MANUTTER@IUP.BITNET (Mark Nutter, Apple Support) (09/11/90)
I've seen a number of recent postings about strange Macintosh behavior, both in VIRUS-L and elsewhere. I have heard that there is a "quirk" in the 6.0.5 version of the Installer program that may be responsible for most of this MacWeirdness. Without getting overly technical, it seems that Installer leaves a value in the hard disk "boot blocks" that allocates too small a system heap. Result? The Mac operating system runs out of memory, writes over itself, often fails to detect the damage done, and proceeds to operate in "creative" mode. Test: From the (Multi)Finder, pull down the Apple menu, select About the Finder, and check the "thermometer" that shows System memory usage. If it is about 85% to 100% filled, you need more heap space. Solution: Use Symantec Tools, Fedit, or some similar program to edit the boot blocks on your startup disk. Ignore the value labelled "128K System heap"--- that's obsolete. Look at the other System Heap Size value and add one or two hundred K to it. I added 200K to my System heap size and it did wonders for my IIcx. STANDARD CAVEAT: Prior to monkeying with anything as technical as "boot blocks", always back up anything you wouldn't want to lose. (I know, I'm paranoid. That's what they pay me for.) - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - Mark Nutter MANUTTER@IUP.BITNET Apple Support Coordinator "I speak for myself , Indiana University of Pennsylvania not for IUP." G-4 Stright Hall, IUP Indiana, PA 15705 "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't look in his mouth." - Archie B. =============================================================================== =