Odds & Ends: AppleWorks, underlining, and HP printers; PlayStation controllers via USB; more

AppleWorks underlining and HP DeskJet Printers Jim Carter writes: "I spent the last two days on the phone with HP tech support and it appears that the underlining problem which was fixed with the release of AppleWorks 6.0.3 has returned again with the release of 6.1.2. They offered no solution except to blame the problem on a bug in Apple's software. Downgrading to 6.0.3 is not a solution as the dimmed menu problem will return. AppleWorks prints fine (and without unwanted underlining) on Epson and Lexmark printers. It seems that the problem is with HP's new driver. When I use an older HP driver with my HP Deskjet 895Cse, I get perfect printing with all versions of AppleWorks."

Tom Webster replies: "My HP DeskJet works just fine with AppleWorks 6.1.2 and 6.2 for X; no problems printing."

Update: An HP support engineer replies: "This has to do with a conflict with our driver and CarbonLib. We have been actively working with Apple on a solution to this problem, and believe that it will be fixed soon. While not a solution for everyone, the latest version of CarbonLib (1.4), has resolved this problem in our testing."

Jim Carter replies: "In my case, neither disabling CarbonLib 1.3.1 nor installing CarbonLib 1.4 solved the problem."

PlayStation controllers on a Mac Julian Wright offers: "For some months I have been looking for a way to use my (many) PlayStation controllers on my Mac. All the USB adapters I found thus far were only supplied with Windows drivers and no-one would confirm if they worked on a Mac. However, recently I found a unit that does work from Lik-Sang in Hong Kong. It took 8 days to find its way to my home in England, and it works perfectly for me under Mac OS 9.1. So far I've tried it with Virtual Game Station and MAME and apart from setting up which button does what, it required no configuration or special drivers. It also supports Nintendo 64 controllers but I have yet to try these."

Update: Another source of hardware for connecting console controllers to the Mac is Kernel.com. Steven Strell writes: "The software hasn't been updated in a while, but it works!"

Sound fix for the G4 Cube also? In a follow-up to our previous coverage on a similar subject, Giesbert Nijhuis writes: "I have been having serious sound failures on my G4 Cube since day one, and none of the usual fixes worked. However, after turning off the sound in the Modem control panel the problems have disappeared completely."