New Mac user! Some 101 doubts...

Hello all,

First of all i want to say that i'm loving my MBP 13" Core2Duo, its amazing how the OS is so simple and in the same time so complex!

Well i listed my TOP doubts down here(sorry if some of then are silly, but this is my first Mac experience..i'm 15 years on a Pc so....):

1°- We never shut down the MBP? We just put in sleep mode? We can put the MBP in the backpack in sleep mode and carry to other places with dont worry with future hardware problems??

2°- We relly need to use Onyx or other similar programs once a month? Onyx is the best of then to use? Can some one tell me what check box i need to mark on the automatic mode?

3°- We need to recalibrate the baterry once in a month on MBP?

4°- How can i clean my MBP? (The Keyboard, magic pad, the screem, the rest of the body, etc.. )

Thats all for the moment guys...thx very much for the help and sorry for my poor english! (lest question: Do i have a good english? HAHA)

see u!

1. Yes. I've been doing this with my Macbook for over four years with no ill effects.

2. No, you don't HAVE to use Onyx or other maintenance programs. OS X does a pretty good job of maintaining itself. You only really need to use Onyx if you notice some slowdowns or errors. OS X has gotten more stable and I find myself using Onyx far less than I used to.

3. That would be ideal to keep the battery well conditioned. Every other month is fine as well.

4. Simple microfiber cloth shall suffice. For prints or other grime that's harder to take off, dampen the cloth. Do NOT use Windex or any alcohol based cleaners on your Macbook.

Bonus: yes, your English is great

My experience appears to have been somewhat different than Kash's (which simply may be indicative of different uses), but:

1 - On both, a Macbook and a Macbook Pro, I've experienced overheating-related shut downs when I've put the systems to sleep and then transported them in back packs. At home I rarely shut down my systems completely, but while traveling, I always do.

2 - I've found that running Onyx periodically has kept my systems running smoothly. I learned this the hard way on a MacBook Pro that became slower and slower over time. The slow down was so gradual that I didn't even think about it until I found myself venting frustration to some colleagues who were surprised that I'd have trouble with a Mac. And that's when I realized something was amiss.

3, 4 -- Kash covered it.

plooc said:

Hello all,

First of all i want to say that i'm loving my MBP 13" Core2Duo, its amazing how the OS is so simple and in the same time so complex!

Well i listed my TOP doubts down here(sorry if some of then are silly, but this is my first Mac experience..i'm 15 years on a Pc so....):

1°- We never shut down the MBP? We just put in sleep mode? We can put the MBP in the backpack in sleep mode and carry to other places with dont worry with future hardware problems??

Click to expand...

This is up to you. You don't have to do as others do. I personally shut my MacBook Pro down every night, unless I'm calibrating my battery, but I'll explain that in a moment.

2°- We relly need to use Onyx or other similar programs once a month? Onyx is the best of then to use? Can some one tell me what check box i need to mark on the automatic mode?

Click to expand...

No, you don't need to use Onyx once a month. But having Onyx at bay is a great idea. The amount of times you should use it is directly relative to how much data you download and adversely, how much of that data you delete from said hard drive. For instance, when ever I download a major OS X software update, I run disk permissions. If I ever download a ton of things, and transfer those things to another HD, I might use it. Install a bunch of new apps, maybe. Totally delete a bunch of apps, yep, I'll use it.

Speaking of deleting apps, you should look into something like "App Cleaner" for those times you want to get rid of all the junk that installs with apps that don't have an actual uninstaller. If something DOES have an uninstaller, be sure to use that.

3°- We need to recalibrate the baterry once in a month on MBP?

Click to expand...

This is not necessarily true. You really only need to calibrate the battery if you have your MBP hooked up to an external monitor and it is ALWAYS plugged in to a power source. If you use your MBP in mobile situations all the time, and tend to run the battery down to the point of where it needs to be recharged, then you're likely fine. At that point, you might want to calibrate the battery once every few months. Not every month.

4°- How can i clean my MBP? (The Keyboard, magic pad, the screem, the rest of the body, etc.. )

Click to expand...

No harsh chemicals. Damp, non abrasive cloth (microfiber) with very mild soap and just a touch of it, if necessary. All of the stuff they sell out there isn't necessary and just a waste of money. I also use a vacuum on my keyboard and MBP every now and again.

Doug

I don't see how your machine can overheat if it's sleeping. Unless it woke up while the lid is still closed. I've also never shutdown any of my Macs and I always bring my MB to school in sleep mode on my bike for he past 3 years.

Thx for all the answers guys...

So that is what i gona do:

- Clean my Mac once a month (I gona use a dump microfiber to pass in all over the MBP and a vacum on the keyboard too!)

- I will use the OnyX when the systems update and eventualy once a month or two maybe, becouse i download a lot of programs and videos..specialy now that i`m learn the best programs like adium, caffeine, appcleaner, etc...

- I`m gona re-calibrate my battery every 1,5 month becouse i use a external TV to watch some movies and series, and almost 70% of the time with thw power cable connected!

- i will never shut down..just gona let in the sleep mode, to carry the MBP too!

I have a new battery of question too, here we go:

1- Someone can show me the options marked in the onyx in automatic mode?

2- its better to put all your personal videos (like the videos from your digital camera) in the iphoto, imovie ou itunes for better organization?

3- I heard to run disk permissions from your OSX DVD is better than from your HD directly! Thats true?

4- Time Capsule is a great app to backup your mac stuff? How do i use it? Do I need to buy something extra from Apple? How do u make the backups from your macs? How frequently?

Thx again for the awsers, and the complements for the "good" english! rsrs...

What does “calibrating a battery” mean?

There is no direct technical possibility to determine the capacity of a battery by some measuring instrument. The capacity of a battery can only be estimated by observing its charge and discharge behavior, measuring a series of values like current, voltage and time.

For this reason, the capacity values and remaining run times displayed by Mac OS X are estimates based on previously made observations, recorded by the charge processor inside the battery unit. The capacity reading and the resulting runtime are as exact as possible if the charge processor could observe a complete discharge/charge cycle a short time before. The processor learns how the battery is performing and readjusts its computations based on this behavior. This operation is called calibrating a battery.

Apple recommends to calibrate the battery in regular intervals, usually once in a month.

*Calibrating has no influence whatsoever on the battery cells themselves. The lifetime of the battery unit will not be prolonged by calibration. Only the charge processor in the battery unit will enhance the quality of its computations and estimates.

I run my Macs on power 99% of the time. I have tested machines with and without calibrating, and have seen no difference in battery life.
As long as you unplug your Mac and let the juices flow in the battery every now and then, and don't have too many battery load cycles, your battery should last a few years or more.

OnyX - using this too often if cleaning out caches etc can slow your Mac down for a short term.
2-3 months should do it.
I believe this is the default settings, but anyway, this is how I have it set up.


Videos.... external HD if you have a lot of them, and otherwise, wherever you want on your system.

Permissions repairs.... you heard right, although I've never seen it make a difference, besides, OnyX takes care of that.

Time Machine.... You just need an external HD, and here is a video tutorial.
Apple - Find Out How - Mac Basics

plooc said:

1°- We never shut down the MBP? We just put in sleep mode? We can put the MBP in the backpack in sleep mode and carry to other places with dont worry with future hardware problems??

Click to expand...

Sleep mode works fine for some users. However, some report that their MBP's overheat. If you find that your MBP runs the fans a lot while it is asleep, or if it gets very hot, you might want to shut it down when not in use instead.

plooc said:

2°- We relly need to use Onyx or other similar programs once a month? Onyx is the best of then to use?

Click to expand...

Routine maintenance with a Macintosh is controversial among some users. I created an entire Web page devoted to the topic:
OS X Maintenance And Troubleshooting

I tend to recommend YASU, because it is free (the developer requests a donation) and there aren't a lot of confusing options.

My feeling is that eventually one's Mac will be slowing down or acting up a bit, so even if you feel that there is no need to do routine maintenance, you will find that you need to do the same routines eventually whether you call them "routine maintenance" or "troubleshooting." So it's up to you whether you want to do them sooner, and ward off decreased performance and flaky behavior, or later to fix these problems.

plooc said:

3°- We need to recalibrate the baterry once in a month on MBP?

Click to expand...

Actually, modern lithium-ion batteries don't need to be recalibrated as the older Ni-Cad batteries did. However, somewhat ironically, the newer energy saving circuitry that laptop Macs use *does* require routine recalibration:

Mac OS X 10.5 Help: Calibrating a MacBook or MacBook Pro battery

Apple - Batteries - Notebooks

plooc said:

4°- How can i clean my MBP? (The Keyboard, magic pad, the screem, the rest of the body, etc.. )

Click to expand...

Whatever you do, make sure that no liquid gets inside your laptop!
How to disinfect the Apple internal or external keyboard, trackpad, and mouse

If you have to use a wet cleaner, I'd use one that was designed for cleaning electronics and which is certifiably safe for plastics.
DeoxIT® D-Series

A Macbook may overheat in transit when it wasn't properly put to sleep. If you fail to close the clasp (on older models like mine) or the lid pops open a little, it will wake the computer and it will overheat. Another thing that can wake it from sleep is a stray signal from a Bluetooth device. If you close your Macbook, then accidentally move your Bluetooth mouse just slightly, the signal is sent to your computer and it will wake from sleep even with the lid closed. So if you just make sure to close your lid all the way and turn off Bluetooth when you take it on the go, you should be ok.

As for maintenance, Onyx is great and I use it every now and again, but also realize that Disk Utility, which is already on your Mac, will repair and verify permissions. Onyx just lets you run those as well as clean your caches, re-index your Spotlight searches and other stuff all from one interface. You can learn about Disk Utility here: YouTube - MacMost Tutorial: Disk Utility
and learn more about Onyx here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqtsTkETouE

The only time you need to use the Disk Utility on the installation DVD is when your drive needs to be repaired. You'll be alerted when you run the normal Disk Utility if your hard drive does need repair.

You can use iPhoto to manage your movies, but I find it more flexible to keep them in my Movies folder. But that's just me.

Time Machine is already on your Mac and you don't need to buy anything extra except an external hard drive to use with it. It will automatically back up any changes on your computer every hour as long as your Time Machine external drive is plugged in. Here is a brief but illuminating tutorial.
http://www.apple.com/findouthow/mac/#timemachinebasics

In fact, since you are a Mac noob, I recommend watching all the short tutorials on the page. They're all very helpful if you are a visual kind of person who needs to see things like this in action. You'll also notice that there are tabs near the top of the page that lead to tutorials about iMovie, iPhoto and the other iLife applications. Check them out!

Thx one more time for the answer, mate!


I saw that this time capsule its a great feature, and i will use it, at the begining with some external HD and later i will buy the TimeCapsule router!

I have just a few more question..if u guys dont matter to aswer! haha..

1- OnyX is the best program to make this maintenence? Someone knows a easier program to do this, considering i'm a new Mac.I have this dout because when i read the threads, the people say diferent fings about the configuration of the program!

2- I bought a anti-shock case to cary my MBP, I put the MBP in sleep mode inside the case, and after that inside the backpack, Can I have some overheat problems with all this packge?

3- I realise whem you set the MB light on automatic ajustiments for the ambient, in low circumstances of light the imunitation go down, and in in high circumstances of light the imunitation increases..For me this is upside-down, dont?

thx.

IMHO, battery calibration is way over-prescribed today. It's almost never really necessary and modern lithium batteries in Apple's devices are far more advanced than older battery technology.

Not so sure I would really waste any time worrying about battery calibration.

Onyx is also almost unnecessary if you ever plan on leaving your MB on overnight. OS X will run all the cleanup routines on its own.

Randy B. Singer said:

Sleep mode works fine for some users. However, some report that their MBP's overheat. If you find that your MBP runs the fans a lot while it is asleep, or if it gets very hot, you might want to shut it down when not in use instead.

Click to expand...

What?

If it's running the fan or getting hot while in Sleep mode, then it's not really sleeping.

I have never, ever heard anyone say their MB overheats while actually in sleep mode, it's pretty much impossible since no processes are really running at that point.

schweb said:

IMHO, battery calibration is way over-prescribed today. It's almost never really necessary and modern lithium batteries in Apple's devices are far more advanced than older battery technology.

Not so sure I would really waste any time worrying about battery calibration.

Onyx is also almost unnecessary if you ever plan on leaving your MB on overnight. OS X will run all the cleanup routines on its own.

Click to expand...

The problem is when you leave your MB in spleep mode, the scrips doesnt rum..only when he is awake..so thas why u need to use OnyX once in a while (2 months).


Do u get me?

plooc said:

The problem is when you leave your MB in spleep mode, the scrips doesnt rum..only when he is awake..so thas why u need to use OnyX once in a while (2 months).


Do u get me?

Click to expand...

Yes, I've been a Mac user a very long time, I understand that.

schweb said:

Yes, I've been a Mac user a very long time, I understand that.

Click to expand...

So i need to use the OnyX once every 2 months becouse the scrips wil not run on my MBP rigth?

Thx Mate!

plooc said:

So i need to use the OnyX once every 2 months becouse the scrips wil not run on my MBP rigth?

Thx Mate!

Click to expand...

If you never plan on leaving your MBP on, then follow the advice you've seen in this thread.

Plooc, Time CAPSULE is Apple's wireless external hard drive and wireless base station. That is extra. Time MACHINE is the backup program on your Mac. Be sure to distinguish such things correctly to avoid confusion.

If you are this new to Macs, you don't really need to worry about Onyx or any disk maintenance just yet. They're not like PC's that need constant scans, maintenance and restarts. With normal use, it will probably be some time before you have to worry about verifying disk permissions with Disk Utility, let alone all the functions that Onyx does. Get to know the included features on your Mac before you start expanding on them. Onyx and Quicksilver and all these other add-ons are great, but first you should have an experience to compare them to.

For instance, there is a little tool called RightZoom that makes the green Zoom button on Mac windows act more like the Maximize button in Windows windows. Even though it comes in handy, especially coming from a Windows world, I'd still recommend giving the normal Zoom button a try for a little while. You may find that you actually like many of the default tools and applications on your Mac. If you don't, you can always install these other things later. Then you'll appreciate them even more.

Shikarnov said:

1 - On both, a Macbook and a Macbook Pro, I've experienced overheating-related shut downs when I've put the systems to sleep and then transported them in back packs.

Click to expand...

This is because something "woke up" the MB/MBP while in the backpack, and with no place to vent it overheats.

It's been my experience that this most often happens to people who:
a. Don't REALLY check to see that the computer has ACTUALLY gone to sleep before sticking it in the bag/backpack, and
b. Have set their machines to wake on network activity AND auto-join any open network. You can see how that would be a problem.

But to you, the OP and anyone else reading this: when carrying a notebook computer in a bag or backpack, you can certainly shut it down for extra safety if you want to. Proper shutdowns are fine and cause no ill effects other than having to wait a bit longer to use your machine so it can startup again when you take it out of the bag. I travel with mine in sleep mode most of the time, but that's because it's rarely tucked away for long!

At home I rarely shut down my systems completely, but while traveling, I always do.

Click to expand...

A perfectly sensible practice.

2 - I've found that running Onyx periodically has kept my systems running smoothly.

Click to expand...

"Periodically" is the key issue. I recommend to most casual users that they run it about every three months or so, "power" users may wish to run it more often (I seem to do it about every six weeks). Another VERY IMPORTANT factor in keeping the machine running smoothly (which also lets tools like OnyX work more effectively as well is keeping PLENTY of free space handy.

People argue about how much, but my personal guideline is that 12-20GB free is the "warning zone" -- things will probably run great, but once you get below that 12GB you REALLY need to move off old data or consider getting a bigger hard drive. If you have lots and lots of RAM (8GB or more), then make that 20-30GB or more. RAM and hard drive space have a complicated relationship but basically you want lots of free space around at all times.