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| B&W G3 Rev 1 Disk Corruption Test Utility: |
| Reader Tim Seufert sent his Disk Corruption test utility (click here to download it) mentioned in last week's news. See the readme file for more info on the utility. For those that missed his comments in last Wednesday's news, he noted that although he originally thought his rev 1 B&W G3 with an IBM 75GXP drive was immune to the data corruption issues that IDE chip has with replacement drives, using a tester he wrote discovered otherwise. Here's a repeat of his comments:
"
Mike,
Could you update the drive database entry for my Rev1 B&W with a
75GXP to show that I have corruption? I recently wrote a better
corruption tester tool and have found that there are very rare read
errors (though I've never found a write error).
Small SMI tests will not discover this. It took writing a 2GB test
file with multiple readback passes to uncover it (and sometimes it
will pass even that test, so multiple test iterations are a good
thing).
Also, I'd like to distribute the tester through your site so that
xlr8yourmac readers can use it for better corruption testing. It
doesn't have a GUI interface because I wrote it to easily compile
under either Linux or MacOS, but it should be fairly straightforward
to use. You just tell it how many test iterations to run, the size
of the test file, and the number of verification passes to do after
writing the file, and it goes and does its thing.
Unlike SMI checksum tests, it can detect literally any error
(checksums can be fooled). It works by writing a file filled with a
(repeatable) pseudorandom sequence. After the file is created, it
reads it back and compares the file against the recreated sequence.
If any discrepancy is found, it logs it and prints a warning.
Tim Seufert
" This issue has been noted here since about spring 1999 when it was first discovered. Tim's going to send his tester for posting here, so that rev 1 B&W G3 owners can download it for use on their machines. The safest bet for adding/replacing drives on a rev 1 is to use a PCI IDE card. (Although some readers have used the slower CDROM channel and ZIP bay, Apple doesn't recommend the ZIP bay be used for hard drives, due to possible heat issues I assume.) If you have a B&W G3 and it has the dual drive stacked bracket and dual drive cable, then you have a rev 2 model with the revised IDE controller. There were some interim models shipped without the dual drive bracket however, but with the revised IDE chip according to past reports. To check the IDE chip, see the B&W G3 rev 2 page here which shows where the IDE chip is located and the marking on the revised chip.
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| Reader Tip for Adding Plextor 8x20 CDR Support to iTunes: |
As noted last week on the feedback page here, iTunes 1.1 supports the Plextor 8220 drive (8x2x20x) but not the 820 (8x20x CDR) model. A reader sent a note on how he added support for the 820 drive:
Hello Mike,
I have a SCSI Plextor 8/20 CDR drive on my G4 and was a bit disturbed to find that iTunes had support for the 8/2/20 CD/RW, but not my own. I took
some time out to edit the data fork of the PlextorCDR file in the Authoring
Support Files of the Extensions folder, and viola! I can burn!
Note that
this probably drops support for the 8/2/20 CD/RW drive, but it should help
some of your readers out there.
Dave Rosen"
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| CPU Upgrades Owner Ratings Database Updated: |
| The Rate Your CPU Upgrade database has been updated with 10 new reports (total to date: 5,300). [Entries from after midnight EST will be added the following day.]
- Formac Carrier card w/G3/233 ZIF in 7600 (rated 5)
- Newer Tech G3/500 in 7500 (rated 7)
- Newer Tech CC ZIF Socket Card in 7600/132 (rated 7)
- Other World Computing G3/400 in Beige G3 (rated 9)
- Powerlogix Zforce in 7500 (rated 10)
- Sonnet G4/400 in 7500 (rated 10)
- XLR8 CarrierZIF w/G3 400 ZIF in Umax S900 (rated 10)
- XLR8 CarrierZIF (MAChCarrier) G3/500 in PowerCenter pro (rated 10)
- B&W G3/300 OC report
- Beige G3/233 OC report
You can find these full reports by searching the database selecting the indicated Mac model and upgrade card brand/type. If you've upgraded the CPU on your Mac, please post an entry in the database. Search the database for entries from most every upgradable Mac model *before* you buy. (Searchable by mac model/upgrade brand). For detailed reviews with performance tests and install tips, see the CPU Upgrades page.)
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| CDRW/CD/DVD/HD Compatibility Database Updates: |
The Drive Compatibility searchable database had 58 new entries added this morning including CDRWs, Combo DVD-CDRWs, and Hard Drives. (Current total 3,050 reports). Entries from after midnight are added the following day. [BTW - the drive database is not a place to post questions, it's for reports on drives you've used. For guides to drive installs, see the IDE, SCI or Firewire articles here and/or the FAQ. Thanks.]
You can find full owner reports by searching the database by drive/brand/interface/mac models (the latest reports are shown first in searches).
If you've added a IDE, SCSI, Firewire or USB hard drive, CDRW, tape drive, etc. make sure you add a report to the database.
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| Video Card/System Benchmark Performance Database Updated: |
| Updates to the Mac Game/Video Card Performance database included:
- Unreal Tournament (800x600) results from Beige G3/400 w/Radeon PCI card
- Unreal Tournament demo (832x624) from Beige G3/266 w/Radeon PCI card
- Quake3 1.27g (640x480,800x600,1024x768) results from Beige G3/400 w/Radeon PCI card
- CineBench 2000 results from Beige G3/500 w/Radeon PCI card
- CineBench 2000 results from Beige G3/233 w/Radeon PCI card
- CineBench 2000 results from 54/64/6500 (603/200mhz) w/onboard video
- Throughput 1.5 results from 54/64/6500 (603/200mhz) w/onboard video
- Throughput 1.5 results from B&W G3/400 w/Radeon PCI card
- Throughput 1.5 results from Beige G3/233 w/Radeon PCI card
Total entries in the database to date: 2,490. If you haven't already, enter your results with any of the game titles or benchmarks listed on the entry page (details on how to test are there). If you're curious how a CPU upgrade or new Video card would help game performance, the search page options can help you find similar system/configurations to get an idea before you buy.
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