Search:

OK, so some strange goings on. I was watching a movie on my MacBook (details in my profile) and had it connected via an HDMI cable to a SHARP TV (4T-C70BK2UD), and the battery backup battery side must have gone out, because suddenly it made a loud, constant, high-pitched sound, and light was blinking red and green. I force shut down the battery backup (APC 350) by holding down the power button, but didn’t think to turn off the TV or computer.

After turning it back on, the shrill sound resumed, so I tried another time, and ended up moving the TV power cable to the power strip side, where everything else was. That stopped the sound (I guess I just need to get a new battery for it). I could use all the devices, but the TV could no longer find my laptop through the HDMI cable. I tried restarting the TV and checking all the inputs. I unplugged the HDMI for my computer and also restarted my computer because it was acting all glitchy with the screen flickering around, and especially after looking at “displays“ in settings, it seemed clear that it was trying to find the TV but couldn’t hold a connection.

After restarting the computer, it behaves more normally, but still was having trouble securing a connection to the TV, and the TV could not detect the computer. Finally I tried a different HDMI, and then I was able to connect. Is it possible that having the TV abruptly turned off through shutting off the battery backup messed up the HDMI cable? Can that kind of thing happen?

But there’s more. Normally when the TV is turned on it goes to the Firestick immediately. This time it was not doing that. I went to the Firestick manually, and it could no longer give me the home screen, citing connectivity issues, but I think that’s because I’m having Wi-Fi issues and have to have it reset. I re-entered the password for the Wi-Fi and it still was not bringing up the user account, and then suddenly it woke up and everything seemed OK, until I noticed it was on a different user on the...

But VLC would still play a R2 DVD off an American Blu-Ray drive?

I’m sorry, but could you please explain? How doesn’t it work?

Hello. I’m looking for a reliable, long-lasting all-region external Blu-ray drive for my MacBook. I have R1 and R2 DVDs I want to be able to play.

Preferably the drive would also be able to read 4K Blu-rays. Ability to write discs is preferred but not essential.

Recommendations appreciated!

I hope this is the right place for this.

I have an iPhone 11, newest iOS.

Obviously MOV files take up a good deal of space. I have a lot of videos on my iPhone, and they account for a lot of my used space. Unfortunately iMovie, screen recordings, and camera recordings make everything MOV. I love the quality, but space is becoming an issue.

I got an app today called “Media Converter” on the App Store, and it’s extremely well-rated. I’ve tried to convert a simple MOV video all sorts of ways, but the result always has an unpleasant pixelated quality that shows up through parts of the video.

I don’t expect I’ll be able to have this magic “small size, excellent quality” video, but I’d like better than this, and the old MP4 videos I have that were made that way (they were taken with a digital camera years ago) don’t have that pixelated issue. What should I change?

1st - Press command + option + escape.
2nd - In the Force Quit Applications list, look for Finder.
3rd - Click the Relaunch button.
Now just wait a second and Finder should restart. the drag and drop should be resolved.
see here for more info - https://www.switchingtomac.com/tutorials/osx/how-to-fix-drag-drop-not-working-on-mac/[/QUOTE]
This problem happens every single time I use my computer, so are you sure that simply restarting the Finder will fix the problem? I’ll give it a try anyway. I’ll also look at the trackpad settings, like the article mentions. Thanks for the suggestions.

https://files.videohelp.com/u/116953/IMG_8160.MOV
Hopefully the video makes it clear what my problem is. It’s driving me nuts. I tried to click and drag something using the built-in mouse on my MacBook, and it almost always double-clicks down when I push it once, and just tries to open the file. I am trying to use an external mouse instead, but I need to get a decent mouse pad because it’s hell trying to get it to work on other surfaces when I’m sitting on a couch. But if I could get my grabbing built-in mouse to work the way it’s supposed to, maybe I wouldn’t need an external mouse at all.

This is something of a followup to my previous thread about which computer to get. I ordered a MacBook Pro 13”, 256GB, 16GB memory. I have two questions:

1. How do you recommend I care for my computer so it can run at its best for the longest time possible? My 2012 Mac Mini, as many of you know, has turned into a boat anchor. I want to avoid that happening with my next computer. I could research online, but you guys are the most reliable tech experts I know of, so I’m asking here, too. Anything from cleaning or antivirus apps to maybe not running many apps at once? Anything you can recommend for me to get the most out of my new laptop would be appreciated.

2. As you know, the MacBook Pro only has a mere two USB-C ports and a headphone jack. I want to be able to plug in at least a couple normal USBs (the bigger kind, whatever that’s called, but it’s what almost everything seems to have used for years, from external drives to thumb drives) and an HDMI. I looked on Apple’s site, but their combo adapter only has one regular USB slot. They had a other with two from an approved third party maker, but it had two HDMI slots also, which I don’t need, and cost $140, twice the already pricey Apple adapter. Took to Amazon, where there are loads of third party adapters for reasonable prices and with the kind of options I need, but I question how reliable they are. What do you all use/recommend?

I’m not sure how many more times I need to say this, but to keep my Mac mini 2012 would be to keep a boat anchor. Unless there’s some miracle way to rework it to actually run fast, which I can’t conceive of (considering the condition it’s in, and that I feel like I’ve tried everything I know of), I need to upgrade.

The portability of a MacBook is certainly appealing, but so is the price of a new Mini. What really puts me off to getting a Mini is that the one I have didn’t run well off of the newer operating systems even in the earlier days that I had it. Unless Apple has done a tremendous rework on that kind of computer, I’m reluctant to ever buy another Mini. I don’t want to ever end up in this kind of situation again.

@mrbass, what is Catalina and why can’t you use FinalCut?

I’m just wondering if I will need 16GB memory in the long run if I’m not only planning to be doing some video work, but also attempting to get video off of streaming while using a VPN. Then again, I have no prior experience, so I don’t know how much memory that’ll actually use.

Try using LosslessCut now on your Mac mini to cut out parts and clips of the video and remix them together.

Streaming and downloading scenes try distillvideo dot com or mp3conv dot cc
Or a GUI to youtube-dl
Also i would keep your Mac mini and just run Linux Mint 20.2 cinnamon on it and you can find most video editing and some basic image editors all for free and open source to do what ya need. It's an adjustment but if Catalina feels slow to you it might be the time to make the move.[/QUOTE]

I can’t keep the Mac mini I have. It’s too slow to do anything now. Anyway do you think 8 GB of memory would be enough to do this kind of video stuff?

All of this is really really basic stuff that any Mac can do. In normal times, I'd say you're over-thinking this purchase: just get the best-spec MacBook Pro your Mom can snag in your budget range.

Unfortunately these are not normal times: Apple is smack in the middle of its most user-hostile total reinvention of MacOS since Lion debuted. So replacement buyers are caught between a rock and a hard place: buy an Intel-chip Mac that is compatible with everything they now have (but risk being rapidly left behind for software updates and web compatibility), or buy a new M-chip Mac that will be compatible with Apple's future direction (but might prove super problematic with some of your current favorite software unless you buy all-new M versions).

Those of us who are quite happy with how older Macs run our legacy software might lean toward an Intel replacement. Heck, LS and I and others who still use Mac Mini models even older than yours have no speed issues with correctly-configured OS and apps. The problem is often not so much the hardware being slow but Apple's infuriating tendency to brick things with OS updates, not to mention their "closed-loop" web compatibility antics that render older Macs/OS iterations much slower or less web compatible than they innately could be (if Apple didn't deliberately prevent the normal browser updates that are routine on other platforms). If you only use a a Mac for certain specialty apps that don't need to be updated, and you don't need them as primary web portals, old models can go on almost indefinitely.

YOU are not that type of "geek" user: you're more of an everyday consumer who mostly wants to do web-centric stuff and maybe occasionally some photo editing (you mention video in passing but haven't said anything specific). Everyday consumers focused on web stuff have no choice in the matter: buy a new Mac that employs Apples latest chip platform, or you'll have web woes eventually. Apple has staked its Mac OS future on "M" and...

list ALL the stuff you are wanting to do on your new mac.
if you read the fine print at the bottom of the page, all tests were using 2TB SSD & 16GB RAM[/QUOTE]

I want to do the more basic stuff like surfing the web and all. I have also enjoyed using iPhoto to keep a whole lot of pictures and do slideshows and stuff. I want to be able to watch stuff on my computer, including online streaming. I want to use Photoshop for photo editing. I would like to do some video editing. I might play an online game. Manage iTunes. Can’t really think of anything else at the moment. And I want to be able to run at least a couple apps at once.

Thanks for the advice, everyone. Now I’m stuck on something additional: specs. Didn’t consider that at first. For what I want to do, is the 256GB SSD storage enough, or do I need the 512GB? Is 8GB memory enough or do I need 16? Apple’s website mentions such differences and I’m not sure what’s needed for me.

So the Apple M chips are very efficient, but they don’t let me run older software? Is there a way I can get efficiency and still run older software?

intel is older and more compatible, m1 is new af and incompatible with lots of older software[/QUOTE]
Is there any benefit to the M1, then?

Which would you recommend? i7? i5?

I just spoke with a Mac sales representative, and based on my desire to use video editing and programs like Photoshop for personal use, she recommended the MacBook Pro. One thing I noticed though was that I have more than one option for the processor. There’s the Apple M1 chip, but I can also get it with an Intel Core i5 or i7 processor. Not knowing the difference, I asked about it, and she said that the M1 is geared only toward newer programs. Researching it online, it looks like there’s something called “Rosetta“ that will allow me to run older applications, but for what I’m seeing it sounds like the performance isn’t as strong when using Rosetta. I’m currently using Photoshop Elements 13 Editor. I would understand if I had to get a newer version, but do you know if any version will run straight off the M1 chip? I think the only other real programs of consequence that would not be built into the computer at this point would be some kind a virtual machine through which I can run Mac OS 9 for old time’s sake. Based on all of this, can anyone recommend me as to which processor I should go with? Thanks.

I have a 2012 Mac mini that is slow is slow can be and the system kind of seems to be falling apart. I asked on this forum about selling it a long time ago, and most people recommended I do that. My mom, long story short, can get me a discount through her job on a new computer. I’m thinking laptops because they are cheaper than the fancy desktops, right? I don’t think they last as long (correct me if I’m wrong), but as long as it’s not too big a difference in longevity. I don’t know about all of the fancy stuff when it comes to computers, like upgrading this and that. I simply want a machine that runs fast and performs fairly basic stuff. I don’t do stuff like video editing or other big projects, typically, so I don’t need some super beast of a computer. Not sure if I really have much of a clear price range (plus again, I should be able to get a discount), but I of course don’t want to be paying thousands of dollars or anything (money is tight!). But I could really use a new Mac. Any recommended models I could ask my mom to look for?

I see Windows and Linux as supported operating systems. Will it work on Mac?

Can anyone recommend the best way to rip videos from YouTube while still maintaining top quality? Free methods are preferable, of course.

My church has been live-streaming every Sunday, and I’ve noticed the audio volume has been automatically getting louder and quieter off and on. Here’s our service last Sunday where this continued to happen. It’s really distracting. I can’t find anything on the web about this. It used to be ok, but lately this problem’s been occurring. I can’t think of anything that’s changed. We haven’t changed the position of the cell phone we used to stream to Facebook. Furthermore, we also stream with a phone to YouTube, and the YouTube audio has been fine, which makes me wonder if it’s a Facebook issue. Not long ago we got a new boosting speaker, the photo of which I’m uploading, but I don’t think we had audio problems right off with that. Anyway, any help would be appreciated. 👌

I have a late 2012 Mac Mini. It’s only on El Capitan and it moves slower than a grandpa slug. I asked about if I could get it running well again a long time ago in this thread, and while I’d have to review it again and see if I’ve tried every suggestion, so far nothing I’m doing is working. I’m just kind of fed up with it all, and I’m honestly wondering if I should just see if I could sell it and put that money towards a new and better computer. It’s concerning if I can’t even get it to run well on a very outdated OS. Do you think it would be worth trying to sell it? I’m still having trouble finding out what it’s going for, although this thread seems to shed some light.

Hopefully this hasn’t been posted before (I searched and didn’t find anything on here). Just this evening my families Vizio Smart TV’s screen started flickering; the display kept turning on and off. We didn’t change anything about the set up. It just started happening on its own while we were using it. We checked different feeds including TV, Blu-ray, and the Amazon Fire, and it was giving us problems with all of it. At first there were certain points like the main menu where it wasn’t giving us the problem, but it progressed and got worse. We checked the connection cables and my dad even changed one of the cables. We also tried turning it on from a different power source as I understand it. I checked online to see what I could do and we tried most of the options. We even did a hard reset to take it back to its factory settings. It’s definitely a problem with the TV itself, it seems. I fear it may just be dying because we’ve had it for a good several years and use it often. I just figured it couldn’t hurt to ask on here if anyone else had any other ideas, just in case.

Interesting. I restarted and reset the pram and now it’s working. It wasn’t working after my computer had gone into sleep mode before that.

I tried to play music on my iTunes just now and nothing will play even if I had uploaded that music from the CD. In fact, even if I load the actual CD, I can’t play the music. I click play and nothing happens. It doesn’t even act like it’s going to play. No response at all after I click the play button or double click a song. I was thinking maybe there was a problem with my library but now I’m confused because even the actual CD won’t play.

A while ago I had used Time Machine to go back from El Capitan to a saved version of OS X Yosemite, and later upgraded to El Capitan again. I haven’t gone further because my computer already sometimes gets low on El Capitan and I’m scared of any more advanced systems making my computer run even more slowly. Anyway I wonder if going back through Time Machine somehow has something to do with this problem?

As always any help is appreciated.

Thanks for the advice. You’re right, those aren’t cheap. When you say “less durable”, do you mean they can get damaged if not handled gently or if they get dropped or something, or do you mean that they tend to wear out fast?

I recently got some Blu-rays where, long story short, I noticed how the playback speed is actually a little bit sped up, and it’s pretty noticeable in the pitch of the audio and in the general procession of the events in the videos. My only way to watch Blu-rays is on my PlayStation 4, so I only have the ability to speed up the video on it. So if I want to watch these at their proper speed, I would need to use VLC on my computer to slow the speed down a little bit. But I don’t have a Blu-ray player for my Mac. So, I’m looking into the prospect of buying an external Blu-ray drive. It doesn’t need to be anything fancy. I would like to find something as cheap as possible and yet as reliable as possible (though I realize of course you often get what you pay for, so I may need to settle on some kind of middleground). So with all that in mind, does anyone have any recommendations for a cheap yet reliable external Blu-ray drive that works on a Mac? Thanks in advance.

Thanks. Got it to work.

Another strange issue has surfaced, though. Before updated I wasn’t able to open my Pages documents. But now even after upgrading to El Capitan it’s still telling me it can’t open my documents, even though I made them using El Capitan, and it tells me I need to upgrade to the latest operating system. But I went to the App Store and I have installed all of the updates for El Capitan now. All that would be left would be to upgrade to High Sierra. So what’s the deal? Why can’t I view my Pages documents anymore? I used to be able to do that with El Capitan.

Long story, but after my computer was running too slowly with El Capitan, I used an old Time Machine backup to revert to Mavericks. Problem is, while it does run more smoothly now, there are some applications I can’t use now because of the outdated system. So now I’m thinking of giving El Capitan one more shot (worst case I may need to erase my system and do a clean install, it sounds like), or at least Yosemite. The problem is I was told I should install it rather than go back to a Time Machine backup, and I can’t find a way to install El Capitan now. When I go to the App Store I only find High Sierra (I know my computer shouldn’t be able to handle that). I found a link on a site taking me to an El Capitan install page on the App Store, but for some reason it’s telling me it can’t be installed on my computer. Any suggestions?

I can't find a way to open it to clean it. It doesn't appear to open accept for the battery compartment.

So either way it's likely the mouse's fault?

Recently my computer's mouse has been acting up. It's actually been going on for a while, but it's gotten worse recently, to the point of being almost intolerable. Often when I click something once it acts like a double-clicked it, making files open when I only wanted to select them. I also have a great deal of difficulty dragging anything, be it a file or a selection, without the mouse quickly letting go. It does this with anything I try to drag. It just lets go without warning. Sometimes I have to try a good dozen times to simply move an item from one place to another. I've had it. Is the problem most likely with my mouse, or my computer's system? My Mac mini runs the newest version of El Capitan, and my computer has moved much slower since I upgraded from Mavericks (can't remember if I had the problem with Yosemite). My knowledgeable friend suggested the El Capitan is probably too much for my computer's operating power. Anyway, could my mouse problems be connected to this?

My mouse doesn't seem to stick or anything, so I don't think it can be a physical issue with the mouse. I don't have a desk, but sit my TV (which I use as a monitor) on a small table and set my mouse and keyboard on my lap, and use my leg as a mousepad. XD I don't think this was a problem at first. My mouse is wireless, but the receiver is less then two feet away from it, so I doubt distance could be an issue (not sure though). It's a Logitech mouse, but I don't know the make and model. But I'm attaching a screenshot I just took. It is pretty old now, so is it just dying on me?

It also has fresh batteries, so that can't be the issue. I also tried holding the reset buttons on my mouse and receiver for 10 seconds each, and the problem persisted as badly as ever. I run diagnostics on my computer, but nothing changes with the mouse. Same with resetting the PRAM.

Any ideas? Do I need to buy a new mouse? This is the only one I have, so I can't test another mouse to see if it's the mouse or the...

I don't have any CD or anything with a system on it that I can install. I think my computer came preloaded with one. So how would I start from scratch?

My brother has a bunch of audio files to send me (I don't know what the total size is, but maybe a couple hundred MB max??), but we live in different countries and his Mac has OSX 10.5, so that rules out stuff like Dropbox and OneDrive. Using email could tedious and time consuming. Any suggestions for how he could send these to me digitally?

I downloaded OnyX but it has a lot of options to choose from. How do you recommend I use it?

Looking at Activity Monitor, everything, even my open apps, seem to be well below 5% in the %CPU column, except Activity Monitor, which is around 5%.

ackboo, I haven't even had this computer for a few years yet. How do I do a clean install? I live in a countryside city in Japan and don't have any Apple stores around. Also, my computer, though new, seemed to have its system pre-loaded. I don't have a CD or anything to load the system from.

Recently, more and more, my Mac mini has been getting slow, it seems. I've searched online as to what the cause may be, but so far none of the possible solutions have helped. I don't usually run many programs at once (usually 3 or less, and even if just one is open, my computer is slow). I've tried looking to see if things are running in the background, but nothing unusual seems to be. I've also tried running Disk Utility and resetting the PRAM.

I still have a lot of free hard drive space (currently 372.63 GB of 500 GB). I have two 2 GB slots of memory (4 total), "each of which accepts a 1600 MHz DDR3 memory module" (whatever that means), according to the info in "About My Mac". I'm also running the latest version of the latest OS (El Capitan).

My Mac just lags a lot. It opens things slowly and I get the loading rainbow wheel a lot, and it sits for a good several moments sometimes before it decides to do something, even if that something is simple.

With nothing solving the issue, I'm wondering if I need a special program to clean up my Mac's unseen junk. I've considered programs like Coc-ktail (added a hyphen because the first part of the word is censored) and CleanMyMac, but I'd like a free solution, if possible. If nothing else will work, I guess I'll have no choice but to pay for a program. In any case, I welcome suggestions for cleaning programs, preferably free ones.

If anyone has suggestions as to how to make my Mac run more smoothly, I'd appreciate it.

That sounds more like you are stating your opinion then giving facts. Am I wrong?

I've wondered about this for a while, and [http://www.cnet.com/news/legal-liability-for-youtube-viewers/]this article[/url] has added to my concerns (though it is an old article). So simply put, if a video is illegally uploaded to YouTube, is it considered against the law to watch it? I know it's illegal to upload such videos, but what about watching them? I'm not even asking so much about if I'd get in trouble for it; I simply wish not to break the law. So is watching illegally uploaded videos just something the companies wouldn't want me to do, or is it actually really illegal?

Recently my mouse is having trouble keeping a grip on stuff. For example, when I try to move files around by clicking and dragging, the mouse lets the files go. Sometimes it even deselects them. And it seems like the quicker I try to drag the files, the faster they're let go on my screen. This becomes increasing aggravating when I'm trying to move a few simple things from one place to another.

Sometimes I also click something just once and it acts like I clicked it twice (this can be annoying as I end up opening files I didn't intend to).

I haven't changed anything about my computer arrangement. My mouse, a wireless Logitech (I don't know the model #), is near to the signal receiver. There's also no low battery light on on my mouse. I've also tried resetting the mouse and receiver, but it hasn't helped.

Could this be a problem with my computer (gosh I hope I don't have to reinstall the system and all), or is it that my mouse is just old? I've had it for a long time now.

And before anyone suggests it, I don't have a secondary mouse so I can't try that one out to see if this issue is the mouse's fault.

And after six months, I may as well have bought Elements all at once.