Odds & Ends: CarbonLib 1.2.5 and StuffIt 6.0.1 conflict; DHCP problem in OS 9.1; Epson printing and OS 9.1; FireWire drive

CarbonLib 1.2.5 and StuffIt 6.0.1 conflict David Ryeburn cites yet another potential problem with CarbonLib 1.2.5 (see previous coverage): it leads to crashes when using StuffIt Expander 6.0.1. Downgrading to CarbonLib 1.2 eliminated the crashes. Also, StuffIt Expander 6.0 worked well with CarbonLib 1.2.5. C.P. Fernandez confirms this. However, Jim Howard does not have this conflict, so something else may also be involved.

DHCP problem in Mac OS 9.1? Jeff Harris writes: "I work on site for AOL/TW. We are tracking a DHCP problem on several PowerBooks running 9.1, and one PB running 9.0, but apparently with a recent version of OT. The TCP/IP control panel pulls an IP, but nothing else. Ironically, none of the desktop machines, G3s and G4s, have the problem. Fixed IPs fix the problem, of course. There are several posts on Apple's message boards about it, pointing to a weird interaction between 9.1 and NT4 DHCP servers." This could relate to previously reported "Internet connection and networking problems."

Epson work-around for Mac OS 9.1 printing Raymond Maiara was getting errors and freezes when trying to print to his Epson 900 running Mac OS 9.1. He writes: "Switching my Epson 900 software from the 5.6bE (the 'SC 900' extension will show v5.64E in Get Info) installer pack to the previous 5.6aE (the 'SC 900' extension will show v5.60E in Get Info) set solved all my printing errors and freezes." [See also related coverage on Epson printers and OS 9.1 in our Troubleshooting Mac OS 9.1 Report.]

FireWire startup drive problems This MacFixIt Forums thread (OS 9.1 won't boot from firewire hd partition) discusses problems getting an external FireWire drive to act as a startup drive. (Thanks, Mark Moorcroft.) Bob Unger suggests that holding down the Option key at startup, and selecting the drive from the screen that appears, may work even when the Startup Disk control panel does not. However, even this is likely to fail if you have the partition-related problem described in the thread.

Update: Mark Moorcroft replies: "Holding down the Option key allowed me to select the external drive but then the flashing question mark appeared as mentioned in the thread. Apparently this was because some of the system files were beyond the first 8GB of space on the disk."

GeForce 2 MX 1.1.1 install problems: a follow-up Regarding problems getting Apple GeForce 2 MX 1.1.1 to install on certain Macs, Doug Buchanan writes: "Using TomeViewer, I was able to extract all seven v1.1.1 NVIDIA extensions plus the 'GeForce2MX AE Flasher-1027' from the Apple 1.1.1 update. However, I have not tried a manual installation with them yet."

Convert LPs to MP3s A new MacInstruct tutorial explains how to convert music on vinyl records to MP3 files on you computer.