OS X Odds & Ends: Adaptec SCSI cards; TravelStar; Internet Explorer and corrupted support files; PGP

OS X & Adaptec 2906 SCSI card A reader reports that the Adaptec 2906 card inhibits Mac OS X from booting from the CD. Instead the computer hangs with a spinning rainbow cursor. Replacing the card with a 2930 solved the problem. Stephen Bryant notes that on his G3, booting was only inhibited when the 2906 card was switched off.

Update: Several readers report no trouble with this combo, with card on or off. A reminder: Mac OS X is more finicky about SCSI termination (see this TIL article). This may be part of the problem.

Installer does not "see" IBM 20GB TravelStar follow-up A reader writes: "I have a 20GB TravelStar on a Pismo 400 and could not install Mac OS X because the installer didn't recognize the drive. Apple Tech support said that OS X is "very particular" and that it needs to be installed to the Master drive. In opening up the PowerBook, I saw that the jumper on the drive was set to Cable Selection and not Master. Once I had changed the jumper to make it the Master, the Mac OS X installer saw the drive and the install continued flawlessly."

Update: Prashant Joshi confirms this and notes this web page containing a jumper diagram.

Internet Explorer corruption issue Brad Kimberly discovered that if the file MS Preferences Library becomes corrupted, Internet Explorer will notify the user and suggest reinstalling IE. But there does not appear to be a simple way to reinstall just Internet Explorer.

PGP incompatible with Classic? Jeff Gray writes: "When I attempt to open PGP 5.5, either from PGP directly or from Eudora I get an 'insufficient random bits' error. As best as I can tell it is a Classic-related problem. PGP 5.5 runs perfectly under 9.0.4 and under 9.1 on another machine."