Mac OS® X Leopard™ For Dummies®

Chapter 19. Troubleshooting Mac OS X

In This Chapter

• Facing the dreaded Sad Mac

• Dealing with the flashing question mark

• Recovering from startup crashes

As a bleeding‐edge Mac enthusiast with over 20 years of Mac experience under my belt, I've had more than my share of Mac troubles. Over those years, I've developed an arsenal of surefire tips and tricks that I believe can resolve more than 90 percent of Mac OS X problems without a trip to the repair shop.

Alas, if your hardware is dead, then, sadly, neither you nor I can do anything about it because it is now a job for your friendly Mac repairman and your fat checkbook or high‐limit credit card.

But if your hardware is okay, you have a fighting chance of using the suggestions in this chapter to get your machine up and running.

Dem Ol' Sad Mac Chimes of Doom Blues

Although you usually see a stylish Apple logo when you turn on your computer, once in a blue moon, you might see the dreaded Sad Mac icon (shown in the left margin) and hear that melancholy arpeggio in G minor (better known as the Chimes of Doom), the sound of breaking glass, a car wreck, or any of the other horrible sounds that Macs make when they're dying.

The Sad Mac usually indicates that something very bad has happened to your Mac; often, some hardware component has bitten the dust. But Sad Macs are rather uncommon — many Mac users go an entire lifetime without seeing one. If ...