Faxcillitate Bugs Me

(some bugs that tech support won't help fix....)


Faxcilitate is a highly flexable fax software utility created by Diamond Multimedia for use with their popular PSI and Supra lines of fax modems.

I really like Faxcilitate, and when its compared against the two other major players in the Macintosh fax software field, is the hands down best package. Well, maybe its not, but I've grown used to the menu driven ease of use of Faxcillitate, so when it doesn't work, it really drives me nuts.

And it doesn't work for reasonably frequently. Diamonds support is VERY BAD, trying to get them to help you usually involves 10 minutes of listening to bad musak before they pick up and then having them deny that there is a problem....

Listed below are the problems I have had so far with Faxcilitate and what I had to do to fix them. Tech support was no help for either of these, and I hope putting this on line might help some folks avoid the hastles I went through.


The opinions on this page are mine. This is not an offical Diamond page. If you use my advice and something bad happens to your computer, its your problem, use at own risk.

Please email me if you have anything you would like included on this page.


Crashing On Group Faxing
and Problems with 030 Macintosh and OS 7.6.x

Problem:
Faxcilitate WILL CRASH when attempting to group fax or multiple fax if you are using a 68030 Macintosh running OS 7.6 or higher and Faxcilitate 2.X.

The evidence:
Computer locked up after sending first fax of group fax, or multiple fax (2 or more different documents waiting to be sent sequentially.) Computer had to be hard restarted

I experienced this problem with both my Powerbook 150 (an 030/33) and with my IIci (an 030/25). I tested it with 7.6 and 7.6.1, and used a SupraExpress 33.6 a Supra Express 14.4 Plus and a Supra PB28.8.

2.I, 2.1, and 2.3.1 versions of Faxcilitate were installed on to freshly installed 7.6.1 with no third party extensions or control panels installed and all exhibited the same problems. Faxcilitate 1.7 did not crash.

Solution:

  • use Faxcilitate 1.7 if you have it, and you don't need halftone faxing (that was introduced with 2.0).
    - or -
  • use sytem 7.5.3 update 2, a very stable version of the Mac OS, and and 2.x version of Faxcilitate.
  • Comment:
    Many folks out there who still use 030 computers are owed to opportunity to have the latest OS and the latest fax software work together properly. Also, some small office enviroments like mine often use 030s, 040s, and PPC Macs right along side one another, and it is difficult to want to buy a newer Diamond product if they don't continue to demonstrate support for their older products.

     


    I can't import text and tabs data into the fax phone book,
    so whats the #@$! is the point of using a contact manager?

    Problem:
    Faxcilitate gives an "invalid data" error when you attempt to export contact information to text and tabs and import it into the fax phone book.

    The evidence:
    Frigging error message was driving me insane, and the tech support people acted like I was an alien. Iwas trying to export my 1,000 contact database from Now Contact 3.6.5 to text and tabs so I wouldn't have to enter all those numbers twice! It rejected 99% of my contacts every time.

    It was driving me insane, I tell you, and was a major drag on my productivity.

    Solution:

  • set your contact manager preferences so that your phone numbers do not contain LETTERS or ANY SYMBOLS. (xxx) xxx-xxxx or just xxx xxx xxxx are the only acceptable formats for Faxcilitate, or the files will be rejected. Now Contact lets you store numbers as xxx.xxx.xxxx.
  • Comment:
    All I have to say is that FaxSTF 3.2.5 has NO PROBLEM importing numbers with periods between them, and Faxcilitate should be updated to be at least that robust!


    If there is something you would like to see here,
    or you would like to share a problem and hopefully workaround of your own,
    email me!

    Back to Waye's page.