Chapter 33 Troubleshooting IN THIS CHAPTER: I The SECRETS Rule of Three I Error messages explained I Oddities on the screen I Startup troubles I Disk troubles I File, desktop, and icon ailments I Keyboard snafus PRINCIPLES OF TROUBLESHOOTING The Macintosh has an infinite number of cooks. There are the programmers at Apple who wrote the system software. There are the programmers who wrote the software you use, including the extensions and control panels that modify the system software. And then there’s the hardware, complete with a number of additional software elements (in the ROM chips, for example), both from Apple and other companies. With so many instructions being shouted at it, no wonder the Mac can get flustered and throw up its hands in frustration. The problems you may encounter vary: 1047 1048 Part IV: Attachments I Mysterious system crashes or freezes I Error messages I Startup problems (the blinking question mark icon or the Sad Mac icon) I Application problems, when the Mac simply doesn’t do what it’s sup- posed to I Printing troubles I Disk problems (their icons don’t show up on the desktop or the Mac reports that they’re “not a Macintosh disk”) A word about troubleshooting There’s a certain emotional element to a Mac going wrong. The Mac, after all, is betraying you, usually at a moment when you can least afford it. We don’t know about you, but when our Macs go goofy, we feel a rising well of frustra- tion and loss of control. Our heart rate doesn’t go back to normal until some semblance of normal operation has returned. Therefore, our troubleshooting advice for you is to establish control first, even if it means that you have to strip down your system. Once you know the machine is working properly, you can restore your software and hardware add- ons, one at a time, until you discover which element is causing the problem. It’s important to understand that in many cases, you never find out what caused the problem. You may rearrange the SCSI devices attached to your Mac and find the problem gone. You may change the order in which your extensions load and find that you have no more mysterious crashes. Or, you may reinstall your system software and clear up some odd behavior you’d noticed. In all of these examples, you’ll never know why you had a problem. You’ll have isolated only the general area of the problem. Still, you’ll be just as happy that the problem is gone. More troubleshooting Before you become alarmed at the relative thinness of this chapter, please be advised that you’ll find substantial troubleshooting chunks at the end of some chapters. Separate troubleshooting sections appear for fonts (Chapter 24); printing problems (Chapter 25); SCSI (Chapter 30); and networking (Chapter 32). In this chapter, we hope to give you some Mac-guru wisdom on the gen- eral concept of troubleshooting, as well as mention a number of miscella- neous, mysterious, very common Mac problems and how to solve them. Chapter 33: Troubleshooting 1049 THE SECRETS RULE OF THREE Wouldn’t it feel good to know a three-step procedure guaranteed to wipe out any mysterious software problems? There is such a trick. Our sure-fire solu- tion is grounded on a simple idea: Your Mac worked when it left Apple’s fac- tory. (Some of our friends chuckle at this statement. Still, we have to start somewhere.) Therefore, our troubleshooting concept is simple: To hunt down the prob- lem, you restore the Mac to the way it was when you bought it. It’s a three- step process. Except in cases when something’s genuinely wrong with your Mac (that is, it requires a service call), this three-step process is nearly infallible. Step 1:Start up with the Shift key The first things you should suspect when you’re having strange system prob- lems are the extensions and control panels you installed. These, after all, did- n’t come from Apple. If you’re using System 7 or later, this is an easy step. Restart the Mac. As it’s starting up, press the Shift key. You can release the key as soon as you see the “Extensions off” message. This simple step, we’ve found, promptly cures more than half of the myste- rious system errors that plague a typical Mac. Of course, all you’ve achieved so far is to temporarily eliminate the problem — an extremely useful accom- plishment if you’re in a hurry, need to get some work done, and don’t have time to fiddle around with hours of troubleshooting steps. You still have to figure out which extension was causing the problem, though. And the most efficient way to do that is to use Conflict Catcher, or even the demo version thereof, which is included with this book. See Chapter 34 for instructions. (And if the purpose of your turning extensions off is to permit a safe, clean installation of new system software, as described next, you don’t have to worry that the Shift key will turn off the very extensions needed to run your CD-ROM drive. On all recent Macs, including most Power Macintosh mod- els, the system software CD-ROM itself contains the extensions that allow it to mount and start your Mac. Clever of Apple, huh?) Step 2:A clean reinstall of the System System software, like politicians and fresh fruit, may go bad over time. Fortunately, you have an infinite supply of healthy replacement copies (your system disks or system CD-ROM). 1050 Part IV: Attachments However, as we mentioned in Chapter 5, there’s more to fixing your System Folder than simply running the Installer. The Installer program, as a convenience to you, is designed to replace only those components of the System Folder that need updating. If your System file is already corrupted, it will stay corrupted. If you have a damaged font suitcase, it will remain dam- aged. And so on. The only way to guarantee a virgin System Folder is to perform a clean install. Doing so is as easy as a long A-B-C. (If you have System 7.6, you’ll be walked through these steps.) A:Check the hard drive surface Start up your Mac from the Disk Tools disk. (This floppy comes with every Mac ever made.) Run the program on it called Disk First Aid. (Disk First Aid is also on your system disks, every System Update disk set Apple releases, and every Mac’s system-software CD-ROM. But Disk First Aid can’t repair any problems it finds on the disk it’s on — nor on the startup disk — which is why you have to start up your Mac from the Disk Tools disk. Of course, if you have an external drive of some kind, such as a Jaz, Zip, or SyQuest cartridge, you can start up from that disk and run Disk First Aid off of it.) Disk First Aid may well discover — and fix — problems with your hard drive that have been responsible for whatever glitches you’ve been having. You should still proceed with installing a new System Folder, however. B:Install the new System Folder The next step depends on your Mac model. In all of the following scenarios, you’ll have the best luck if you start up your Mac from your Disk Tools disk, or from your system-startup CD-ROM, or with all extensions off except those needed to run the CD-ROM. I If you’re using System 7.5, run the System Software Installer from your Apple CD-ROM (or your Install Me First floppy). Press Ô-Shift-K at the main Installer screen, and click the “Install New System Folder” button. (If you have a PowerBook that didn’t come with a set of system disks, and you failed to make a set of backup disks when you bought the computer, you’ll have to buy a set of system disks by calling 800-SOS-APPL.) I If you’re using Mac OS 7.6, click the Options button on the main installer screen; choose “Create additional System Folder.” I If you have a Performa, or System 7.1 or earlier, open your existing System Folder. Hide the Finder icon by dragging it into another folder — the Preferences folder, for example. Then rename the System Folder. (Call it “Old System Folder,”for example.) Chapter 33: Troubleshooting 1051 The point of these two steps is to make the Installer think that there’s no System Folder on your hard drive. Thwarted from simply building a new System Folder around your old one, the Installer will build a completely new System Folder. Now run the System Software Installer from your Apple CD-ROM (or your Install 1/Install Me First floppy) in the usual way. If you have a recent Performa, this means running your Restore System Software program (on the Performa CD-ROM). If you have an older Performa, run the Apple Restore program. (This will work only if you faithfully made yourself a set of backup disks the day you bought the computer, as instructed. If you didn’t, you have no choice but to throw yourself on the mercy of 1-800-SOS-APPL to get, or buy, a set of system disks.) C:Customize your fresh System Folder The new System Folder won’t have any of the extensions, fonts, control pan- els, Apple menu items, and sounds you may have added to your original System Folder.