Mac Lab: An Apple Macintosh OS X, Mac & PC Blog

iPhone sync error: “another sync client is already running”

We tried to sync and restore on iPhone 3G last night to no avail: “Another sync client is already running” The fix was a permission change to 777 on the “tmp” folder AND its contents. The easiest way to access /tmp is to use the “Go To Folder” menu item in the Finder’s Go menu [...]

The truth about external FireWire and USB drives

For years, Mac fans have known that you must have a FireWire external drive for it to be bootable. We have purchased a few FireWire drives, but lately they seem to be harder to find, especially ones with a cooling fan. Our article on the Antec MX-1 enclosure (USB 2.0 and eSATA) forgot to mention [...]

Solution to MacBook Pro that won’t wake from sleep

We have found so many forums with owners of MacBook Pros ( MBP ) suffering from the following issue: 1. The MacBook Pro goes to sleep either by closing the lid or just by virtue of time. 2. Upon trying to wake the MacBook Pro, you get a black screen with or without the spinning [...]

Humor: Windows Vista

Humor: Workaholic

Solution: iTunes 8 error -3256

We were getting this iTunes 8 error: An error occured while connecting to the remote speaker “XYZ”. An unknown error occured (-3256). We use a 3G iPhone running the app “Remote” to connect to iTunes and control the music. But we couldn’t connect to our Airport Express speakers over the wireless network. The solution? Open [...]

Mac epiphany

Perhaps I should categorize this post under “Things that make you go hmmmm”. My wife has always been a PC person. She is an Assistant Principal, and is close to a power user with Outlook, Internet Explorer, Excel, Word, all the usual suspects. She has always preferred the PC and has used my Macs with [...]