MCS (PWF) Mac Known Problems
Please contact the Help Desk help-desk@ucs.cam.ac.uk if you experience any problems that are not listed here.
20th September 2011
- Problem: MCS Macintosh Service currently unavailable following recent filestore work, see associated UCS news item.
January 2010
- Problem: Unable to change PWF password using System Preferences/Accounts - it says current Password is Incorrect
- Reason: Incompatability with PWF infrasctructure.
- Workaround: PWF passwords can be changed on a Mac by using the Change Password pane of PWF Account Management utility, available from the Apple menu or Applications/Utilities.
October 2009
- Problem: System Preferences cannot be accessed from the Apple menu.
- Reason: Unknown, possibility incompatability with FruitMenu.
- Workaround: System Preferences is accessible from /Applications/Utilities/
March 2009
- Problem: iMovie won't capture/import my video and gives the error: 'Can't Create Event, The import was canceled. You may not have the permission to write to /iMovie Events.localized'
- Reason: iMovie doesn't work correctly with networked home directories and additionally you are unlikely to have enough space in your PWF home to store videos
- Workaround: Connect an external storage device, a hard disk or a usb pen drive, before starting iMovie. This device can then be selected from the Save to: pop-up menu before creating a new event
December 2008
- Problem: My Dock is broken/items are missing
- Reason: You were probably logged in on 2 different PWF Macs simultaneously
- Fix: Use 'PWF Account Management' Utility to reset the preferences for your Dock
November 2008
- Problem: It is not possible to scan directly in ReadIris Pro
- Reason: VueScan does not have the driver needed for ReadIris
- Fix: None available
- Workaround: Either scan using Vuescan and then import file into ReadIris or scan as Text in Vuescan and use the OCR facility within Vuescan
June 2008
- Problem: Safari (and possibly other applications) asks you to enter your Keychain password for the 'login' keychain.
- Reason: Your PWF password has been changed by some method other than on a PWF Mac
- Fix: Navigate to your home/Library/Keychains and throw away the file login.keychain
December 2006
- Problem: VueScan does not recognise the Epson 4490 scanner at start up
- Reason: An acknowleged bug in VueScan
- Fix: Currently none, awaiting resolution by software author
- Workaround: Start the Epson scanning software provided in Scanning Packages before reopening VueScan
October 2005
- Problem: On logging in you are prompted to update your keychain
- Reason: Keychain needs updating for some applications such as Safari, following an application update
- Fix: Click OK to prevent the message appearing again
October 2004
- Problem: Printing from InDesign has locked the printer
- Reason: Adobe acknowledge that printing colour samples to some HP printers can freeze the printer
- Workaround: Refrain from printing colour samples
March 2004
- Problem: Some documents do not print from Adobe applications correctly
- Reason: Incompatibilities between some printers and binary PostScript
- Workaround: Change the preferences for each offending application to send ASCII PostScript
Last updated 18 June 2010