Registered: Nov 1999
Location: venice, ca. USA
Posts: 32

I stopped short of loading Win98 onto my PC after similar failures there and moved the Visor cradle to my Mac clone, figuring a new $50 USB card for my Mac was cheaper than the Win98 upgrade. Here is my tale of MacWoe:

I have completely failed to persuade my VisorDeluxe to speak to my Mac clone (Starmax PowerPC 166 (64MBram) w/ XLR8 USB dual-port card) despite having:

* Installed the card, the drivers and the Palm software, selected USB and de-selected multiport in HotSync, restarted machine and followed all instructions, soft-reset and then hard-reset the Visor

* Tried leaving multiport selected - both with and without USB selected

* Moved USB cradle plug from one port to the other and restarted the Mac and hard-booted the Visor

* Uninstalled and reinstalled the drivers and Palm software, restarted Mac, hard-booted Visor again

* Switched off all extensions except those pertaining directly to the USB card, Palm, HotSync and my Zip drive, restarted Mac and Visor

* Burnt an offering to Steve Jobs, Motorola and Handspring, spun around three times and spit over my left shoulder in the westering sun

* Read all the Mac postings on VisorCentral

* Uninstalled, reinstalled, rebooted, hard-booted, etc. at least four times more in several varying configurations

And here I sit. The only confirmation that I might be doing anything right: When I click "Enable" in Hotsync, the message reads "HotSync is using the USB port."

Questions:
* Is the Hotsync/USB message actual confirmation that the software's running the hardware, or just a default reading for that radio button?

* Is there a surefire way to confirm USB port is actually running short of plugging a USB device into it? (I own only the Visor cradle)

* Is there anyone out there who has been through all this and found their way out, and wouldn't mind a phone call to help me walk through it all?

* Should I be using mummy dust instead of eye of newt? Mummies is scarce around here, but all this is very hard on the newts...

f


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factoid
venice, ca http://www.well.com/~factoid/


[This message has been edited by factoid (edited 12-20-1999).]

Registered: Nov 1999
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Posts: 434

Not a Mac Guru, but I'm just wondering what Mac OS version you are running?

Registered: Dec 1999
Location:
Posts: 11

Eug may claim not to know much about Macs but he did ask the right question. First and foremost, what version of Mac OS are you running?

The XLR8 card requires Mac OS 8.5, with Mac OS 8.6 "highly recommended," according to XLR8's web site.

USB support was not incorporated into the general release OS until 8.5. (Special versions of 8.1 shipped with the original iMacs to enable USB on them.) I know there are some issues with running 8.x on clones so that's the first area I would check.

Registered: Nov 1999
Location: venice, ca. USA
Posts: 32

I'm running Mac OS 8.5. (and very grateful for the quick, learned responses)

Could this likely be solved by grabbing 8.6? Can you elaborate on what clone "issues" might be in effect if the version change isn't the real issue?

f


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factoid
venice, ca http://www.well.com/~factoid/


[This message has been edited by factoid (edited 12-20-1999).]

[This message has been edited by factoid (edited 12-20-1999).]

Registered: Dec 1999
Location:
Posts: 23

I have Power Center Pro 240 clone from the now defunct Power Computing. Still running it with OS 8.5.1. I installed dual USB card from ADS. The drivers came on a diskette. (BTW, the card works on both Macs and PCs.) After installing Palm Desktop I used to get a message that the port was occupied by a modem. It turned out that in HotSync Software Setup (under the Serial Port Setting tab) both Modem Setup and USB Setup were selected. Once I left the select mark in the USB Setup only, everything worked fine after rebooting. It has been that way since October.

Hope this helps.

Registered: Oct 1999
Location: College Station, TX
Posts: 143

Don't know if you found it when you were reading all of the Mac threads, but I am syncing with a Belkin USB card in a G3 upgraded PMac7500/100.

The solution to my problems was incredibly obscure - I had to remove the old cache RAM that predated the G3 upgrade...so this can get hairy when it doesn't work right away! Sonnet tech support came up with the answer...I never would have found it on my own.

Since your Starmax is still using the original PPC cpu, this presumably doesn't apply to you.

One trivial possibility - was the cradle already plugged in when you installed the Palm software? For reasons I don't understand, I think it matters...if it's working, the installation software asks you to put the Visor in the cradle and then sets up the default user to whatever your Visor ID is.

When I put in my USB card, removing the cache brought the USB ports to life (I just borrowed a mouse from a nearby iMac to test), but reinstalling after was needed to talk to the Visor. Hope this helps ('fraid I have doubts that it will, though). Good luck!

Registered: Nov 1999
Location: venice, ca. USA
Posts: 32

Nope. That ain't it.

I installed 8.6 just now, reinstalled the card driver and HS software, and got the same dud results.

Meanwhile, I received my serial cradle in the mail, (finally!) plugged it into my PC, and synched immediately. Now I'm fully databased up with address and datebook, making space music on the nifty Theremini, reading Moby Dick and US trademark law and generally wasting otherwise precious time playing with the new Visor.

I would still like to get the USB cradle running on the Mac Clone, however, and am at a loss as to what else to try. Any other USB experts out there?

f


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factoid
venice, ca http://www.well.com/~factoid/


[This message has been edited by factoid (edited 12-27-1999).]