SURVIVAL TACTIC: Another reason your Mac may be slowing down, spontaneously crashing, shutting off, or not running video smoothly is heat buildup caused from blocked vents and/or dust, dirt, or pet hair built up inside the machine. Leave this mess to fester and your Mac could die a slow heat-death.

Fixing this issue typically requires cracking open the computer’s case and blowing out all the gook with a can of compressed air. If you have a Mac that you can open up (look for a set of screws near the vents, which will let you remove a panel that covers the fan), and you’re comfortable doing this yourself, you probably already know the drill— lovingly disassemble the computer and give it a blow job. If getting that close and personal with your computer doesn’t seem like a fun activity, take it to the Apple Store and have them do it (and maybe ask them to show you how, so you can perform the procedure every three or so months). If you want to clear just the vent and fan of dust, but aren’t planning on getting seriously involved and actually opening the case, then make sure you don’t blow the dust deeper into the computer—angle the compressed air’s nozzle at an outwards angle. Blowing the crud further into the machine will just complicate the issue.

Apple says that some MacBooks may have a thin piece of clear plastic covering the rear vent. This was used in the factory to prevent dust from getting into the computer and should have been removed before shipping, but some MacBooks escaped with the plastic intact. If your MacBook has plastic over the vent, remove and discard it. And make sure your computer’s vents aren’t blocked by other things that reside on your desk or are being slowly smothered by being placed 
on soft surfaces like pillows or possibly your lap. Your computer needs to breathe.

SURVIVAL TACTIC: If an application that’s always behaved nicely suddenly begins crashing and otherwise acting up, consider what you might have done to upset it. Did you download and apply a system update, install a new piece of software, or change something else on your computer? You may need to update the misbehaving program too, so it can start playing nicely with others again.

If nothing has changed, see if the program’s preferences are at fault. Go to Accounts, and create a shiny new user account. Log in as the new user and run the program that has been giving you problems. If nothing amiss happens, chances are the issue is your personal program preferences. In some cases you can remove preferences by dragging them out from the Users/Library/Preferences folder. With programs like Photoshop, you can reset your account preferences to their defaults by holding down Command+Option+Shift when launching the application; as Photoshop starts, you’ll be asked if you want to reset the preferences. Make sure to save any custom presets before resetting Photoshop preferences. If you can’t figure out how to reset a program’s preferences to default, check on the manufacturer’s website.

Corrupt fonts can also wreak havoc with applications and even entire operating systems. See #14 for some tips on how to deal with them.

Last, there’s bad RAM to consider. If your applications start acting kooky and crash with no apparent provocation, you could have a bad RAM module. If you can access your machine’s RAM—which you should be able to on most current Macs, except the MacBook Air—and have more than one module, try removing one module from the computer. If that doesn’t make a difference, try moving one module to a different 
RAM slot. Then repeat with the other module to isolate the problem.

SURVIVAL TACTIC: Metal gets scratched; it’s just a fact of life. The first scratch to mar the case of your Titanium PowerBook or MacBook Pro was probably the most traumatic. After the pristine surface is scraped up a bit, all those other marks are much easier to bear. But if you just can’t view those scuff marks as signs of an interesting life well lived, ignore any temptation to break out the Brasso. It works wonderfully on banged-up iPods, but it can strip the finish right off of your MacBook Pro’s case. You can look into a scratch-removal polish specifically made for the metal that makes up your computer’s case, but make sure to follow the directions carefully. And obviously you’ll want to avoid getting any drippy goo near any vents, ports, or openings in the case, and disconnect the battery and power adapter before starting the scratch-removal process. If your MacBook Pro’s case is just seriously smudged and not actually marred by scratches, try the Apple Polish Cleaning Kit from iKlear ($24.95, www.klearscreen.com) to get it shined up like new.

SURVIVAL TACTIC: White MacBooks tend to get grimy over time (especially on the wrist rest), and the black ones seem to compel your fingertips into producing insane amounts of oil, which ends up smeared unappealingly on the MacBook’s case. But you can get your MacBook back into pristine condition with little magic, compliments of Mr. Clean—the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser. You want the plain kind, not the ones that foam up when wet, and you can find them at almost any grocery or drugstore for about $3.50 for a two-pack (also see www.mrclean.com/en_US/products/eraser.shtml).

Begin by wiping down your MacBook with a clean lint-free or microfiber cloth. Unplug your MacBook and remove the battery. Wet the Magic Eraser with a slow trickle from the tap and wring it out until it’s just slightly damp. Swab down your MacBook with the Magic Eraser, moving the eraser in one direction, rather than back and forth. Stay away from the keyboard and all ports or other openings. When you’re done, dry off the computer with another clean lint-free cloth. If there’s a chance that you got even a drop of dampness into your machine, leave it unplugged and off for at least six hours before plugging it in and starting it up.

SURVIVAL TACTIC: If you somehow manage to dislodge a key from its place on your keyboard—whether it’s an older Apple or third-party keyboard or a one of the newer aluminum keyboards now shipping with new iMacs and Mac Pros—you may not be able to just pop it back in place. Turn the key over and see if it has a little plastic “scissor” attached. If it does, and it’s not broken, lift the scissor carefully off of the key and reattach it to the keyboard by hooking it under the tab on the right-hand side, and then fastening the two little plastic hooks into the catches on the left side. Now you’ll need to slide the key cap onto the top tabs of the riser; you may want to use a toothpick or other small implement to keep the riser steady while you reattach the key. Note to anyone with a new aluminum keyboard: The non-letter and -number keys on the Apple aluminum keyboards are trickier to reset because the loop that stabilizes them is made of pliable metal that’s easy to bend the wrong way unless you have a very soft touch.

If you break the plastic scissor on a key cap, you’ll almost always be able to find people online who are selling replacement key caps and scissors.

SURVIVAL TACTIC: If you start to hear ominous sounds coming from your Mac—anything from a high-pitched whine to the occasional thump coming from the vicinity of the hard drive, assume your disk is entering a death spiral. Other symptoms include frequent application freezes, files that mysteriously disappear, regular freezes during startup, and increasingly slow speed when saving or opening files. There’s no way to fix a dying drive besides replacing it, so as soon as you notice these symptoms, back up your files immediately, even if Apple Disk Tools report that the drive is fine.

You should also consider yourself lucky if your drive has the good manners to alert you to its impending demise. In some cases, the only warning you get is when the machine simply stops functioning, followed by an icon of a folder with a question mark when you restart the machine. All drives eventually die, so don’t neglect your backup routine.

SURVIVAL TACTIC: Some folks swear by toothpaste to buff out scratches on the iPhone or iPod touch’s tempered glass touchscreen. The mild abrasive in the paste that’s intended to whiten your choppers can also remove surface scratches from iPod/iPhone screens. While we like toothpaste for cleaning jewelry, we’ve found that some brands are actually a bit too abrasive for iPod/iPhone screens. It’s safer to stick with products meant for this job, like Applesauce polish ($19.95, http://applesaucepolish.com/) or RadTech’s Ice Creme ($20.95 to $25.95, www.radtech.us). Both products will, with a bit of elbow grease, remove light scratches and scuffs from your devices’ faces; just be sure to follow the directions—especially the part about varying your strokes—or you could end up adding scratches rather than removing them.