>The following paragraph tells you how I solved a similar problem, but I
>would call Power Computing Tech support rather than following my memory of
>this event- I don't want to feel responsible for futher destroying your
>system software.
>
>I upgraded a friends Umax and neglected to follow the instructions for
>preping the CD driver first.  The third party CD player that UMAX uses is
>not supported by apple.  OS8, however, installs the apple driver over the
>third party driver and won't allow you to start from a CD.  If I recall,
>the system just hangs when loading the system software and calling out to
>the cd player.  You should have luck starting from your original system
>7.5.3 software by holding down "c" on sturtup.  You can then open your
>extensions folder from "Previous System Software" and drag the original
>Power Computing CD and/or HD driver into the new extensions folder and
>taking out the offending apple driver.  Then open your extensions manager
>and select the system software setting i.e. all unnecessary extensions
>off, duplicate and rename it, then check off your old cd driver on the
>new extensions manager setting- restart and continue your upgrade.
>I don't know about Power Computing support, but UMAX was excellent, and I
>would recommend calling your PowerComp support line before calling apple-
>they can talk you through it- probably the easiest solution since my above
>recommendations are based on fading memories and may not be 100% accurate.
>
>Good luck,
>Graham Johnson
>
>Medical Illustrator
>The Salk Institute
>La Jolla, CA

CINDY,

You may have a bit of a problem updating Apple software on a Clone since I
think that version of the software (7.5.5) may have come out before Apple
purchased back Power Computing's licence and said they would support the
PowerTower Clones.  If you are going to upgrade to less than 8.1, look for
a copy of 7.6.1,  This was suppose to be a relatively good install and
stable.  You may want to spring for a copy of the 8.1 OS if you can find
it, I have been using it with little trouble for about 3 months on a
PowerTower Pro Clone.  This definately does sound like an install problem.

P.S.  You don't have to do any Hard Disk format upgrading, unless you want
to take advantage of the new disk management software scheme introduced in
the 8.1 OS.  But you will need to reinstall the CD driver from your
original system disks. Hopfully it is still safe on your HD as mentioned
above in Graham's note.

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