Troubleshooting Mac OS X 10.2.2: HP system slowdown; Incompatible Printers (PPDs); Magic Menu advice; PCI Expansion Explained

HP Communications causes system slowdown Hewlett Packard's "HP Communications (version 4.6.3)" component is the culprit behind at least some of the reports detailing overall system sluggishness after applying the Mac OS X 10.2.2 update.

Most reports indicate that the problem takes hold after a few hours of normal operation, and result in slower menu access, increased application launch times, and delayed window drawing in the Finder. Process Manager displays gradually increasing processor usage from the application, rising upwards of 60 percent in most instances.

Killing the process "HP Communications" - accomplished by using the "Quit Process" command under the File menu in Process Manager - alleviates system sluggishness, but in turn disallows printer functionality.

In Mac OS X 10.2.1, the HP ScanJet Manager software component also severely drained processor cycles, in some cases using up to 90 percent of the system's resources and causing dramatic system slow-down. The company's workaround suggested removing the HP ScanJet Manager from the "Login Items" pane of System Preferences, then using the scanner through a third-party utility or the included PrecisionScan Pro software.

Similarly, removing the supplied HP Communications software component, and instead using the open-source gimp-print 4.2.4-pre1 drivers may allow proper function without system slow-down for some Hewlett Packard printers.

Incompatible Printers A number of printers, particularly models from Samsung, are having difficulty printing from systems running Mac OS X 10.2.2. In particular. PPD (Postscript Printer Description) components seem to be causing significant problems. A short list of the most widely afflicted models:

Konica IP-511 V1.1.1: Ben Stanfield reports that any application will crash before bringing up the print dialog screen when using the Konica PPD. A similar problem was reported yesterday with the Xerox PPD, and other reader reports suggest the same difficulity with Kyocera Mita PPDs.

Sharp AR-285 and AR-507: Several corroborating reports suggest that the PPD for these models is also faulty under Mac OS X 10.2.2. Henry Lazarowicz writes. "Every time I select this particular printer, the application from which I am printing unexpectedly quits."

Epson 1520 and 1280: Standard Print Center drivers for these models have ceased functioning for some users after upgrading to Mac OS X 10.2.2. According to one MacFixIt reader, the 1280 can be enabled through the Advanced panel in Print Center, though some of the color management features and other controls will be missing.

Samsung ML-1430: This printer appears to have no functionality under Mac OS X 10.2.2.

While the PPD may cause crashes through the normal "Print" menu command, Michael Holm reports that it is possible to print a test page via CUPS by accessing http://127.0.0.1:631/ in a Web browser. Holm also says that the HP Laserjet 5M PPD worked for his AR-507 printer, though with limited customization options.

Magic Menu advice from Aladdin Systems Matthew Covington at Aladdin Systems provided MacFixIt with the following advice for readers who are having trouble accessing the command keys in Magic Menu, one of the commonly reported symptoms after updgrading to Mac OS X 10.2.2:

"If Magic Menu is working and only the command keys fail, I'd like to have the customer check that the 'MagicMenuHotKeyDeamon' (invisible) process is running. This process is responsible for the actual key commands. If it isn't running, logging in to the user account again with Magic menu loaded should be enough to prompt a reload."

MAGMA CardBus Expansion now supported Mobility Electronics, developer of the MAGMA Series of PCI Expansion Systems, announced in a press release that Mac OS X Version 10.2.2 provides long-awaited support for the company's CardBus-to-PCI Expansion Systems.

"The Apple PowerBook customer base has been eagerly awaiting this announcement, which provides confidence that MAGMA is committed to the Mac industry. Users can now upgrade their PowerBook computers to the increasingly popular Mac OS X without losing compatibility with the MAGMA CardBus Expansion line of products," said company officials in a statement. More.

UPDATE: Vickey Baker of Mobility Electronics has sent MacFixIt an explanation as to why the PCI expansion system was not supported in previous versions of Mac OS X 10.2.2:

"Mobility Electronics manufactures two lines of PCI Expansion products:

• PCI-to-PCI Expansion Systems for desktop computers: These are external enclosures that hold 4, 7 or 13 PCI slots. These expansion systems connect to the desktop computer (PowerMac) through a PCI Host interface card, then a cable is connected to the enclosure. Our PCI-to-PCI Expansion Systems have been supported with desktop computers since Mac OS X version 10.1.2
• CardBus-to-PCI Expansion System for portable computers: This product line is meant to be used with Apple PowerBooks and PC Laptop computers. These are also external enclosures that hold 1, 2 or 4 PCI slots and connect to the portable computer (PowerBook) through a CardBus (PCMCIA) card and cable. It is this product line that was not supported by Mac OS X, until version 10.2.2 was released earlier this week.

"The problem was that Mac OS X did not support PCI to PCI Bridging through the CardBus slot of the PowerBook. This was a problem that only Apple could fix with a software update to the OS. This was a known problem at Apple since the first release of Mac OS X. It just took this long for Apple to assign an engineer to fixing this problem. Previous to Mac OS 10.2.2, when someone installed a MAGMA CardBus card into the CardBus slot of the PowerBook, the machine would boot up just fine, but the OS had no idea that there was even a CardBus card installed and therefore the MAGMA expansion system was simply not even recognized. It's didn't freeze or hang or cry that there was something wrong, it just didn't recognize our hardware at all."

Feedback on any of these issues? Drop us a line at late-breakers@macfixit.com.

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