Miscellaneous Ramblings

Miscellaneous Ramblings Mailbag

Sleep of Death, LC 520, Netscape 4.8, and More

Charles Moore - 2002.08.28 - Tip Jar

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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 the Miscellaneous Ramblings Mailbag index.

Charles Moore has been a freelance journalist since 1987 and writing for Mac websites since May 1998. His The Road Warrior column is a regular feature on MacOpinion, and he is a news editor and columnist at Applelinks.com.

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