PB 1400 PMU Updater 1.0.1

We previously reported on an Info Alley description of a brightness/contrast problem with the PowerBook 5300/190 and (possibly) on some other 5300 and 1400 models. The article said that Apple was working on an update.

Now, Apple has posted a file that, according to the ReadMe, fixes a separate brightness/contrast problem - where the controls for brightness and contrast operate incorrectly - specifically for the 1400: PB 1400 PMU Updater 1.0.1. Apparently, the promised update for the 5300 problem is still in the works.

ShrinkWrap and RAM Doubler conflict

Kalman K. Brattman wrote me the following: " ShrinkWrap 2.1 (68K) is incompatible with Ram Doubler 1.6.2 for the Mac. Its author, Chad Magendanz, acknowledged the problem, stating that he already has a fix for it which will be incorporated into the 3.0 release of ShrinkWrap."

I emailed Chad about this matter and he wrote back the following (somewhat technical but informative!) reply:

"I've received a couple of reports about this, but have been unable to reproduce the bug myself. I suspect it's because RAM Doubler is making calls to the ShrinkWrap … Read more

Mac OS 7.6 and Aladdin Desktop Tools

Regarding our previous report of problems with ADT and Mac OS 7.6, a reader received the following confirmation from Aladdin:

"ADT is compatible with System 7.6 for the most part. However, Desktop SpeedBoost and MakeOver will not load and will need to updated before they become functional. We are planning an update."

Additionally, John C. Rivard claims that: "Any attempt to use ADT's "Get Original Info" command - with StuffIt Deluxe's TFI installed - results in a crash. The only work-around is to load TFI before the ADT components."

Heidi Roizen leaves Apple

From Apple: "Heidi Roizen, Apple's vice president of Developer Relations, announced that she is leaving Apple Computer effective February 19, 1997. She is credited with greatly improving Apple's relationship with developers and with strengthening management's awareness of the importance of the developer community to Apple's success."

FAXcilitate and A4 paper size problem

According to a couple of readers, FAXcilitate has had problems faxing A4 size formatted files. The text gets chopped off on the left side. Xavier Bury says that, although the documentation for the latest version of FAXcilitate (2.2) claims that this bug has been fixed, he still has the problem.

MacTools RAM Boot may not work (but you may get a good deal on Norton Utilities)

According to George Niebling, Symantec confirmed what he had already discovered: MacTools Pro's RAMboot feature does not work on a PowerBook 1400 (and perhaps on other recent Mac models). As MacTools has now been discontinued, there is no hope that this will ever be fixed. However, when George called Symantec about this, they offered to sell him both Norton Utilities and SAM for a combined price of $50.00.

Aladdin's Desktop Tools and Mac OS 7.6 conflicts

William Harris comments that, while Apple's "About" file for Mac OS 7.6 cites a minor conflict between Aladdin's Desktop Shortcut and Mac OS 7.6 ( as noted here), this problem actually crops up even in earlier versions of the Mac OS. On the other hand, William finds that two other modules of Desktop Tools, Desktop MakeOver and Desktop SpeedBoost, do not work at all with Mac OS 7.6.Yet Apple does not mention this.

Neil Max confirms that Desktop MakeOver v.1.0.2 will not work with Mac OS 7.6.

US Robotics connection problem: hardware or software based?

Previously, we reported on problems with making connections with US Robotics modems. At the time, it appeared that the problems were entirely software-based, primarily with the modem scripts. However, Darin De Stefano reports that US Robotics has "announced they had a bad ROM set in some of their modems which would not allow dialing out. I had this problem and returned my modem. It was fixed and works fine now." (Darin thinks there was a mention of this in MacWEEK awhile back, but I could not locate this.)

Apparently it only affects some communication software. For example, Darin … Read more

ATM 4.0 Deluxe problems

Details are sketchy, so I don't want to send out too many alarms yet, but Thomas Richard reports numerous problems after installing the new ATM 4 Deluxe. He claims that Conflict Catcher confirmed that ATM was the source of crashes involving ClarisWorks and Freehand, just to name two. He further reports that the earlier version of ATM 4 that shipped with Acrobat 3.0 does not show these conflicts.

In contrast, Eric Belsley (on the MRP today) has some positive words about the new ATM Deluxe.

In any event: if you install ATM 4 Deluxe, note that it deletes … Read more