Mac Forum / General / Portable Macs / September 2007

Over and over again. Before, after, before, after. I installed the
smaller 10.4.10 version, the combo version, twice, before going back to
the previous upgrade. The reason that I want the latest version is that
i want to use the iWork '08 suite.

E. K.

Good call on both.

A couple replies:

1) PRAM and NVRAM:

The method for resetting the PRAM (parameter random access
memory) and NVRAM (non-volatile ram used by Open Firmware) on
Intel Macs is the classic 4 key command right after by 'BONG' and
bootup:

Command-Option-P-R

There is a question as to how many 'BONG's you should hold down
the keys. Essentially Mac OS X keeps restarting over and over as
long as you hold them down, clearing deeper aspects of the PRAM
and presumably the NVRAM with each bong. The way I always have
done it is 4 'BONG's. (HAHAHAHA! That would get me beyond stoned!
I need a better word. Oh well).

Here is what Apple says:
<http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238>

Apple's conclusion: 2 'BONG's after you start holding down the
keys.

There is a second method for clearing the NVRAM that still works
on the Intel Macs. But according to Apple it is typically
unnecessary. Nonetheless the instructions linked above have a
section on NVRAM with a link to the commands you can use.

2) DVDs:

This sounds mighty funky to me, and I am using 10.4.10 on the
same MacBook design, 3 GB of RAM. If the disk does not mount on
your Desktop, and you have the Finder Preferences set to show
CDs, DVDs, and iPods on the Desktop, then something is either
wrong with the disk (as in it being scratched up nasty bad, or
written incorrectly), or your System / Finder are hosed up
somehow. Try the PRAM clearing above. Also try trashing your
Finder .plist file and forcing it to relaunch. There is also a
System .plist file you could trash as well, then restart the Mac.

That VLC would somehow see and play a disk not mounted on your
Desktop sounds ultra-weird. I could see VLC being able to play a
DVD that was written incorrectly but still has usable video code.
But there is nothing magical in VLC for seeing unmountable disks.
No such thing. Somehow that DVD really is accessible through the
system, but something funked up is preventing it from showing on
the desktop.

These days we have to contend with this evil crap called DRM
(digital rights manglement) as well as 'Marketing Region Coding'
that limit what we can do with a DVD. It is entirely possible
that you could insert a DVD, have it mount on the Desktop, and
NOT have Apple's DVD Player be able to play it IF the disk is NOT
from the 'region' your DVD drive has been set to. The drives
Apple supply let you change the region setting 5 times in DVD
Player before the setting is permanently locked. There may be a
tool or two to unlock this bullsh*t again, depending on your
drive, but I won't go into that here.

Meanwhile you can use VLC to play disks that do not match your
DVD drive's region setting. VLC couldn't care less, thank
goodness. Bless Open Source software.

Trick: NEVER EVER let DVD Player force you to choose a region
setting for your DVD drive when you use a conflicting region
disk. Keep that option open until some dire emergency. If you get
an out-of-my-region disk, Quit out of DVD Player and play the DVD
in VLC instead.