MacFixIt Readers Report: Early Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard issues

Edited by Joe Aimonetti

Snow Leopard has only been on the shelves for a few hours, but many MacFixIt readers have written in to express their opinions, issues, and workarounds for Apple's latest operating system update.

Microsoft Office for Mac 2008
MacFixIt reader "Andy R." reports:

"Since installing 10.6, I have not been able to get any Microsoft Office 2008 program to run. Apps hang on "Optimizing Font Menu Performance." No workarounds as of yet. Tried deleting Office entirely and reinstalling from scratch, as well as all the usual troubleshooting routines but to no avail."

Possible fix
If the issue is font related, try Validating your fonts in Font Book. Select your entire collection, click File > Validate Fonts. Remove any fonts that are causing issues.

Fan speeds, third party programs, printers
MacFixIt reader "Paul D." reports on some initial challenges with Snow Leopard and some fixes he has discovered along the way:

• Fan speeds up a lot more than with Leopard. Seems to take longer to drop RPM than with Leopard. Sometimes the RPM doesn't drop at all and I have to reboot.
• Fujitsu ScanSnap Manager won't save a scan to file. Work around is to "email", then drag the pdf of the scan to the desktop
• Print box doesn't go away when printing using the Ambrosia Easy Envelope widget. Work around is to delete and drag a new copy of the widget on the dashboard
• Had to reinstall CISCO VPN Client updated to 4.9.01.0180. Even if you are running this version, it looks like you have to do a reinstall to get CISCO VPN Client to work.
• My favorite ScreenSaver, FreeFall doesn't work with Snow Leopard. I've contacted the developer and they are recompiling with the added screensaver savings so it will work.
• SuperDuper doesn't work until you copy fsaclctl to Snow Leopard from Leopard (it's in /usr/sbin/fsaclctl). Shirt Pocket expects to release SuperDuper 2.6 for Snow Leopard in Sept.
• Old printers disappear. I have an HP LaserJet 4000 with AppleTalk. Looks like AppleTalk is history so had to do an IP install for this printer to work with Snow Leopard.

Snow Leopard not installing on boot volume
MacFixIt reader "Charles T." reports a wider issue where Snow Leopard will not install on the boot volume of his Mac:

"I'm having an issue where Snow Leopard will not install on my boot volume but will on some other attached volumes. The boot volume was formatted by Apple and shipped with the computer just months ago. It is formatted as GUID, Mac OS Extended Journaled, and is my current 10.5.8 boot volume. Several others are reporting this problem: 1, 2.

Incorrect Time Zones
MacFixIt reader "Sam" reports that the Snow Leopard installation has incorrect Time Zone information:

"The city of Chihuahua (Mexico) is in the wrong time zone. Snow Leopard has it in the Central Time Zone, while it actually is in the Mountain Time Zone. Where does Snow Leopard get the time zone information from? Are there more cities in the same situation?"

Security settings not launching
MacFixIt reader "Klaus B." reports that his Security settings were not launching in Snow Leopard until:

After trying a lot of ways I finally found out that I have to delete the prferences of security located at:

Users/library/preferencees/com.apple.security.plist

These are issues sent in to us by our readers. The fixes reported were not able to be tested on our own machines. If you are experiencing similar issues, before attempting any troubleshooting, be sure to have a stable backup of all your important data. Please follow the MacFixIt articles when considering installing Snow Leopard. If you have any experiences with these issues, fixes for them, or other issues regarding Snow Leopard, comment below or email us!

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