Dial Our Technical Support Phone Number for Apple Mac Support @ USA: +1-800-712-0806, UK: +44-800-046-5216, AUS: +61-180-095-4262 Right Now to Get Instant Help Disclaimer. Mac Technical Support Numbers are an independent provider of remote tech support for third party products. When I ran Mac OS X Hints, I had a tradition of running April Fool’s Day pranks.Here’s a link to every one I ever published (including the intro of each) from 2003 through 2010 when I departed for Many Tricks.I’ve also found and included the images that went with each post, as these have vanished from the static version of the site that remains online.
The general conclusion you should be drawing from the responses is 'Parallels will not slow you down unless your Mac is under-equipped to run two OSs at the same time.' Running Parallels means you are running a complete Windows installation inside OS X. One whole computer inside another. If your Mac has enough CPU power and enough RAM to run the equivalent of two computers, you should not see a Parallels slowdown. Something like a quad core CPU with 8GB RAM or more with few other Mac applications running should run Windows and Quicken inside it OK.
Even better if the Mac has solid state storage. But if you are for example running Parallels on an older Mac with 4GB RAM and a dual-core CPU off a hard drive, it is possible that running Windows inside OS X may be too high of a demand and it might seem slow. In that case your other option is to put Windows on its own drive partition and run Boot Camp. This would boot the entire Mac into Windows only, so that Windows and OS X are not both trying to use the Mac at the same time. In Boot Camp the entire Mac would be a Windows PC.
What I like about Parallels is that I can run my Mac and Windows applications at the same time and move data between the Mac and Windows applications. But my Macs have the CPU and RAM for two OSs at once, so there is no performance problem.
MacFixIt Recommendations We've previously provided a few recommendations for dealing with, and avoiding, these issues until we can conclude it's 'safe' to use FireWire drives normally. Below is a summary of those recommendations.
If you have a drive that is 'officially' affected, be sure to check with the drive's manufacturer for the latest firmware. (We've listed vendors providing updates at the beginning of this report.). If you're the paranoid type and are concerned about your 'officially unaffected' drive, you can avoid the risk of these problems altogether by making sure you unmount and disconnect your FireWire drives before restarting your Mac. (If a software installer will require you to restart, disconnect your FireWire drives before starting the install, just so you don't forget. Also, keep in mind that some installers actually unmount drives during the installation process, another reason to disconnect first if you're feeling overly cautious.).
Make sure you have a valid backup of your data. As LaCie's Mihalik told us, a good backup should 'not be physically connected to the computer' (except, of course, during the actual backup operation). This will ensure that hardware problems don't take your backup with them. If you have already fallen victim to this bug, or a similar one, be very careful about which tools you use to attempt to 'fix' your drive or to recover your data. As reported yesterday in our conversation with DriveSavers' John Christopher, 'Any disk utility that can perform a fix-it routine may damage whatever directory remnants are on the drive and could complicate further recovery attempts.
The safest path to take is to attempt to recover the data to a secondary hard drive.' Mihalik echoes these seniments, recommending that if you have to use a disk utility, do not use the 'repair' function until you verify that it will actually fix the problem. Apple's Disk Utility has a Verify Disk function, and Alsoft's DiskWarrior and Norton's Disk Doctor both provide 'preview' functions that allow you to see what repairs will be made before you make them. If in doubt, elect to leave the drive alone. Recovery discounts Both Prosoft and DriveSavers have offered MacFixIt readers discounts on their products and services. Prosoft is offering $10 off of the purchase of Data Rescue X by and entering coupon code PAN911 at checkout. Is offering a 20% discount on their data recovery services for those users who have been affected by these Panther/FireWire issues.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS Below are a number of questions we have been receiving about this issue. We have tried to answer them to the best of our knowledge at this time; however, we continue to research these issues and will provide more information as it comes in. Does the issue occur for everyone using the 'affected' drives? As we have mentioned a number of times over the past week, the problem is clearly not being experienced by everyone. We continue to receive positive reports from readers who have been using their FireWire drives since Panther was released - some of them drives that are indeed supposed to be affected, according to Apple and drive vendors - with no ill effects. That being said, if your drive is 'officially' at risk, we urge you to visit the manufacturer's Web site to see if a firmware update is available.
There's no reason to play with fire if a fix is available to you. Does the problem happen immediately or over time? A number of readers have asked whether or not drive corruption occurs immediately. In almost all reported cases, the drive corruption occurs when the Panther computer is restarted with the FireWire drive connected and mounted. Sometimes - as in the case of one of our own drives here at MacFixIt - this corruption occurs on the first restart with the drive connected after installing Panther.
However, according to reports we have received, as well as messages posted to Apple's Discussions forums, this isn't always the case. Some users have reported that their drive appears to work fine through several restarts, but then a later restart renders the drive unusable. Until we know more about the specific contributing factor(s), we continue to recommend that FireWire drives be unmounted and disconnected before restarting your Panther Mac. There's no sense in playing Russian Roulette with your data. Does the problem occur when connecting two Macs via Target Disk Mode? A common question over the past week has been whether or not this bug affects Macs themselves when one of the Macs is acting as an external FireWire drive via Target Disk Mode. We haven't experienced such a problem here at MacFixIt, but we have received a few isolated reports of Target Disk Mode issues.
Reader Brian Sullivan writes: 'Last week I attached a Clamshell iBook to a new 12' PB via Firewire. (Held down 'T' while booting the iBook.) The goal was to copy the entire iBook hard drive to the new Powerbook.
Once the transfer was completed successfully, I was unable to unmount/eject the iBook. After many attempts, we finally shut down the iBook.
The result: the data on the iBook hard drive is lost, and the drive needs to be reformatted. Fortunately, the transfer worked, so we lost no data.
But it was a pretty scary.' Unfortunately, with the small number of reports we've received on this particular issue, we have no way of knowing if these problems are related to the Panther/FireWire bug being discussed. In addition, the sequence of events in the above report does not seem to match up with those most commonly reported with the 'official' Panther/FireWire bug. Finally, we currently don't know what chipset Apple uses for the FireWire ports in their systems; it's even possible that different chipsets could be used for different models. So, again, we recommend simply avoiding restarting your Panther Mac with FireWire drives (including Target Disk Mode Macs) connected. Is the problem related to the hard drives themselves, or the FireWire enclosures?
As far as we've been able to determine, the problem is not related to the actual hard drive used in the affected FireWire drives. Rather, the issue simply has to do with the fact that the drive is housed in a FireWire enclosure. Identical drive enclosures with different drives inside appear to be equally susceptible to damage. Is the problem related to.? We continue to receive theories from readers about what the problem 'really' is. As an FYI, based on reader reports and other research, the issue does not appear to be related to: whether the drive was formatted in Jaguar or Panther; whether or not the drive was connected while installing Panther; whether or not journaling was enabled on the drive; whether Panther was installed clean, via the update method, or via the Archive and Install method; or whether the drive was self-powered or bus-powered.
The only common factor we have been able to identify is that the affected drives were connected to the computer when it was restarted. Is the problem really limited to FireWire 800/Oxford 922 drives? Apple's official position is that this problem only affects FireWire 800 drives using the Oxford 922 chipset. Oxford, the makers of the chipset, initially questioned this assertion. However, David Schloss, Technology Editor at Photo District News, recently interviewed James Lewis, President of Oxford Semiconductor, who stated, 'I can categorically tell you that it's impossible for the Oxford 911 chipset to exhibit the same failure mechanism. So you have a different problem that is unrelated to the sole problemrelating to earlier version of firmware.'
(Ironically, David's own FireWire hard drive, lost to what appears to be a Panther/FireWire issue, is a that uses the Oxford 911 chipset. This is the same drive a MacFixIt staffer lost to Panther, as described below.) At the same time, reader Charles Teton forwarded a response he got from LaCie, indicating that they are still actively testing FireWire 400 drives and haven't ruled out the possibility that other drives are affected: 'Yes, we are testing with multiple Oxford based FW400 and FW800 drives on several Mac platforms; with built-in FW400 and FW800 interfaces, as well as FW400 and FW800 add-on cards; both PCI and PC Card.
It takes a while to go thru these iterations. The good news is that we can look inside and see what is going on if/when something goes wrong.' We have received a significant number of reports of FireWire 'drive deaths' with Panther involving drives that were not FireWire 800/Oxford 922 drives. Apple's Discussions forums and numerous other sites around the Web are also populated with such reports.
We've also personally lost FireWire 400 drives since installing Panther (see below). Taken as a whole, it would seem to be a stunning coincidence if all of these reports were completely unrelated. What we suspect is that either (a) this bug isn't limited to FW800/Oxford 922 drives; or (b) there are other problems with Panther and FireWire drives that simply haven't yet been isolated and identified. Whichever may be the case, because of these suspicions, we continue to recommend caution when using FireWire drives with Panther, regardless of the connection speed (400 vs.
800) or the chipset used. Is the drive permanently damaged? Although the drives affected by this bug are 'unrecognizable' afterwards, the problem is not with the actual drive's hardware; rather, it is with the drive's directory. After reformatting the drive, it should work fine.
(See below about recovering data before reformatting.) What is technically happening to the drive? Right now, no one is saying. However, from talking with drive recovery and disk utility vendors, it appears that at some point during the shutdown/startup/restart process - either when the drive is unmounted, when it is mounted, and/or when it is checked for file system problems - the drive's directory is getting severely corrupted. So much so that drive utilities are generally unable to repair it. We continue to investigate this issue, and hope to have more information soon. Is my data recoverable? Although readers have reported varying degrees of success in recovering data from affected drives, some have been completely out of luck.
Those that have been successful have used techniques such as connecting the drives to Macs running Jaguar or OS 9, or installing drives internally instead of connecting them via FireWire. Others report some success with Prosoft's Data Rescue X; on our own drive that was lost (see below), we were able to use Prosoft's Data Rescue X to recover some files, but not all. Some users even report that after being unable to recover data on the damaged drive using Data Rescue X, they used Disk Utility to erase the drive - NOT using any special options, such as zeroing data - after which Data Rescue X was successful at retrieving at least some data.
Since 'erasing' a drive in Disk Utility doesn't really erase it, but instead just deletes the drive directory and creates a new one, the data should be mostly untouched. However, we recommend against this procedure except as a last resort. We asked John Christopher, a Data Recovery Engineer at - the company has worked with a few drives damaged by this problem - about the possibility of data recovery using commercial utilities. His reply: 'I would say there is likely a chance of recovery with commercial utilities. However the dangerous part comes when these tools are used incorrectly. Any disk utility that can perform a fix-it routine may damage whatever directory remnants are on the drive and could complicate further recovery attempts.
The safest path to take is to attempt to recover the data to a secondary hard drive.' Who is to blame? This is of course the big question. We've heard from both sides - Apple and drive manufacturers - and many readers have chimed in with their own opinions, as well.
Apple claims that the problem is due to the firmware on affected drives - Apple invented FireWire, so they should know the official specifications, right? It's been argued that these FireWire chipsets weren't 100% compliant, but that previous versions of the Mac OS (and Mac OS 9, for that matter) were simply less sensitive to out-of-spec hardware. So perhaps Panther requires 'more compliant' FireWire devices.
This isn't an unreasonable idea, as we've seen a similar issue crop up with Panther and RAM. At the same time, some drive manufacturers claim that the issue is clearly with Panther.
After all, Apple has proven that they can provide an operating system that works fine with all of these drives - they did it with earlier versions of Mac OS X, and even with many of the Panther betas. Shouldn't Apple simply 'fix' Panther so that it works with all drives? The truth may be that both sides are partly at fault, but until we get more facts, we aren't going to 'blame' either side. What matters is that a significant number of users have been adversely affected, and who is to blame is clearly less important to these users than who is going to help them. For those users who have drives made by vendors who have provided firmware fixes, this discussion is somewhat academic?they've already been provided with a firmware update that 'fixes' their drive. However, what about users who have drives from other manufacturers? What about users who 'built' their own FireWire drives using a bare drive and a third-party FireWire enclosure?
Apple may or may not be correct in asserting that the problem is with the drives and not with OS X - we don't really know - but it doesn't seem realistic to expect every hard drive vendor, and the makers of generic enclosures, to provide firmware updates for those drives and enclosures, meaning that a lot of users are going to be left wondering if it's ever safe to use their FireWire drives again. For these reasons, we continue to hope that Apple provides an update to Panther that 'fixes' this problem, regardless of who is actually at fault. If it turns out the problem really was with the drives, and not with Panther, then Apple looks even better for taking care of their users. Reports of problems with earlier versions of Mac OS X One consequence of the Panther/FireWire problem being so public over the past week is that MacFixIt has been receiving a significant number of reports of similar problems, including data loss, with FireWire drives under OS X 10.0.x, 10.1.x, and 10.2.x. Such issues appear to be unrelated to the current Panther problem, but they do make us wonder if FireWire support in OS X isn't quite as mature as we had always assumed.
MacFixIt experiences As we previously mentioned, a drive used by a MacFixIt Editor - a 120GB Western Digital hard drive inside a FireWire 400 enclosure using an Oxford 911 chipset - was damaged by what appears to be the exact same sequence of events as the publicly acknowledged Panther/FireWire bug: the drive mounted and functioned properly when connected to the computer running Panther, but after a restart, it was unreadable. The machine in question was a day-old Power Mac G5 Dual 2GHz with a brand new installation of Panther. (The drive was connected to the G5's FireWire 400 port.) Panther's Disk Utility could not repair the drive.
We connected the drive to a Mac running OS X 10.2 Jaguar, and ran Alsoft's DiskWarrior on it; DiskWarrior was forced to scavenge the drive to rebuild the directory, but the resulting directory was missing over 90% of the files that were on the drive before the incident (so we elected to leave the drive untouched). We even removed the drive from its FireWire case and installed it internally in a Mac running Jaguar and OS 9; neither OS could access the drive's contents.
Out of curiousity, we performed an experiment this week using another of our own drives, a SmartDisk FireFly 5GB portable FireWire 400 drive. We connected the drive to the G5, and it mounted and functioned properly. We ran Disk Utility and Disk Warrior on it, and it appeared to be healthy. Finally, we used Panther's Disk Utility to erase the drive to make sure we could rule out drive problems if something happened.
After erasing, the drive again worked fine, as we were able to unmount it, disconnect it, reconnect and mount it, and copy and delete data from it. We then restarted the G5 with the drive connected.
After the restart, the drive no longer functioned; OS X gave the same 'unrecognizable' error, with the options to Initialize, Ignore, or Eject, as the previous 'lost' drive. Perhaps this isn't the same exact issue as the one Apple has publicly acknowledged; however, even if that's the case, this clearly wasn't 'expected' behavior. 128 GB limit Apparently under the same umbrella of Panther FireWire issues, some users are reporting that 160 GB and 200 GB drives are being limited to 128 GB. MacFixIt reader Jochen writes: 'Just recently I installed a 160 GB hard drive. Under Mac OS 9.2.2 I received only 128 GB. Under Mac OS X 10.1.5 it was 149 GB (normal).
Under Mac OS X 10.3 it was again 128 GB.' The only FireWire expansion cards that can properly recognize drives with more than 128 GB are those based on the ATA-6 specification. ATA-5 based FireWire cards will not be able to recognize more than 128 GB of one volume. Since the ATA-6 functionality requires new drivers, it stands to reason that with installation of Panther, some part of the specific FireWire driver - or some link to the firmware - was affected. Some readers have reported that they are once again able to address more than 128 GB of disk size by installing the recently released from.
Speed boost from LaCie firmware update The firmware update from LaCie may do more than prevent problems with drive corruption and data loss. We are beginning to receive reports that the update improves performance even on systems that weren't affected by any problems during the Panther update. MacFixIt reader Dominic Dunlop writes: 'Even though I was not having any problems, I updated the firmware on my LaCie FireWire 400 'Big Disk' using the. I didn't need to do this as the FireWire 400 models do not have issues with Mac OS 10.3, but the upgrade promised 'performance improvements,' and I'm a sucker for a sales line like that.
Anyway, after some mucking about resolving an extensions conflict with the LaCie-supplied version of SilverLining (I never did work out what the culprit was - ah, the joys of Mac OS Classic), the upgrade went through exactly as described in the Readme document, and everything is (still) fine. What's more, there is indeed an improvement in read speed - from about 25MB/sec to about 30 (that's reading the UNIX raw disk device in large chunks - file reads are inevitably slower).' Many users will remember that hard drive 'journaling,' now standard on Panther installations, was originally introduced in OS X 10.2 (Jaguar) as a 'Mac OS X Server-only' feature; however, since the code-base of OS X and OS X Server are to a large extent identical, some users realized that they could enable journaling in the standard version of Jaguar via a simple Terminal command. This eventually led to the ability to enable journaling via a number of third-party utilities. Although a few disk utilities had trouble repairing journaled drives until they were updated, in general no serious harm was done by this type of experimentation.
We bring this issue up now because of a volume formatting option that has made its debut in Panther, officially only in OS X Server: Case-sensitive HFS. Although currently only Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther) Server allows administrators to easily format volumes using this new volume format, its mere existence is sure to spur some Mac users to try to find a way to enable it on their own computers.
(It's actually possible to enable Case-sensitive HFS in Panther client via Terminal, but it requires you to completely erase your drive, which is a more effective deterrent than existed for journaling.) For those tempted to do so, we suggest that you avoid that temptation, at least until Apple and third-party vendors officially support it. Read on for the reasons why. Mac OS file systems (HFS Standard and HFS Plus, aka HFS Extended) have traditionally been 'case-insensitive' file systems. In other words, they do not recognize differences in case when it comes to filenames and filepaths. As far as HFS Standard and Plus are concerned, files named Text.txt and TEXT.TXT have the exact same name, and you can't have two such files in the same folder/directory. However, many Unix file systems, such as UFS, are case-sensitive.
To these file systems, these two files - Text.txt and TEXT.TXT - have different names, and can co-exist in the same directory. Under a case-sensitive file system, the only way files are considered to have the same name is if every single character in the names match, including the case. In order to improve OS X's ability to interact with other Unix systems, Panther includes Case-sensitive HFS as a potential file system. However, implementing a case-sensitive file system in OS X has some significant hurdles, the most compelling being that many current Mac OS applications that work with files will need to be updated to provide case-sensitivity themselves. This especially the case for backup and disk repair utilities. For example, using the two example files above, most backup applications will assume that they are the same file, and only back one up.
(Dantz has already posted a to this effect in a Retrospect support document, stating, 'Retrospect 5.1 does not recognize case-sensitive file names. If 'file' and 'FILE' exist in the same directory, only one will be backed up.' ) Likewise, most current Mac OS X disk utilities would see the two example files as two files with the same name, causing a number of problems when trying to repair/rebuild/reconcile drives and drive directories. In other words, Case-sensitive HFS is not (yet) for the masses. We're sure there will be a curious type (or forty) who will be determined to figure out how to enable it on the standard OS X client. If such a procedure becomes available, we urge you to remember the old saying: just because you can doesn't mean you should.
It appears that some Mac OS X 10.3 packages include a bad second Installer disc, evidenced by dozens of reports that installation failed somewhere on CD 2. Quitting installation after the first CD will leave out some components like extra language support. Greg Davidson writes: 'I upgraded from Mac OS X 10.2.6 on my PowerBook G3 500, 512MB, stock otherwise. The installation failed somewhere during the language packs on Install CD 2 (didn't see exactly where since I was trying to get my daughter ready for bed).
I acknowledged the error and it dropped out of the installer. I rebooted manually and it booted fine into Mac OS X 10.3 and everything seems to work properly. I've tested the programs and rebooted several times without problem. I assume that the failed installation only resulted in my PowerBook not having some foreign language files, which I can live without.'
Other readers have reported that installation fails during the transition from disc 1 and disc 2. Les Dodson writes 'During the installation of Panther, it will proceed normally through the installation of Disk One, and reboot. After you get through to the continuation screen, one of two things has happened: The install quits unexpectedly or; The installer keep requesting Disc 2, when it's already present in the drive.'
As a workaround for this problem, you can force the installer to quit (when it keeps requesting disc 2), bringing you to the Finder where you can mount and install the second disc data manually. Installation problems? Try removing all third party devices/RAM Though it might be a lengthy task for some set-ups, some readers have reported that constant problems with installing Panther or properly starting up after installation were resolved by removing all PCI cards, extra RAM, FireWire/USB devices, and other components. Pinpointing which exact component (in some instances more than one) is wreaking havoc can be near impossible. In many cases, all or most of these devices can be re-introduced after Mac OS X 10.3 has successfully completed installation, but for some reason cause problems when connected during installation. In addition to disconnecting external devices and removing non-native RAM, some readers have reported success eliminating problems by turning off any applications that are triggered at startup, including some menu and interface enhancements.
A few readers have reported issues with Panther's memory use, which appears to generate a significantly larger number of virtual memory swap files than Jaguar did. (We've also seen similar reports on other sites around the Web and in Apple's Discussions forums.) Reader David Peever writes: 'There appears to be a serious problem with the way that virtual memory/swap files eats up hard disk space in Panther. This results in alerts advising that the hard disk is full? The only way to clear the temporary files is to restart the machine. This is a crazy situation with what is supposed to be an advanced operating system requiring regular restarts. The problems have affected an iBook G3 600Mhz with 384MB RAM and a 600MHz iMac with 384MB RAM.'
In our experience, Panther itself requires more memory than Jaguar did, and 384MB of RAM is simply not enough for good performance, despite Apple's 'minimum system requirements' of 256MB. If you have less than 512MB of RAM, you'll probably see significantly more virtual memory swap files - and therefore less free drive space - than you would have seen under Jaguar. In fact, it wasn't until we upgraded our own computers to 640MB or more that we saw noticeable performance improvements.
(To be fair, we work with a large number of applications, some of them RAM-hungry, open at the same time.) In Jaguar, one of the most common criticisms was that users couldn't move or delete files because they didn't have permission/access. In Panther, Apple has attempted to address this issue by allowing administrative users to authenticate - by providng their admin-level username and password - in order to perform such actions. However, we've received reports of systems that have been rendered unusable by users experimenting with this new feature. A post in an Apple Discussions forum best explains the risk: 'On a whim I thought to myself, 'Oh, it can't be that easy to hose the System/Library directory, can it?' Tried it in 10.2.8 and couldn't do it when logged in with Admin privilegs. On the 10.3 box, logged in.as an Admin, hit Command-Delete on the /System/Library directory and.POOF.
it went to the trash can. Couldn't retrieve the folder from the trash. A reboot resulting in a screen full of kernel panic warnings and other text, ending with 'panic: we are hanging here.'
The system is totally hosed and I'm reinstalling as I type this.' Granted, the user could have booted into single-user mode, mounted the drive, and then used a few Unix commands to restore the /System/Library directory to its proper location. However, most users would not know how to do this. We haven't tried to verify this procedure - the ability to move the entire /System/Library directory to the Trash - on our own system, for obvious reasons; however, based on the experiments we have tried with important system-level files, it appears to be possible. If so, one could argue that Apple went too far in trying to make OS X 'more convenient' when it comes to deleting files. Some might point out that in OS 9, users could move the System Folder to the Trash.
But we didn't consider that a good thing, either. Panther problems? Drop us an email at.
Especiallywith user settings and Keychain data - can occurr when using FileVault's 'reclaim disk space' feature. Alex Johnson writes 'Behavior includes a complete reset of Finder preferences - including Dock, default icon and column views, empty Trash warning, etc. to the 'out-of-the-box' settings. Also corruption of the iTunes Database, iCal calendars, Keychain preferences,.dmg files reporting errors and images not mounting. 'The best guess is that this is caused by using FileVault, and allowing it to reclaim unused space. This is not a one-time problem - changes to preferences do not 'stick' while FileVault is on, whether or not unused space is reclaimed. Users - including myself - have found that this problem disappears if FileVault is turned off, which is what we have done - though this can take more than one try to accomplish; FileVault reported an error the first time I tried (no additional data was lost).
On the second attempt I managed to turn FileVault off and my system is now working perfectly. This is an annoying bug to be sure, but the combination of encryption and a loss of data is a also worrying one.'
Generally the FileVault 'recovery' message will appear at logout. You can simply choose not to recover the disk space, until it is determined why File Vault is erasing these settings. Ther is a problem with the Epson 3200 scanner under Mac OS X 10.3. The problem involves Apple's Image Capture jumping in line ahead of the SilverFast SE software. MacFixIt reader David Story offers a workaround: 'In order to make the SilverFast SE software run and bypass Apple's Image Capture and recognize the Epson Scanner on the Firewire port, I stuffed the Epson Monitor which normally sits in the Application folder (to deactivate it) and I removed the Epson Scanner which normally sits in the Library/Image Capture/Devices folder. I placed both of these temporarily in the Application folder to put back at a later date when Epson fixes their software. If you do not stuff the Epson Monitor, merely removing the Epson Scanner will not work.
'If you do not take the above steps but still wish to use the scanner, you must always run the Activity Monitor in the Utility Folder and kill all Epson threads before running any software, either the Epson Scan or Silverfast SE (after each startup). This is a nuisance to have to complete after each boot up and prior to scanning though.' One MacFixIt reader reports that none of these workaround helped, but a 'shotgun' approach did: he deleted every file that included 'Epson Scan' and 'Epson TWAIN,' and then reinstalled the Epson software for his scanner.
Reader Don Bjornsen reports an issue with OS X 10.3 and display calibration, referring us to a on Apple's forums. A number of users are finding that after installing OS X 10.3 on an iBook, the screen is 'washed out.' However, when they attempt to use the Displays pane of System Preferences to calibrate their screen, they get an error that OS X 'Cannot calibrate the display. The factory profile for the display cannot be found.' Several users report that copying the missing profile from another computer doesn't work.
Although no one has yet found a permanent solution to the problem, one participant provided a workaround using the Classic Environment:. 1. Start Classic.
Open the OS 9 Monitors control panel (located in /System Folder/Control Panels). Select your computer model (in this case, your iBook) from the list of profiles. This temporarily adjusts the screen; however, your screen will reset to its previous washed out state if you log out or shut down/restart. If you're affected by this bug, another solution is to use the shareware to calibrate the screen. Rob Yager offers a series of workarounds for those having problems with Mac OS X 10.3's ability to forward the faxes it receives by email to addresses you specify.
The service makes use of postfix - an mail sending application built into Mac OS X, and in some cases, some items are not installed correctly. The service makes use of some special users that need to be configured. In many installations, the script to do that isn't run. A way to fix that is to type the following in Terminal: sudo /Library/Receipts/Essentials.pkg/Contents/Resources/CreateSystemUsers The only space is between sudo and /Library. You'll need to enter your administrator password 2. After you have done this, it is probably an idea to repair permissions using DiskUtility 3.
Edit /usr/libexec/fax/faxnotify using your favorite UNIX editor to replace the line that reads stdout, stdin = os.popen2('/usr/bin/mail ' + quote(recipients) with stdout, stdin = os.popen2('/usr/sbin/sendmail -oi -t') This removes some unwanted space between the last of the headers and the MIME boundary line in the message. If you don't do this, the received message will not recognize the attachment it contains which is the fax. You may need to edit /etc/hostconfig If there is a line which says MAILSERVER=-NO- change it to MAILSERVER=-AUTOMATIC- This will allow postfix to start when your computer has processed the fax and delivers it to postfix to forward on. Restart and test HP statement on all-in-one support We previously noted lack of full functionality with Hewlett Packard's all-in-one print/scan/fax devices under Mac OS X 10.3. The company has now made an official statement on the issue: 'Many current HP products have 'Print Only' drivers built into the new OS 10.3 (see ). To maintain full functionality of your HP All-in-One products, please wait for the 10.3 HP software driver that will be available with the next few weeks. ' Quicken 2004 Several readers have reported problems, confirmed by Intuit technical support, with Quicken 2004 after upgrading to Mac OS X 10.3.
Some users have Quicken 2004 successfully launch just twice, then never again. For some it fails immediately. The Crash Report consistently shows a KERNPROTECTIONFAILURE with some Macs displaying this problem. Intuit Technical Support indicates that they are receiving reports of this, and the company's team is currently testing Panther compatibility.
This problem is not universal, but readers who are experiencing the problem report that using the Finder's search command to delete all files related to the string 'Quicken,' then re-installing the software can result in proper operation. Another workaround working for some readers involves deleting the 3 files 'com.intuit.quicken.plist', 'Quicken 2004 Preferences', and 'Quicken' (which is a folder) from your /Library/Preferences folder. In this case, re-launching the application after deleting the files is all that is required. Outlook Express If you are experiencing problems Outlook Express after upgrading to Mac OS X 10.3, you may want to try doing an erase and install of Panther, rather than an Archive and Install. Several readers who have started with a fresh disk are having no trouble. Using synchronization with Microsoft Exchange Several readers have have had trouble performing synchronization with Microsoft Exchange address book via the Address Book application's preferences.
The Exchange address book icon does not appear in the iSync devices window. Peter MacLaren writes 'It is noteworthy that the Panther package includes iSync 1.2, which is not installed if you already have iSync 1.3 installed.' DiskWarrior 3.0 and Mac OS X v.
10.3 A statement posted to 's Web site states: 'DiskWarrior 3.0 will not run while started up under Mac OS X v. 10.3 (Panther). DiskWarrior 3.0 can be used to safely rebuild the directory of a disk (including a disk with file journaling and/or FileVault enabled) with Mac OS X v. 10.3 by starting up from your current DiskWarrior 3.0 CD.
An update allowing DiskWarrior to run while started from Mac OS X v. 10.3 is forthcoming; we currently estimate that the update will be available in mid-November. This update will be able to start up all machines available at the time of its release, including PowerMac G5 machines, PowerBook models updated September 2003, eMac models updated October 2003, and the iBook G4.' StuffIt Engine not recognized Several readers have reported that StuffIt Deluxe 8.0 becomes unusable after upgrading to Mac OS X 10.3. Most users affected by the problem have been able to fix it by re-installing Stuffit Deluxe 8.0.1.
If you haven't installed Mac OS X 10.3 yet, you may be able to avoid the problem altogether by choosing a Custom install and de-selecting StuffIt. Virtual PC 6.1 Printing While most readers have reported no major problems in Virtual PC 6.1 after upgrading to Mac OS X 10.3, there are a few reports of minor annoyances. Luca Giroux reports that after upgrading to Panther, Virtual PC 6.1 with Win95 or Win2000 will not print using emulation printing. We've corroborated this with other readers, and it appears to be due to Panther's change in printing architecture. Tom Beardmore writes 'After installing Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther), I found that when I run Virtual PC 6.1, I cannot click out of the Virtual PC window and into any other application that is still running in the background.
However, by toggling through the open applications using the Command-Tab keyboard sequences, I can manage to get back into the desired application.' Griffin g4port Earlier reports of problems with the g4port have been met with the following response from Griffin 'We are aware of this and we are working on a driver update.'
In the meantime, MacFixIt reader Nicholas Riley notes that the driver works fine with the g4Port under Mac OS X 10.3. CopyPaste workaround We previously reported that CopyPaste X 1.6 causes the 'c' key to malfunction in Mac OS X 10.3. The software's author has now provided a temporary workaround until a software fix can be supplied: 'While running CopyPaste with OS X 10.3, the lowercase 'c' will not type.
I have to hold it down with effort in order to get it to type. Quit CopyPaste and the problem goes away. 'The problem is a conflict with the use of the Command key preference that CopyPaste relies on - it is this that disables your 'c.' Start CopyPaste and immediately go to the Preferences Menu.If you change the first popup preference to not use the Command key, it will enable the 'c' to work.
The next two settings must have a selection other than 'no clip archive.' Be careful not to select a shortcut that conflicts with other application shortcuts if you have had no clip archive selected previously. For example Command-shift-V will conflict with an Entourage shortcut to paste as quotation.' Corel PhotoPaint Some users have reported problems starting up Corel PhotoPaint and some other Corel applications after upgrading to Mac OS X 10.3.
In some cases, this issue can be resolved by holding down the 'Shift' key during application launch. You will then be presented with a dialog box that asks: 'Overwrite the current workspace with the factory default?' Clicking yes will result in loss of any custom workspaces, but has resolved the issue for some readers.
SoundSticks lose right channel audio The Harmon Kardon-designed SoundSticks sold by Apple are losing right-channel audio with Mac OS X 10.3 in some cases. Users who are experiencing this problem have, in many cases, noted that the 'Sound' pane of System Preferences displays the message 'The selected device has no output controls.' Some have had success un-plugging the SoundSticks from their USB hub or display's USB port and plugging them, instead, directly into their Mac. Extensis gives word on Suitcase/Font Reserve has issued a statement on Suitcase X1 and Font Reserve functionality within Mac OS X 10.3 'Currently neither Font Reserve nor Suitcase are fully compatible with Panther. Suitcse too has some efficiency issues (activation/deactivation is quite slow), there will be an update soon to address this.
In Tech Support, we have not been told anything as to when a Font Reserve update may be available.' So it appears that Suitcase X1 will soon be updated for Panther compatibility, while Font Reserve (which is also causing problems with Photoshop) may never see a compatibility fix. Palm confirms that Desktop Software 4.1 problem MacFixIt reader Kate has confirmed with Palm technical support that the Palm Desktop Software 4.1 software will have problems Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther): 'The Palm Desktop software is not currently compatible with the Mac OS 10.3. Palm Engineers are aware of this issue and are working on an upgrade.
Currently, there is no fix available for the issue, I suggest you to keep checking the following Palm web site for updates: ' Joshua Ochs reports a workaround for problems using HotSync, which are apparently the root of the incompatibility statement from Palm. 'It appears that the Palm Desktop installer is choking on installing the HotSync libraries. It further appears these can be copied over from Jaguar (or, if you're upgrading, then they'll already be in place). The critical files are in /Library/Application Support/Palm Hotsync and /Library/CFMSupport/Hotsync Libraries. 'I have not verified that a Hotsync will actually take place (as I have not finished upgrading), but this does resolve the problem of Hotsync Manager and others not launching with shared library errors.
Some readers have reported no problems running HotSync from a fresh installation of the Palm Desktop 4.1 software. Default Folder X workarounds As we reported yesterday, if you have Default Folder X 1.8 (or earlier) installed, you will not be able to run any applications after installing Panther if Default Folder X is running. We've now received two solutions from Jon Gotow at St. Clair Software: A) Before upgrading to Mac OS X Panther, download and install Default Folder X 1.9.1, which is fully compatible with Panther. It is available from:.
B) If you have already installed Panther, you must log in without launching Default Folder X. To do this, follow these steps:. If you have your computer set to automatically log in after starting up, hold down the shift key as soon as the Mac OS X progress bar appears during startup. You will then be prompted to log in rather than being logged in automatically. Enter your password and then hold the shift key down while logging in. Keep the Shift key held down until you see the menu bar. This will disable all applications that normally run at log-in time.
Once you have logged in without Default Folder X running, immediately open System Preferences, select Default Folder X, and turn off its 'Launch at Login' option. You can then proceed to download and install the new version of Default Folder X from the URL above. Clair Software has set up a special e-mail address to route Mac OS X 10.3 issues:. Sorenson Pro 3 codec Several reports indicate that the Sorenson Pro 3 codec will not work under Mac OS X 10.3 with QuickTime 6.4. Readers inquiring about the problem are receiving the following response from Sorenson: 'We have been made aware of the problem and although our product should work we are just going to release an update to our codec.
You should find the update on our website within a few weeks.' If you need the Pro 3 codec functionality, it will still work in the Classic environment.