I use an intel-based iMac purchased in '06 and run OS 10.5.8. I contacted Netflix because I am unable to stream movies from their site. Their tech(?) had me go to useragentstring.com where it shows that the browser (both Firefox and Safari) are running on a PowerPC CPU. How can this be? How can I change it?
Are you saying your browsers are not Intel?
I don't know about that website. Better to use your Mac's Activity Monitor where it will state the architecture used for those browsers in the far right hand side of the listing.
Yeah, that activity monitor was helpful. You're right, it's the browsers that are PowerPC. Do you suggest I go the browser sites and download the intel versions (which I thought I'd done)? I'll give that a try. Thanks.
That is weird. Safari too? Delete the old copy of Firefox first and install again. The installer should be able to tell your Mac is a an Intel and install the right one.
Just for clarity, when you click on About this Mac, what does it say?
I haven't tried re-installing Safari yet, but I will do that. I had NOT uninstalled FireFox before I downloaded and re-installed it. I will do this with both and re-install. Thanks. About this Mac: 2GHZ Intel duo-core processor.
I've installed MS Silverlight also. I needed it for things like the NCAA basketball playoffs and MLB.com. Several sites use this for their video. The bad thing is, MS Silverlight 2 and above quit supporting PPC if that is an issue for anyone.
Safari is an Apple product, not a Mozilla product. Does Netflix have a user discussion site where other users might be posting with solutions to this problem?
Here is an idea: Try Chrome. It is an Intel-only app. Therefore there is no chance that it will come up as PowerPC. It is Beta software, but it still should be fairly decent.
http://www.google.com/chrome
1) Try running the application from the downloaded disk image (the .dmg). Do
NOT drag it to the applications folder right away. Is it still listed as PowerPC?
2) Create a new user account. Log out of the current account and into the new one. Download Safari or Firefox, and run them from the disk image. Is it still listed as PowerPC?
3) Try downloading and running Google's Chrome browser in the new account. Chrome will only work on Intel machines, and if this application won't run in a new account, you have a system-wide issue that needs to be dealt with, possibly by reinstalling the operating system.
