Re: Pismo RAM Bug with Jaguar
From Ron Southerland
Just a comment on your lead item in today's 'Book
Review. The original item on MacFixIt was from a single
individual who reported the problem you mentioned. The next day
MacFixIt referred to the same item, stating there was a problem with
"Pismos." MacFixIt provided no
other examples, so the initial reference to one instance of the
problem stands as the only reported instance.
In the meantime, there have been specific reports on Mac
Net Journal, the PowerList, and MacInTouch Forums of no
problem with the installation and use of Mac OS X 10.2 on Pismos
with 768 MB RAM (three different users, three different Pismos so
far). MacFixIt today (2002.08.23) also reported that OWC states that
there are no problems with 10.2 and their 512 MB SODIMMS.
So, given the history of wonky SODIMMS and Pismos (among other
Macs) last year, this seems likely to have been a problem with a
specific RAM chip and not with Pismos generally. Perhaps the
originator of the MacFixIt report didn't properly vet his 512 MB
SODIMM or "fix" it using the utility that was available last
year.
I emailed MacFixIt a couple of days ago about the "inexactitude"
in their report but got no response. It's interesting how this one
little item has moved from site to site and expanded way beyond its
original import - kinda like gossip I guess.
Ron Southerland
- Hi Ron,
I suspect this issue may be the second coming of the notorious
Apple firmware upgrade a couple of years back that would not
support a lot of third party RAM upgrades. I didn't install that
firmware upgrade on either my Cube
or Pismo for that reason, although there is pretty good reason to
believe that the OWC 512 MB upgrade in my Pismo would be
compatible.
In any case, I guess the workaround if one encounters a Jaguar
installation issue with their Pismo is to remove the upgrade
during the install and then stick it back in.
Charles
"Sleep of Death" on a Pismo?
From Paul Mailman
I read your article about "Sleep
of Death." Now maybe you've heard from a mountain of Pismo users
already, but I have a G3/400 FireWire PowerBook running 9.2.2 and I
have a "Sleep of Death" problem (every time). Have you heard of any
workaround since you wrote the article in June?
- Hi Paul,
I have not experienced the "Sleep of Death" problem running OS
9.2.2 on my Pismo, but it would happen about once in every three
wake ups from sleep with my now dead WallStreet
when running 9.2.2, although this never happened in OS 9.0 or OS
9.1.
To answer your question, I have not heard anything really new on
this issue since June. Some people have reported that turning off
the Internet Time function in the Date & Time control panel
cured the problem for them, but this did not work for me on
WallStreet.
Charles
Re: "Sleep of Death" on a Pismo?
From Paul Mailman
Charles,
Thanks. I long ago disabled the Internet Time extension. I
disabled the Energy Saver control panel and am using the Sleeper
utility, but I'm still having problems. If I close the laptop, I
still get the grey screen. At least it'll wake from sleep with the
lid open. I can't get the drive to spin down even with Sleeper. Can
you get your drive to spin down?
Paul
- Hi Paul,
Sounds like the behavior on my WallStreet, except it happened even
when the lid was left open.
Yes, my hard drive spins down.
Charles
Yer LC 520
From J. P. Medina
Mr. Moore:
I was surprised that you also have an LC
520. I bought the Sonnet 040 upgrade and found it needed to be
re-seat nearly every time I booted it up. I never figured it out. It
made the LC 520 speedier, but after I removed the modem, I gave the
Sonnet board to my brother.
These days I have gone back to the LC 520 for text-editing. It has
a nice, wide screen, a serial port for my Personal LaserWriter LS,
SCSI for my Zip Drive backup, and runs Microsoft Word 5.1
smoothly.
Word 5.1 runs smoothly on everything from System 6 on my Mac
SE to my spouse's iMac 500
MHz. Even ClarisWorks (now AppleWorks) has trouble doing the
same.
Best,
JPM
J. P. Medina
http://www.mtsac.edu/~jmedina
- Hi J.P.,
The old LC is mainly my wife's word processing and email machine
these days, but I still use it for printing and scanning
sometimes.
As for Word 5.1 - the only piece of Microsoft software I've ever
liked - I began using it on a Mac
Plus under System 6.0.3, and it still works fine in OS 9.2.2
and Classic mode in OS X. Amazing.
Charles
Netscape
From Alvin Chan
Hi, how are you doing? Have you tried the new Netscape 4.8? The
first one I'm most concerned with is how nicely it displays websites
and then the second concern is how fast it renders pages. If you are
using Netscape 7 PR1, what do you think is the best amount of memory
and disk cache. Also, what is the best minimum and preferred memory
sizes for it. I watch QuickTime movies, Flash and use Shockwave (for
online games) on it.
God bless,
Alvin
- Hi Alvin,
After four aborted attempts to download Netscape 4.8, I finally
got it.
I just use the default settings with Netscape 7, but I rarely
access movies or visit sites that require Flash and Shockwave, so
you may need to bump your RAM settings up a bit from the
defaults.
Charles
GMX and Outlook
From Anonymous
You said you signed up for GMX. I have made it through the create
account - phew!
But now, how do I set up Outlook to use it? Please tell me.
Thanks.
- Hi,
I don't use Outlook, so I'm hazy on the exact procedure.
Probably the best plan is to open the window for an already
installed account and use it as a guideline for entering the data
GMX sent you in the welcome email.
Charles
Apple comments
From Alvin Chan
Hi,
How's everything with Apple. Is Apple in trouble or something? I
wonder what would happen if Apple was bought by MS, MS has a 100 M
seed in it already, lol. I hope not. I just wished Apple would
implement a donation campaign and trade-in campaign for any kind of
computer, better yet if they were just donated. Then Apple would melt
these and user these materials and then Macs can be cheaper but still
have that quality. But then PC vendors would do that too and they
would then be cheaper again, lol. I don't know what will happen to
Apple...
Apple is just too expensive and not a lot of power, specifically
the video card they bundle. Also the gap between use-friendliness
isn't that wide anymore because it had been copied (as Dvorak
said).
Though I'm still for Apple because it MS didn't really copy it in
the first place then it won't have that much resources now or
wouldn't even be here. I'm still hoping God will turn the tide and
give that 90% market that Apple really deserves. I pray it happens
very soon, I don't want to see Apple, the originator struggling as it
is.
By the way, do you know where I can download Color Classic
original installer, I think that was OS 6? I'm trying to revive
CC.
God bless,
Alvin
- Hi Alvin,
Gak! I hope MS never buys Apple. I would switch to Linux.
I don't know about the Color Classic restore disks, but you can
get System 6 installers on Apple's support software Web page.
Charles
Editor's note: You might find some helpful info on the Color
Classic Mini FAQ.
Go to Charles Moore's Mailbag index.
