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Installing the Mac OS X 10.5.8 Update: A personal account

Written by Joe Aimonetti

Here is my step-by-step process, start to finish, installing the Mac OS X 10.5.8 update, including observations and notes along the way. Step one: Control my nerdy excitement.

Waking up today brought more than just another beautiful Portland, Oregon morning. It brought the promise of updating my work MacBook (a Black MacBook, 2 GHz Intel Core Duo, 2 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM, currently running Mac OS X 10.5.7) to yesterday?s release of Mac OS X 10.5.8. For many Mac users, updating can be a daunting task. Many forums … Read more

Wireless problems after updating to 10.5.8.

Written by Topher Kessler

A number of people are experiencing problems with their wireless network connections after updating to 10.5.8. A few have not been able to connect to their Wi-Fi networks, some have had slow connections, and others have had problems with specific devices and services such as using Airtunes with an Airport Express.

MacFixIt reader "gfs2000" writes:

"I just updated to 10.5.8 and I also can't connect with my wireless router. I'm using an early 2008 white MacBook. I'm sending this via a direct connection via an ethernet … Read more

MacFixIt Answers

Written by Topher Kessler

MacFixIt Answers is a feature from MacFixIt where our editors answer questions e-mailed to us by our readers. This week we have a question about scrambled video playback on an iMac G5 that results in a hard crash of the system, and a question on connectivity options for printers that rely on AppleTalk, given the possibility of Apple removing AppleTalk from OS X in Snow Leopard.

Question:

MacFixIt reader "Douglas Parker" asks about crashes that show scrambled video whenever he plays media files on his G5 iMac:

"When I say the video is … Read more

Apple releases OS X Leopard 10.5.8 Update

Written by Topher Kessler

Apple has released OS X 10.5.8. The update is recommended for all OS X Leopard users, and according to the update documentation includes "general operating system fixes that enhance stability, compatibility, and security."

Some specific issues that were addressed are:

Compatibility and reliability issues when joining AirPort networks. an issue that could cause some monitor resolutions to no longer appear in Displays System Preferences. issues that may affect Bluetooth reliability.

Apple has details on this update in the following knowledgebase articles:

Update Details Security Details

The update weighs in at 165MB in … Read more

Safari address bar appears to be locked

Written by Joe Aimonetti

Occasionally users may find that their address bar in Safari is locked. They are not able to enter any text into the field. The most likely cause of this is a corrupt preference file.

If you are attempting to click in the address bar of Safari and type a URL and you find you cannot, try these steps:

1. Navigate to: MacintoshHD > Users >username > Library > Preferences 2. Drag the "com.apple.Safari.plist" file to the Desktop. Note: This will reset all your Safari preferences. 3. Open Safari and test … Read more

Safari automatically deleting cookies

Written by Joe Aimonetti

Some users have reported that occasionally Safari will automatically delete all cookies when the user quits the browser. Upon reopening Safari, no cookies remain.

Cookies are small pieces of text stored in your browser that identify information about your history with regards to the sites you have visited, including site preferences and settings. When these cookies are deleted the user is required to re-enter all of their information--an annoying task for even moderately heavy Internet users.

If you find that Safari is automatically deleting your cookies, you can most likely suspect the cookie preference file has … Read more

Problems preordering Snow Leopard

Written by Topher Kessler

The upcoming release of OS X 10.6 "Snow Leopard" is much-anticipated, and we have written articles on how to prepare for it, since a few of the advertised features will only work on certain Mac models. As part of the preparation, Apple has an up-to-date program for the upcoming OS, for which many Leopard users are eligible, but people seem to be having problems with this page.

Apple Discussion poster "xcitu" writes:

"I want to use the Snow Leopard pre-order offer. I can order it now, before 8th of September … Read more

Boot Camp assistant requring OS X reinstallation.

Written by Topher Kessler

If you have many files on your hard drive and have extensively used it (i.e., updating your system many times), you may not be able to install Boot Camp and will get an error regarding the inability to partition and set up the drive.

Apple Discussion poster "TAGVoar" writes:

"I have an iMac 24" that I want to use Boot Camp on. When I try it says I need to reinstall Mac OS X fresh then use Boot Camp."

This error happens because unmoveable system files are scattered too sparsely … Read more

Running Windows for free on your Mac

Written by Topher Kessler

Virtualization is one of the most useful features of current computing hardware, allowing you to run multiple operating systems at once on a computer at near-native speeds. Despite its benefits, one of the big problems is that while many people have Windows software, they do not want to pay extra for running it on their Macs.

There are many ways to get Windows applications running on your Mac, and we discussed these in our article on options for running windows on the Mac. However, all of these options do require some form of license, either just … Read more