Q Both my iMac and MacBook Pro are running Yosemite through the same broadband cable modem-router. If I play a low-bandwidth BBC radio programme on the MacBook Pro, it is fine; on the iMac it keeps interrupting, but I cannot work out how to tweak the radio player to fix that. Do you know how to?

A If the stream to the iMac is not being interrupted, and running off the same network suggests this is not happening, then the interruption must result from another process that is cutting in and causing the radio player to pause.

This could be almost anything: you will need to inspect your logs using Console and perhaps run Activity Monitor to see what is swallowing CPU cycles and blocking the radio player.

Often the problem is not just a process running a bit slow, but something more serious than that, in the form of errors or crashes. Entries in the logs, or high CPU usage in Activity Monitor, should reveal what is responsible, and you can then fix or disable the culprit.

Updated from the original, which was first published in MacUser volume 27 issue 16, 2011.