I guess it's sounding more like a software problem than a hardware problem...
From: Macs R We <macs...@macsrwe.com<mailto:macs...@macsrwe.com>> Date: Wednesday, January 8, 2020 at 8:26 PM To: Gregg Dinse <di...@niehs.nih.gov<mailto:di...@niehs.nih.gov>> Cc: "MacOSX-talk@omnigroup.com<mailto:MacOSX-talk@omnigroup.com>" <MacOSX-talk@omnigroup.com<mailto:MacOSX-talk@omnigroup.com>> Subject: Re: problem with Calculator app I get Not a Number using either your keystrokes or mine. This is weird. On Jan 8, 2020, at 6:23 PM, Dinse, Gregg (NIH/NIEHS) [C] <di...@niehs.nih.gov<mailto:di...@niehs.nih.gov>> wrote: My problem machine is at the office. I'm at home now and the Calculator app works fine on that mac. I guess there are multiple ways to calculate exp(-1). What I have been doing is the following. I open the Calculator app and set View/Scientific. I click on 1, then the +/- key, and then the eˣ key. At home, the results field shows 1, and then -1, and then 0.367879... as I click those 3 keys. At the office, I got 1 and then -1 and then "Not a number". As you noted, another way to calculate exp(-1) is to click the minus sign, then 1, then the equals sign, and then the eˣ key. This gives the correct response at home, but I did not try that at the office. In any event, both should function properly and at least one does not give the correct answer on my iMac at the office. Over the next day or two, I will boot my iMac at the office from an external disk with a version of the OS for which the Calculator app works fine when booting at home. Hopefully this will help me figure out if it's a hardware or software problem. Gregg From: Macs R We <macs...@macsrwe.com<mailto:macs...@macsrwe.com>> Date: Wednesday, January 8, 2020 at 7:48 PM To: C D Tavares <macs...@macsrwe.com<mailto:macs...@macsrwe.com>> Cc: Gregg Dinse <di...@niehs.nih.gov<mailto:di...@niehs.nih.gov>>, "MacOSX-talk@omnigroup.com<mailto:MacOSX-talk@omnigroup.com>" <MacOSX-talk@omnigroup.com<mailto:MacOSX-talk@omnigroup.com>> Subject: Re: problem with Calculator app The ironic part is that I just tried the sequence myself: - 1 = eˣ and got "Not a Number." 😳 (High Sierra, MBP 2015) On Jan 8, 2020, at 1:53 PM, Macs R We <macs...@macsrwe.com<mailto:macs...@macsrwe.com>> wrote: On the other hand, if it's clearly your hardware, you may have a much easier time of wangling a free repair or replacement from Apple. On Jan 8, 2020, at 1:45 PM, Dinse, Gregg (NIH/NIEHS) [C] <di...@niehs.nih.gov<mailto:di...@niehs.nih.gov>> wrote: Thanks for the suggestion. I should be able to do this, but probably not today. I never even thought about the hardware being the problem. That is upsetting. Gregg From: Macs R We <macs...@macsrwe.com<mailto:macs...@macsrwe.com>> Date: Wednesday, January 08, 2020 at 3:40 PM To: "Dinse, Gregg (NIH/NIEHS) [C]" <di...@niehs.nih.gov<mailto:di...@niehs.nih.gov>> Cc: "MacOSX-talk@omnigroup.com<mailto:MacOSX-talk@omnigroup.com>" <MacOSX-talk@omnigroup.com<mailto:MacOSX-talk@omnigroup.com>> Subject: Re: problem with Calculator app What's scary about this is that the response "not a number" is often a response directly from the hardware. If, like me, you are lucky enough to have on hand an external drive with relatively virgin copies of various Apple operating systems, you could boot one of them and see if you get the same result. It's possible that you will get this result no matter which operating system you boot on that hardware, whereas if you take the same drive and boot someone else's Mac with it, you may get proper results. That would pretty definitively show that the problem is your chip. On Jan 8, 2020, at 12:49 PM, Dinse, Gregg (NIH/NIEHS) [C] <di...@niehs.nih.gov<mailto:di...@niehs.nih.gov>> wrote: Hi, I am running the latest version of Mojave (10.14.6) on a fairly new iMac. Using the Scientific view in the Calculator app, I tried to evaluate exp(-1) and it said "Not a number". I tried several other negative values and none worked, even though they certainly should. When I tried taking 10 to the -1 power, I got the correct result (0.1), but for some reason it has a problem raising "e" (the base for natural logarithms) to a negative power. I tried quitting the app, but that did not help. I tried rebooting my mac, but that did not help. I contacted our support group and they said the only thing they could do is to reinstall the operating system, which seems like a drastic step. And exp(-1) worked just fine on the support person's mac. Is there anything else that someone can suggest, short of reinstalling the OS? The support person said that we could not simply replace the Calculator app because it was part of the OS. Any thoughts? Thanks, Gregg -- Macs R We -- Personal Macintosh Service and Support in the Wickenburg and far Northwest Valley Areas. http://macsrwe.com<http://macsrwe.com/> -- Macs R We -- Personal Macintosh Service and Support in the Wickenburg and far Northwest Valley Areas. http://macsrwe.com
_______________________________________________ MacOSX-talk mailing list MacOSX-talk@omnigroup.com https://www.omnigroup.com/mailman/listinfo/macosx-talk
