Today I tried to login to our Mac OS 10.6 server. It denied access. I could connect via Apple File Sharing but I could not log on via Apple Remote Desktop. Come to find out the main 1TB hard drive is full. I don’t know what is taking up about 989 GB worth of space but its not cool.

I connected the server to my laptop via target disc mode.
Poked around a bit but nothing looked unusual.
Ran Disc Utility, Disc Repair. Result: Everything is okay.
I cloned the drive to our second 1 TB drive on the server as a backup. It was 10.72GB

Not wanting to waste time, I decided to re-format the drive and restore from the backup. All is well. I don’t know the issue but it’s back to normal now.

Hardware: iMac8,1
Memory: 6GB DDR2 SDRAM (2gb in slot 1, 4gb in slot 0)
OS: 10.6.8

Problem: On startup, computer would beep three times, pause, then repeat the three beep pattern. The one time that it did restart, I ran verify disc and it found errors.

Solution:
Boot from a CD -> Beeps
Re-seat the RAM. -> no change
Take out one RAM stick -> was able to boot and run disc utility repair
Blew out the RAM socket with compressed air.
Re-seat both RAM sticks in reverse order (2gb in slot 0, 4gb in slot 1). -> Boot went fine.

So, now I don’t know if it is a memory problem or a directory error. I skipped too many steps while troubleshooting. After several reboots, the problem hasn’t come back. We’ll have to wait and see.

Worked on a Peavey DI today that was built in 1987. Pretty simple box but it has multiple power options: Battery, wall wart, and phantom. The complaint was that the box didn’t work. In my test, it barely passed a signal and that signal was distorted. In testing, I noticed that the LED power indicator was dim. I took the box apart. Out of curiosity, I clipped in a 9 volt battery. The DI works flawlessly. I took out the 9V battery, turned the phantom supply back on, and measured the DC voltage from pin 1-2 and 1-3 on the backside of the XL connector (the output of the DI). It measured less than a volt. Not good; should be 48 volts. I then measured resistance from the front of the XL connector to the back. Aha! No connection on pin 1. So, no wonder phantom couldn’t pass through the connector to the inside of the DI. I desoldered the XL connector from the PCB. I really didn’t want to replace the XL connector because that would mean a complete tear down of the DI. So, before ripping into it, I measured the resistance again from the front of the connector to the unsoldered rear of the connector. Good news: I had continuity. Maybe all that is wrong is 25 year old solder and/or a broken solder joint. I soldered the joints. Ah, all is well.