Ports at back of iMac are driving me crazy!

I'm using GarageBand with a guitar and bass, often monitoring the output with headphones.
Plugging the instruments and headphones in the back of the iMac is major hassle. I often spin the thing around 180 degrees just to get set up.
And then the cables! Yikes! Headphones, guitar cable, mouse cable...
Is there some inexpensive solution so I can plug into <something> which is always plugged into <some port>?
Perhaps some phyical USB interface?
Suggestions, please!
iMac (Intel CPU) Mac OS X (10.4.5)

http://www.bulletsandbones.com/GB/Interfaces.html

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I have no idea what happened. However, I believe that you've got to take it back to the service provider and work with them. Call them and tell them what happened and see what kind of a response you get. You might want to try to get in touch with Apple Customer Service and see if they can help you out with the service provider.
As for "compensation", that is probably a legal matter unless you have some kind of insurance that covers you for business losses. You might try to stress to the service provider that they should do whatever service is now needed to get the machine working again at no additional charge.

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"Optical audio port" on back of imac?

it sure doesn't look like an optical audio port... most optical audio ports are square and have a tiny door on them.
I know the manual said something about getting a "mini-plug adapter" to use the port incase I want to output my itunes into my audio receiver but is the port on the back of the imac something that takes a "mini-stereo plug" like headphones or is it something that takes a "mini-Toslink" plug like a few I've seen advertised on ebay?
well I guess the bottom line is that its probably a "mini-stereo plug" because my Boston computer speakers plugged right into it....

Hey there - use the mini-Toslink plug (I chose a 90 degree adapter version) and then ran it to my stereo receiver. Voila! Optical out. The only thing I'm still working on is getting some type of software switch installed (if at all possible) to swap between digital audio out and using the built in speakers (My stereo receiver isn't always on and I don't like unplugging the cable just to get the speakers to work.) To answer your original question, yes, the mini Toslink cable will work just fine.
-Mike

My USB ports only work if i unplug them, swap them around and plug them back in. Its driving me crazy! I have done a pram and smc reset, reinstalled lion and spent two hours on the phone to apple. Now what?!!

I have a optical lead coming out of the headphone jack in to a dac that goes in to my amp (which has speakers connected) so i can listen to music. The Dac is powered by usb. Recently the sound stopped working. I called tech support and they suggested the resets (pram and smc) and i reinstalled lion and reinstalled itunes, deleted audio files, blah blah blah.
So now when the computer turns off, or indeed randomly sometimes, I have to uplug the usb cable and put it in a different port, it then works. If I then put it back in to the original port it still works. Totally baffled. Can anyone please help. i have 3 children who are getting very bored at the sight of my growling perplexed face and the sight of my back!

I don't know why that happens, since I don't own products of this type... However, if the sole purpose of the USB connection is to provide power (not a data connection), can you connect it to something that just provides power, such as a USB power adapter (like the one that comes with iPhone)?
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MD810LL/A/apple-5w-usb-power-adaptor
Or, if it needs to be connected to a USB port, it might work properly if you get a self-powered USB hub and connect the USB cable to the DAC to the hub. The hub would act like a "buffer" between the DAC and iMac. It needs to be "self-powered" (comes with its own power supply). Here's one such USB hub
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer%20Technology/USB2HB7PRO/
Do you have anything else connected to USB (other than standard keyboard and mouse)? If so, have you tried it with ONLY the DAC connected, to see if the problem recurs? USB devices can interfere with each other.

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Hello all!
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Wifi:
So starting from the first boot up, it seems as if my Macbook Pro doesn't always play well with my network over wifi. After establishing a good connection for at least an hour, web pages will refuse to load, even though airport says I'm connected to the internet and to my network. When i turn airport off and back on, I'm prompted for my network password. When I enter it, it attempts to connect, and i get the message "network timeout". I keep getting this no matter how many times i attempt to reconnect, or restart. I have 2 windows computers (vista and xp) and 2 xboxes that are connected via LAN, and 2 ipod touches, an ipad, an old dell laptop (ubuntu), and a Macbook (snow leopard) that are connected at various times wirelessly. The problem persists no matter what time it is, what day it is, where i am in the house, or what is connected to the network. Some days it will happen 5 times, some days (like today), it has yet to happen, so it's very unpredictable. No other computers, including the Macbook, have this problem. I have yet to test this Macbook Pro on another network. I have searched various forums and tried multiple "network timeout" fixes, only to find myself being disconnected again. The problem does not happen when connected via LAN
Video Chat:
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Im curious to know if these two problems are related! My blame right now falls on the router or it's settings, but as of right now i really don't know how to go about fixing this.
My ISP is Verizon FiOS, and i must say I've seen a great improvement from when i switched from my local ISP (Time Warner Cable), however through my searching i have seen people run into problems with the macbook pro and Verizon FiOS and their routers. The problem is, I can't simply replace the router, It's used for the TV and DVR streaming and stuff, it had a COAX cable in it.
If it makes a difference, i needed LAN ports in my room, so i took my old Linksys WRT54G router with DD-WRT Firmware, and connected that to the wire that runs from the Actiontec M1424WR into my room, so i can connect my Xbox and my computer via LAN... that could be a possible interference.
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HP/Synaptics trackpad with integrated buttons in touch area- DRIVING ME CRAZY!!!

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I am having same issue and it gets accivated again

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Hi all,
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http://www.bulletsandbones.com/GB/Interfaces.html

IMac is driving me CRAZY!

Hi all. So, my iMac was having problems with RAM. That got fixed with a new stick from apple. After that still had problems, after repairing the disk it worked.
NOW, i'm having problems doing anything. iTunes didn't have it's "metallic skin" but worked. somebody suggested reinstalling. i downloaded it off of apple after deleting itunes and it keeps saying "can't install because there is nothing there to install". And when I downlaod it, the download box does not appear and it is instantly on my desktop.
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iPhoto can no longer import photos in from a camera, CDR, or anything! And i've been on these independent boards but have had no luck. And i know about iphoto and tampering in the finder folder, i know i didn't do it.
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John: I won't even try to guess what's going awry with your new iMac. But have you run your hardware test? Repaired permissions? You also might try turning it off and unplugging it for about one minute, then turn it back on.
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Apple has been working on it for over a week, does anyone out there have work arounds, presets, whatever that will give me decent default results for Nikon D2H, D2X, and D200 RAW files. D2H being the worst off right now.
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RB

Thinking more about the issue you are experiencing, I
am curious to know how your D2X (or D2H) is
configured, relative to the following settings:
* Color Space (sRGB or Adobe RGB); defaults to sRGB.
[The D2H may not have a separate setting for
this; instead it may be combined with the Color
Mode.]
Color Mode (Type I, II or III); defaults to Type I.
Tone Compensation (Auto, Normal or predefined
curve); defaults to Auto.
I ask because a photo's resultant colors -- and
perhaps the perceived white balance -- can be
considerably different depending on the
aforementioned settings. And the defaults are
definitely NOT what I would use, particularly for
RAW.
In any case, after reading (and re-reading) the D2X
manual, perusing web sites, etc., etc., I have found
the following settings to be optimal for a RAW
workflow:
* Color Space: Adobe RGB. (The default -- sRGB --
has a smaller gamut than Adobe RGB.)
* Color Mode: II. (The default -- type I -- is for
portrait shots. Type III is for landscapes. Type II
-- only available when utilizing Adobe RGB for the
colorspace -- is suited for a RAW workflow. Type I
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while type II does not, AFAIK.)
* Tone Compensation: Normal. (The default -- "Auto"
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an image, and said changes can be different from
shot-to-shot...even for the same scene.)
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folks sometimes see different results in Aperture vs.
Nikon's Capture NX, for a given image.
Anyone else?
MacBook Pro
17" 2.16; PowerMac G5 Dual 2.7 Mac OS X
(10.4.8) Camera: Nikon D2X
I think that I mentioned this before but here goes again:
D2H Color mode 1, Normal contrast, sRGB, preset WB with 5500K lights.
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RB

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Help, help, help!! My 'search' field in iTunes 11 seems to have completely disappeared and I don't know how to get it back. Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.

You don't see it here?
This is iTunes 11 on 10.6.8 - I tried to make it disappear but couldn't do so, so if you've lost it I can't give you an easy answer. Have you tried rebooting your Mac? If that doesn't help you could try reinstalling iTunes:
http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/
Can you post a screenshot?

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Message was edited by: Donnie Ashworth

Donnie,
Did you attempt to reboot your Mini?
Did you repair permissions?
Did you try those applications in another account?
Did you try to refresh the finder plist file? If not, you may want to refresh the Finder plist file by dragging the com.apple.finder.plist file which is located in your Macintosh HD/Users/yourusername/Preferences folder to the Desktop. Then log out/in or restart and reset your settings in Finder>Preferences...>General.
;~)

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Open iCal and look at the upper left corner. If you don't see a calendar identification, go to the View menu and select "Show Calendar List."
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Ports at back of iMac are driving me crazy!

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