Install , install again ? That , is the question .

Upon serious disaffection with rising
OS trifles I have taken the time to rein-
stall the OS . From the original discs to
the retail Tiger distribution to Software
Updates three loads and out , I have rein-
stalled the OS . The orphaned or unident-
ified files or folders that freeze the comp-
uter were among the hated 'trifles' . They
appear as healthy as ever and what a pain
. A quick fsck showed the drive was fine
but the mount revealed the awful orphan-
ed files . These quick or permanent lay-
abouts wasted no time returning and I
wonder how and why . The computer runs
pretty well outside of this . About a year
and a half ago found me doing this same
routine for the same reasons and now
leaves me wondering if it is the Installa-
tion Discs or the computer . I was consid-
ering reinstalling again just to see if I
could get it “Right” perhaps with persis-
tence , lacking abundances of most every-
thing else . Thanks for your thoughts
, Frederick

I think I can help you determine if the
reinstall of the OS can be the problem
either because of something wrong with the
discs or just that things happen. Things can
happen once can be of a singular nature.
But those that happen twice are suspect by their
duality. Sand can be removed from the eye
carefully but sandy fingers will redeposit it.
Best course of action under unfortunate circumstances
would be to backup your entire disk, erase &
install, then start with your OS Tiger install disk.
Minimize your installs. After installing 10.4.x you
will want to use the
10.4.10 Combo Updater PPC
that should be all you need. Remember to Verify
Disk before update and repair permissions after
update from /Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility.
Now your system should be a clean as a fresh mountain
brook and happy as a clam. The trick is not to bring over any
cancerous cells from your pathological old directory.
A fresh start should put you good as new and
help your put meter to measure.
-mj
[email protected]

Similar Messages

  • Em uninstalled "start up faster" addon im on firefox version 4 and yet when i try to install again i get the error message create service failed , can anyone tell me how to resolve this , i would like to make sure i get this addon back

    im on firefox 4 ,recently ,i tried new addon for firefox 4 called start up faster, i removed it, just as comparison to see boot up times , and then when i tried to install again i get the message create service failed, the icon stays on my desktop, want to check this addon is still performing its role, or could i fix something to make sure its properly on my addon list, thank you,

    Is it still showing up in your ad-on manager?

  • I have CS6 master collection. After update from Windows7 it didn't work. When I try to install again, it says the serial number is invalid. What to do?

    I have CS6 master collection. After update from Windows7 it didn't work. When I try to install again, it says the serial number is invalid. What to do?

    Please refer to the steps in Re: cs6 serial suddenly invalid.
    It should help you.
    Regards
    Rajshree

  • I have a new iPod and now I can't buy something on it ,because of the safety questions. I have not the answers. I can't remember that answer the questions.

    I have a new iPod and now I can't buy something on it ,because of the safety questions. I have not the answers. I can't remember that answer the questions.

    Frequently asked questions about Apple ID - http://support.apple.com/kb/HE37 --> Can I change the answers to the security questions for my Apple ID?  --> Yes. You can change the answers to the security questions provided when you originally signed up for your Apple ID. Go to My Apple ID (http://appleid.apple.com/) and click Manage your account.
    Forgotten security questions - https://discussions.apple.com/message/18402551  and https://discussions.apple.com/message/18625296
    More involved forgotten question issues - https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3961813
    Kappy 09/2012 post about security questions - https://discussions.apple.com/message/19569468
    John Galt's tips (09&11/2012) - https://discussions.apple.com/message/19809294 and https://discussions.apple.com/message/20229239
    If none of the above work, contact iTunes Support at http://www.apple.com/support/itunes/contact/ and follow the instructions to report the issue to the iTunes Store.

  • Ok i have been trying to download albums, songs, apps, etc. and my itunes keeps asking me for the security question and for the life of me i cant remember the answers. I dont know what the email is that receives the question reset.

    ok i have been trying to download albums, songs, apps, etc. and my itunes keeps asking me for the security question and for the life of me i cant remember the answers. I dont know what the email is that receives the question reset. is there anything i can do to fix this or am i screwed?

    If you have music that was purchased on different iTunes accounts than the one you use, then you must provide the password, otherwise the tunes are not considered yours.  You can turn off iCloud and just use the usual USB sync method.  But I wonder whether you'll have the same problem?

  • HD Upper or lower interlace or not that is the question

    Ok Im a bit confused and cannot seem to get a straight direction on this. I shoot in 30fps 1080i, I capture in HD via firewire, I edit and when outputting for regular DVDs do I encode UPPER FIELD first since the source media is HD or LOWER FIELD first because it is doing to DV.
    When encoding with Media Encoder should I check the deinterlace button when encoding HD for a DV project going to encore or not check it...that is the question.
    Where is my Commedore 64 when I need it?

    Choose the correct field order for your
    export format when exporting, in this case DV.
    Choose progressive/interlaced depending on your export format when exporting. Since DV is interlaced, do not de-interlace.
    Who needs a Commodore 64 when you have a Vic 20! ;)
    Cheers
    Eddie
    PremiereProPedia   (
    RSS feed)
    - Over 300 frequently answered questions
    - Over 250 free tutorials
    - Maintained by editors like
    you
    Forum FAQ

  • To ram,or not to ram,that is the question.

    I have a first edition g5 dual 2.0.Ever since I have had this computer I have had this problem where when booting the computer will freeze at the grey screen at start up.This seems to happen to me when I install ram.I have been through 3 episodes where after installing ram the computer would not boot past the grey screen with the apple logo.I will not document all the episodes,but it happens like this a couple of months back I had 4gigs of ram installed in my machine.I had purchased 6 more 1 gig sticks and was going to attempt to max out the slots.I removed the bottom apple stock 256 ram modules and put in 2 1 gig modules in the place of them.I went to boot the machine I see the apple logo,spinning wheel,the wheel stops,will not boot past grey screen.So I took out the newly added modules and put in 2 different 1gig modules,same brand,grey screen,apple logo,wheel stops spinning,no boot.I put in the 2 original apple modules,now it does not boot with them installed.I take out all the ram except the two stock modules,and disconnect the spare hd.I try to boot everything stock,same thing,stuck at grey screen.I tried to boot the machine the next night,after over half a dozen attempts I was able to fully boot,once I was in I decided to reinstall the the os,10.2.7 that came with the unit.I did a complete reinstall.When I was done I tried to restart the computer,it froze at the grey screen.I have a g5 imac at work,and at home.I used those machines for the next three months,and one day I had a chance to start early with apple tech support and maybe resolve my issue.I had done some rearranging in the other room so I moved the g5 in there.I hooked up my apple 15" cinema display plugged her in and off she went,it booted with no problems!Why?How could this be?So I have been using the unit for the last few months stock configuration,updated 10.2.7 to tiger,currently with updates at 10.5.All I have used the unit for is ripping movies with handbrake,done at least 200.There is only about 1 month left on my warranty,I have been interested in selling or trading the unit before my warranty runs out.Last night I plugged the cables back into my spare hd.zeroed out the data rebooted all was well.I took out the stock ram,install 2gigs of the ram I had tried before,I reboot,apple logo,no spinning wheel,freeze at grey screen.I found this last episode the weirdest with the grey screen on this attempt I did not get the spinning wheel,the wheel did not show.I shut down and installed 2 1gig sticks that originally worked.reboot,grey screen,logo,no wheel,no boot.I reinstalled the original ram,same as above,grey screen.I started up in safe mode.Repaired disk permissions on the maindrive,run mac janitor,run mem test,mem test reported ram to be ok.I reboot,full start up!What is the deal here!Where do I go from here.On one occasion I called tech support they told me to system diagnostics disk,have done this twice in the past,system passed all test.The way the system sits now its fine,i'm affraid who ever I sold it to would install ram and go through the same ordeal.And I do not want that.I have thought of trying to do the ram install again,then If it freezes boot into safe mode,repair permissions,run mac janitor,run mem test and see if I can get it to work that way.Should I try to run the diagnostics to see if the system passes all the test?My unit is also eligible for a power supply replacement,should I call and have that done and mention these problems?I am all ears.I am open to all suggestions.If you read this far then god bless you!Sorry for such a winded post it could have been longer.
    Dual g5 2.0 first run '03   Mac OS X (10.4.5)   512 mb ram,ati radeon 9800,airport,250,320 hds

    This is what it shows:
    BANK 0/DIMM0:
    Size: 2 GB
    Type: DDR2 SDRAM
    Speed: 667 MHz
    Status: OK
    Manufacturer: 0xCE00000000000000
    Part Number: 0x4D342037305435363633515A332D43463720
    Serial Number: 0x943236BB
    BANK 1/DIMM1:
    Size: 2 GB
    Type: DDR2 SDRAM
    Speed: 667 MHz
    Status: OK
    Manufacturer: 0xCE00000000000000
    Part Number: 0x4D342037305435363633515A332D43463720
    Serial Number: 0x94323607
    So it looks like everything is normal, but it's kinda weird if the machine was only made to support up to 2 GB.. I guess it's a good thing.

  • To backup or not to backup...that is the question

    ok, of course we should all back up regularly, that's not really the question. I'm wondering specifically what the benefits are of backing up the OS if you have your original install discs.
    My understanding is that if your system crashes, you want to be able to boot up your system from another copy of the OS. If you have the disc, no need to back up to an external right?
    Of course I've backed up my user folder but I just want to make sure I'm not risking anything by not having another copy of my OS on the external as well.
    Thanks in advance!

    1. Kevin wrote: "What's the difference between a Backup Set and duplicating a volume in a folder?"The differences between Duplicates and Backup Sets are discussed in my "Backup and Recovery" FAQ.
    Basically:
    - Backup Sets save all the files one has backed up in a single file, similar to a disk image, but without all the time required to create a disk image. A Catalog file of the contents of the Backup Set is also created. One accesses the contents of a Backup Set through the Restore function of Retrospect. So, the files in the Backup Set aren't "in the clear" i.e. you can't simply copy them from the Backup Set in Finder. Backup Sets can also be compressed and encrypted. Duplicates cannot.
    - As noted in my prior post, a Duplicate to a folder permits you to to access the files you've backed up via Finder. The volume you've Duplicated to the folder is copied to the folder, just as if it was copied to another volume, but isn't bootable (assuming the volume you duplicated was bootable) since you can't boot from a folder.
    2. You wrote: "In SuperDuper! you can create a disk image with Disk Utility and clone to that disk image and, I think you can boot from the disk image as well. A partition is better but the disk image is good in a pinch."Yes, with SD you can duplicate to a sparse image, but you can't boot from that image. It will work in a pinch, but not every basic backup app supports this function.
    It's also unclear (not addressed specifically in the SD documentation) if you can Smart Update a backup to a Sparse Image: I suspect not. Sparse images are tricky. For example, deleting files from them does not recover the space the files occupied: one has to use hdiutil compact to recover the space occupied by deleted files in a sparse image. The compact operation is what FileVault is doing when it periodically prompts users to recover space from their encrypted Home folders.
    Backup Sets can be updated incrementally: new or changed files can be added to the Backup Set. Each incremental backup to a Backup Set is known as a session. This can be a useful feature since it does not replace the originals from previous backups. This has some nice attributes:
    - If you regularly backup to a Backup Set and want to get an earlier version of a file you've been working on that has been regularly backed up to a Backup Set, you can restore a prior version of that file from the Backup Set. If you Smart Update a duplicate in SD, no old versions are saved.
    - Likewise, if you trash a file, empty the trash, and use SD Smart Update to backup the volume on which that file resided, the file is gone from the backup and your hard drive. If you've regularly backed up that volume to a Retrospect Backup Set, you can restore that file — in the state it was in at any prior time it was backed up to that Backup Set — from the Backup Set.
    The Restore function of Retrospect lets you access the individual sessions (incremental backups) saved in a Backup Set. You can restore one or more files or folders —  or an entire disk — to any point in time within the time span of the sessions in the Backup Set. This is very useful in project-based work, where one may have many versions of documents and need a copy of an earlier version of some project file that was either updated (without first saving a copy) or trashed.
    So, SD's sparse image capability is good in a pinch, but not as flexible or versatile as Retrospect's Backup Sets.
    I'm a big fan of Backup Sets.
    Good luck!
    Dr. Smoke
    Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X
    Note: The information provided in the link(s) above is freely available. However, because I own The X Lab™, a commercial Web site to which some of these links point, the Apple Discussions Terms of Use require I include the following disclosure statement with this post:
    I may receive some form of compensation, financial or otherwise, from my recommendation or link.

  • To have an app killer or not to, that is the question

    Hey guys. I have a quick question. May sound dumb or may have already been asked but i can't find it. The question being, is it safe to use an application killer or not. I understand that some programs must stay running (have done that much research.) But it is safe to have an app killer and kill simple apps such as facebook, myspace, yahoo messenger, etc. I am currently using the advance task killer free version. I just don't want to do anything to harm anything such as the phones functioning. Thanks in advance for the help.

    It all depends on what you want out of your phone. If you want long battery life, then don't install a task killer. If you want faster application response (from already running apps, i.e. Internet browser) that dynamically require more and more memory as you use it, then install a task killer and configure it to only stop apps that don't auto-start. I've found that some apps like mail, gmail, browser, games, run much snappier if the underlying OS isn't busy having to stop other apps and free other resources. Ironically, none of these issues are new, Mainframe, host based, virtual, and cloud computing developers have been dealing with shared resource issues for decades. Silly android devs, they think they've discovered something new.

  • To Mac, or not to Mac, that is the question...

    Okay, so I don't know if I'm allowed to ask this in this forum, but I'll give it a try anyway.
    I will be starting college in the fall and will need a computer. I've had myself convinced for a while now that I want a MacBook...but now I'm starting to have second thoughts.
    It's just that I've always used PCs in my life, I know how to do anything I want really on a PC, and I don't know if it's worth the bother to relearn a whole new system. Plus, I mean, I'm starting college, I should know how to use my computer before going, don't you agree? Just how hard is it to adjust?
    Another issue is the whole windows/mac os thing in that I'm worried about programs running on it. I don't really understand how Boot Camp works. You just install Windows XP (do you have to buy it? is it a special mac version?) and your Mac turns into a Windows machine? As in it looks just like my HP lap top looks now, wiht the bar at the bottom, etc.? But then I've read some posts on these threads and ppl say you could get viruses that way b/c you are using windows. Which is one of the reasons I would want to switch to a mac. If you do use Windows and the Mac OS, you can just switch back and forth whenever you want? Are all the programs and files the same then in both systems? Like I wouldn't want half my files to be in one program and the other half in another. I don't know, I don't really understand it all.
    Also, my mom got a MacBook and I guess they bought a new laser printer yesterday and had to return it today b/c they realized it's not apple compatible. They went to Office Max and realized barely any printers are apple compatible! The had the toughest time finding an affordable printer that they liked! How can this be? Is this how it's always going to be when I'm buying accessories?
    I just love all the features the Mac has. I am constantly frustrated w/ Windows and all the **** viruses and adware I have on my computer, which is a major reason for my wanting to switch. FrontRow seems like the coolest thing ever. And the cool magnet things. And I already have an iPod, so they'd run nicely together. Plus, it's pretty. (I know it's a dumb reason to buy a computer, but I'm a girl, what can I say, that stuff is important to me.)
    So anyway, I'm now debating between a MacBook and a tablet PC, possibly Gateway or IBM. Could anyone try to convince me one way or the other (considering I'm on a Mac discussion board, I'm sure it'll be the Mac way)? Thanks everyone, I really appreciate your help.

    My guess is that you're likely to find more Mac users at a college than most other areas, so I wouldn't worry too much about 'making the switch' right before going to college -- you'll have lots of help nearby.
    Boot Camp is pretty cool!
    It's a free utility from Apple that basically prepares your Mac so it can run Windows XP. Boot Camp divides your hard drive into seperate areas (partitions) -- one for OS X and another for XP. Boot Camp doesn't come with a copy of Windows XP -- you'll need to provide that. The XP that Boot Camp installs isn't a special version for Mac -- it's the same version that runs on any computer, although to work with Boot Camp, you'll need an XP install CD that has Service Pack 2 applied. Once XP has been installed on your Macbook, it should look (and act) like XP on your HP (with the exception of any special tools/programs that HP loaded on your HP laptop, obviously).
    When you restart your MacBook, it will boot into whichever OS that you set as the default. If you want to boot into the other OS, you just hold down the OPTION key when you restart and then you pick which OS to load. Your computer is basically divided into two systems, so no, programs are not automatically on both systems. If you install the Mac version of Microsoft Office in OS X, you're not going to have Excel/Word/etc when you boot into XP unless you specifically install the Windows version of Microsoft Office.
    Regarding accessories, you always need to check that they work with OS X. My printer was a problem too. It was an el cheapo Samsung laser printer and Samsung apparently didn't feel like spending the money to write OS X drivers for it, but it turned out that an older Samsung OS X driver worked just fine. I had zero problems getting my Kodak camera to work -- I just plugged it in an OS X started using it ... no drivers to install or anything, which made it way easier than the crap I had to do in XP to get XP to see it. My iPod nano worked with no problems too.
    I really, really love my MacBook. I don't know when you have to make your decision, but try using your moms as much as you can (if you can). I bought a Mac mini for my other half last year (birthday present). I had NO interest at that time in Macs or OS X, but after a few days of watching over his shoulder, I was hooked and got myself a mini (and then a PowerBook and then a MacBook Pro and then a MacBook) .. it's addicting.

  • To EAR or not to EAR? That is the question.

    Ok, I'm near the tail-end of a long upgrade process from 5.1 to 6.1,
    and man,
    were there some major bumps to get over. And the thing is... a good
    number
    of the problems were dealing with the new J2EE packaging specs, i.e.
    EAR,
    WAR files.
    First, I had a heck of a time getting Apache SOAP to integrate with
    6.1 correctly. Classloader/classpath issues. I couldn't find any way
    to solve my
    problems other than putting the soap.jar INTO my EAR file (which I
    don't like)
    seperate from my SOAP WAR file (which was also in the EAR). Then
    define
    a manifest file that pointed the files in the SOAP WAR outside of
    itself
    to the SOAP JAR file in my EAR. See... If the JAR was inside the WAR
    it wasn't
    able to access any of my beans... and outside the WAR, the files in
    the WAR couldn't get to the JAR.
    Second, we use Toplink. And in one case, we actually serialize an
    object to
    the database using Toplink (not always a good idea, but made sense
    here). Now,
    in pre-EAR 5.1 days, this was all fine and good. But with the EAR,
    all hell
    seem to break loose. Essentially, Toplink... being part of the App's
    container
    environment is independent of the whole EAR classloader stuff. You
    NEED the
    Toplink JAR files in the system classpath (not inside the EAR), which
    is fine and what I would want. However, when you deserialize the
    object and Toplink
    needs a reference to the class it's being deserialized into... well,
    being
    outside the EAR... you have to put that class reference in the system
    class
    path. And of course, that class has dependencies on a number of other
    classes
    in the system (including, eventually an EJB or 2)... and well, we
    almost
    ended up having to put a whole thing outside of the EAR and back into
    the
    system classpath again. But I was able to modularize some things a
    little
    more, and package what I needed into a jar file and put that on the
    system
    classpath without affecting the deployment of EJBs in the EAr.
    Third, I'm having problems getting my JMS to access a listener class
    inside
    the EAR. I haven't fully confirmed this... but from what I've read,
    this
    seems like a similar problem as described above. And, you need to
    somehow
    get that in your classpath. Of course, dependency-wise, that WILL be
    pulling
    in some of the EJBs.... and now, I have a couple of my EJBs back in
    the
    classpath... UGH!!! Well, eventually, I'll refactor this stuff into
    message
    driven beans, and I can then supposedly get out of this whole. But,
    for
    the time being... that's where this is.
    So... with all this in mind... my real question is this???
    What really is the benefit to EAR'ing other than supposedly making
    your packaging of things cleaner AND the ability to port your
    application to other
    app servers easily. Cause, though the first reason is nice... it's
    not
    essential. And as far as the second reason goes... I don't see that
    changing
    anytime soon. It just seems that every problem I get is related to
    this
    stuff, and it's very annoying. And I'm not sure what I REALLY get
    from the
    EAR that's worth all the pain??
    -Michael J. Hudson
    [email protected]

    As far as I know, one of the main advantages of ear files is that WLS can
    undeploy applications in a clean manner. This can give you the
    possibility of having hot upgrades on a production system amongst other
    things.
    Stephane Vaucher
    Research professional
    CIRANO
    "Michael J. Hudson" wrote:
    Ok, I'm near the tail-end of a long upgrade process from 5.1 to 6.1,
    and man,
    were there some major bumps to get over. And the thing is... a good
    number
    of the problems were dealing with the new J2EE packaging specs, i.e.
    EAR,
    WAR files.
    First, I had a heck of a time getting Apache SOAP to integrate with
    6.1 correctly. Classloader/classpath issues. I couldn't find any way
    to solve my
    problems other than putting the soap.jar INTO my EAR file (which I
    don't like)
    seperate from my SOAP WAR file (which was also in the EAR). Then
    define
    a manifest file that pointed the files in the SOAP WAR outside of
    itself
    to the SOAP JAR file in my EAR. See... If the JAR was inside the WAR
    it wasn't
    able to access any of my beans... and outside the WAR, the files in
    the WAR couldn't get to the JAR.
    Second, we use Toplink. And in one case, we actually serialize an
    object to
    the database using Toplink (not always a good idea, but made sense
    here). Now,
    in pre-EAR 5.1 days, this was all fine and good. But with the EAR,
    all hell
    seem to break loose. Essentially, Toplink... being part of the App's
    container
    environment is independent of the whole EAR classloader stuff. You
    NEED the
    Toplink JAR files in the system classpath (not inside the EAR), which
    is fine and what I would want. However, when you deserialize the
    object and Toplink
    needs a reference to the class it's being deserialized into... well,
    being
    outside the EAR... you have to put that class reference in the system
    class
    path. And of course, that class has dependencies on a number of other
    classes
    in the system (including, eventually an EJB or 2)... and well, we
    almost
    ended up having to put a whole thing outside of the EAR and back into
    the
    system classpath again. But I was able to modularize some things a
    little
    more, and package what I needed into a jar file and put that on the
    system
    classpath without affecting the deployment of EJBs in the EAr.
    Third, I'm having problems getting my JMS to access a listener class
    inside
    the EAR. I haven't fully confirmed this... but from what I've read,
    this
    seems like a similar problem as described above. And, you need to
    somehow
    get that in your classpath. Of course, dependency-wise, that WILL be
    pulling
    in some of the EJBs.... and now, I have a couple of my EJBs back in
    the
    classpath... UGH!!! Well, eventually, I'll refactor this stuff into
    message
    driven beans, and I can then supposedly get out of this whole. But,
    for
    the time being... that's where this is.
    So... with all this in mind... my real question is this???
    What really is the benefit to EAR'ing other than supposedly making
    your packaging of things cleaner AND the ability to port your
    application to other
    app servers easily. Cause, though the first reason is nice... it's
    not
    essential. And as far as the second reason goes... I don't see that
    changing
    anytime soon. It just seems that every problem I get is related to
    this
    stuff, and it's very annoying. And I'm not sure what I REALLY get
    from the
    EAR that's worth all the pain??
    -Michael J. Hudson
    [email protected]

  • X11 or not X11, that's the question.

    After a backup odyssey I thought I got my system back in place. I guess I was wrong - if I want to start Inkscape, it says: "You need X11". If I want to install X11, it says "Already installed", if I want to update, it says "Already newest version".
    Any idea, how I can start all over again?
    Thanks and best regards,
    Christoph

    That's what I get when I try to install X11:
    That's what I get when I start InkScape:
    And that's what I get when I try to update X11 via X11Update2006.pkg:
    macbook black Mac OS X (10.4.7)
    macbook black Mac OS X (10.4.7)

  • To read or not read, that is the question!

    I am becoming a bit annoying, posting so much and everything, yet I took my Tiger DVD to another Mac and managed to make it be read, installed and work. So we know the disk works, so....any ideas to what I can do?

    After reading you other posts, you seem to be having difficulty installing a retail OS X 10.4 DVD onto your G4. But the DVD will install correctly onto a different Mac. Is that correct?
    Did you purchase the computer used? Perhaps the open firmware has been configured to disable booting from optical discs. Do you have any other bootable DVDs or CDs, like your original OS X install discs, that boot correctly?

  • To sleep, or turn-off, or leave on, that is the question

    A couple years ago I called a local Mac dealer and asked the worth of my G4 iMac for a trade-in. He asked whether I usually turned the G4 off, or put it to sleep, or left it on all the time. I said, I usually left it on (with display turned off), or put it to sleep at night. He said the value was less in that case because the heat stresses in high-powered ICs were more detrimental to the life of the machine than on-off stresses. He said I should always turn the machine off at night.
    I'm a retired computer engineer, and the philosophy we had at the time I was working was that the thermal stresses on ICs and solder joints induced by repeated on-off cycles was more harmful than the steady-state stresses of leaving a computer on 24/7.
    So, that's my question. What is best for my new iMac for maximum reliability. (Forget about energy consumption for the moment.}
    1. What's best for overall reliability - turn the unit off at night, put it to sleep at night, or leave it on (with the display in sleep) - or some variation of these.
    2. Is there some magic in the OS that is optimized by one mode over another?
    I'm expect there are no comprehensive studies on this subject, but perhaps there are some informed opinions.
    -Bob

    For a desktop Mac, I leave it ON all the time using only Display Sleep. I also have the setting for +sleeping hard drives when possible+ enabled, but that does not apply to the internal drive (when used as the startup disk); it keeps spinning. External drives do spin down when not accessed.
    I believe leaving it on all the time causes less long-term stress on the hardware, for a Mac that is used every day for at least half the day.
    I think the second best approach, and better approach for energy conservation, is to use Computer Sleep. However, it should be used so that when you start using the Mac at the start of the day, your Mac stays ON (with Display Sleep only) for the rest of the day. At the end of the day (when you will not be using it again until the next day), use Computer Sleep.
    Periodically, for leaving it on all the time or using sleep, restart the Mac; you can make it weekly if you want a routine, but my iMac is fine for about three weeks. After that, I often notice some oddities with general performance, so I do a restart. I don't think about too much, because there is usually some other reason to do a restart within a three week period.
    I think the worst approach, which a lot of people use, is have Energy Saver set to do Computer Sleep after a relatively short inactive period. Then, the Mac is repeatedly powering on and off (sleeping/waking) throughout the day, and that probably puts more stress on the hardware.
    For a laptop Mac, they are designed to run off battery power and use sleep to save power (and their hard drives are better suited for that mode). The issues and considerations are not the same.

  • Buy or not to buy? that is the question !!

    I have a powerbook already and I love macs, I being thinking about buying an iMac to have at home and enjoy the sweetness of the dual core intel processors but when I start reading "rumors" web pages I came down to the question of if it was the proper moment to buy an iMac or not, I mean, we have "Leopard" stepping at our doors an there are rumors about it coming on the end of march or beginnings of April, and possibly the computers may update then too, so should I buy it now? I don't mind to wait a little time to get some thing better like leopard or a little more of ram or video memory, what should I do?

    Hi Kornfobic
    Elmac is right as far as I am concerned. I just bought this iMac about three weeks ago knowing that I'll probably have to pay extra for Leopard whenever it comes out. I don't for a minute regret getting the iMac now instead of waiting. It is SOOOO much better than the old G4 I had. I am having a real ball working with it and, as a sort of bonus, when Leopard actually does come out I will no doubt upgrade and enjoy yet again all the new features as if I had just purchased yet another iMac.
    Go for it.
    Rick

Maybe you are looking for