Yellow Monitors, And Dave Gets Corrected September 16th, 1999 Hello folks! This week we have the final word on a common monitor problem, plus we have some GREAT suggestions from readers about items that have been addresses in prior columns. Should you have a question of your own, send it in, otherwise, read on and enjoy! Mark Salerno writes, "I'm running Mac OS 8.6 on a Performa 6300CD. Intermittently, my monitor takes on a yellow tone overall, making it difficult but not impossible to use the computer. I'd be grateful if you could tell me what might be causing this, and how I can fix things." Ok... This is a very common problem (something that we've touched on here before), and I figured it was time to get the definitive answer out. When this intermittent color/hue change happens in a monitor, 99% of the time it is for one reason: bad connections. Now, those bad connections can be outside the monitor (the cable that connects to the computer) or inside the monitor (any one of a jillion little connectors). You can check the outside connections -- jiggle the cord, unplug and re-plug the cables, and look for any noticeable crimps, chew marks, or scratches on the cable itself. You can also try it on another computer to make sure that the problem is with the monitor and not on the video port of the computer itself. When none of that works, you have problems inside the monitor. Generally speaking, at this point you have to take it to a technician. Getting inside a monitor is NOT recommend (heck, I don't even do it), and is very dangerous due to the electrical charges that are stored in the components. That being said, unless your monitor is brand new and/or very expensive, often the cheapest solution is to replace the whole thing. And that's that! :-) The rest of today's column addresses the volumes of reader feedback that come my way each week. In addition to all of your questions, I receive many great letters from people offering additional answers or solutions that I might have missed. So, I bring you a few of these now. SCSI ID #7??? Yep... Ask Dave and He Answers... and sometimes he doesn't answer everything (we're not going to use the word mistake here, ok?). In any event, last week, Gene Reffkin wrote in asking why he was having flaky problems with his hard drives. Many people wrote in with suggestions, but Ben Lowry hit it on the head (and, for the record, John Graham got *really* close!). From Ben: "Just a thought regarding a question you answered for Gene Reffkin (Perf 630cd that won't recognize external HD). He says his internal HD is given SCSI ID #7, which of course is always used for the CPU itself. He may just be having SCSI problems resulting from screwy ID assignments, which unfortunately could be the cause of his (probable) disk corruption." ...and Ben's probably right here. ID#7 is reserved for the host controller card (in this case, the motherboard), and setting a drive to ID#7 is a recipe for disaster. Thanks for writing, everyone! Your comments and feedback are appreciated! Sharing an Epson iMac printer A few weeks ago, Ken Jordan wrote in asking how to connect a single USB-based Epson printer to a group of iMacs. He was curious if he could just buy a USB hub and connect everything and go from there. While that answer is still a big "NO", Jeff Ross wrote in about an article he found at MacCentral -- How to: iMacs, Epson printers, and connectivity. The article basically suggests using PrintDesk from Ultimate Technographics to share the printer from one iMac over an Ethernet network. Sounds like a good way to go! Yet another Question for you! Joel Eisenberg writes, "I own a B&W G3 and have a lot of footage of family events I am converting to digital form via FireWire, EditDV, and Premiere 5.1a. Is there a way to get around the 2 gb capture limit? Every time I hit 1.9 gb, the programs above balk. Does FinalCut Pro break this limit? Or is it a built in limit of Quicktime? My goal is to do a set it and forget it video capture of at least a half hour of video in one sitting (The most my system can handle, leaving enough room for editing, titling, etc.)" I'm not sure why you're having this problem, Joel, as I can't seem to find anything online about a 2GB limit for captures. However, I'm sure some knowledgeable reader will write-in with a suggestion or two! That's all, folks! If you have a question of yours that you'd like to see answered here, please feel free to write [email protected] and we'll see what we can do! P.S. Have a nice day.