Adapters

Dear Macdoc,

Alongside my re-built Apple G4, and Apple laptop, I have an old AppleMac 4400 in very good working order. I want to keep it running so I can use all my old programmes, early photoshop so on and so forth. And I'm sure I can find spares on Ebay

However, I would like to connect it to a reasonable modern printer, the problem is that the 4400 is SCSI. Is it possible to find an adapter to fit SCSI, with a usb printer.?

Many thanks
Tony Shelley


Hi Tony

To be honest you'll be flogging a dead horse. For a start SCSI is not a printer output. Its mainly used for connecting hard drives and scanners. It's the serial printer port that is used. There is no adapter to convert this port to USB.

Modern USB printers will be more compatible with the modern Macs. You might get away with using an Apple generic printer driver, or an open source CUPS driver (search Google) or at best making a PDF using Adobe Distiller then printing this.

Colour printing is possible over an Ethernet network to a Colour Laser Printer using the Postscript Laser writer driver in System 9, but these printers are more expensive than Inkjet ones.

The cheapest solution for you to find a non USB printer. Sadly we recently chucked a perfectly good Epson Stylus Pro XL Plus A3 printer as we couldn't find a good home for it... non even the charity shops wanted to sell it!

Should have put it on Ebay...

URL disappeared

Hello

Could you help me? I somehow dragged the address field or URL space in safari off. Is it possible to regain this so that I can cut and paste urls?

Thanks
Frances


Hi Frances

Try this:

1. Safari > Menu bar > View > Customize toolbar
2. Drag the URL field or default set back onto the toolbar

Regards
MacDoc

MS Outlook says "Disk Full"

Hi

I tried clearing quite a lot of emails yesterday, but after downloading about 5 new emails from MS Exchange it came up with same rejection - disc full.

I am wondering if there is any way that I could export the majority of emails into an archive file, which could be reactivated purely for search purposes in the future - it us just because there is such a lot of data which retains use for me as reference.

Actual hard disc space from the 'file - get info' looks as though I have masses of reserve space on the hard disc:

CAPACITY: 38.15 GB
AVAILABLE: 28.23 GB
USED: 9.92 GB

Is there any way of tweaking the database to increase the capacity?

All suggestions welcome.
Rod


Hi Rod

From memory, Outlook has it's own database-fix tool.

Try starting Outlook with the option key down. This should give you a dialogue box asking if you want to COMPACT the database. Click on YES.

See if that has improved the situation, else start Outlook again with the option key down. Say no to compacting the database but YES to COMPLEX REBUILD.

Hope that helps
MacDoc

Epson Stylus photo EX printer

hello

I wonder if there is a print driver for the Epson Stylus photoEX for my mac OS X

I also need to find a printer cable that will convert into a USB

The apple cable recommended is a Peripheral-8 cable part no M0197 . but this was back in 1998?

thank-you in anticipation
Adrian Thomas


Hi Adrian

Firstly I must warn you may be throwing away good money if you try to get your Epson Stylus Photo Ex printer to work. We had an Epson Stylus Pro XL Plus and didn't have a great rate of success as our Macs got upgraded. Support for old equipment gets less and less. It may be cheaper to upgrade the printer and assign the old one to the recycle heap.

However you can check out these websites:

• Printer Drivers - http://www.versiontracker.com/php/qs.php?mode=basic&action=search&str=printer&srchArea=macos%7Cclassic%7Cdrivers
• Mac Serial to USB - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Keyspan-Usb-Twin-Serial-Adapter/dp/B000FX61MS/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1246226552&sr=1-2

Good luck...

Hard Drive Problems

Hi,

Wondered if you could help with an in sight... I've got the first generation 13" White Macbook's but the hard drive keeps going on it, i have to replace it i'd say once every 3months... What would be the underlying issue too cause this so frequently?

Many Thanks
Zach


Hi Zacharia

One HD dying is acceptable, but three?

I presume you've exhausted all the disk tests and recovery routines as outlined by the Apple website support pages; as well as third party software tools like Drive Genius?

I reckon the logic board connection to the drive is shorting the drive controller. If you are on Applecare, insist on a logic board replacement. Else it's a DIY repair, try www.bookyard.com for spares.

Regards
MacDoc

Displays

Hi

I have just been given an apple mac 'Studio Display'. Will I be able to connect it to my PC or won't it be compatible?

Thanks,
Vanessa


Hi Vanessa

You don't say which Studio Display. I think if it's the flat panel one, its got an ADC connector. If your PC's Graphic card has a similar looking connector it'll probably be DVI. So you'll need a ADC to DVI adapter, like this:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/APPLE-DVI-TO-ADC-DISPLAY-ADAPTER-A1006_W0QQitemZ270341321211QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Computing_Apple_Mac_Accessories?hash=item270341321211&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1683|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318

Note you may have problems controlling the parameters of the display as there are no controls on it. However your Graphic Card software may be able to do this.

Hope that helps.

Is this Mac Virus?

Hello,

Are you able to help?

We have recently set up with broadband. We have a mac oxs laptop and seem to have acquired a virus. Everytime we go to write an email an 'alert' box appears saying something like 'we could not complete the spellcheck'. Once you've okayed it it disappears and then re-appears 2 seconds later. Any suggestions I have no idea what to do.

When setting up the braodband and wireless router i was instructed to turnoff the norton antivirus and inadvertantly forgot to turn it on so presume that's how the virus got in (obviously i switched it back on as soon as i realised

Many thanks
Karen


Hi Karen

It's not a virus, it just a corrupt link between the application and the spell checker.

Sadly the Spell checker is part of the core system of the computer and one way is to back up all your important files and then use your original system CD's to do an "Archive and Install". You can refer to the Apple Website for further details.

However before performing such a major operation, try this.

Reset the the "PRAM" (Parameter RAM)

1. Restart the computer and immediately hold down 4 keys: the "Option/Alt", "Apple/command", "P" and "R" keys.
2. Hold them down until you hear the start up tones three times
3. Release the keys to allow the computer to complete the Boot sequence
4. When the Desktop appears, try Apple Mail

Hope that helps

iBook G4

Hi, I was wondering if you would be able to tell me how to disable "spaces" without going into "system preferences" because it will let me open "system preferences" but I cannot see it.
If I click on the "spaces" application it will show me the "system preferences" window but if i click on it, it just disappears.

Regards
Andrew

p.s
It's a laptop, ibook G4 but has been upgraded by "apple at work" and is now running 10.5.6 and the processor is 1.33ghz and the memory is 1.5gb.


Hi Andrew

Looks like your Spaces.app is corrupt so you will have to re-install it using a great piece of shareware called Pacifist from:

http://www.charlessoft.com/

You'll also need your Leopard installation DVD.

Follow the prompts from Pacifist, search for Spaces and let Pacifist install it.

You can then run Spaces and disable it.