the end of the day I want to tear my hair out. I also use Macs of several different varieties for other professional work, and generally speaking they just work. It’s not a matter of opinion; anybody who uses both systems extensively will tell you the same thing!