Question : I was trying to start up my MacBook Pro this morning but when I did, nothing appeared on screen… the screen stayed black… even the Touch Bar above the keyboard stayed black… I think I could hear a distant startup chime sound, but that was all… no indication of any response to my start-up attempts… I thought that the battery might be empty, so I plugged in the USB-C power cable (which unfortunately does not turn on any light that indicates it’s charging), but the result of my start-up attempts stayed the same : black screen, black Touch Bar and only a dim, distant start-up chime… Is this some kind of hardware failure (broken screen) ? Or is this a software problem that I can fix myself ?
What can I do ?
Answer : This is a software problem. You can fix this by doing the following : – simultaniously press this key combo on your MacBook Pro’s keyboard : [CTRL] + [CMD] + [ON/OFF] for at least 5 seconds, then release
[CTRL] = the ‘Control’ key [CMD] = the ‘Command’ key, the key with the stylized 4-leaf-clover, previously known as ‘Apple’ key [ON/OFF] = the ‘Touch ID’ key on the far right of the Touch Bar that is used for starting up, shutting down, and Touch ID
…and now, your MacBook Pro should start-up as usual, starting with a white Apple logo appearing on your black screen… if it still doesn’t work, use this slightly longer procedure : – press the [ON/OFF] key for at least 10 seconds to shut down your MacBook Pro – then press the [CTRL] + [CMD] + [ON/OFF] key combo for at least 5 seconds to start-up
Question : I have questions about Microsoft products that go beyond regular issues that are documented in the FAQ. Previously, I would contact the Microsoft telephone Helpdesk ( NL 020-5001500 ), but if you call that number nowadays, you just get a voice message telling you to go online since the Helpdesk is no longer supporting direct contact to callersā¦
But on the website mentioned, I am getting stuck in a loopā¦ any progress I make sends me back to the same page were I can only typ a question, but there is no chat option given, even when specifically asking for ātalk or chat to helpdeskāā¦ Even Google searches or searching anywhere else on the Microsoft website, doesnāt get me to a page with a chat optionā¦ Even the Microsoft-owned chatbots ChatGPT or BingChat AI canāt help meā¦
What can I do ?
Answer : Microsoftās telephone helpdesk used to be greatā¦ but the options for contacting Microsoft are a complete messā¦ unbelievable ! But there is a chat helpdesk, but finding and contacting it is very complexā¦ hereās how to :
Do this on a computer (it can be done on an iPhone, but the web chat interface is not really suited for that)
Ā in the search field typ ātalk to agentā and (click āDoneā and) click the blue āGet Helpā button
scroll down and click the blue āContact Supportā button
on the next “Tell us a little more about your problem” page, select your product or service from the pop-up list (activate the list by clicking on the triangular arrow on the right of the selection box)
when the second pop-up list appears, select your support category
then click the blue āConfirmā button
on the next page, click on āChat with a support agent in your web browserā
on the next page check if the email address shown corresponds to the one of the Microsoft account you are having problems with, if not typ the correct account email address first, the click the āConfirmā button
now, wait for the live chat will start
NOTE :Ā
If you would prefer to chat in your local or native language, you need to tell this in the chat to the English speaking agent… (unfortunately, at the time of writing, the autoranslate service is not working and waiting queues for local language chats are extremely long, so chatting in English is about your only option…)
Question : I want to share a picture of the screen on my car’s display to explain something over Whatsapp. I know I could just take a photo, but is it possible to make a screenshot like on a Mac or iPhone ?
Answer : Yes, it is possible to make a screenshot of your car’s CarPlay screen. In fact, it’s as simple as making a screenshot of your iPhone screen : – first, connect your iPhone to your car’s navigation display (usually by connecting a USB-cable) – then, wait for the CarPlay screen to appear on your car’s navigation display – then use the CarPlay to get to the screen you would like a screenshot of – then, take your iPhone, and make sure it’s unlocked – now make a screenshot of your iPhone screen by pressing the ON/OFF and Volume UP buttons at the same time – then save the screenshot by either doing nothing (or by clicking on the small preview to enlarge it and clicking “Done” and “Save to Photos”) – then, open the Photos.app on your iPhone and there you’ll find not only the screenshot of your iPhone screen but also a screenshot of your car’s CarPlay screen saved as a photo that you can share (or edit) just like any regular photo
Question : I have a HP LaserJet M254dw that works great, but when I was trying to print a PDF yesterday, it took an enormous time to print and finally only printed the first page was printed, and the second wasn’t… There was no error message on my Mac or on the small printer display, so I tried again, this time only printing the second page. Since it was a page filled with lots of graphics and colours, I wasn’t surprised that it took a long time to print, so I left the printer to do it’s job for a while… when I returned after an hour or so, there was nothing printed and there where no error messages… So I tried again, this time I reduced the PDF to only the one page I wanted to print, made sure I would hear the printer startup (as it always does after receiving a new printing job) and I waited next to the printer to see wat happened… This time it also took a long time and nothing was printed, but before the display on the printer went black, I noticed a “low memory” warning being displayed….
What can I do to resolve this ?
Answer : HP has an explanation page on this “low memory” type of problem on it’s website, but if you don’t have any extra fonts installed, the first step I would recommend is installing new firmware if there is any. Here’s how to do that : – unplug the printer form power (to reset it – not strictly needed, but just to be sure) – plug the power back into the printer – download the latest firmware form the HP website by going to this webpage – then, find & open the “Software & Drivers” chapter – then, find & open the “Printer” chapter – then, typ “m254dw” in the search field – click on “HP Color LaserJet M254dw” when presented – then, find & open the link to “Firmware” – when the latest firmware version is displayed, click the “Download” button if you are sure you haven’t upgraded the firmware on your printer since the date it was released ( e.g. the current version number 20230822 means it is the firmware version created on 22nd of August 2023, but you can also check the official release date that is also listed ) – then, on your Mac, open the firmware installer you’ve just downloaded and follow the on screen instructions guiding you through the installation – when the firmware upgrade is done, try to print the PDF page again – if it is printed okay now : great ! …if not, try printing some other, page that has a simple layout, first – if that doesn’t work, check your printer as something simple might be wrong like an open tray or a loose cable (aside from the very small chance that your printer is actually broken) – if you are able to print something else, just try printing the problematic page again and make sure you check “Scale” (and not “Scale to Fit”) and set it to “100” in the “Preview” chapter of the Printing options before printing – then wait… – if that works (note that you might have to wait 10 minutes or so), you’re okay ! – if your page original was too large, and it has now been printed across multiple pages, try printing again, now with “Scale to Fit” checked – if “Scale to Fit” turns out to cause problems, open the PDF in Preview.app and (re)save a new version as JPEG or PNG (choose “Export” from the “File”-menu to get these options) that you can print
Question : I have some MP4 videos of online courses that contain a lot of blabla… if they were Youtube videos, I would be able to increase the playback speed to 1.5x (150%) or even 2x (200%) to increase my efficiency. However, these online courses were delivered to me for offline playback in QuickTime on macOS, but now I can’t find the button (or maybe ‘the trick’ ?) to increase the playback speed… so I seem to be stuck on having to watch them at the ‘normal’ s…l…o…w… playback speed…
Is there any way to speed this up ?
Answer :
Yes, there is ! Even though it’s a little more hidden than you are used to with YouTube videos, QuickTime is able to increase (or decrease) the playback speed in three ways, that differ in the range and number of playback speeds available :
1. the basic method : – when de video is open in QuickTime, click on the screen to make the control panel appear – then click on the >> button (top right on the control panel) – from the popup list that appears, select “Playback Speed“ – then, select the desired speed from the 5 options that appear : āā 0,5xāā( half speed ) āā 1,0xāā( normal speed ) āā 1,25xā( 25% faster ) āā 1,5xāā( 50% faster ) āā 2,0xāā( double speed )
2. the precise method : – when the video is open in QuickTime, click on the screen to make the control panel appear – then hold down the ALT-key (on your keyboard) while clicking on the DoubleArrow-button (the FastForward-button on the right or the SlowBackward-button on the left) to increase (or decrease) the playback speed in small steps of 10% : āā 1,1xāā( 10% faster / slower ) āā 1,2xāā( 20% faster / slower ) āā 1,3xāā( 30% faster / slower ) āā 1,4xāā( 40% faster / slower ) āā 1,5xāā( 50% faster / slower ) āā 1,6xāā( 60% faster / slower ) āā 1,7xāā( 70% faster / slower ) āā 1,8xāā( 80% faster / slower ) āā 1,9xāā( 90% faster / slower ) āā 2,0xāā( double speed / half speed )
3. the hyper speed method : – when the video is open in QuickTime, click on the screen to make the control panel appear – then hold down either the CMD-key or the SHIFT-key or the CTRL-key (on your keyboard) while clicking on the DoubleArrow-button (the FastForward-button on the right or the SlowBackward-button on the left) to increase (or decrease) the playback speed in huge steps : āā 2xāā( double speed forward or backward ) āā 5xāā( 5x faster = 5 seconds per secondāforward or backward ) āā 10xāā( 10x faster = 10 seconds per second forward or backward ) āā 30xāā( 30x faster = half a minute per second forward or backward ) āā 60xāā( 60x faster = one minute per second forward or backward )
Question : For years I have been using the Jaksta app for downloading online videos like YouTube, Facebook and Vimeo, and even embedded videos from any website. But now, for some reason Jaksta has stopped updating the Jaksta for Mac (apart form one picture still claiming “Video and Music Downloaders for Windows and Mac”, but all other reference to the Mac version and support or download options have gone). I’ve found some video-downloaders that can only download from YouTube, and apps like YTD, 4K Video Downloader and VideoProc, but those are primarily made for Windows users and they are nowhere near as versatile as Jaksta….
What can I do ? How do I download embedded videos on my Mac ?
Answer :
Currently there are 2 Mac-apps that can do about the same that you were able to do with Jaksta for Mac, so not only download videos from YouTube and other online video platforms, but also download embedded videos :
Downie by Charlie Monroe – downloading videos from YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook and other online video platforms – downloading embedded videos from nearly any website – download videos in any available resolution (even 4K and up) – a FREE plugin for downloading from within Safari (or other webbrowser) is available – video conversion to MP4 build in – combination with Permute-app delivers extra fast video conversion to multiple formats & sizes
PullTube by MyMixApps – downloading videos from YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook and other online video platforms – downloading embedded videos from nearly any website – download videos in any available resolution (even 4K and up) – a FREE plugin for downloading from within Safari (or other webbrowser) is available – video conversion to MP4 build in
PullTube, Downie and Permute are available in FREE test-versions, where unlimited use can be unlocked by buying a licence or via the Settapp subscription service that gives access to over 200 macOS & iOS apps for a monthly fee.
If you think the regular pricing of any of these apps is too high (e.g since you expect to only need them for the incidental use), you can search the web for discount codes or check if macOS app bundles like BundleHunt and StackSocial currently feature them.
Question : I got a warning from macOS that there is a legacy system extension om my Mac that will not be compatible with the next version of macOS. Is there any way to remove this extension from my Mac ?
Answer : If you know which extension is causing this problem, you can remove it.
The main problem is that the warning message will probably not mention the name of the system extension itself, but only the name of the developer. In that case you will need to look up the name of the developer on the Internet and see which system extension that you have installed is/was made by this developer. Once you know the name of the app and the associated system extension, you can remove that particular system extension.
If you can’t figure out which system extension is causing the warning, DO NOT remove any extension !! DO NOT proceed to the next steps if you are not completely sure about the exact system extension you need to remove, because removing the wrong system extension will cause serious problems !!
If you are completely sure, and only if you are entirely sure, about the exact System Extension that is causing this problem, you can remove it by doing this : – click somewhere on the Desktop to open the Finder – make sure that “Finder” is visible next to the Apple-icon in the far left of the top menu bar – select “Go” from the top menu bar – in the pulldown menu that appears, click on “Go to Folder…” – in the search field of popup window that appears, type the following text : /Library/Extensions/ – then hit the [Enter]-key on your keyboard – in the window that opens, the “Extensions” folder will be highlighted and its content will be visible – select the .kext-file that has the name of the System Extension you are looking for and drag it to the Trash – in the popup window that appears, type the password that unlocks your Mac and click “OK” – then empty the Trash – and close all Finder windows
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