dnsurber@lescsse.jsc.nasa.gov (Douglas Surber) (05/23/91)
I have a Mac II with a Rodime 102M hard disk, and a Radius Two Page
Display. I have spent the past week trying to install System 7.0
with no success.
When I boot the Install 1 disk (which contains a version of System
7.0) the cursor stops tracking the mouse. Everything else that I
can try using the keyboard works fine; but a Mac without a mouse
is pretty useless.
I booted a 6.0.7 disk, then started the installer and the installation
went fine, until I rebooted the machine. Whoops! No bootable volume
available, i.e. the hard disk with 7.0 doesn't show up at all. Reboot
with 6.0.7, it still doesn't show up. :-(
Called Apple and talked to Dean several times over the next few days.
(Also talked to Radius and Rodime.) Dean was very knowledgeable and
helpful and seemed to have ready access to some heavy duty techie
types. Anyway, many phone calls and much machine hacking later we
determined that there were two problems.
1) I was using an old version of the Rodime disk driver. The
required version is 2.21. This is an easy, no cost fix.
2) I have the 1.0 version of the TPD video card ROM and it is not
compatible with System 7.0. Now I have to upgrade the ROM
in my video card (at an unknown price, Radius didn't know the
MSRP?!) before I can use System 7.0.
So not only is most of my software only marginally compatable, at best
but the same is true of the hardware. I am not an expert is what is
required to be 7.0 compatible, but I would guess that there isn't
Anything that Apple hasn't been telling developers for years. I for
one am tired of developers cutting corners and ignoring the guidelines
that Apple publishes. Every time Apple releases a system upgrade
lots of things break and I have to fork over lots of bucks to upgrade.
Come on people, follow the rules. Be nice to your customers. You
too Apple. Can you say "MPW 3.0"?
Once again, big thanks to Dean and the other folks at Apple for the
help.
Thanks to Rodime for instantly knowing that the driver needed to be
upgraded and Applelinking the driver upgrade to my local dealer.
Boos to Radius for telling me that my TPD was fully 7.0
compatible the first time I called even though I told them it was
four years old, and for not knowing their own price for the ROM
upgrade. Also, even Apple has a 1-800 support number now, how
about you Radius?
--
Douglas Surber Internet: dsurber@nasamail.nasa.gov
Lockheed NASAmail: dsurber/jsc/nasa
Houston, Texas Phone: 713-282-6240
Life can be only understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.