Late yesterday, Apple released Mac OS Rom Update 1.6. This update is for all owners of "bronze" PowerBooks, all iMacs, and all "Blue and White" PowerMac owners. It fixes the following problems:

Based on customer and developer feedback, Apple has made improvements to its software for the iMac, blue & white Power Macintosh G3 and bronze keyboard PowerBook G3 Series customers. The Mac OS ROM Update 1.0 replaces the Mac OS ROM version 1.4 with version 1.6, which includes the following fixes:

• Fixed an intermittent issue where after startup the keyboard/mouse does not respond when a mouse is attached to the top (or left) USB port and a keyboard attached to the bottom (or right) USB port.
• A possible crash on the PowerBook G3 when removing an attached USB keyboard at the same time as putting the unit to sleep.
• Hot swapping a media bay device into a bronze keyboard PowerBook G3 would not always recognize the device.
• Using the Target Disk Mode feature on the bronze keyboard PowerBook G3, a user can only use the SCSI ID setting of 2.

Additional information not included in the Read Me with this software:

Bronze keyboard PowerBook G3 customers should check their currently installed version of Mac OS ROM before downloading this update (Mac OS ROM 1.6 may already be installed).

Apple recommends that this update is used on Netboot client images for connecting to Mac OS X Server. For information on how to do this, please see TIL article 60363.

If you have a "bronze" PowerBook, use Apple System Profiler to see if you need the update. Many of these PowerBooks have shipped with the update already installed. While we assume this update fixes some of the USB issues, readers that already have ROM version 1.6 report the same problems as before:

I have ROM ver 1.6 yet I still am having problems with my USB devices. Mouse sometimes freezes after waking from sleep mode.

However, this update is recommended for the fixes to the hot-swapping issue we've noted, the Target Disk mode issues, and the USB fixes. While the update does not note what fixes are in store for iMac or PowerMac owners, it's always a good idea to get the latest and greatest. According to Apple's TIL article on the subject, the update is for all international flavors of the Mac OS. The files can be downloaded directly using these links: MacBinary (2089k) and Binhex (2841k).

Written/Edited/Published by Doug B. Landry
Logo by Jon Iverson
Apple, Mac, Macintosh, Mac OS,The Apple Store, and Powerbook are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc.
©1998 Doug B. Landry. All rights reserved. All or part may not be reproduced or distributed without prior consent.
Coded on a Apple Macintosh Powerbook G3 Series from Baton Rouge, LA