1) Question: Why didn't Open Transport 1.1 support Power Macintosh and Performa 5200, 5300, 6200, and 6300 series computers?
Answer: Very late in the final quality assurance cycle of Open Transport 1.1, the engineering team was notified of a reproducible crash affecting some, but not all, customers with Power Macintosh or Performa 5200, 5300, 6200, or 6300 series computers.
Rather than further delay the release of Open Transport 1.1 and System Update 2.0 (System 7.5.3)--which both brought many significant improvements to Mac OS customers--the Performa, Open Transport, and System 7.5.3 teams worked together to decide that the best alternative was to disable Open Transport 1.1 on these systems until the cause was fully identified and an appropriate solution could be implemented and tested.
2) Question: What was the cause of Open Transport 1.1 not working on the Power Macintosh and Performa 5200, 5300, 6200, and 6300 series computers?
Answer: The cause was isolated as a hardware issue caused by specific, known component issues that have been identified by Apple. Symptoms of these issues include frequent system freezes, which can be traced to these hardware issues. Apple initiated the Repair Extension Program to resolve these issues that some customers were experiencing.
3) Question: Does Open Transport 1.1.1 work on all Power Macintosh 5200, 5300, 6200, and 6300 series computers?
Answer: Yes, Open Transport (OT) 1.1.1 can be used on the Power Macintosh and Performa 5200, 5300, 6200, and 6300 series computers. However, when you install OT 1.1.1 on one of these computers, a dialog box may appear indicating that a hardware issue was detected. If this alert is displayed, Open Transport cannot be installed until the Cache/ROM DIMM is replaced. The required repairs are covered under the Apple Repair Extension Program. Contact an Apple-authorized service provider to have your computer repaired. (Your computer will continue to run classic networking until it is repaired.)
4) Question: What specific computer models are included in the Repair Extension Program and consequently require Open Transport 1.1.1 to take advantage of Open Transport?
Answer: The models included are:
* Power Macintosh 5200/75 LC, 5300/100 LC
* Macintosh Performa 5200, 5215, 5300
* Macintosh Performa 6200, 6205, 6214, 6216, 6218, 6220, 6230, 6290, 6300
This article was published in the Information Alley on 24 October 1996.
Article Change History:
12 Nov 1996 - Added alley blurb.
23 Oct 1996 - Changed distribution status.