MacTools Pro-OtherMenu's conflict
John S.
sys7.5) and am getting freezes and crashes all over the place. Even when
trying to rebuild the desktop I get repeated rebuildings (3x) with
eventual freeze. This happens when rebuilding using MacTools or restarting
with option/apple key(?) held down. I have (I hope) identified a conflict
with OtherMenus (1.7). I don't want to give OM up.. would more RAM help or
is this just a conflict that necessitates the removal of one or the other
extensions (MacTools antivirus, transback, drivelight--they all conflict
with OtherMenu) ?
kb...@nyssa.swt.edu
MacTools Pro conflicts with everything. I found that one of the main causes of
freezes is the AutoCheck feature. It will cause totally random freezes.
TrashBack conflicts with QuickTime 2.0, but it also has problems if you delete a
large file when it is close to th free space limit.
DiskFix has been known to report that it has repaired problems that have not in
fact been repaired.
The Optimizer periodically gets stuck in a loop and keeps accessing the same
spot on the disk forever. The workaround for this is to stop the Optimization
process (pause won't do) and restart it. It will reanalyze the disk and then
pick up where it left off.
The backup program is full of annoyance type bugs, but if you back up to
floppies be careful. I've had it ask for a disk that it had already used during
that session, and then overwrite the data on it, and then ask for that same disk
again. It then denies that this is the disk it wants and insists that you insert
that same disk again. You have to start over again. I've crashed about an hour
into every Finder Format backup I've ever attempted.
DriveLight semms to work, and the AntiVirus extension doesn't seem to have ever
done anything on my system, so I don't know.
I'm running a Performa 460, 8 meg Ram, and have experienced these problems with
both System 7.1 with System Update 3.0 installed, and the original Preforma
Software 7.1 P4. The problems have occured With all extensions off (except those
supplied with MacTools Pro), only Apple supplied and MacTools Pro extensions,
and with a bunch of shareware an commercial extensions active.
My conclusion is that MacTools Pro conflicts with Macintosh computers period. By
all means remove the AutoCheck Application from your system. This should
eliminate many of your problems. If you are running TrashBack with QuickTime
2.0, remove TrashBack. If you do not use QT 2.0 then set the number of files to
protect to the minimum you can live with, and the leave free space as high as
you can and still protect a reasonable number of files. You may still get a few
crashes, but the number will be greatly reduced.
By the way, Central Point/Symantec is not likely to be very interested in your
problems. I have been trying to get a response from them since Jan. 13 (the day
I bought the program) to no avail. I can't even get an acknowledgement that I
exist from them.
the Old Bald Dude
Christopher Houston
John S. <Jo...@wln.com> wrote:
>I have installed MacTools Pro on my 680LC40 (4 megs ram w/ RamDoubler,
>sys7.5) and am getting freezes and crashes all over the place. Even when
>trying to rebuild the desktop I get repeated rebuildings (3x) with
>eventual freeze. This happens when rebuilding using MacTools or restarting
>with option/apple key(?) held down. I have (I hope) identified a conflict
>with OtherMenus (1.7). I don't want to give OM up.. would more RAM help or
>is this just a conflict that necessitates the removal of one or the ot
Don't bother giving up OtherMenus (especially given that you like it
a lot), because freezes, crashes, and hangs seem simply endemic to
MacTools Pro. I've got a very basic setup (i.e., I'm not running
a veritable extension-fest or anything), and MacTools Pro was still
just one problem after another, to the point that I finally just
sent it back for a refund; I'll wind up getting Norton 3.1, albeit
not because it's such a perfect program but because it's at least
got fewer problems. (Things are downright shitty for the consumer
these days, aren't they?) Anyway, I'd recommend the same for you
and anyone else. Also, one related item: I saw that MacUser gave
its Eddy Award to MacTools Pro and that their review of it was
generally glowing, and I couldn't help but wonder, did they ever
really run the program, or did they just read the box?
Adios,
Christopher Houston
JCelebre
its Eddy Award to MacTools Pro and that their review of it was
generally glowing, and I couldn't help but wonder, did they ever
really run the program, or did they just read the box?
I too bought Mac Tools Pro on the recomendation of MacUser and ended up
tossing the whole program because of crashes and freezes.
Barry Thistlethwaite
Ditto. I had nothing but crashes. I double checked my installation process, and
did a few compatibility tests, but it's not worth my time to spend hours
searching down major crashes like this right out of the box. Especially when
that's what I bought the software for.
I switched back to Norton Utilities, upgraded it and I'm returning MacTools
whence it came. I had used MacTools on others' systems before, and was
impressed. How could they take such a wrong turn with this version?
Dave Camp Jr.
I would recommend you try disabling each of the MacTools extensions in
turn until you find the conflict. Since we have never heard of OtherMenu,
we did not test with it during the beta process. Once you figure it out,
let me know.
As for the problems the other two people who posted had, please email me
the specifics of the problems and we can try to work them out. To say that
MacTools does not work on any Mac is not true. In general, MacTools is
quite compatible with most other apps and extensions. There are a few
specific problems a number of people have had, and we are working on
updaters for them.
Dave
------------------------------------------------------------------
David Camp | Mac Development Manager |
| Central Point (Symantec) | dis...@netcom.com
------------------------------------------------------------------
kb...@nyssa.swt.edu
time and effort documenting my problems with MacTolls Pro. They had until now
pretty well insulated themselves from those customers who cannot afford a couple
of bucks a minute to let them know what is going on with their product in the
real world. The e-mail response that I got to my previous posts indicates that a
substantial number of customers simply dumped the product rather than wade
through the hassle of trying to deal with Central Point/Symantec. I know that
they are on AOL & Compuserve, but those are also play for pay services. I could
have easily spent more than the cost of the product reporting bugs to "Tech
Support."
I believe Mr. Camp should be able to obtain at least some of my corespondence
from Scott Madden at Symantec, who is the individual who finally contacted me. I
think that the thing that frustrated me most was that there was complete silence
from Central Point/Symantec for almost a month. I can understand that it is
impossible to test for every possible flaw before releasing a software product,
but to simply ignore customer problems is not a good way to build customer
relations.
For the record, my first contact with Central Point/Symantec was on Jan. 13, the
day I purchased the software. The manual packaged with my software was missing
more than 30 pages. I called CP/S and at first they offered to send me a new
manual IN ABOUT THREE WEEKS. I was less than thrilled with this offer and asked
to speak to a supervisor. I was told by the "Customer Service" person that he
could let me speak to her, but that it wouldn't do any good. I insisted, and a
few minutes I was connected to a woman who agreed to send a manual out right
away if one was available, and if one was not available she would make copies of
the missing pages, send them to me by US Mail, and call me to advise me that she
was doing this. I received NO MANUAL, NO COPIES OF THE MISSING PAGES and NO
PHONE CALL.
Later that day the crashes started. Killing AutoCheck is what finally stopped
most of them. I didn't suspect Autocheck, because as a background application it
didn't seem to be a likely source of the problems. I was mostly looking for
extension conflicts., but turning off everything but MacTools extensions didn't
clear up any problems.
The only parts of this software that have not given me some problems are
FastCopy (don't use it), Virus (can't tell that it has done anything, good or
bad), and DriveLight (cute, but it's not going to help me protect any data).
All I really wanted was an acknowledgement that there was a problem and that it
was being worked on. This post from Mr. Camp is the closest I've come to that so
far. In theory, I should be receiving a copy of Norton shortly, at which time I
will bow out of this situation with an extremely bad taste in my mouth.
the Old Bald Dude
Dave Camp Jr.
13, the
> day I purchased the software. The manual packaged with my software was missing
> more than 30 pages. I called CP/S and at first they offered to send me a new
> manual IN ABOUT THREE WEEKS. I was less than thrilled with this offer
and asked
> to speak to a supervisor. I was told by the "Customer Service" person that he
> could let me speak to her, but that it wouldn't do any good. I insisted, and a
> few minutes I was connected to a woman who agreed to send a manual out right
> away if one was available, and if one was not available she would make
copies of
> the missing pages, send them to me by US Mail, and call me to advise me
that she
> was doing this. I received NO MANUAL, NO COPIES OF THE MISSING PAGES and NO
> PHONE CALL.
>
Well, I would agree that is quite unacceptable. I will pass this on the
the appropriate people. Could you email me the names of the individuals
you spoke to (if you have them)?
the Old Bald Dude
ker...@symantec.com (Matt Riley) wrote:
> In article <3h3v0q$5...@newsbf02.news.aol.com>, jcel...@aol.com (JCelebre)
> Hi-
> I hate to hear that you gave up on MacTools Pro. The product was
heavily tested both at Central Point and by a strong team of external beta
testers on a wide variety of systems and configurations. Unfortunately,
it is virtually impossible to test every possible combination of CPUs,
inits and peripherals.
>
> It looks like there are some people who have configurations that
may have "fallen through the cracks." If this is the case, then maybe we
could narrow down some of the conflicts that are causing problems and get
them fixed for you. Central Point has already released patchers to fix
the most reported problems with MacTools Pro - one for FastCopy and one
for TrashBack (both are available at Info-Mac).
>
> Since there are other issues, maybe you could work with us to track
them down so we can fix them. This way, we may be able to make you happy
with the product and solve other people's problems as well.
>
> If you are willing to help, email me a detailed description of the
problems you're having along with your system configuration. I will work
with you to solve the problems and with the engineers to see that they are
fixed.
>
> Hope to hear from you,
>
> Matt Riley
> Lead QA test engineer
> MacTools Team - Symantec Corp.
> mri...@symantec.com
For the record, I have been one of the highly vocal critics of MacTools
Pro, and the program as released does have some serious problems. The
customer service people were less than adequate, but when I finally
managed to get in touch with Dave Camp at Central Point, I found someone
who seriously cared about the quality of his product. While at this point
Norton is clearly the more reliable product, MacTools Pro has a really
nice feature set and when they get the bugs worked out it will probably
deserve that EDDY. They do need to shoot the customer service people
though. It's the only answer.
the Old Bald Dude
--
Those of you who think you know everything
are very annoying to those of us who do.
Vincent P Salupo
> If you are willing to help, email me a detailed description of the
problems you're having along with your system configuration. I will work
with you to solve the problems and with the engineers to see that they are
fixed.
>
> Hope to hear from you,
>
> Matt Riley
> Lead QA test engineer
> MacTools Team - Symantec Corp.
> mri...@symantec.com
I started a thread about a month back on some problems I am still having
with the RamBoot feature. As another poster has stated, David Camp was
very helpful in identifying the possible problem. Unfortunately, it hasn't
been enough to correct the problem.
Basically, An 8Mb RAM machine has a maximum number of files (not memory
size) it must stay below in order for optimizer and analysis to work with
RamBoot. Matt, I will email the details to you. If anyone reading this has
encountered an "Out of Memory" error while running Optimizer with RamBoot,
my problem may be the same as yours. email me and I will forward any
insights that I receive from Central Point.
--
Vincent P Salupo
Eli Lilly and Company
V.SA...@Lilly.Com (yes,use caps!)
As usual: All opinions are mine and do not reflect the views of my
Company, Managers, co-workers, spouse, children, dog
etc....
Matt Riley
> I saw that MacUser gave
Hi-
I hate to hear that you gave up on MacTools Pro. The product was heavily tested both at Central Point and by a strong team of external beta testers on a wide variety of systems and configurations. Unfortunately, it is virtually impossible to test every possible combination of CPUs, inits and peripherals.
It looks like there are some people who have configurations that may have "fallen through the cracks." If this is the case, then maybe we could narrow down some of the conflicts that are causing problems and get them fixed for you. Central Point has already released patchers to fix the most reported problems with MacTools Pro - one for FastCopy and one for TrashBack (both are available at Info-Mac).
Since there are other issues, maybe you could work with us to track them down so we can fix them. This way, we may be able to make you happy with the product and solve other people's problems as well.
If you are willing to help, email me a detailed description of the problems you're having along with your system configuration. I will work with you to solve the problems and with the engineers to see that they are fixed.