Troubleshooting

Local News: Mac Bible chapter now on MacFixIt

As first announced here last month, Peachpit Press has generously allowed me to post the entire contents of the chapter of the Macintosh Bible that I edited ( Chapter 7: Preventing and Solving Problems). It is now finally online! (I will be making some minor tweaks in the days ahead, such as adding more internal links to cross-referenced material.)

It is my hope that this will serve as a useful resource for all MacFixIt readers, but especially for those that want more background on troubleshooting basics.

I will maintain a link to the Chapter at the top of this page, at … Read more

Mac OS 7.6: the good news

Don't be too distressed by all the reports of conflicts with Mac OS 7.6 reported here. The good news is that most reader reports are quite positive about using Mac OS 7.6. The single biggest positive comment: better stability. System crashes happen much less often with the new OS. Though my experience is clearly subjective, I agree with this assessment. The number of times I have to reboot has gone way down (and when a crash does occur, the restart time is also much faster).

Color QuickCam and Mac OS 7.6: follow-up

Though I have received two more reports confirming the previously mentioned problem with Color QuickCam, many more users report having no problem at all. Additionally, John Malm (of Connectix Macintosh Tech Support) asserts that there are no known conflicts between Color QuickCam and Mac OS 7.6.

Update: Today's Macintosh Resource Page has an item where Scot Willson (of Momentum) describes a hardware conflict between Color QuickCam and Port Juggler.

Office4.2x Update for Power Mac and Word 6.0 crashes in Mac OS 7.6

Several readers have now confirmed that crashes (especially Type 3 errors) associated with Word 6.0 and Mac OS 7.6 can be traced to the Office4.2x Update for Power Mac extension (confirming a previous report). According to Scott Schaus, Microsoft told him that the extension was still needed and that the latest version should work. However, if you are having problems, try removing the extension to see if it helps.

Update: While it may still leave you confused as to whether or not you should use this Update extension, Paul Hitchcox points out that Microsoft has a file … Read more

ATM Deluxe and ATR Deluxe issues

I continue to get many reports ofvarious bugs and glitches with the new Adobe Type Manager and Adobe Type Reunion Deluxe software. As most reports have not been confirmed by more than one user, I hesitate to report details here. However, here are two issues that were reported more than once:

a. ATM Deluxe may cause certain icons on your desktop to lose their custom icon. There does not yet seem to be any way of predicting in advance which icons may be affected.

Update: Using an option such as SCSIProbe's "Mount All Volumes at Startup" appears … Read more

Performa 6400: Which modem?

Regarding previous discussions (as has been covered several times here in MacFixIt) as to exactly what modem is in your Performa 6400 (a Global Village or Geoport), Terence Elliott has spotted a Tech Info Library file that tells you how to find out without having to open up your machine.

Read-It! and Mac OS 7.6 conflict

Dan Greenberg writes that Olduvai confirms that their Read-It! Optical Character Recognition (version 5.5) does not work with Mac OS 7.6. The Olduvai Tech Support person told Dan that "a fix is in the works and will be on their web site ASAP."

WorldNet and Mac OS 7.6: AT&T responds

As regards the previous report about possible problems with WorldNet software and Mac OS 7.6, most readers continue to report that they have no problems at all. Additionally, David Singer (of AT&T WorldNet Service) writes:

"The AT&T Tech Service person that told Mr. Boone that OS 7.6 does not work with WorldNet was mistaken. WorldNet works just as well, if not better with OS 7.6. The customer does however need to read the Read Me file that came with OT/PPP 1.0 to configure the OT/PPP 1.0 properly. Some … Read more

Global Village PC Card modem software/firmware update

Chris Bailey informs me that "Global Village has released an updated version of their software for Platinum PC Cards and Platinum Pro PC Cards. It's version 2.5.8, and it includes support for and a flashROM updater to boost the modem cards from 28.8 to 33.6.

Bryan Goldstein notes that it appears to fix a previously identified OT/PPP "serial port in use" bug.

Apple says Newton's death is exaggerated

A letter from Sandy Benett (Vice President, Newton Systems Group) to developers asserts that: "An uninformed outsider's view of the situation coupled with relentless doom-n-gloom reports in the popular media could lead one to believe Apple was in the process of "shutting-down" the Newton division. This is not the case. The Newton platform is alive and well, and I hope we can count on your continued support."