May 6, 2005 7:25 AM PDT

Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) #11: Possible fix for some SCSI-related problems; D-Link Wireless access router access problems, possible

by CNET staff

Possible fix for some SCSI-related problems As noted over the past few days, Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) appears to have some serious issues with SCSI expansion cards and drives in some system configurations. In some cases, the presence of certain SCSI PCI cards can cause kernel panics, startup problems, and other issues.

Removing these cards (particularly some widely used SCSI expansion cards from Adaptec) has resolved issues for a number of readers.

Now Eric Wright reports that, in his case, removing the following kernel extensions from the /System/Library/Extensions folder resolved issues with his Adaptec card:

Adaptec290X-2930.kext
Adaptec29160x.kext
Adaptec39160.kext
Adaptec78XXSCSI.kext

If you've experienced similar results, please let us know.

D-Link Wireless access router access problems, possible fix Several readers have reported problems using D-Link routers (both wireless and wired) after updating to Mac OS X 10.4. Typical symptoms include an inability to establish network connections, or persistently dropping connections.

MacFixIt reader James Saldana writes:

"I'd like to report a problem that I've been having with Tiger and my D-Link router that connects to the Internet via a Verizon cable modem. [...] I've never had a problem with my D-Link router until I installed Tiger (bare - standard install - no modifications - no files transferred from Panther).

"From what I can tell from the 'Network Status' panel, Tiger keeps dropping the DHCP or STATIC IP address from the router, often stating that no connection exists then saying that it does. These failures happen irregularly, sometimes once ever minute to once every few seconds for a moment (1-5 seconds), causing connection failures and long loading delays. Some people on the Apple forums have stated that Tiger was connecting to the internet slowly (airport or ethernet), but I suspect that their systems are have the same connection problem, since their probably not watching their 'Network Status' panel and don't know that the delays are caused by short drops in the connection.

MacFixIt reader Tim reports that the issue may be a user-specific problem, caused by bad .plist files.

Tim writes:

"I first deleted the internet preferences that I knew of in ~/Library/Preferences and /Library/Preferences folders and restarted. This solved nothing. Finally, I deleted both Preferences folders and restarted. This solved the problem. Some preference had become corrupted enough to actually crash my router and I hadn?t actually installed anything but OS X 10.4 on a clean drive."

Workaround for some M-Audio devices We previously noted issues -- apparently caused by Apple's transition to Core Audio -- with a number of M-Audio devices under Mac OS X 10.4.

MacFixIt reader Myriam reports that changing permissions on the M-Audio Firmware Loader startup item resolved the issues with her M-Audio Transit USB card:

"I looked in the system log and noticed this message: 'SystemStarter[203]: '/Library/StartupItems/M-Audio Firmware Loader' failed security check: permissions'

"After some trial and error changing permissions in Terminal without progress, I located this page on the Apple Web site.

"Apparently, the proper permissions for startup items in Tiger are 0755...

"So I used the following command in Terminal:

sudo chmod -v 0755 /Library/StartupItems/M-Audio Firmware Loader/M-Audio Firmware Loader

"And that fixed the problem! My Transit card is now working fine in Tiger using beta Transit drivers v1.6. This fix will probably also work with Transit drivers v1.59. [...] You may have to disconnect/reconnect your Transit card for this to work."

Confirmation for Bonjour printer fix Yesterday we reported that many of the issues users are experiencing with Bonjour (formerly Rendezvous) network printing under Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) can be resolved by simply deleting, then re-adding problematic printers in the "Print and Fax" pane of System Preferences.

We've now received several notes confirming this workaround.

MacFixIt reader Andy Watts, for instance, writes:

"Just a quick email to say that I also upgraded from Mac OS X 10.3.9 to 10.4 and have a printer connected to an Airport Express - I also had the same problems, and removing the printer and adding it again fixed it."

Third-party applications

Another option for uninstalling Virex 7.5.x As noted yesterday, the presence of Virex 7.5.x can cause a variety of issues under Mac OS X 10.4, including slow overall system performance, constant fan activity, and degraded performance in some applications.

Yesterday we noted instructions for uninstalling Virex 7.5.x contained in an Apple Knowledge Base document. However, these instructions require that the user obtain the original Virex 7.5.x installation disk image, which can be difficult to locate.

Another option is to use the command line uninstallation utility from Network Associates.

Important StuffIt-related questions answered MacFixIt reader Scott Rose had an enlightening question and answer session with Allume Systems regarding issues with StuffIt Expander and StuffIt Deluxe in Mac OS X 10.4.

Q. Can you please explain why Stuffit Expander is no longer included with Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger?

A. That's a question for Apple, not us. Here's what they say on the Apple website: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301016

We would certainly like to see it included in the standard install of the OS again. I know several developers have submitted its absence as a "bug" in Tiger!

Q. Also, why does Apple no longer migrate over the Stuffit Framework when using the Migration Assistant to migrate from one computer to the next?

A. The Migration Assistant copied the StuffIt.framework successfully in my tests. However, the "Archive & Install" option does not copy the StuffIt.framework, leaving a crippled StuffIt Expander. We have a post on our forum suggesting users reinstall to correct this issue

In addition, try this: in Safari's preferences, turn off the "Open 'safe' files automatically" option, then download a MacBinary encoded file (.bin) and see if you can do anything with it. You can't! There are no tools that come included in Tiger to deal with MacBinary, BinHex, StuffIt, StuffIt X, and other formats.

We just released a stand-alone StuffIt Expander installer for Tiger users to deal with that issue.

Problems with Entourage data and Spotlight, workaround MacWindows reports that telling Spotlight to ignore the Microsoft User Data folder (~/Documents/Microsoft User Data) can resolve an issue where Entourage stalls on startup, displaying the spinning beach ball.