Thanks, guys! I figured it out. I have to use a special software to make it work. I had forgotten that step, and actually Consuela reminded me. So, thank you muchly!

The saddest of sad sadness. The G4 tower has a wonky logic board, according to the lovely folk at the Apple store. Two different advisors...one AS and one at the Mac Upgrade place they referred me to...each gave me a deadpan "Replace it" when asked for the most practical option.

Which, of course. But. It's nice that people think I can pull $700 out of my backside...would that I could...but nsm.

Okay, bit of a step off the usual computer/media area.

2001 Ford Windstar. Wouldn't start, fuel pump not engaging. Replaced fuel pump fuse which was blown, et voila, started.

But now the starting is intermittent; sometimes it won't engage the fuel pump when the key is in pre-start as it should.

Theory: Fuel pump relay (not fuse) may need replacing.

Question: Can a relay give me intermittent power to the pump? Or does a relay just "poof" blow like a fuse?

Question: Can a relay give me intermittent power to the pump? Or does a relay just "poof" blow like a fuse?

Some relays can reset themselves. I had a '72 Mercury that had a relay on the headlight circuit - if I drove too fast with the headlights on, the headlight switch would get hot and eventually the relay would trip and the lights would go off. Once I slowed down, the lights would come back on.

Anyway, dunno of that's what's happening for you. I'd double-check that the contacts for the relay and fuse are clean, but that's just a guess. (Maybe check all fuel-pump related connections?) What I do know is intermittent electrical problems are of the suck.

One of my bosses knows quite a lot about cars - if I remember I'll ask him about this tomorrow.

Thanks, tommyrot, I'd appreciate it.

relays can be sticky and act wonky. If its got a bit of gunk it the mechanism, it might not always make a clean connection. Or if there is something inhibiting it's movement, it might not fully close. Either way, it could be the problem. But I do not know enough about automobiles to say that it *is* the problem.

And, now, for a quasi-automotive question:

I am looking at getting either an aux line or an iPod line for my car. The aux line is cheaper and more flexible, but the iPod line would let me control the forward/back on the iPod and turn it off when the stereo's not on.

The BF swears that it would be possible and not that hard to make a converter to use the iPod thing as an aux line, as there are pin diagrams out there, and you just have to connect the right things. Does this sound line sense-making tech-talk? Would there be some other issue with trying to do that, should the desire arise?

Grr. So I got a new iPod nano and started setting it up tonight, and it's completely fucking my computer.

It did the initial charge and sync fine, but it also downloaded updated software, and when the computer did a restart, thing started going south. The computer got hung up during the restart process (multiple times, after I started yanking the battery to get it unfrozen.) Finally I yanked the cable connecting the iPod even though it said "connected - eject before disconnecting" and the computer was finally able to start up again.

Then I reconnect it, and now cannot start iTunes.

Disconnect again and iTunes starts up. But when I plug it back in, iTunes doesn't recognize that it's connected. Nor does My Computer. Close iTunes.

Now My Computer will recognized that there's something plugged in, but I again can't properly disconnect because every time I go to "eject this disc" (as the iPod manual states) it immediately goes in to "Not Responding".

This cannot be normal, right? Any suggestions?

(Also, this eject before disconnecting thing - really? I have to remember to make sure the iPod isn't connected any time I shut down the computer or finish charging? Do I go through this or risk damaging files every time the computer crashes or Microsoft updates force a restart?)

Hearting on my dinky little shuffle right now.

ETA: Oh god. Now it says it needs to be reformatted to run with Windows. I hope this doesn't fuck things up.

I have to remember to make sure the iPod isn't connected any time I shut down the computer or finish charging?

No, you have to "eject" the iPod if you want to disconnect it while the computer is still running. Shutting down the computer should "eject" the iPod during the shutdown process.

You can check whether it's been ejected or not (assuming it's working properly) by looking at the iPod screen. If it hhasn't been ejected it'll show the circle-with-a-line-through-it and say "do not disconnect". Once the computer is shut down it will just show its normal menu.

Disconnecting the iPod while it's still unejected can damage the iPod and/or the computer, though how or why is not clear to me.

If anybody here owns a Zune: [link]

(They're all suddenly screwed - I guess date related).