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Troubleshooting

MacOS Rumors; SpeedLib (one last time): serious allegations

a. I have linked to the MacOS Rumors web site a couple of times in the last few weeks. As I write this, if you try to go there, you will get a message that says access is "Forbidden." When I first saw this, I thought it was another case of Apple shutting down this site for its posting of confidential material (as has had happened previously). However, the true reason (as reported to me by one of the parties involved and also reported on the MRP over the week-end) was something entirely different - and more serious. … Read more

Business Week and InfoWorld articles on Apple

a. Advanced research budget to be cut?; OpenDoc to be dropped?An article in the March 17 issue of Business Week (I first spotted this link on MacInTouch) details Steve Jobs' growing impact at Apple. It claims that, for better or worse, Jobs was behind the recent resignation of Marco Landi as well as the changes to Ellen Hancock's job description. Two particularly intriguing quotes:

"As Amelio hunts for $400 million in expense cuts, he's following Jobs' advice by targeting Apple's advanced research group. Jobs argued [that] Apple should use its best brains to build snazzy … Read more

Another note on whining Macs

Remember our discussion awhile back about whining noises coming from a Mac (usually a 7500) after installing the 604 120 processor upgrade? Joel Shoemaker reports that PowerLogix told him that the problem was due to "lack of grounding clip. The Apple processor upgrade sold in retail channels, as opposed to the bulk cards that Apple dumped, comes with a little grounding clip that attaches from the heat sink to the chassis of the computer. We believe the whine is RF and this grounding clip should cure it. Or any patch cord (such as one available at Radio Shack) with … Read more

Explorer security breaches; the Mac is affected!

Microsoft now has a single download for three separate security issues involving Internet Explorer that were all reported last week. The download is just for PC machines. However, the issue involving Java "does affect Internet Explorer for the Macintosh, which uses Sun's technology. Microsoft is working on and will deliver a fix for Internet Explorer for the Macintosh as soon as possible."

Epson printers: new drivers; problem with new Stylus Color 800?

a. New versions of the Mac drivers of Epson's inkjet printers, including the older Stylus 500 and XL models, are posted to an Epson web page. (Thanks, Eric Westby and Michael Griswold.)

b. Jody Hewell writes about problems with the new Epson Stylus Color 800. In particular, text output was very jagged, even though the text from the same document printed fine to a StyleWriter 2400. This happened across avariety of programs. Epson's response to this was that the problem was that the programs were "sending commands to the printer to print bitmapped instead of text. They … Read more

No sound from audio CDs?

I would not have thought that this is a common enough problem to merit reporting here, but I have now seen several emails on this subject: if your Mac's sound works fine except that you do not get any sound from audio CDs, open up your Mac and check if the special audio cable going from the CD drive to the motherboard is connected. If it is loose, simply plugging this cable back in its socket should yield success.

Note: This is only one possible cause of this symptom. Most other causes deal withvarious incorrect software settings (such as … Read more

Apple CD-ROM driver and support for third party drives

Max Schaefer writes that the new Apple CD-ROM version 5.3.2 (which updates the 5.3.1 version that comes with Mac OS 7.6) did not work with the NEC CD-ROM drive that came with his PowerBase 180. Oddly, the older version 5.3.1 did work. Bill Fox sent me details of a similar situation, as now reported on his web page - which also has a response from Power Computing.

Font Box 2.1 freezes

David Nelson writes: "Font Box 2.1 freezes my machine when ATM 4.0 Deluxe is enabled. If I disable ATM, Font Box performs as usual."

Dave Burbank reports a similar problem with Font Box 2.1, except that appears to be unrelated to ATM. In fact, it happens even with all extensions disabled. The cause remains undetermined.

Update: Andy Schwarz reminds me that "badly corrupted" fonts may cause Font Box to crash. While this seems to be a bit of a problem for a program designed to detect and fix corrupt fonts, removing the offending … Read more