[comp.sys.mac] MAJOR MAC IIx PROBLEMS!!!!! APPLE RESPOND!!!!!

schitre@jarthur.Claremont.EDU (Sunil Chitre) (02/01/89)

Hello. I have a major problem with the new Mac IIx. My electrical engineering
professor just bought one on a research grant, and when I went to talk to him
about it (I'd like one myself, I have an SE now) he showed me a number of
programs that will not run. At all. In multifinder a system quit message
appears. In finder, the system crashs and must be restarted.

This is not in the least limited to a single program. He showed me four
programs that did this in the few minutes I was there. He has now found
several others, including an old Mac mainstay, MacWrite.

What's the real deal? Is this a problem inherent with the system, or is it
that the programs that don't work need to be re-written to be 030 compatible?

I wanted to get the IIx to run the A/UX system, since it would be very useful
at my school, but I don't want to go $7500 in debt to buy a system that wont
run my software.

I'll be posting a list of problematic software later this week, after my Prof
has had a chance to finish trying all the programs he uses.



Until then -

"What do you mean the backups haven't been done for a month and a half?"


Sunil
-Faustus Majoris
-Devious Bastard

ephraim@think.COM (Ephraim Vishniac) (02/02/89)

In article <107@jarthur.Claremont.EDU> schitre@jarthur.UUCP (Sunil Chitre) writes:
>Hello. I have a major problem with the new Mac IIx. My electrical engineering
>professor just bought one on a research grant, and when I went to talk to him
>about it (I'd like one myself, I have an SE now) he showed me a number of
>programs that will not run. At all. In multifinder a system quit message
>appears. In finder, the system crashs and must be restarted.

>This is not in the least limited to a single program. He showed me four
>programs that did this in the few minutes I was there. He has now found
>several others, including an old Mac mainstay, MacWrite.

Have you talked to your Apple dealer (or other vendors) to check that
you are running the *current versions* of the software in question?
Many software packages had serious problems when the Mac II came out.
99% have been fixed.

MacWrite 4.5, for example, would not run on *any* 68020-based machine.
(68010 and 68030, ditto.)  MacWrite 4.6 does, quite happily, as does
MacWrite 5.0.  MacPaint 1.5 has major brain damage on a Mac II, but
MacPaint 2.0 is flawless (with respect to compatibility, anyway).

Public domain software is a special problem.  Much of this is (or was,
before the Mac II) written with little regard to compatibility, and
tested only on whatever machine the author has on his desk.  My
Jasmine disk came loaded with PD software that crashed in spectacular
ways.  Still, new programs have risen to take over from the fallen
heroes of the past.

I have no problem at all finding commercial and PD software that runs
well on my Mac II.


Ephraim Vishniac					  ephraim@think.com
Thinking Machines Corporation / 245 First Street / Cambridge, MA 02142-1214

	"Arlo Guthrie, it seems, has found what he was looking for:
		God, and the Macintosh." (Boston Globe)

u545731798ea@deneb.ucdavis.edu (Greg DeMichillie) (02/02/89)

In article <107@jarthur.Claremont.EDU> schitre@jarthur.UUCP (Sunil Chitre) writes:
>Hello. I have a major problem with the new Mac IIx. My electrical engineering
>professor just bought one on a research grant, and when I went to talk to him
>about it (I'd like one myself, I have an SE now) he showed me a number of
>programs that will not run. At all. In multifinder a system quit message
>appears. In finder, the system crashs and must be restarted.
>
>This is not in the least limited to a single program. He showed me four
>programs that did this in the few minutes I was there. He has now found
>several others, including an old Mac mainstay, MacWrite.
                              ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Just HOW old is your MacWrite.  Old versions (prior to 4.6, I think) will
not run on the Mac II or IIx.  You must upgrade to 4.6 or later.  As for
the other programs, the same thing may be happening.  If your professor
is anything like our typical users, they haven't upgraded their software
in a long time and are using pre-Mac II software. (As a side note, I still
see disks coming in with Finder 1.1g on them!)

If a program runs on a II, it should run on a IIx.  If it won't run on a II,
it's not going to run on a IIx.

>Sunil
>-Faustus Majoris
>-Devious Bastard

-----
Greg DeMichillie   
Apple Student Rep - UC Davis  
lgdemichillie@ucdavis.edu   
AppleLink: ST0178       

Disclaimer: If you've seen one disclaimer, you've seen them all. 

jfm@ruddles.sprl.umich.edu.engin.umich.edu (John F. Mansfield) (02/02/89)

In article <35965@think.UUCP> ephraim@think.com (Ephraim Vishniac) writes:

>MacWrite 5.0.  MacPaint 1.5 has major brain damage on a Mac II, but
                ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Only if you keep the Mac in more than 2 bit display mode.  It seems to
run OK on my Mac with just a black and white display.


John Mansfield
North Campus Electron Microbeam Analysis Laboratory 2455 Hayward, Ann Arbor,
Michigan 48109-2143. 313-936-3352
Internet: jfm@ruddles.sprl.umich.edu or john_mansfield.um.cc.umich.edu

holland@m2.csc.ti.com (Fred Hollander) (02/03/89)

In article <3590@ucdavis.ucdavis.edu> lgdemichillie@ucdavis.edu (Greg DeMichillie) writes:
>
>In article <107@jarthur.Claremont.EDU> schitre@jarthur.UUCP (Sunil Chitre) writes:
>>This is not in the least limited to a single program. He showed me four
>>programs that did this in the few minutes I was there. He has now found
>>several others, including an old Mac mainstay, MacWrite.
>                              ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>Just HOW old is your MacWrite.  Old versions (prior to 4.6, I think) will
>not run on the Mac II or IIx.  You must upgrade to 4.6 or later.  As for
>
>If a program runs on a II, it should run on a IIx.  If it won't run on a II,
>it's not going to run on a IIx.

I've heard that Illustrator 88 does not run a IIx, even though it runs on a II
(with color).  Is anyone using (or trying to use) Illustrator on a IIx?  Does
anyone know why it might not work on a '30 when it works on a '20?

>
>>Sunil
>>-Faustus Majoris
>>-Devious Bastard

Sunil, when you post the list of incompatible applications, please post the
version numbers.

>
>-----
>Greg DeMichillie   
>Apple Student Rep - UC Davis  
>lgdemichillie@ucdavis.edu   
>AppleLink: ST0178       
>
>Disclaimer: If you've seen one disclaimer, you've seen them all. 

Fred Hollander
Computer Science Center
Texas Instruments, Inc.
holland%ti-csl@csnet-rela

The above statements are my own and not representative of Texas Instruments.