I managed to recover my member since 2004 .Mac account, I lost three years ago. Glad to find back my email account for .Mac. The sad thing was, I could not merged two of my .Mac accounts. So I made the decision to keep only one of them.
Tag: macintosh
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Apple Hotline: Case ID vs CS Code
Many times, when we have technical problems, we call Apple Hotline for support to determine if it is a hardware or software issues. If it is a software issue the Hotline will provide support. If it is a hardware failure the Hotline will ask you to bring the hardware for warranty exchange at one of the Apple Authorised Service Centres.
Everything we make a call to Apple Hotline, a Case ID will be issued to us. A Case ID is a reference number that refer to your report with the Hotline. That is it. Is a reference number for your reported case.
When a user is told by the Hotline he has a hardware failure, the user happily bring down the faulty device to the service centre and expect a replacement. Sad to tell all Apple owners, calling Apple Hotline and given a Case ID do not entitle you to any free or warranty hardware replacement at a Service Centre.
The Service Centre’s decision supersede the Hotline and the Case ID is just a reference number for your case. It only proves that you have logged a call to the hotline, not an agreement to carry out the repair. The Service Centre is bounded by the laws of Apple warranty, for which anything not of electronic failure is not covered under warranty. The only thing that can overwrite the Service Centre‘s decision is a CS Code.
CS Code is Customer Service Code issue by the Customer Relations Officer. This CS Code will only be given if the Customer Relations Officer is satisfied that the issue is not under mishandling or the repair is given under good will. The CS code can then supersede Service Centre decision and even free replacement for out-of-warranty hardware.
Co-author with Puat.
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Fixing Macbook Pro Fan Problem
After two weeks of waiting, my fan replacement arrived.
My Macbook Pro laptop computer fan, left side fan suddenly produced some flapping noise. I thought was the anti-static film wore out and went into the fan and created the noise. After fixing the anti-static film, the flapping sound was still there. So, I ordered a replacement.
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Bye Bye Microsoft Office
Earlier years I used Microsoft Outlook and when I shifted to Mac, I migrated MS Outlook to MS Entourage. All in all, ten years of Microsoft Office slavery. Over the years, I slowly moved away from Microsoft products and moving my data to other platforms. The toughest of all migration was moving away from Microsoft Entourage.Finally, this day, I decided and migrated to Apple Mail and iCal, replacing MS Entourage. Replacing MS Word, Excel, Powerpoint with Apple Pages, Numbers and Keynote respectively.
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Vista In Parallels
I am now running Leopard 10.5 with Windows Vista in Parallels 5540 Beta.Have some errors during setup but manage to solve them and now running well on the fourth installation.
Vista is a bit laggy compare to my previous Windows XP in Parallels.
I realise Leopard 10.5 manages swap files much better than Tiger 10.4. Running Parallels in Tiger will use 1 to 2GB of swap files. With Leopard, I hardly use up to 64MB of swap files when Parallels was running.
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iPhone How To Phone
I got myself a new iPhone. Flown in from New York and I picked up in the airport. It was a cool iPod but a sucky phone. The phone features were so handicapped.
I upgraded the new iPhone firmware to 1.1.1 and hacked it. It was a perfect hack and I got my chinese input working. The killer app was the full blown Safari browser. I can surf the World Wide Web on the iPhone with the same experience a desktop computer browser.
This iPhone was almost an innovative must-have gadget until I tried out the stupid phone functions. I was greatly disappointed with it. I could not edit and call a contact, which was an important function to us, people that travel between countries.
For the time being, I would stick to my SonyEricsson K800i. and my third generation iPod.
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Leopard Is Here
The Leopard is here. I was at the launch. We were issued and had only one hour installing OS X Leopard on all the demo unit. It was pressurising because we had lot of shoppers outside the store looking at us doing installation and rushing ourselves to be on time for the launch.
And the trick to shorten the installation time was to, not to install the 3 to 4GB of drivers by unchecking the option.
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Get More RAM The Merrier
Upgraded my Macbook Pro memory from 1.5GB to 3GB, Doing so, I shifted the bottleneck to the harddisk. My Mac was now running at it best. When I had 1.5GB of memory, my Mac could only open about four to five heavy duty applications like Adobe Photoshop before it lagged my machine. Now with 3GB of RAM, I could open more than ten applications as intensive as Photoshop and database driven application like iPhoto and iWeb.Increasing my RAM also doubled my machine performance. Everything was so much faster and smoother except sometimes when it had to write huge swap files to the harddisk. The magic of 3GB RAM also made my Windows in Parallels ran seamlessly and faster without stressing the swap disk like before.
I was glad with my RAM investment. Worth every penny spent.
Talking about memory, RAM module for Mac, I would recommend to use Crucial module. Please avoid Kingston brand. Kingston module would not run well on Mac. Crucial was the recommendation in our workshop.
Go! Get More RAM The Merrier!
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My Apple TV
Got myself a AppleTV. Not really impressive with it. Would prefer to buy a Nintendo Wii for my entertainment in the living room.I was able to access YouTube and iTunes Store but was not able to watch the videos and movie trailers respectively. The Apple support site said if I was using a proxy server, I would not be able to stream video to my AppleTV. Will workaround this problem when i feel like it.
I wished I could use my AppleTV as an extension storage for my iTunes than syncing. In that way I could free up more storage space on my Macbook Pro.
I was happy with the screensaver, I could select and displayed photos from my iPhoto on my TV
Since I bought this device, I might as well made full use of it then whining over it shortfalls.
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What Is PRAM?
PRAM stands for Parameter RAM. PRAM stores certain system and device settings in a location that The Mac OS can access quickly. The information is store in a small area of non-volatile RAM (NVRAM).What does PRAM stores? Zapping your PRAM? How to do it? Exactly which settings are stored in the computer’s PRAM varies depending on the type of computer as well as the types of devices and drives connected to the computer.
Some information stored in PRAM includes:
• Display and video settings such as refresh rate, screen resolution, number of colors
• Time zone setting
• Startup volume choice
• Speaker volume
• Recent kernel panic information, if any
• DVD region setting Note: Mac OS X stores your preselected DVD region choice in PRAM for easy access. Resetting PRAM does not allow you to change the DVD region.Unlike prior versions of the Mac OS, Mac OS X does not store network settings in PRAM. If you experience a network issue, resetting PRAM will not help.
If PRAM is reset, you may need to verify your time zone, startup volume, and volume settings using System Preferences. Certain firmware updates may reset PRAM as a normal part of their installation process.
When to use PRAM? There are times when the computer faces some problems. Instead of rushing the computer to the service centre, you may try these resuscitation methods for the computer. The few problems that PRAM could help,
1. Computer has no startup chime, and the sleep light may or may not be turned on. You can still hear the computer has something running inside, which means there is power in the computer.
2. Screen is distorted or flickering, or resolution of the screen is not right.
3. External devices are not able to be detected.
Usually PRAM is ran for 3 cycles, which means you hold the 4 keys simultaneously (Command, Option, P, and R) until you hear 3 startup chimes. Another thing that we should note is that zapping PRAM should not be used unnecessarily.
When ever the PRAM is used, zapping PRAM, you will reset your clock setting to 1970. And this will disrupt the proper flow of power to into the computer. If PRAM does not solve the problem, do not keep trying too many times, it is really time to send the computer for servicing.
Co-author with Puat.
This article is based on Apple Support, http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1242