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It’s Apple week, Readers!  Special Geek thanks to Jeff Langston, and Quantum Computer Solutions for the answers to this week’s Mac and Apple questions.  You can reach Jeff, or his partner Mike Boretsky directly at 850-424-3306.

Q: Why do I have to reset the nvram on my Mac after I plug in a firewire camcorder and an external firewire hard drive?  Macs are supposed to be easy to use, but you can’t use a firewire camcorder and a firewire hard drive at the same time.  If you do, you get an error that says “system won’t recognize firewire device” and the firewire devices won’t work after that without a reboot song and dance.

– Larry V.
Fort Walton Beach, FL

A: You obviously shouldn’t be having these issues, Larry.  Here’s Jeff’s response: “You shouldn’t have to reset the nvram due to firewire connections.  I currently have 3 external hard drives, a firewire iSight camera and have connected a video camera to my Mac all at the same time.  It’s possible that the firewire controller in the computer has gone bad, or even the firewire chips inside the drive or the camera.  It might even be the firewire cable itself.  If possible, use different cables, a different firewire port on the computer if it has one, and if you have a friend with a firewire drive or camera, try plugging those in.  If the behavior continues after swapping out all the external equipment, then it’s most likely the internal firewire controller and if your computer is still under warranty, you should have it serviced.  If the problem goes away with a swap of one of the external devices or cables, then that is most likely the problem and you’ll need to replace or repair it.  Good luck!”

Q:  We have a locked down wireless router and two identical iTouch handhelds – one that works all the time, and another that works only some of the time..  Fifty percent of the time my wife’s iTouch prompts her for the password and then rejects it several times, finally locking her out after excessive log on attempts.  My son’s seems to always retain the password.  We’ve eliminated all the obvious password faux pas (caps lock, hyphens, etc.)  Both iTouches work fine in WiFi hotspots that are password free.

– Bill R.
Fort Walton Beach, FL

A: Bill, here’s what Jeff Langston had to say about your problem:  “Checking around, I have found many WiFi issues with many of the iPod Touches.  Things to check are to make sure you have the latest firmware on your wireless router, and try resetting the network settings on your iPod and re-creating them.  There are also some Apple Knowledge Base articles that might be of help:

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1398
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1559
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2199
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2031

Check through those and see if any are helpful.  If you still have issues after updating your router firmware and trying all of this, you’ll probably have to either return the iPod for a replacement (if it’s still under warranty) or cross your fingers that the next iPod Touch update fixes the issue.”