[muglo] Re: Even more questions and answers
- From: "Eric D" <hideme666@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: muglo@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 12 Jan 2004 17:51:27 -0500
>I had an episode of kernel panic once again when I left the PowerBook in
>sleep; this was after I had re-connected my USB hub (it's an Adesso, model
>AUH-103).
What version of OS X are you running? (pull down About this Mac from the
Apple menu) Also, be aware that you cannot connect/disconnect things at will
with *total* impunity. For example, *never* modify the hardware
configuration of a *booting* OS X Mac (e.g. plugging in/unplugging a USB
device). There is a huge difference between OS 9 and OS X in that OS 9
passively interacts with external devices (ergo its rather (now) archaic
support for Windoze hardware) whereas OS X does it actively. Likewise,
sudden changes to the hardware configuration of a Mac (especially a laptop)
will cause a kernel panic. For Mac users with removable drives (the last
laptop with such a feature was the Pismo :( removing the drive during
sleep/wake up processing will also cause a kernel panic.
>I disconnected it but still had strange stuff happening, such as the
>scattered screen when I exited MSWord before putting the computer to sleep
>(Take a look at the pictures on the www.blackcider.com site; that is what's
>happening, and this is after my logicboard was replaced).
What picture? There are lots of links and even more pictures. Is this one of
them? <http://members.rogers.com/btraynor/images/b_prefix.jpg>. If so, I
would suggest you get this computer checked out *again* for hardware faults
_AFTER_ YOU UPGRADE OFFICE TO 10.1.5. To troubleshoot your computer with
Office 10.0.0 is a pointless exercise!
>Other stuff that happens is I opened up my MSWord files and they were
>blank, except for a tiny screen in the top left-hand corner that looked
>like the kind of screen when you open up an Excel file, except there was
>nothing in it either. This was after getting a message that the Excel
>application had quit - just as I was waking my computer from sleep. (I had
>been using Excel the night before.)
Can you take a command-shift-3 and post the picture? (or command-shift-4 and
draw a box around the offending area)
Also, have you updated Office to 10.1.5?
>The other glitches are that sometimes it is extremely difficult to select
>copy to move it within a document, and other times it works fine; sometimes
>I can't de-select copy,
That's OS X!
>despite clicking on my mouse six, seven, a dozen times; sometimes I can add
>words to my dictionary, and other times not;
Never figured that out. There is a fix for it but I couldn't be bothered to
find it since I usually manage to bypass it.
>sometimes page layout shows my documents in WYSIWYG, and other times in
>tiny unreadable type; strange dialogue boxes pop up unbidden; documents
>that I want to
What do the dialogue boxes say?
Why is the type unreadable? Is the zoom set to 25% or is the type actually
font size 6 (those are inevitably the two reasons for unreadable type)?
>save to disk keep opening up, no matter how many times I try to close
>them; and on and on.
Do you have a short-circuited keyboard/mouse? I've never seen that sort of
behaviour with Word.
>This is the laptop from hell. Although these may seem like small
>irritations, they are adding hours and hours to my work, because small,
>simple tasks like moving copy take me minutes instead of seconds because of
>the problems with selecting and de-selecting, and having to close these
>@#$%^&* dialogue boxes and trying to save files to disk which keep opening
>up and/or giving me messages such as "Do you want to revert to the saved
>document?".
Are you using an external mouse or the track-pad? It could be that you're
not used to the trackpad. Also, go into mouse/trackpad settings (if using
the trackpad) and make sure you don't have Drag Lock enabled.
>My external floppy disk drive is a macally, as is my mouse; my printer is a
>Brother HL-1435. These are the only external devices I use, and I now
>connect them one at a time rather than use my USB hub, which is also
>irritating and time-consuming.
Also, what driver are you using for the Brother? An Apple-supplied one or
one from Brother. If from Brother, how old is it? Is it the latest that you
can download from their website?
>I haven't installed OS 10.3.2 yet, but if this keeps up, I will. If I do
>that, though, do I need to save my bookmarks and e-mails? I understand
>that to do that I have to import them - whatever that means! (I'll get help
>for that, too.)
For your peace of mind you may want to (I don't bother). Best thing to do is
back up your whole user directory to CD.
>Is MS Office 10.1.5 really that much better? You say that it isn't as
>satisfactory as Word 98, which I also liked, but alas, can no longer use.
>I will upgrade to that if it is worth it - I'm desperate!
You MUST be running Office 10.1.5. To have any trouble shooting done to your
computer is a pointless exercise if you're running anything less! Running
Office 10.0 is comparable to running OS X 10.0.0 and trying to run iChat AV
with the iSight and expecting them to work flawlessly ;).
>Anyway, I am very pessimistic about what can be done with this machine.
>Fortunately I have AppleCare for another three years, but I don't know if I
>can stand it for that length of time. (I just tried to select a letter in a
>word I had misspelled and it took me 39 tries before it would do it).
Shift-arrow keys allows you to select letters. Perhaps you've got select
whole words turned on in the Word preferences?
>I did not have any of these problems until after I upgraded to OS 10.2.8,
>which is why I am wary of upgrading to 10.3.2.
To put it bluntly, 10.2 is *obsolete*. All development work (bug fixes) will
happen for OS X 10.3 in the forseeable future and 10.4 in the longer future
;-). You'll find in about 6 months that things will start to require 10.3
(natural progression of software).
I'm partial to OS X 10.2.6 if you have to run 10.2! After Apple's fiasco
with the "first" version of 10.2.8 I was leery of the second 10.2.8. I also
found that I ran into problems in 10.2.8 (though, that could be an
irrational phobia).
Eric.
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