If you're facing a problem with your Mac that you're unfamiliar with, I suggest reverting to the tried-and true playground rule of "safety first."

Whether your Mac is freezing, crashing or loading to the dreaded gray screen of death, one of the first things you can do is reboot the computer in safe mode. Safe mode allows you to run only a limited number of programs on your Mac. If problems still occur in this restricted mode, your computer may need more serious Mac repair.

To start your Mac in safe mode:

1. Shut down your computer.

2. Press the power button to turn it back on. As soon as you hear the start up tone, hold down on the "Shift" key.

3. Let go of the "Shift" key when you see the gray Apple icon and the spinning gear.

Doing so will tell your Mac to run a check of your directory, help you rule out hardware issues by only running required kernel extensions and disable start up and log in items.

As I mentioned, some features may not be available in safe mode, such as audio or video, internal or external modems that require a USB cable, certain caches and file sharing. Wireless internet also may or may not work, depending on computer model and OS version.

You can try to detect the root of the problem by loading all your programs while in safe mode, to see if any of them trigger the issues. If not, make note of recent software updates or upgrades, and try unplugging all external devices. If you are still experiencing problems, it might be a good idea to contact your local Washington, D.C. Mac repair center, as well.