Troubleshooting Mac OS X 10.2.3: Re-installing; disappearing devices; more

Re-installing Mac OS X 10.2 before updating to 10.2.3 For those of you who haven't taken the plunge into Mac OS X 10.2.3 yet, it may be a good idea to use the "Archive and Install" option on your original Mac OS X 10.2 CD, and then apply the Mac OS X 10.2.3 combo updater.

This method seems to have been the source of relief for readers with a wide rash particularly aggravating problems, including kernel panics at startup. See our Mac OS X 10.2.2 report for more information on OS X reversion.

More on disappearing devices We continue to receive reports of disappearing devices, particularly on the SCSI chain. Of particular concern are Zip drives, which seem to exhibit a wide range of failures - from inability mount disks, to not being recognized at all. One user received the following reply from Iomega's technical support department:

"I understand that after downloading the latest IomegaWare, your Drive is not working on Mac 10.2.3. kindly note that Apple changed their coding and right now no Iomega Drives are working on Mac 10.2.3 operating system. We do not have a supported software for the latest Mac operating systems.

"We are working with Apple on a solution and should have a working version soon. Please check the Iomega website on regular basis for the updates."

R. C. Nemanick reports a strange noise problem (in addition to mounting failure) from his external SCSI drive:

"Ever since I upgraded to OS 10.2.3, my Sonnet ATA/66 card has not worked right. I have two hard drives connected to it, both in a "master" configuration on the two different controllers on the card. OS X runs on a hard drive on the original system controller. I have had these two drives on the card for about two years now and they have run fine. Once the Mac OS X 10.2.3 update finished installing, and before I had restarted the computer, the 30 GB IBM Deckstar drive disappeared from the desktop and started 'chunking' (making a noise like it was scanning back and forth quickly). It was loud enough that I could hear it even though the G3 tower lives in a cabinet. I restarted several times, but could not get it to mount or stop making the horrible noise. The other drive on the card (the original IBM 6 GB drive that came with the G3 Blue and White) mounted fine."

Online banking sites We have sporadic reports that some online banking sites are not working properly after applying the Mac OS X 10.2.3 update. Sandi Daine writes

"After I upgraded to 10.2.3, my Capital One credit card company says my browser is unsupported. I'm still using Internet Explorer 5.2.2, which was perfectly acceptable to Capital One before the system upgrade."

Andrew Freeman reports similar problems with his financial institution's Web site:

"I am unable to access a password protected page at a financial management site. When I enter a username and password I get the message: 'HTTP Error. Access to the resource is forbidden.' When I acknowledge this I am taken to a page which states; 'STOP! You have tried to access a page that you are not authorized to display and were stopped by the SAS Proxy.' Before updating to 10.2.3, I was able to reach this page, and I am still able to access this page from a second computer which is running OS 10.2.2. Both computers are behind the same router firewall."

More on sleep problems While some users report that Mac OS X 10.2.3 finally allows their systems to stay asleep (where they would awaken after a few minutes under Mac OS X 10.2.2) others are reporting sleep oddities.

One simple resolution to the sleep problems is to simply select "Never" sleep in the Energy Saver System Preference Panel, while still allowing the hard disk to spin down.

Login items freeze Several users have reported that the Login Items pane in System Preferences freezes in Mac OS X 10.2.3 when items that are accessed at startup are moved or updated. This disallows you to add or remove items from the startup process, including PopCharPro, Snapz Pro, the Palm Desktop background and others.

The solution is to startup without Login Items, as referenced in Knowledge Base article #106756.

1. Start up the computer.
2. As soon as you see the blue background appear with a progress bar and "Mac OS X," press and hold the Shift key (timing is important).
3. If the Login Window appears, release the Shift key to log in, then immediately press and hold the Shift key again.
4. Release the Shift key after the desktop appears.

Finder preferences and CD mounting For some users unable to mount CDs after applying the Mac OS X 10.2.3 update, the solution may be as simple as accessing the "Preferences" in Finder (in the menubar) and making sure that "Removable media" option under "Show these items on the Desktop" is checked.

For some reason, the update has changed this preference on some systems. Note that this remedy has not worked for our in-house Power Macintosh G4/733, which still cannot see its internal CD-RW/DVD combo drive after applying Mac OS X 10.2.3.

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

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