Internal hard disk

I bought a Fujitsu M2952SYU hard disk to add as a second drive to my Power Mac 8100/80. Setting its SCSI drive number to 1, no software is able to see it. Even FWB’s HDT and FormatterOne Pro can’t see it. Fujitsu’s Web site suggests making some configuration changes to the drive, but I don’t know how to do that. What should I do?

Malcolm J Brodie

Most hard disk settings of this type are accomplished by repositioning the small ‘jumpers’ on the outside of the hard disk. If you can’t find clear instructions, you would do best to take the disk and your Mac to your Apple dealer. It may cost you a few quid, but compared with the cost of the hard disk or a replacement motherboard, this would be a wise investment. One universal tool for checking SCSI buses is SCSI Probe, now developed by Adaptec and found at ftp://ftp.adaptec.com/mac/scsi. This may be able to mount the disk ready for formatting with another utility.

NT server

We’ve been using an NT 4 server to store files for Mac users of Adobe Photoshop. Sometimes the server fiddles with the files, as Photoshop complains the files have been altered outside of Photoshop. What’s the problem?

Tim Howes

Windows NT is not short of ways of doing this sort of thing to you. If you’ve worked your way around the ‘dancing icons’ bug (see www.macwindows.com), there’s still a weird problem with daylight savings time. For periods around the changing of clocks, NT and the Mac OS differ about local time, and NT can alter the time-stamp on Mac files. There doesn’t seem to be a sensible workaround to this, although it hasn’t been reported with Windows 2000 (yet). You should also make sure the Mac serving is properly set up and maintained ­ even good NT administrators need to be trained separately for this, and ordinary Mac users shouldn’t try to meddle at all. NT is neither intuitive nor easy to maintain. If your problems persist, you would probably do better with an AppleShare IP server instead, which can also serve Windows users without fuss.

PowerBook battery

I was surprised that my PowerBook’s battery ran out before it had even completed the warranty period. My dealer, though, replaced the battery free of charge. However, now it has gone again, and it’s still little more than a year old. Is this typical for an Apple laptop?

Ged Corbett

The working life of a battery is determined by the way it’s used. But given reasonable care, you should see several years out of the more modern PowerBook batteries, and repeated rapid failures of this type suggest something else is at work. Take a look at Battery Reset 2.0 (from asu.info.apple.com/swupdates.nsf/artnum/n11542), which might just demonstrate that your problems have been related to a known bug, rather than rapidly ageing of batteries.

If that doesn’t help, and your dealer can’t shed light on the problem, think back to how your PowerBook has been used and stored. Extremes of temperature are particularly wearing on batteries, but easily achieved if left in aircraft baggage holds, vehicles, and so on. Even with modern batteries, which aren’t prone to the ‘memory effect’, it’s still good to periodically completely discharge and then recharge a laptop battery. The memory effect (seen most in old NiCad batteries) would lead to progressive reduction in the total battery capacity, as it appeared to ‘remember’ each charge cycle over time. Battery reconditioning units are available for some batteries, but be careful to buy a reputable unit which is intended for your model.

Faulty hard drive

My G3 wiped out its hard drive a month before the end of its warranty. It had already had an earlier problem which was solved by a Mac repairer. Now it’s back for repair again. Is that common?

Michael J Harries

Although it’s unusual for such frequent problems, they can happen. You may find that regular housekeeping, avoiding conflicting extensions and so on, and keeping up with the latest versions of software improves reliability. Detailed tips on these and other issues are on the Ultimate Mac Survival Kit CD-ROM (free with MacUser earlier this year) and at www.vortex.uk.com/macuser.

Email server

We have a mix of a dozen iMacs and PowerBooks using SnapMail for local email. Recently we moved to Communigater for its seamless connection between internal and external emails. Unfortunately, it’s dull to look at and has caused problems sending files outside to PC users. What email application would you recommend?

Mike Tivnen

Before you start looking at specific applications, you need to decide what email architecture you’ll use. Without knowing details of your Internet connection, it’s hard to give detailed recommendations. However, you would almost certainly need a proper client-server solution, in which you have a permanent line to your ISP from a gateway/server, running proper mail server software, then your own desktop and laptop systems connect to that using an email client over your local network.

The email server will need to use SMTP protocols to exchange email with the Internet and, if it supports POP and SMTP procotols for local clients, you’ll have the widest possible choice of products. If your gateway/server runs the Mac OS, you could use Eudora Internet Mail Server (EIMS), one of a range of Vicomsoft mail server products, or Communigate Pro server software. If you opted for AppleShare IP, it has its own bundled mail server, which is relatively easy to install and maintain. The most popular email client is currently Microsoft Outlook Express, which is freely available over the Internet and works well with PC systems, but there are dozens of other commercial shareware and freeware options to choose from.

Analogue video converter

I’ve just bought a FireWire-equipped iMac and want to capture analogue video to it. I’ve got a USB converter to connect RCA cables to USB, but I can’t work out how to use this for video capture. What do I need?

Dave Hardt

It isn’t clear exactly what your USB converter handles: RCA cables can carry several types of information, including video, audio and more. Check the documentation carefully and, if necessary, contact the manufacturer. If it can bring in analogue video (for example, from the video-output port of a traditional video camcorder, or a video recorder), then they should be able to advise you of suitable software support for it. If it can’t do this (as is most likely), you’ll need a video digitiser to convert from analogue video to FireWire. Although a US-format Sony device has been available for some time, it has been slow to come out in European (PAL) TV format. However, PowerR (www.powerr.com) has just started shipping Director’s Cut, available as an ‘international model’ for around $399.

TechTool Pro

I’ve just upgraded to TechTool Pro 3.0.1, but my blue-and-white G3 running Mac OS 8.6 refuses to load the Protection extension, claiming that it isn’t in the Extensions folder. But it is! Is this a bug?

Lucie Alkan

TechTool Pro 3.0.1 does have a problem with some setups, particularly blue-and-white G3s running Mac OS 8.6. Although properly installed, the extension can’t be loaded, so the control panel refuses to run. This should be fixed in the next release. In the meantime, the only way to coax them into action is to perform a clean re-installation of the Mac OS. This may sound daunting, but if you use Marc Moini’s excellent Clean-Install Assistant (from www.marcmoini.com), it becomes relatively quick and simple.

Once you’ve downloaded Clean-Install Assistant, run it to ‘collect’ your added extensions, control panels and so on. Next, restart from your Mac OS 8.6 CD-ROM and start the installer, opting to perform a clean install onto your normal startup volume. Once that’s complete, run Clean-Install Assistant again and it will move the collected additions into the new System Folder. Be conservative at first, as it may be one of those additions that’s been clashing in the first place. If this still doesn’t work, email Micromat support so it can help sort out the problem.

Display problem

I have a wonderful black Power Mac 5500/275 with 64Mb of RAM. But my screen has become very dark and renders colours poorly, even though it has a high-quality ATI RAGE video card. It also produces crackles and pops from the sound system. What’s wrong, and can I upgrade to a Power Mac G3 or G4 and add a second monitor?

Philip Cowlam

These unusually styled models have an old PowerPC 603e processor, and several processor upgrades are now available for them. Look through the adverts in MacUser, and at Newer’s MAXpowr products. However, before investing much more in your system, you should get your hardware checked carefully by a dealer, as the video and sound problems may need looking in to by a professional. Some 5500 products have had known reliability issues, and Apple has offered fixes and deals to address them.

If you keep your single 7in PCI expansion slot free, you can add another video/graphics card, and so drive a second monitor. Macs and the Mac OS are very smart when handling additional monitors, allowing you to span windows across the screens, and so on. But you must check that any upgrades or expansions are compatible with your model, and with the version of the Mac OS you are running.

Internet Dialler

I’ve been running Mac OS 8 and double-clicking on the Internet Dialler to disconnect my external modem from the Internet. This has stopped working, but I can’t re-install the Internet Dialler software, as it’s buried somewhere within the System CD-ROM. I don’t want to do a total re-install of the Mac OS, how can I fix it?

Mike Kay

It sounds as if the Internet Dialler has become corrupted, or its preferences file has become damaged. Try throwing away its preferences first (in the Preferences folder, inside the System Folder) and see whether that helps. You can browse the contents of the System CD’s ‘tome’ files using the free Tome Viewer (from Apple), and could copy over a fresh Internet Dialler. However, the problem may not lie there, and a clean re-install would be best. Make sure you run Disk First Aid to repair any problems, and update your disk driver first. If you upgrade to Mac OS 8.6 or 9, you’ll find it easier to use the Remote Access control panel to connect and disconnect from the Internet: your dealer should be able to offer such upgrades.

Hand-spring hotsync

My Handspring Visor Deluxe won’t HotSync with my Power Mac, a G4 500 running Mac OS 9.0.4. Using the versions of HotSync and Palm Desktop supplied with the Visor (version 2.1), password-checking works fine, but it then loses the connection. Later versions (2.5 and 2.6) time out or hang before even getting as far as the password sequence. Is there any hope?

Alexander Kells

You’re not alone in suffering problems. The Palm support Web pages (www.palm .com/support/macintosh/ portinuse.html) are quite helpful, discussing a ‘port in use’ problem. You’ll also find more helpful material on Macintouch (www.macintouch.com/ palmnotes.html). If neither of these helps, contact Palm support; it needs to know about your troubles, and you may well be invited to test possible solutions. While life at the cutting-edge isn’t always fun, you should be up and running before anyone else.

Anti-virus software

We’ve been unable to run Norton Anti-Virus (NAV) with our ISDN software. Are there any newer products we could use instead of NAV?

Max Barnes

Some months ago, it looked as if Mac users were going to be stuck with a very limited choice of virus protection software. Since then, two new products have been released, opening up the market considerably. TechTool Pro 3 now includes very effective virus protection, along with its disk repair and diagnostic features. You can configure it to perform virus scans from its control panel, but it doesn’t yet seem able to scan only selected folders, although it can be set up to scan only unchecked files. It’s very processor-intensive and unlikely to co-exist happily with your ISDN software.

Intego’s Virus Barrier is a completely new control panel that covers a comprehensive range of nasties. It can be configured to scan only certain files, but it isn’t designed to perform faceless background checking. As such, you have to script it, or use it manually, to perform scans on newly arrived files. It seems much less processor-intensive and may well allow normal ISDN operation. Neither of these new products has an extensive coverage of macro viruses that could affect Microsoft applications, such as Word and Excel, for which NAV and Virex remain the best.