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Icon file bug?

Two readers reported almost exactly the same problem the other day:

Ed Wiederer writes that, running Mac OS 8, "after any restart or startup, I get a 'Rescued items' folder in the Trash with a file called 'Icon' in it."

Greg Neise had the exact same problem, additionally noting that an icon file mysteriously appeared "in the Desktop folder of each of my three hard drives." He contacted Apple about this and they claimed to be unaware of the issue.

Note that these invisible icon files are normally used by the Mac OS for custom folder … Read more

Power Mac 8600/300: Energy Saver Sleep problem

Two readers (Matt Talbott and Dan Rohtbart) both using a new Power Mac 8600/300, describe the same problem: When the Mac goes to sleep (typically automatically via an Energy Saver setting), it may not wake up again (requiring a restart to get things back to normal). (In some cases, it may freeze instead of going to sleep.) Matt claims that Apple Support told him that this problem has existed with some Macs since Mac OS 7.6.1 and that they believe it is a hardware problem related to the logic board. They told him to take his Mac … Read more

Power Macintosh 6500: Freeze at Startup (an Apple TIL file report)

According to a recent Apple TIL file: If you have a Power Macintosh 5500/6500 or 20th Anniversary Macintosh running either Mac OS 7.6.1 or Mac OS 8, you may get a freeze at startup prior to any extensions loading. Here's the explanation:

"These Macs can ship with a Geoport modem card pre-installed. The Geoport modem card depends on a Shared Library in the Extensions folder called 'Serial (Built-in).' If this Shared Library is disabled using the Extensions Manager or removed from the Extensions folder," the freeze may occur. However, you can start up by … Read more

HP Printers and Mac OS 8

I received dozens of email messages regarding the report last time of problems with Hewlett-Packard printer drivers and Mac OS 8. For example:

HP laser printers: use Apple printer driver Many readers noted that, for HP PostScript laser printers (such as the LaserJet 5MP), you can work-around most problems with the HP printer software by simply discarding it and using Apple's LaserWriter software instead. Some readers reported success with LaserWriter 8.4.x. Others said they had better luck with version 8.3.x. The only hitch here may be in selecting the best PPD file to use. However, … Read more

Problems with Silverlining 5.8.1 and Silverlining Lite 2.1.1; yet another set of updates is coming!

La Cie seems to being having a run of bad luck with its recent updates to Silverlining. As reported by La Cie awhile back: "Updaters to Silverlining 5.8 and Silverlining Lite 2.1 have been removed to correct a problem discovered with certain Mac configurations." The updaters have returned. Silverlining 5.8.1 and Silverlining Lite 2.1.1 are now available at the La Cie web site. They are meant to provide full Mac OS 8 compatibility. However, readers are reporting numerous problems even with these replacement updates. As a result, as noted by Lynn Rardin, … Read more

DiskEssentials: updated version released; initial impressions

Total Recall's DiskEssentials (a new alternative to Norton Utilities) has already been updated. It is now at version 1.06. If you already have version 1.04, there is a patch at the Total Recall web site. The free demo is now up to 1.06 as well. The new version fixes "bugs that caused an error while handling the partition map and truncated the catalog tree." The previous version may have crashed when scanning a drive.

By the way, I downloaded the demo version yesterday and gave it a spin. The demo does not let you … Read more

Virtual PC 1.0.1 Updater; possible concerns

Connectix has released a Virtual PC 1.0.1 Update. It fixes an assortment of bugs, including addressing problems with the CD-ROM driver, sound and video, modems, Ethernet and PostScript printing.

Michael Depsky wrote me to say that he had a problem with the update. After installing it, the Virtual PC application was apparently corrupted. When he launched it, he got an error message saying that he needed to reinstall Virtual PC.

I had my own more serious problem with the update. Installing the update went fine, including installing the updated components from within the Windows95 environment. However, when I … Read more

New Apple advertising campaign to begin

An Apple press release states that: "...it is launching its new brand advertising campaign with two 60 second television commercial scheduled to air during the network premier of Pixar's academy award winning film Toy Story on ABC's Wonderful World of Disney this Sunday evening, September 28. The campaign is themed "Think Different" and is the first work by Apple and TBWA Chiat/Day in over a decade. Their previous collaboration produced many award winning ads, including the CLIO winner '1984' ad which has been voted the best ad of all time by advertising professionals." … Read more

Post-Weekend web sites

Installing Mac OS 8? If you are still deciding whether to update to Mac OS 8, and would like a walk-through on how to install it, check out this MicroTimes article from Sam Penrose. I wrote a brief walk-through of the OS 8 installer for MicroTimes at

Upgrading your daughterboard CPU? Want to sell your old one? Steve Tannehill's Power Macintosh Resource Page has a new buy-and-sell page for doing this.

Bug-fix utility updates

Spellswell Plus 2.1.2 and Spellswell 7 (which comes with Eudora Pro) updaters are available from Working Software.

A updated version of Resource Remover, a utility useful to move Mac documents to other platforms (as Unix server), is out.

PowerMenu v2.0.1, a Contextual Menu utility, fixes a number of memory management and stability bugs.

Internet Config 1.4 is out. To download it, try this URL (thanks, Version Tracker) or this one (thanks, Stephan Voss).