Terrible Problems with 10.2.8 and iChat AV Beta

[Dennis Kleid]

Last week I purchased from the "Apple Store" the iSight camera and with 
its microphone and firewire connection for my Cube. I was somewhat 
surprised to find that the program required to run this equipment was 
"iChat AV Beta" -- a "beta" program that must be downloaded.

Also last week I downloaded and installed a new operating system upgrade 
MacOS 10.2.8. (Although I was happy with MacOS 10.2.6) When I downloaded 
iChat AV Beta with the 10.2.8 system my HD cashed all the way to the 
gray "Apple" with a little black box "1/4 inch by 2 inch" over it. I 
think this is a so called "Kernel Panic". On attempts to re-start, the 
start buttons flash about ten times, then the gray "Apple" and the 
little black box reappear. My HD will not boot from any CD (with "c" 
key), or by using any other trick. I found that there is simply no way 
to boot an "iChat AV Beta with the 10.2.8 system" HD. I lost this 
weekend trying to get my Cube up and running again!

My only choice was to remove the 60 Gig Maxtor HD from my Cube (G4 450 
MHz Cube, w/650 RAM) and to use another HD, the original 20 Gig Maxtor 
HD with MAC OS 10.2.6 that was not corrupted. (No way am I going to try 
the iChat AV beta again!!!) Now I understand that I must buy another Mac 
OS, the "Mac OS X Panther 10.3" for $129.00 on Oct. 24th, in order to - 
maybe - save my 60 Gig HD (now in an external drive), and all of those 
programs and drivers that are installed on it. I tried to re-install the 
10.2, 10.2.6 then 10.2.8, it still will not boot when "startup disk" is 
set to the external drive. (Thanks to this Cube group I remembered to 
fix the little jumpers when swapping the HDs.) Now the 10.2.8 external 
HD gets stuck at the "gray" apple, no little black box and no little 
rolling circle. If I turn off the external, re-start with it off, more 
flashes then I get a tiny folder with "two Mac OS faces" alternating 
with "?". Resetting the PRAM ("p" "r" "option" "apple" "control" "shift" 
-- what ever), at least I think that did it-- I get the strangest screen 
I've ever seen on a Cube. A "return arrow" and a "go forward arrow" and 
a white box. I accidentally realized then if I type dots appear in the 
white box. If I type my password, the darn thing boots. It would have 
been real nice for that screen to give you some sort of clue what it is 
and what to do!

Come on -- I spent an entire weekend getting my Cube to work again. 
These days, the whole family depends on this little gadget with its 
keyboard, display & mouse, internet connection/Cable modem, printer, 
scanner, CD/DVD read/writer, digital camera card reader, emergency HD, 
Firewire and USB Hubs, with all of those power supplies and wires, it 
looks like a snake pit behind my flat screen display!

I think this is a terrible way to create "planned obsolescence" e.g. 
destroy the HD with MAC OS 10.2.8 so Mac users will have to buy MAC OS 
10.3. The iSight should have been bundled with Mac OX 10.3 (hopefully 
with an iChat AV program that WORKS), prior to marketing. To knowingly 
sell something that everyone at Apple must know will destroy the Mac 
user's computer's HD is beyond the pale.