Re: Strange IIgs Behavior

[joko@crl.com (Joe Kohn)]

Erick Dietrich (madsci@tribeca.ios.com) wrote:
: Okay, maybe this is a common thing, but its really strange...

: Occasionally, when in the Finder, I'll open a window and it will appear
: blank for a moment, and then fill up with multi-color dots.  The dots
: change a few times, in waves, and then the  machine becomes unstable. 
: Usually crashes to the monitor.

That's the symptoms exhibited by an Icon conflict. With there being 2 
types of Icons in use on the IIGS, there are 2 separate solutions to the 
problem.

System 6.x style rIcons get copied to an invisible file located in your 
Icons folder. The name of that file is Desktop. If you go to your Finder 
Preference menu, set it up so that there's no x in the option to "Hide 
Invisible Files." Once you do that, the Desktop file will appear. Drag it 
to the trash. Or, if you have ICE, you can examine the Desktop file and 
perhaps spot the conflict. I usually drag my Desktop folder to the trash 
a few times a year.

If it's an old style pre-System 6 Icon, it's a little more time consuming 
to track down the conflict. Basically, by conflict, I mean that you have 
your icons set up so that the file attributes point to a file that 
doesn't exist, or you have 2 different icons that give the Finder 
conflicting information. If you have an Icon Editor, you can search 
through all your icons to see which attributes are messed up, or you can 
use Bill Tudor's Icon App Checker (a shareware program, probably 
available on all the major ftp sites) and that program will check all 
your Icons, and point out exactly which icon is the cause of your 
problems. 

Obviously, it's a heck of a lot easier and faster to use Icon Application 
Checker to find, and correct the problem.

Joe Kohn
Publisher, Shareware Solutions II

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