OS X Odds & Ends: FireWire "failure"; OS X Guidebook; Date & Time to 1969 solution?; much more

FireWire "failure" when two devices are in use? Mark Sealey writes: "There seems to be growing evidence for a major bug in 10.1.1 which causes FireWire devices to unmount if more than one is connected and used at the same time - especially when large files are being written to either device." A MacFixIt Forums thread (Attaching two FireWire devices causes one to fail) has more details.

OS X Solutions Guidebook has been updated to version 1.1. It is a 70+ page guide to getting the most out of OS X. It adds a three-page OS X folder structure overview, 10 new tips, revised a number of existing tips, and has high resolution versions of the screenshots, so the Guidebook now prints with very crisp images. A version with lower resolution images (for those who want a smaller file to download) is also available.

Date & Time to 1969: a solution? In trying to solve a problem with the OS X Date & Time setting continuing to revert back to 1969, even after following the advice in the Apple KB article, Thomas Haller believes he may have found the solution. If he enabled the menu bar clock (as set from the Menu Bar Clock tab in System Preferences), the setting remained correct. He is still not 100% certain this is the solution and continues to investigate. We'll let you know if and when we learn more.

Update: Several readers confirm that this is not a likely solution after all. Sorry.

Opcode OMS extension causes problems? Here's one for the "OS X Files." After being unable to launch AOL (in Classic), a reader started investigating and found that the Preferences folder in the Library folder for his Home directory appeared completely empty. Either the files were gone, moved or invisible. He adds: "Further investigation revealed that my daughter had somehow managed to install Opcode's OMS extension (part of Opcode's Open Music System, for working with MIDI equipment). Disabling it cured all the symptoms."

OS 9.2.2 Classic launch at startup causes OS X problems? Yet another weird symptom. After installing Mac OS 9.2.2, Paul Strand could not launch any OS X applications if Classic was launched at startup. If he tried, the Dock icon would continue to bounce forever; even a Force Quit would fail. If Classic was launched after startup, by double-clicking a Classic application, the symptom did not occur.

Can't mount CDs We continue to get occasional reports of users unable to mount CDs in OS X 10.1.1. Typically, the symptom is an error message that appears when the disk is inserted: "You have inserted a disk containing no volumes that Mac OS X can read..." We suspect the problem may occur mainly with third-party CD or CD/DVD drives that are somehow incompatible with Mac OS X, but we still don't have enough information to know for sure what the cause is.

Getting Palm/AvantGo to sync via Classic Prior to the release of Mac OS 9.2.2, Andrew O'Dell was unable to sync his Palm and AvantGo in OS X. Now he can. This is what he had to do to get it to work: "(1) Trash all AvantGo items (preferences, control panel, etc.). (2) Boot the computer in 9.2.2 and reinstall AvantGo and synchronize the device several times (my Internet connection is through a dial-up for what it's worth). Synchronizing several times was needed to get through the install and backup of the AvantGo.prc files. (3) Boot in OS X 10.1.1 and load Classic. Synchronizing should now work."

Update: This did not work for James Coyle, using a DSL PPPoE connection. Andrew O'Dell replies: "I did find that I had to enable all of my Remote Access and modem extensions in Classic to make AvantGo work."