My Trackpad button is Freaking out.

Problem:  My 17″ MacBook Pro has recently contracted a sticky mouse button. The button will stick in the depressed state and not let go.  Or, it will be half way stuck so that when I type, the cursor will automatically jump to another spot.  This is incredibly frustrating as text would be inserted in the wrong places.  It would even highlight entire phrases then delete them if I happen to hit the space bar.

Solution Attempt#1: First, I took apart the macbook.  There are some very helpful guides at ifixit.com.  You can also buy parts.  I’ve used this company in the past and  highly recommend them.  Once I had the top plate separated from the body, I tried cleaning the trackpad button with some non-conductive, plastic safe contact spray. This did not help nor hurt the problem.

Being that I don’t want to live without a computer and by the fact that a replacement upper case is $300, I thought of a temporary solution.  I had already turned on the trackpad feature of tapping instead of using the mouse, but with the mouse in a crazy state it would still mess up even though I had stopped using it. Very, very frustrating.

Solution Attempt#2: Unplug the button.  Here’s how: Shut down the mac and remove the battery.  You can see a small ribbon cable connecting the button to a control board. Gently pry up the plastic that covers the control board. Gently pull out the ribbon cable and place it on top of the plastic cover.  Put the battery back and boot.  So far, So good.

[Edit post] Based on a comment from Kyle Snyder, I looked into that fact that maybe the battery could be part of the problem as it is located right below the trackpad. Further inspection shows that my battery now has a curved shape.  Might be a sign to future battery problems.  Nevertheless, the battery seems to be compressing the trackpad button causing it to not function properly.  When I remove the battery, the button clicks and works normally.

Lost Power

Last night the power went out in my house while I was editing some audio in Pro Tools. Everything turned off except my laptop which instantly switched to battery powered. I got the spinning wheel which I assumed was because the computer could not access the external hard drive.  Not wanting to lose the work that I had done since my last save, I decide to find another means of powering my hard drive long enough to save the file.  I had two possible solutions, big gasoline powered generator or a car inverter.  I chose the inverter because it was the faster, easier way to go.

For those who don’t know, a power inverter converts DC to AC. Plug in the inverter, turn on the car, turn on the inverter, plug in my hard drive, save my file, and be happy.

Interestingly enough, the power came on about 3 seconds after I saved the file using the inverter.

Side note:  During the wiring phase of the Music Instruction Building, Muncie had a severe power outage due to a ice storm. Our guys from David Carroll Associates couldn’t power their soldering irons without electricity. So, they parked a car outside Sursa Hall and used a power inverter running off the car battery.

Computer Hard Drive is Full

Problem: Our student login script copies the student directory to another location and copies in a fresh student directory every time you log into the student account. This provides a consistent student experience from day to day. The problem is that the folder (called savedHomeDirs) that collects all those old student directories fills up over time and will eventually use up all the available space on the drive. When that happens the computer has no room to write temp files or cache and cannot process routine tasks.

Solution: Find Jeff and have him empty the savedHomeDirs folder because it takes an admin password to do so. I’m trying to automate the process but I haven’t worked out the details yet.

In an extreme situation where the computer’s hard drive is completely full, the machine will not boot.  It will get stuck part way through the process. This happened today in studio 2. I had to boot in single-user-mode by holding down command-s during the boot process. That way I was able to clean up the hard drive with a few unix commands and free up the needed space for the computer to boot properly.

New Digidesign Audio Setup in ST4 and ST5

With the installation of the new iMacs, I ran into trouble keeping both the MOTU 828mkII and the Digidesign 003 happy. So, the solution for now is to only use the Digidesign 003. The MOTU firewire is not connected.

General troubleshooting note: After you load a program and select Digidesign HW as your audio driver, the Digidesign 003 should respond by saying it is “working..” and the HOST 1394 light, to the right of the display, will be lit.

NOTE: Be sure to patch (on the patchbay) the Digidesign 003 Line Outputs to the Mackie Line Inputs. Otherwise, you will hear nothing.

NOTE #2: When all else fails, switch audio to built in and listen through the computer speakers or your headphones.

For Digidesign Pro Tools:

1. Just lauch the program. The 003 must be present to open Pro Tools. If Pro Tools can’t find the 003 or can’t establish communications, then quit Pro Tools, turn off the 003, wait a couple of seconds, turn on the 003 and re-launch Pro Tools.

For Digital Performer:

1. Under the “Setup” menu, check to see if your “Audio System” is set to “MOTU Audio System”
   
2. Then open Setup> Configure Audio System> Configure Hardware Driver
   
3. Select Digidesign HW (003)
   
4. press OK
5. You’ll see the Digidesign CoreAudio Manager load as shown in the dock.
   
6. When you quit Digital Performer, the Digidesign CoreAudio Manager will quit automatically.

For Max 5:

1. Check audio driver.  Options>DSP Status…
   
2. Select CoreAudio Digidesign HW (003) as the Driver.  The Input Device will automatically switch.
   

For Peak Pro 6:

1. Go to Audio Menu and select “Audio I/O…”
   
2. Select Digidesign HW (003)
   

For Kontakt 3:

1. Go to the “Setup” menu and select “Audio and MIDI Settings”
2. Select Digidesign HW (003) as the output driver

For Reason 4:

1. Go to the Reason menu and select “Preferences”
2. In the top drop down menu (says “General”), click on it and select “Audio”
3. Select Digidesign HW (003) in the Audio Output drop down menu. Once the Digidesign CoreAudio Manager loads, Reason will put a green check mark next to the drop down menu.

For Tassman 4:

1. Go to the Tassman 4 menu and select Preferences then Audio Settings…
2. Select Digidesign HW (003) in the Audio Settings dialog. Press OK.

USB stops working on 17″ Intel iMac

Problem: Keyboard and Mouse were not responding.  USB hard drive not mounting (The hard drive works fine on other computers as long as it is plugged into the back of the iMac).

Solution: On a second machine, the fact that the USB hard drive didn’t work when it was plugged into the keyboard but did work when it was plugged into the back, tells us that it might be a power problem.  The keyboard USB port does not pass enough current to power the device.

1. Going back to the computer where the USB drive was not working, we plugged it into the back of the iMac — No change, Drive didn’t work
2. Tried restart — problem is worse– now USB keyboard and mouse stop working.
3. Tried changing USB ports — No change in problem
4. Reset the System Management Unit (SMU) — Solution worked

On a 17″ iMac, resetting the SMU is done by

1. simply unplugging all the cables, including the power cable.
2. Wait at least 15 seconds
3. Plug in the power cable, and then the USB cables
4. Power up the machine

See here for more details> http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1543

DeoxIT washes away hum in AC110

Problem: The computer audio output into room amplifier path was resulting in a loud hum over the room speakers.

Solution: This pathway previously produced a hum free listening experience.  So, something had changed. CDs could be played from a CD player hum free. Anything playing through the computer resulted in hum.

1. Twisting and re-plugging the cable (at either end) did not make the hum go away. This sometimes helps to clean the connection.
2. Changing inputs to the on the amp did not help. I tried the CD inputs because that path with the CD player resulted in no hum. When you plugged the computer cable into the CD inputs, the result was the same: hum. So, the problem must be in the computer cable or computer outputs.
3. Before checking the computer I decided to check the cable once more. The RCA cables did have a RCA-RCA barrel adapter to bridge two cable together.  I unhooked this connection and sprayed it with Caig DeoxIT.  I then wiped the connectors with a lent-free cloth.  I reconnected the cables and hooray: no more hum.

Furman Cue/Headphone Troubleshooting Checklist

Problem: Communication to the Furman remote headphone boxes is not working. [Not the Aviom headphone system; that will be addressed in another blog].  You should be able to send a mix from your Pro Tools session, plus any live microphone during the session, plus talkback from the control room. If any of these are not working, follow the checklist below to troubleshoot the problem.

Solution:

Check the gear.  Is it turned on? Plugged in?

1. Computer and all peripheral Digidesign gear needs to be on. That’s the computer, the expansion chassis, the Digidesign 192 I/Os, the Digidesign XMON, and the Digidesign control surface (that’s the D-Control in studio 1 and 2. The C24 in studio 6 and 7 will have slightly different instructions).
2. Digidesign sync I/O and the MOTU midi interface should be on but are not necessary for the headphone mix to work.
3. The Hafler amplifiers need to be on. The ones for the Furman boxes are a single rack unit (the smallest haflers in the rack).
4. Hopefully, all the gear within the control room is plugged in.  The only thing you need to plug in is the furman box to a cue send located in the studio. And of course, plug in headphones to the furman box. Turn up the volume.

Check your Pro Tools session.

1. Check the furman Headphone/cue system blog for setup instructions. And, here’s the link for Headphone system helpful tips.

Check the D-Control monitor section for proper setup.

1. Once you setup Pro Tools to send to a cue output, the signal goes to the D-control first before going to the headphone amps. [Actually the signal is routed in the XMON.  The D-control is the control surface that allows you to remote control the XMON.]
2. 
3. The Cue send must be turned on.  Push the “On” button under the Cue rotary encoder.  Or, make sure it is illuminated.
4. Select an input source for the cue send. Touch the cue rotary encoder, then select an input source. [once you touch the Cue 1 encoder, the words "Cue 1" and its corresponding level will show up in the Monitor section display]. You only have two choices, Man Mon or the corresponding cue in of the encoder that you just touched.  If you select Man Mon, the XMON will route the same control room signal that you are hearing out to the musicians. If you select cue in, then the XMON will route the signal that you are sending from your pro tools session.
5. Turn the Cue rotary encoder to a good nominal level.  I usually start around 1 o’clock.
6. For Talkback, check these settings. Touch the cue encoder that you want to assign talkback. Then push the “Assign Talkback” button located above the input select buttons.  Or, make sure it is illuminated. It may have been already assigned from a previous user.
7. Then lastly for talkback, turn up the Talkback encoder to a nominal level. I usually start around 1 o’clock. This encoder is located on the left side of the Monitor section.

If after all of this is checked and still there are problems, get with Jeff to further toubleshoot the issue.

How to clean a Mighty Mouse

Problem: The scroll wheel on my mighty mouse wasn’t allowing me to scroll up.  I could scroll down and side-to-side, but not up.

Solution: Its just dirty and very easy to clean.  Apple wrote a support article on it and even provided a video. In short, just use a lent free cloth and rub over the scroll ball.  If its really disgustingly dirty, you can get the lent free cloth a little damp with water.  Check out the article for more tips.

Apple Remote Desktop (ARD) Annoyance #1

Problem: Sometimes the remote client (the machine I am trying to control) will not show any of my mouse moves/clicks or keyboard commands.  So, you end up clicking on something, like an application, and you will not see the application opening.  But, if you close the ARD control window, then reopen it, the application has magically loaded.  On this particular instance, it was a Mac XServe running Mac OS 10.3.9 and ARD client 3.2.2

Solution: Because clicking harder, or excessive swearing didn’t solve the problem, I had to look for something else.  While I still don’t know why its happening, one fix seems to work.

1. Select the client machine in the main window.
2. Send a “Log out current user…” command from the Manage menu.
3. Take control of the machine and log in as normal.

Strange behavior. Cannot log out of ST8 Mac Pro

Problem: No user name in the top menu bar. Current user cannot log out, restart or shut down from the Apple menu.  User can put the computer to sleep from the Apple menu. No applications are running.

Solution:

1. Force Quit Finder.  = No change in problem
2. Force shut down by holding power button.  = No change in problem. In fact, computer boots to same user screen and not the normal log-in screen
3. Turn off sharing. Force restart. = No change in problem.
4. Unplug peripherals including network. Force restart. = No change in problem.
5. Open computer.  Push to restart the System Management Controller (SMC).  Close computer and push power button.  = This one worked.  The computer booted to log-in screen. All is well.

Helpful article from Apple about resetting the SMC is here.

Helpful article about top 10 troubleshooting tips for Mac and ipod is here.