Lesson 24. Basic Troubleshooting
Goals
Noisy hard disk?
Use simple troubleshooting techniques
Force quit an application
Understand when and how to restart
Do a safe boot
Repair permissions
Delete a preference file
Check for software updates
Create another user to test software problems
Report crashes to Apple
Force a disk to eject
All computers, even Macs, act funny at times. Fortunately, it’s often something that you can fix yourself. These are the steps I follow to fix troubles on Macs, before calling tech support. I go down the list until the problem is fixed (but also check this chapter for other problem-solving tips):
Make sure you’ve got plenty of free space on the hard disk, at least a gigabyte. If not, clear up space and restart.
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