Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) #7: Freezes during shutdown or startup; Wake-from-sleep issues; Spotlight issues; Safari problems; more

CNET staff

Sept. 2, 2009 11:21 a.m. PT

23 min read

Freezes during shutdown or startup One of the most commonly reported significant issues with Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) is a freeze at startup or during shutdown. In most cases, only selecting a shutdown or restart through the Finder causes problems -- forcing a restart or shutdown through the Terminal does not exhibit the problematic behavior.

There are a number of potential culprits for this issue.

Disconnect external devices, check for problematic drivers In some cases, an errant external FireWire drive or another device can cause these issues -- particularly at startup.

In the case of external storage devices, issues can often be resolved by temporarily disconnecting the drive, restarting the Mac then re-connecting the drive once the startup process is complete, and obtaining applying updated firmware (check the manufacturer's Web site).

In other cases, the drivers linked to problematic devices can cause startup or shutdown problems.

For instance, Apple's structural changes to the way that Mac OS X handles audio and audio-based applications (Core Audio) has rendered some devices in conflict normal system routines. Removing, or downgrading device drivers can sometimes resolve these issues.

One reader describes a startup/shutdown issue that was resolved by removing the drivers for his M-Audio devices:

"I identified as responsible (after doing an archive and install installation) the package of drivers m-audio revolution 1.4 for m-audio 7.1 revolution. With these installed, my Mac wouldn't restart or shutdown. Without them, or uninstalling them, the problems are completely solved (but I've no audio card anymore.)

"Re-installing the old m-audio driver (1.2.9) allows normal system functioning (mac shutdowns and restarts) but surround sound is not working well, driver update absolutely needed.

Check for bad login/startup items Both login items and startup items can cause problems when exposed to a new Mac OS X release.

To check if any login items are causing your startup/shutdown issues, go to the "Accounts" pane of System Preferences and click on the "Login Items" tab. Deselect any third-party items (and even Apple-originated items in some cases), restart, and check for persistence of the issue.

To check if any startup items are causing the issues, go to the /Library/StartupItems folder (that's the Library folder at the root level of your startup volume, not the user-level Library folder located at ~/Library) and, again, remove any third-party items, restart, and check for persistence of the issue.

MacFixIt reader Todd Koltis describes his case of stalled shutdown, which was resolved by removing a startup item.

Todd writes:

"There is a problem with the QuickBack component of Speedtools Utilities that can cause a stall at shutdown. To fix it, go to Hardrive/Library/StartupItems and remove the item with QuickBack in it's name (sorry, i don't remember the whole name anymore). You will probably have to force shutdown once more after this before it will take effect (as it is already loaded). Also, please note that this will mean that scheduling in the QuickBack application won't work until there's an update to SpeedTools."

Wake-from-sleep issues: Will not wake; network will not automatically reconnect

System will not wake properly A number of users are reporting an issue where Mac OS X 10.4 will not wake properly from sleep, either refusing to wake completely or freezing upon wake-up.

MacFixIt reader Bob O'Driscoll reports that, in his case, the issue was cured by a simple restart -- not the case for most users.

"I have done two erase and clean installs of Tiger on an iMac G5 1.8. On both occasions the the screen remained blank on the first wake up from sleep after installing Tiger. After a forced reset, by holding down the power button, wake ups worked properly.":

A number of posters to Apple's Discussion boards have also reported the issue, with no viable solution yet apparent.

Poster Jon Taylor writes: "Spent an hour on the phone to Apple about this yesterday. We repaired file permissions, reset the PMU and even reset the RAM, all to no avail. In the end I did a clean (erase install) installation of Tiger. Still didn't work, so I stripped my system hardware to the 'out of the box' minimum and re-installed Panther to check the hardware. Panther worked fine. I did another clean install of Tiger. Sleep didn't work - so I have gone back to Panther until Apple sorts this out.

Poster Bobleo adds: "After much heartache with the mini/Tiger sleep problem, I disconnected all devices from the system, except monitor, Bluetooth keyboard, Bluetooth mouse, reset PMU, and did a format/clean install of Tiger. Still does not sleep/wake properly. Amazing. Worked flawlessly (for me, anyway) up to 10.3.9."

If you are experiencing a similar issue, please let us know.

AirPort not automatically reconnecting after sleep We continue to receive reports from readers whose Macs will not automatically re-join AirPort (or other wireless) networks under Mac OS X 10.4.

Robert Jen writes:

"Yep, just upgraded from Mac OS X 10.2.8 where all was well to Mac OS X 10.4 where every time my TiBook wakes up from sleep I gotta reconnect manually (even ridiculously having to type in the network name each time). I'm using the built-in Airport card to connect to a Belkin router (connected to DSL modem)."

Meanwhile, David Hawley reports that in his case, simply re-entering the AirPort network password solves the issue.

David writes:

"I had this problem. After installing Tiger it would not automatically connect to the airport network on startup or after sleep. I went to System Preferences>Network>Airport>Configure and re-entered the password. It works fine now."

Users experiencing this problem with an AirPort Base station may also want to try resetting the unit as described in the following Knowledge Base articles:

Resetting the AirPort Base Station (Dual Ethernet)

Resetting the AirPort Extreme Base Station

Resetting the AirPort Base Station (Graphite)

Shipping delays/problems: Apple compensating some customers On Friday we noted that several customers who pre-order Mac OS X 10.4 did not receive delivery on April 29th as guaranteed by Apple.

It now appears that in some cases, Apple is offering customers who did not receive guaranteed delivery compensation in the form of free software and Apple Store discounts.

One reader writes:

"Apple is compensating those that call if they didn't receive Tiger on time. I called Apple to complain and was offered my choice of a free copy of ilife '05, iwork '05, $30 off a future purchase to the online store."

Another reader, James Trunck, adds:

"After a 25 minute telephone delay this evening, and getting stone-walled by an Apple Store customer service representative, I spoke with with a supervisor, who stone walled me again. Both the initial operator and the supervisor were quick to offer me a free copy of iLife or iWork, or a $30 store credit. No questions about proving the failure to deliver on time; just took my word for it. It is my guess I am not alone and many people will have suffered the same fate as me, and the contingency plan was immediately offered to me. I own iLife and iWork so that offer was worthless. I have no need for a $30 store credit. I could have ordered the product from other vendors and gotten a $30 or $35 mail-in CASH rebate."

Spotlight

Not finding invisible files Spotlight, in its current form, refuses to find invisible files. Although the user can set a criterion to search for both visible and invisible files, or invisible files only (through the Finder-based method of accessing Spotlight), no files are found.

We've confirmed this in-house on a number of systems running Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger), as have several readers.

Steve Prindle, for instance, writes:

"After installing Tiger on my powerbook, I was curious how big the spotlight index file was, so I did a search for invisible files and discovered, instead, that you can search for invisible items all you want but you won't find any. The search option is there, it just doesn't work. A call to Apple tech support Friday found they were apparently unaware of this issue but confirmed that indeed this is so."

This is likely an issue that will be resolved in a maintenance update to Mac OS X 10.4.

Logging out, then back in can resolve some problems MacFixIt reader Jim Schimpf reports some minor Spotlight quirks that were resolved simply by logging out and back in to his user account.

Jim writes:

"Spotlight searches only worked from a finder window. I got nothing from the search out of the Menu Bar. Logging out and logging back in fixed this one. Now it searches both from the Menu Bar and Finder window."

Places Spotlight does not search Readers should note that there are some limitations to where Spotlight will search. For instance, Spotlight will not search in bundles such as frameworks and application packages.

SCSI issues As noted above, the presence of some external devices (or internal expansion devices, like PCI cards) can cause various startup and shutdown problems, as well as other quirks under Mac OS X 10.4.

Devices implicated frequently as a cause of current Mac OS X 10.4 startup/shutdown include SCSI expansion cards.

One reader writes:

"This morning I finally got around to upgrading to Tiger. It failed with a kernel panic, ouch. I put in an old small hard drive and got the same kernel panic. This happened while checking the DVD. I have a dual 867 w/ 1.25GB RAM, super drive and an Apple SCSI Card. I did not have anything plugged in but the monitor and USB keyboard. I wondered if my SCSI card was the issue, so I took it out and had a great install of Tiger."

Josue Menjivar adds:

"I just updated to Tiger. I erased the drive and kept getting a 'Please Restart' error. I couldn't install Tiger. I then disconnected my USB printer and unlinked my SCSI chain from the computer. The install worked but after I attached my SCSI chain back to my computer, I would get the same 'Please Restart' message. It appears that Tiger does not like my SCSI peripherals. I now can't use my old scanner and Zip drive.

So if you are having issues installing Mac OS X 10.4 or problems starting up after installation, try removing any SCSI expansion cards, and keeping them uninstalled (if removal indeed resolves the issues) until further notice.

SMB mounting problems MacFixIt reader Terry Ford reports an issue with connection to SMB servers under Mac OS X 10.4 for which we are seeking confirmation.

Terry writes:

"After updating to Tiger I can no longer mount windows shares by trying to connect via smb. I now get an error message that reads: ?The Finder cannot complete the operation because some data in ?smb://IP Address? could not be read or written. (Error code-36)."

Removable drives (DVD/CD burners) not recognized Ray Sharpe reports issues with recognition of a removable media device (specifically a Pioneer-manufactured DVD-RW drive) for which we are also seeking confirmation.

Ray writes:

"Installed Tiger, everything was OK until I inserted a blank CD and then I got an error message that my drive is not supported (error code 0x80020025) My drive is a PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-105 and the funny thing is that System profiler tells me that it is supported."

General tip: Checking your user Library folder Many individual application issues that occur during a major Mac OS X upgrade can be solved via a process similar to the method used for troubleshooting Extension conflicts under Mac OS 7, 8 and 9. It's a shotgun technique, but one that has proved fruitful in many cases.

The process is as follows:

Move your User library folder (~/Library) to a different location, such as the Desktop
Log out of your account, then log back in. A new user library folder without any customization you may have performed will be created.
Perform the task that was previously causing issues (e.g. launching an application, etc.), which should now work as expected.
Move a few folders from the old user Library folder (on your Desktop, or wherever you placed it) back into the new Library folder.
Again, log out and back in.
Perform the task that was previously causing issues and check for persistence of the issue.
Repeat steps 4-6 until the problem returns. At this point you will have narrowed down the potential culprits. When a batch of folders causes the problem to return, examine the just re-added folders for user added elements that could be causing the issue, and eliminate them.

Safari 2.0

Eliminating problematic plug-ins Plug-ins incompatible with Safari 2.0 can cause the application to repeatedly crash. Most of these add-ons are located in the folders:

~/Library/Safari or

~/Library/Internet Plug-Ins

Try removing any user-installed items from these folders, and check for persisting unexpected quits in Safari.

Some plug-ins, like iGetter, were initially problematic under Mac OS X 10.4 but have now been updated for compatibility.

Copy/Paste deficiency, workaround MacFixIt reader Scott Rose reports a deficiency in the copy/paste mechanism in Safari 2.0, as well as a workaround:

"In Panther, you could control-click on an image in Safari, 'copy image to clipboard', and then paste that image into an HTML message in Entourage.

"In Tiger, you can still control-click on an image in Safari and 'copy image to clipboard,' but when you try to paste that image into an HTML message in Entourage, you only get the LINK to the image instead.

"A workaround: Create a new Preview document first, and copy the image AGAIN (from Preview), and THEN paste the image into Entourage. Several extra steps, but at least it works until Apple and/or Microsoft can fix this problem."

Earthlink support page broken Scott Rose also reports an issue with Earthlink's support page in Safari 2.0:

"Looks like Apple's partner, Earthlink, has create a support page that is inaccessible via Safari. Not sure if this is a problem on Earthlink's end or Apple's end.

The links to the support articles on this page (or any Earthlink Support Page) do not work in Safari 2.0 on Mac OS X 10.4."

Mail.app 2.0

httpmail bundle causes launch problems We previously reported that Mail.app bundles (plug-ins) like have caused the the new version of the application (2.0) included with Tiger to unexpectedly quit.

httpmail, a bundle used for accessing Hotmail and other Web-based e-mail services, is the latest plug-in to be implicated.

Oner reader writes:

"The handy httpmail add-on to Mail seems to break Mail 2. It will prevent Mail 2 from fully launching and makes it look as though your imported mail from Panther Mail has been eaten. Simply deleting the httpmail bundle from ~/Library/Mail/Bundles and then re-launching Mail 2 seems to do the trick."

Mail import issues Meanwhile, a number of users report issues importing old mail from Mac OS X 10.3.x in the new version of Mail.app.

Richard Olin writes: "One thing I noticed is that Mail 2.0 only imported mail from Sept 2004. I don't have any other mail and I'm steamed. I did an archive and install, keeping all settings and users. It's nothing that will kill me but I'm still annoyed."

Another reader writes:

"Tiger's Mail.app won't start without first importing Panther's mailboxes. After hours of having it crash during import - each time eating up GB's of [unrecoverable?] disk space - I found the 'offending' mbox is 'Sent Mail' from one of my accounts. It is 1.7 GB. (I've been using Mail.app a long time!) Apple does not provide a way to archive or otherwise back this stuff up. I had to remove the mbox for the import to complete. Now I have lost 1.7 GB of data."

If you are having similar issues, please let us know.

iTunes

Play does not continue during fast user switching Several readers have noted that iTunes does not continue to play music when user accounts are switched through Fast User Switching. Under Mac OS X 10.3.x, music would continue to play under such circumstances.

MacFixIt reader Aaron Mildenstein writes:

"One of the great feature add-ins in 10.3 was the ability to have iTunes continue to play in spite of fast user switching. This feature seems to have missed inclusion in 10.4 for some reason. It's the only bummer I've encountered so far in my migration. It's hardly a show-stopper, but it's mildly irritating to say the least. I hope it gets patched soon."

Another reader reports that iTunes play persists through Fast User Switching for AirPort Express connections.

"It's not exactly a workaround, but iTunes continues to play on my stereo through Airport Express, just not through the computer speakers."

AFP access issues A number of readers report issues with AFP (Apple filesharing protocol) transfers under Mac OS X 10.4.

One reader writes:

"I am also experiencing issues with accessing my 10.3.5 server (G4 450MHz tower) via the AFP protocol. Apart from being able to read files off that box, I am unable to do any write operations to it - including deleting, moving and creating files/folders. I am having the same problem with my Tiger-upgraded iMac, but not on an iBook that's still running 10.3.9."

Philip De Simone adds:

"Mac OS X OS 10.4 (Tiger) will not allow users to connect to machines running OS 9 for the purpose of file sharing. When you try to connect to an OS 9 machine, you get the following error message 'Connection failed. This file server uses an incompatible version of the AFP protocol. You cannot connect to it.' This is really terrible for environments with both OS 10 and OS 9 machines. I wonder if there is/will be a way around this."

If you are having similar problems with AFP, please let us know.

Minor screensaver bug MacFixIt reader Joshua Levitsky notes an inconsequential bug in Mac OS X 10.4's screensaver/user switching interaction:

"If you have not enabled fast user switching, but you set your screensaver to ask for a password you may wonder why the screensaver has a button to switch users when it asks you to authenticate to get back to your desktop. Apple said this is a known bug. There is a value missing in /Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences.plist ... their fix is to enable Fast User Switching and then disable it again. My fix for my corporate image was to write 2 PlistBuddy commands and make it a script in a package... the first command adds the boolean value if it is missing and the second sets it to false. Either solution works. Apple says they might address this in a future update."

"dmnotifyd" apparently sending Apple user information Several users have reported that an application called "dnotifyd" is sending system information back to Apple.

Jim Czech writes:

"Since my upgrade last night to Tiger, I have noticed something going on in the background. This was never observed in the past, but thanks to Little Snitch I 'caught' this one.

"This particular app is attempting to contact 'configuration.apple.com' every few minutes. I don't have a packet sniffer, but am curious just exactly why Apple needs to 'check my configuration' every few minutes.

"After the upgrade, I started testing all my apps, one by one, to see if there were any compatibility issues making the move from 10.3.9 to Tiger. When I applied the Little Snitch update, I then noticed this "dmnotifyd" app was phoning home. I thought it was possibly related to running each app and then Apple was gathering stats for compatibility, etc.

"However, even with no applications running, 'dmnotifyd' is still contacting Apple.

"I have allowed several requests (since I have nothing to hide) thinking it would stop. It doesn't matter whether the request to send is allowed or denied, it runs non-stop."

HP Printers Hewlett-Packard is providing the following message to customers regarding Mac OS X 10.4 compatibility:

"Mac OS X version 10.4 (Tiger) is scheduled to be released April 29, 2005. As this version has not been made available to the public, HP is unable to provide information regarding compatibility between the operating system and our products. Any updates to our software and drivers will be posted on our web site: http://www.hp.com/go/support."

Epson Printers A number of readers report issues with Epson printers that, in some cases, can be resolved by simply re-adding the devices using the Apple Printer Setup Utility (located in Applications/Utilities):

Gerry Cox writes:

"I have done the upgrade to Mac OS X 10.4 'Tiger' without to many problems. I found that in Printer Setup Utility that my two Epson printers were no longer there (An Epson Photo 870 and an Epson Photo R300) Oddly enough my CUPS version of the 870 was still there. I tried to reinstall both printers which appeared to work but only installed the 'standard' version of the R300 (not the borderless printing version). I found that if I selected 'More Printers' when I selected ?Add? in the printer list I could select 'All', 'Standard' or 'Sheet Feeder - Borderless' as I was expecting. Hope this may help someone else. My main problem is that the 'Utility' function does not work with either of the Epson Printers (Utility version 2.14). It shows the version splash screen then crashes. I thought perhaps I had remnant files from OS X 10.3 so I used the Printer setup Utility to remove all printers by selecting ?Reset Printing System? from the menu. I then reinstalled all the printers but still the Utility application crashes. I have sent a crash report to Apple. I will also send an email to Epson."

Meanwhile, Brett Wickens received a terse response from Epson technical support regarding Tiger compatibility:

"Thank you for contacting the Epson Connection. There are no drivers available for this OS at this time.?

Wickens adds:

"There are beta Gimp Print drivers for the 2200 included in the Tiger install, but they do not (elegantly) cover the feature set of this printer. I also reinstalled the latest Epson drivers (an arduous process) and while the printer and features do appear, I have had spotty performance with them. Epson has never properly supported this printer (and many others) under Mac OS X. It's surprising the the online Apple Store continues to promote their products so vigorously, especially in the shadow of the massive Tiger launch."

Third-party application compatibility As noted in our Preparing for Tiger special report, many problems with individual applications that occur after a major Mac OS X update can be solved by deleting corrupt .plist files. It appears that this is the case for several apps that are not functioning properly under Mac OS X 10.4 (see AbiWord, Extensis Suitcase, CodeTek Virtual Desktop below, specifically).

Such .plist files will generally be located in the ~/Library/Preferences folder, and labeled as follows:

com.(name of developer).(name of product).plist [For instance, com.adobe.Reader7.0.plist for Adobe Reader 7.0].

Simply drag the potentially offending .plist file to the trash, re-launch the hampered application, and check for continuation of problems. In some cases, applications will have several .plist files, so make sure you check for any that contain the product name. Also, note that you may lose some settings or other personal data used by specific applications when these files are deleted.

Alternatively, if you're not sure which application is slowing down your Mac or you'd like to check for any existing, but unnoticeable issues, there is a freeware utility called "Preferential Treatment" that will check for some elements of .plist file corruption.

Full Tiger compatibility list Our sister site, VersionTracker, has posted a comprehensive list of applications that have been updated for Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) compatibility.

Norton AntiVirus Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) is not compatible with Norton AntiVirus's AutoProtect feature. After installing Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger), users receive the error:

"Norton AntiVirus Error Norton AntiVirus AutoProtect could not continue. Please reinstall Norton AntiVirus and restart."

Retrospect EMC (developer of the Retrospect backup tool) have announced that on May 5, 2005, the company will provide an update at no charge for Retrospect 6.0 for Macintosh that supports the Mac OS X Tiger operating system. The new version of Retrospect is required for all customers who move to the new Mac OS X Tiger operating system.

Users should not attempt backups with the current iteration of Retrospect.

PGP Desktop John Dasher, Director of Product Management for the PGP Corporation tells us:

"PGP Desktop 8.x (including PGP Disk) on Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) is incompatible and unsupported. PGP Desktop 9.0 is fully compatible and supported on Mac OS X 10.3.8 and 10.3.9.

"PGP Desktop 9.0 is currently unsupported on Tiger. Although early compatibility testing has proven successful, PGP Corporation was unable to complete final Tiger certification of PGP Desktop 9.0 due to Tiger's recent release. Final testing with the shipping version of Tiger is underway, and PGP Corporation intends to fully support Mac OS X 10.4 in the near future."

"For more Tiger-specific information, please visit http://www.pgp.com/products/tiger.html"

Extensis Suitcase X1 We previously reported issues with Extensis Suitcase, particularly in conjunction with Adobe applications. Now one reader reports that deleting the Suitcase .plist file (see instructions above) resolves the issue.

He writes:

"I had the same issue with Suitcase not working with my Adobe programs, but all I needed to do to fix the issue was delete the com.extensis.Suitcase.plist from my /Users/Library and it worked fine."

Virex 7.5.1 All versions of Virex, including the release included with .Mac subscriptions, have issues with Mac OS X 10.4.

Thomas Cloer writes:

"I found that after installing Tiger Virex 7.5.1, which i got from my .Mac subscription, ate all my available CPU percentage (even though background scanning was disabled in the prefs) and caused my PowerBook fan to run almost continuously.

"After removing it with the CLI uninstaller - which is included in the distribution - everything went back to normal."

Meanwhile, Charles Ridley received the following response from the .Mac customer support center, regarding Virex compatibility with Mac OS X 10.4.

"Virex is not currently compatible with Mac OS X v10.4. Virex is compatible with Mac OS X versions 10.1.5 through 10.3.x. We will maintain updated virus-definition files for active .Mac members until May 31, 2006.

"If you plan to upgrade to Mac OS X v10.4 and wish to uninstall Virex, please follow the instructions in this article: .Mac: How to uninstall Virex

"Apple takes virus protection seriously. As a result, .Mac email servers scan and remove viruses from all email messages sent to .Mac accounts, protecting you from viruses even if you don't have virus-protection software installed on your computer."

Oracle 10g Several posters to Oracle's forums indicate compatibility issues with the Mac OS X release of 10g.

Photoshop CS Several users report that since installing Mac OS X 10.4, Photoshop CS refuses to open any new files or create any new documents, reporting a "program error" when one tries to do so.

Andy Bannister reports that problem can be temporarily resolved by creating a new user account and running Photoshop from within it; which suggests some sort of permissions/preferences problems in the main user account.

Meanwhile, David Enzel reports that re-installing Photoshop CS resolves the issue permanently.

David writes:

"Well, I now have Tiger installed on my G5 and my PB. I did an archive and install on the G5 and regular update on the PB. No problems except I had to re-install PS CS on the G5 after the archive and install. Dragging an image file to the PS icon in the dock would not open the image, but would open PS. Reinstallation solved the problem."

Virtual PC 7 Matt Ruben reports issues with the Virtual PC Disk Image handler bundle that resides in /System/Library/Plug-ins.

Ruben writes:

"Upon upgrading to Tiger (via an "archive and install"), when you first launch VPC, it says you have to reinstall certain VPC components. These include the Disk Image handler and a couple of kernel extensions - components which are in subdirectories within / System/Library and are thus not transferred over by the archive and install process.

"The Virtual PC Disk Image handler, when installed, prevents Apple's own diskmounter helper from working. As a result, all attempts to mount DMG files in the Finder fail with a "broken pipe" error; Disk Utility will not launch; Toast Titanium will not launch; and, I presume, any application that interacts with the diskmounter helper will fail.

"Moving the Virtual PC Disk Image handler to the trash immediately restores all of the lost functionality of the Finder, Disk Utility and Toast Titanium.

"The Good News: Virtual PC will still launch and function after the Disk Image handler has been trashed. I do not know if it is still able to mount disk images, however - haven't had a chance to test it."

Macromedia Dreamweaver MacFixIt reader Dana Stuttion reports that performing a clean install of Mac OS X 10.4 may cause issues with Macromedia Dreamweaver.

Dana writes:

"If you are forced to erase your hard disk as part of the installation of Tiger, you will have the same kind of problems launching Dreamweaver (and perhaps other Macromedia software) mentioned in Macromedia Service Note 19833. This technical advisory was written for the upgrade OSX.2 > OSX.3, the issues described are the same, but the posted patch doesn't do any good. Obviously, Macromedia needs to post a new patch."

Now Up-to-Date and Contact Tom Cooper received a reply from Power On Software's support department regarding a previously reported incompatibility with Now Up-to-Date and Now Contact.

Power On says:

"Now Up-to-Date and Contact version 4.5.3 worked with early development releases of Tiger. New OS releases usually involve a lot of changes under the hood and Apple has changed certain APIs that caused incompatibilities with version 4.5.3 in the recent developers release of Tiger. We are now testing NUDC version 4.5.3 with the final release version of Tiger. If version 4.5.3 proves not to be compatible it is our plan to have a solution for our customers early next week. Please visit our web site at http://www.nowsoftware.com for breaking news.

"Our initial testing showed problems getting the program to load using Rendezvous, but we will have more details after further testing with the final release."

CodeTek Virtual Desktop CodeTek VirtualDesktop has some initial issues under Mac OS X 10.4 that, like many other application-specific issues, can be solved by deleting an offending .plist file.

Mark B writes:

"I initially had problems with CodeTek VirtualDesktop under Tiger. I eventually found that it runs fine if you always start it manually. If it's ever run as a Login Item, it corrupts its preferences file (~/ Library/Preferences/com.codetek.virtualdesktop3.plist) and won't run at all thereafter. The workaround is (i) remove CTVD from the Login Items list, preferably before upgrading, (ii) if it's too late, delete the corrupted preference file (or replace it from a pre-Tiger backup) and then (iii) put CTVD in the Dock or the like so it's easy to start manually."

AbiWord A reader reports a similar issue, and solution, for the AbiWord word processing application (which provides viewing of WordPerfect documents and other file formats that might not be accessible with Apple's TextEdit or Microsoft Word).

The reader writes:

"I previously reported that Abiword does not work under 10.4. Removing the preferences plist and the Application Helper folder AbiSuite, and reinstalling fixed the problem."

ProTools MacFixIt reader Sherman Heinig reports issues with Digidesign's ProTools, seemingly another victim of Apple's transition to Core Audio.

Sherman writes: Sounds pretty unprofessional, given that Protools is the most widely used professional audio application. You have to get Panther back out of the cabinet and make him eat Tiger."

SPSS Gerry Altmann reports that SPSS v11.0.3, the most recent version of SPSS for Mac OS X, is broken in Tiger.

Gerry writes:

"If enough of us contact SPSS directly, they may be encouraged to remedy the situation sooner rather than later, so I urge anyone reading this to contact them (via their website http://support.spss.com/contactus.asp).