New Mac guy needing some help

[chrisgardner]

OK, I just got my new macbook pro 2.4 with 4 gigs of ram and 160 gig hard drive. I have been working on windows machines for 13 years so I got parallels and expected to use windows a lot. I have had the machine for less than a week and already am looking forward to getting totally rid of windows. I have 3 things that I would like to know if someone could help me.

1. My computer has started taking a lot of extra time to boot up. The CD rom is empty so I don't know what could be causing it. It takes over 3 minutes to become usable. Is this normal? Everyone seems to tell me that it is not. Is there anything that I can do to the system to help it out or have I made a mistake of some sort? Anyone that can help me with this would be greatly appreciated.

2. I have a Blackberry 7100i, What software is there to be able to sync the blackberry to my computer. I can't seem to find anything. Any information would really help me out. Being out of sync is really messing me up. I have been able to connect the blackberry via Bluetooth but cannot sync yet.

3. There was a neat program that I saw a guy use. I know it is just a toy but I would like to find it. With this program, if you put your hand over the speakers they automatically muted. Phone rings, I place my hand over the sensor area I suppose and it gets rid of what is playing. Does anyone know what I am talking about?

I am looking forward to getting to know this machine and all it can do. Thanks for all your help.

Chris

 

[swiftaw]

2. I have a Blackberry 7100i, What software is there to be able to sync the blackberry to my computer. I can't seem to find anything. Any information would really help me out. Being out of sync is really messing me up. I have been able to connect the blackberry via Bluetooth but cannot sync yet.

I know of two: PocketMac and Missing Sync

 

[mkrishnan]

1. Sounds like maybe something odd is running on boot up. 3 minutes is excessive. See if anything was put into sys prefs -> accounts -> your user -> login items?

2. Blackberry provides a free copy of a program called PocketMac that allows the Blackberry to interface with the Mac. That should be your first option.

3. Can't help you, sorry.

 

[iBookG4user]

1. My computer has started taking a lot of extra time to boot up. The CD rom is empty so I don't know what could be causing it. It takes over 3 minutes to become usable. Is this normal? Everyone seems to tell me that it is not. Is there anything that I can do to the system to help it out or have I made a mistake of some sort? Anyone that can help me with this would be greatly appreciated.

Where does the computer seem to be held up in the boot process?

2. I have a Blackberry 7100i, What software is there to be able to sync the blackberry to my computer. I can't seem to find anything. Any information would really help me out. Being out of sync is really messing me up. I have been able to connect the blackberry via Bluetooth but cannot sync yet.

Some really good software for this is the missing sync.

3. There was a neat program that I saw a guy use. I know it is just a toy but I would like to find it. With this program, if you put your hand over the speakers they automatically muted. Phone rings, I place my hand over the sensor area I suppose and it gets rid of what is playing. Does anyone know what I am talking about?

Hmm, I don't think I've ever heard of this program.

 

[chrisgardner]

Software

OK, just got the missing sync and it works great, thanks so much for your help with that. I went and checked the hard drive in the disk utility. I had it verify and repair. Seems to be back to normal. Thanks for all your help. 2 out of 3 in a couple of hours, you guys are great.

Chris

 

[emptyCup]

1. My computer has started taking a lot of extra time to boot up.

By "started" do you mean this is something new? If so, what changed? Did you add software, hardware or connect to a network?

 

[mattw]

Something I didn't realise when I started using my Mac - it is quite normal not to shut down the computer but rather use "Sleep" instead. It uses practically no power (apparently on a laptop the battery can sustain it for 3 weeks) and is silent but means you only wait a second or two for it to come back to life.

I only shutdown/restart when I apply automatic updates.

Also with your Blackberry - if you wanted to stick with iSync sometimes you can download unofficial scripts (aka drivers) for iSync so that a normally unsupported device works. The software the others have recommended is probably much better but I have used these iSync drivers for mobile phone connections where extra software would cost money.