Winds of Change

written by Charles DeVore

from Mouse Tracks January 2003

Some Blue and White G3 tower owners are reporting problems running the new Bluetooth and FireWire, and some are reporting problems with more than one FW device. The motherboard version A of the B&W G3 has long been a problem for its owners. Many of the problems that come from this machine are device related. Most Rev A owners can't run the 7200 RPM hard drives due to data corruption, others can't put a second 5400 RPM drive in for the same reason–the data on the drives becomes corrupted. Now it's coming to light that Bluetooth requires too much power from the onboard ports on these same machines. Some FireWire users are also reporting the drive cannot be erased or used, or that the data on the drive is corrupted. So what can a B&W G3 owner do about all these woes? If you talk to Apple it's too bad for you, they are not interested, buy a new machine. So you're left with needing an IDE controller card to fix the drive problems, a USB card to make sure Bluetooth has enough power, and a FireWire card to make sure it has enough power. You have three slots inside the tower and now thanks to the bad design you have to buy devices to fill each of the slots just to have what should have been built-in correctly in the first place. For those of you who already have a SCSI card or an extra ethernet card in your machine you may want to look at some of the combo cards that have FW and USB both on the same card. Or if you're like some PMUG members, the new Sonnet 3-in-1 card might be the choice for you. The 3-in-1 card called TempoTrio has FW, USB, and two IDE (ATA) ports built into the card. The costs for these types of cards are: USB $25 and up; FW $35 and up; IDE (ATA) $100 and up; 3-in-1 cards run around $200. This is still a lot cheaper than buying a new computer, so just be aware of the problem.

In the last couple months I have warned users of utilities like Norton, TechTool, and DiskWarrior to make sure they are running the latest version or possibly lose all their data. Well I'm not kidding–a PMUG member, after running Norton 5.0 on a computer that has System 10.2 installed on it, managed to make the hard drive inaccessible by damaging the directories. You see, the old utilities don't understand the way the new directories are written, so they fix them the way they think they need to be. To make matters worse, the user ran Norton from the hard drive they were fixing, meaning, as soon the directory was destroyed the computer crashed. After two hours of trying to recover the data with Norton 7.03, which got it corrected enough to mount, DiskWarrior 2.1.1 then rescued most of the missing files. However, now the user has to reformat the hard drive after saving everything off to another drive. Then to be sure it will run okay, he needs to reinstall System 10 and 9 and all of his software. Why, you ask? Because you really don't know how much may have been corrupted.

As you may or may not know, PMUG's office where the classes take place is on the move again. After moving into suite 439 we thought we were set for the next three years. Boy were we wrong! Naito Properties signed a major deal with the Western Culinary Institute and they invoked a clause in our lease to move us to a different space. So by the end of January we should be on the third floor, suite 315, right between the skybridge and the elevators. This move, although disruptive, should give us more walk-in traffic and visibility.

If you're thinking about upgrading your system software, one of the very first things you should do is backup your data. Then, and only then make sure everything on the hard drive is checked out. You can use Disk FirstAid to make sure everything is ready to do the update, or you can use a current version of Norton Utilities or TechTools to check out the files and directories. Many people who fail to do this often get unknown errors and the update install fails. In fact if the update fails to complete, you may have to do a clean install in order to upgrade to that new system. However before you go to all that work try this, if your upgrade fails. Start up your current system software and go to the Extensions Manager. Select the "OS n.n.n base" settings file (you will see your system version where the ns are). Restart your Macintosh and try the install. After the install go back to the Extensions Manager and reselect your normal settings file.

Macworld Expo Tokyo (previously held in February or March) has been cancelled. Apple has pulled out of the event triggering a mass pullout of other venders from the show and leading to the show's cancellation. I believe that Apple, like many other companies, is trying to curtail expenses, and trade shows are very pricey items. Even though we may be upset that some things change, and not understand why you really need to look at costs to present at these shows, you must also remember Apple does not get money from the people that put these shows on, in fact they spend over 5 million dollars to attend, rent space, fly people over and pay for their rooms. That's just in the US (west coast & east coast) shows. Getting supplies and people to Tokyo would most likely double that cost. So in a time of downturns Apple has decided to pull out, most likely to the relief of their supporting vendors.

Apple has just anounced IP networking over FireWire between FireWire connected computers. For Macs placed close to one another this is a very fast way to move data back and forth. However until Apple introduces FireWire 2, which more than doubles the speed and adds more distance between devices, IP networking is not as exciting as it could be.

Did System 9 die just because Steve Jobs says System X is the way of the future? I think not! Keep in mind that Steve's whole mind set is to drive everyone to System X. This not only means programmers, software developers, hardware drivers, but also people. If you can't make the people switch then your new bright shiny idea will die.

People who can't afford to upgrade to new hardware (or OSX) should buy or upgrade software products that still support System 9 now, while they are still available. Make sure you keep the CDs safe and the serial numbers written in several places so that you do not lose them. With everything backed up you're most likely good for five years before you need to update your hardware and system. Yes, things will start to break in a couple of years, and things like browsers will complain that you don't have current certificates, but you will be able to use your computer mostly as you are doing now.

Apple seems to have a real problem with the e-Mac's video display. It seems the screen starts to display what Apple calls the raster shift problem which causes the bottom third of the screen to go black. Static on the remainder of the viewable part of the screen renders it worthless. Apple's fix is to have most of the unit's parts replaced, however people are reporting that within 90 days many are right back to where they started. So if you have purchased one of these machines and you have not purchased AppleCare my advice is to do so quickly. It's only $150 for the AppleCare and that won't cover even part of the repairs if your unit fails after the one year warranty is up.

Another Mac company is headed for the last round up. Shreve Systems, used computer and parts dealer located in Sheveport LA, is calling it quits and auctioning off all their remaining stock. It's not like I used their services very often but I get concerned when companies who have been around as long as this one close their doors. I expect the market to be flooded with cheap old parts and pieces which could even result in other companies going down with them.

Norton Utilities has really got me ticked off. The update installer which updates Norton Utilities 7.0 to 7.02 or 7.03 requires you to put your administrator password in for every component it installs. This means I have to sit in front of my machine and be ready for the 5 or 6 times it asks for my password. To me this is totally lame for an installer to ask more than once on the same install. Symantec needs to get its System X act together. How I wish for the days when Central Point Software was there to compete with these guys.

Carbon Sound Manager Update 6.02 is here for System 10.2.2. The Carbon Sound Manager Update improves reliability and performance of some applications that access Carbon Sound Manager. So it sounds to me like Apple is having some sound problems.

FWB has released software they call Partition Toolkit 1.0. They say you can resize existing Macintosh formatted volumes to make them smaller, and then use the new free space to create a second volume (or more) in the format of your choice. Here's where I make the plea for you to backup any drive you are going to try this on! In the past, partitioned drives or volumes could not be easily resized without destroying the data they contained. Here's what they say about their product. "Adding extra partitions or volumes to a drive usually involves the painful procedure of backing up the data, reformatting and partitioning the drive, and restoring the data. FWB Partition Toolkit was created to automate the procedure of resizing and creating new volumes on the fly without the need to move your data to a temporary storage."

Now I'd like to repeat what I just said. Backup anything you value before attempting this. Even the best programs screw up once in a while. If this operation goes bad there will be little hope of recovery. As soon as I get a chance I'll try the program out on a volume of backed up data and let you know what I think. Note: FireWire is not supported yet so it may be awhile before I give this a try.

Come to the January General Meeting to hear all about what the word is from Macworld SF. Several of us PMUGers are going and there will be a panel to discuss any new and exciting announcements.

You can reach me at charles@cdevsol.com.

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