Appl Menu in 8.5(J)

Try option clicking on a background app or the finder. Thatll hide everything thats currently open on your desktop. Also if your mac is running smoothly you shouldnt crash even once a day. With some tuning and slimming down of the superfluous extensions and control panels and by keeping things clean and organized you can avoid crashes alltogether. Remember that if you turn a computer on and walk away from it, it will NEVER crash. Computers only crash when we mess with them and often theyre caused by either 1) silly humans doing things we know we shouldnt be doing to them or 2) programmers writing buggy code.

The floating window I believe you are using is the app switcher.  You can turn off it's extension.  I had some problems with it a while back, not since OS 9, tho.  I personally like a bit of shareware call A-dock (search versiontracker for it) I have never had it crash my machine and it seems to be very stable, even with 9.04.  It allows you to cycle apps, etc.

'Luck

Hi Eleanor

In answer to your first question, I would grab the OS 8.5.1 update as soon as you can. You'll continue to have lots of problems with your Mac (of all varieties) until you update. I'm sure the apple web site will have it available for downloading. But even with the update, OS 8.5 has a major problem with the apple menu (upper left hand corner) suffering from a memory leak which will bog down the speed and snapiness of your computer (have you noticed this yet?). The leak can be apparent early or late depending on what type of programs you use or how much you use the heirarchal aspect of the apple menu. And leaks just don't slow a computer down; they can introduce alot of program crashes and freezes as well. What you need to do is go into your extention manager and disable apple menu items a.s.a.p.  I'd also take Anqa's advice; he mentioned good, solid things to try. OS 8.5.1 in addition to disabling apple menu items should also help with your floating menu problem.

As for your second question, all I could personally vouch for is still a relatively inexpensive commercial software called Action Menus. It's to die for; your life will be forever changed if you're into using your menu bar for nifty tasks and shortcuts. (assign any key on the keyboard for hiding/showing all apps or specific apps for example). And by the way, it also replaces the apple menu items with a similar but much more cooler and high end function (looks the same as before) and doesn't suffer from a memory leak. I couldn't live without this utility anymore...to do so would seem like going back to the dark ages.

good luck to you and hope you get your mac probems resolved...

Grab the free Conflict Catcher demo:
http://www.casadyg.com/downloads/default.html?demoName=cc8

It's good for 3 days and can run a test of your extensions/cpanels to figure out which is the problem child for your particular symptom.

Also definitely upgrade to 8.5.1 as Eleanor said, 8.5 was notoriously buggy.

FWIW I've never had a problem with Apple Menu Items (I was on 8.5.1 for months then upgraded to 8.6 a little while ago).

HG

Just to add to some of the comments:

-  8.5.1 upgrade is not enough, upgrade to 8.6 and don't forget to get the Font Manager Update.

-  If you do use Conflict Catcher, remove it completely afterwards as I have found it causes more crashes than it solves (as does Nortons Crashguard)

-  After repairing and setting up many thousands of computers for customers, I firmly believe in clean simple systems that do what you need without added garbage (ie. shortcuts, funny images, etc).

Just one question: you don't mention what sort of computer you have. The problems you have may not be software but hardware.

Hey Hub,

Maybe it's time to update your boilerplate "fix a Mac" reply...FWB HDT is up to 4.0.

....? Is 4.0 buggy?

hg

The answer from TheHub is what I would do if I was working on the machine myself with the exception of one thing: DON'T run Norton Speed Disk. This program is extremely dangerous. I have seen what it can do a hard disk (it has a tendency to cross-link files on your hard disk that can't be -totally or partially- unravelled). Likewise, Norton Disk Doctor also has a tendency to damage directory structures when repaired if they are damaged passed a certain point. I have generally found it safer to repair with Disk First Aid and if it can't repair then I would recover the files with Disk Warrior without repairing (preview then copy to another disk).

FWB 4.0 has some bugs and only adds support for "some" new drives, i.e. fire wire and ide(ata). As a rule, any version of any software package with a version number of X.0 will require bug fixes.

Norton Utils is a set of very sharp toys. Some versions will destroy your data quickly and repeatedly. Since I make my living with Norton and am not known to my customers as, "Data Loss Man," the version I cited, 5.0.2, is stable. As always, it is a good idea to RTFM (Read The Manual) and pay attn. to the warnings. There is no better tool available for the job.

Good Life,
-TheHub

Dear Experts:

I've been lagging in responding to your various suggestions, partly because it has taken me a while to try them out, and partly because of other pressures.  In chronological order:

"Anga" and "weed" disagree about the Mac's stability:  "Anga" says once or twice a day is normal, and "weed" says it should rarely crash.

"weed"'s hint about option-clicking on the desktop or a background app to hide everything else was very helpful!  However, "weed" was not completely correct -- this hides the foreground application and brings the clicked application to the foreground, but it doesn't hide any applications that were visible in the background at the time of clicking.  (At least for me...)

"bhardt" gave me a name for App Switcher so I could better manipulate it.  "bhardt" also recommended shareware A-dock, which I tried (on my home machine) and liked a lot, but then it started causing crashes, so I had to abandon it.

"mr76" clued me in to the 8.5.1 update, which I got, and told me about the Apple Menu leak, which was good information.  I stopped using Apple Menu Options (the actual source of the leak, I later heard from other sources), and am still trying BeHierarchic as a replacement.  "mr76" suggested Action Menus, but for me it was a little too Windows-like...

"hergeekness" recommended the free demo of Conflict Catcher, which I tried.  I had thought it would have some clever way to diagnose conflicts, but it's just an automated (and rather dumb) version of what one can do oneself, so I uninstalled it (they are kind enough to provide an uninstall program).

"craigxyber" suggested an upgrade to 8.6 -- but one has to buy that separate from 8.5, right?  This is an office computer, and right now 8.6 is not available to me.  As to the details about my setup, PowerMac 7200/120, perhaps getting a bit wheezy.  Indeed, it may be hardware.  I added some memory about six months ago, but it was bought new.  I also use one or two Zip drives for backup and auxiliary storage.  

As a result of these suggestions, I started hunting for other switcher utilities and am still working my way through them.  My office computer is much better now, but still unstable.  I can't run RealPlayer (a major motivation to upgrade), and today when I installed QuickTime 4.0, it froze twice, so I quickly uninstalled it.  Definitely not a multimedia-friendly machine!

Now, as to the recent contribution from "TheHub," the first "Proposed Answer."  For a number of reasons, I cannot go through the whole clean-install procedure right now.  (For one, I just *did* most of that, and it took a couple of days, not counting backups!  For another, it requires several purchases.)  However, I did try the suggestion about scripting the Finder, something I've wanted to learn but haven't had time to study up on.  So, I thought, perfect chance, since he/she tells me what to do!  Well, Press Run turned out to be Press Record (right?), Select Hide All was Select Hide Others, but then I didn't get a script.  I tried a number of times.  I have concluded that Hide Others in the Finder is not scriptable, or at least not recordable.  Did you *try* this, "The Hub," before you recommended it?  Anyway, it didn't work for me.  Soooo, that reduces my confidence in the much longer prescription which followed.  I'll save it for future reference, but right now, I cannot accept it as an answer to my problems.

A couple of questions:  

* Does one need to format ZIP disks as well?  Or just permanent drives?  (I only use the built-in hard drive and Zip disks.)

* I "erased" the hard drive before doing a clean install, but this talk only a few seconds, so I don't think it reformatted it.  Is this not good?

* Can the ResEdit hack be done at any time?  Like, could I do it now? Ditto for the WDEF Fixer and Mercutio Patch?

So far, the most useful advice for my situation has been from "mr76."  Can I give him/her 100 points?

Thanks, as always, to everyone,

Eleanor

Dear Eleanor,
- OS8.6 is a free update for OS8.5 owners (no cost involved except download)
- Your mention of the memory upgrade reminded me of a problem I had with a PM7200, which was very similar to yours. It ended up to be a memory conflict/timing problem between two 32MB DIMMs. Both DIMMs tested fine independant of each other but crashed when both installed. It may be that either your logic or memory is faulty (just because its new doesn't mean it works!!)

Enjoy,
Craig

Hmmm, thanks craigxyber!

How did you diagnose your DIMM problem?  I have a 64(new) and 48 (old).

Eleanor

Dear Eleanor,
I diagnosed the DIMMs by testing them one by one. You obviously have more than two DIMMs because 48MB DIMMs don't exist. This type of job is possibly better handled by a technician (maybe the person who installed the new memory recently)

Regards

Craig

I've decided to accept this answer.  For one thing, I downloaded the WDEF fix, and this greatly improved my system stability.  The other instructions were also helpful, though I haven't done all of them.  (I also find that if I don't keep quitting and reopening programs, the system is more stable -- just leave them all open all day is better, since I have lots of memory.)

So, thanks 'TheHub'!

Eleanor