Subject:     Norton Utils 4.0 Feedback
Date:        10/2/98 10:19 PM
Received:    10/3/98 12:22 AM

PowerCenterPro 240
64meg ram, RamDoubler 8.0.1
IBM UltraStar 2gig & Quantum Fireball 8.4gig
FWB HDT 2.5
HFS+
RD 8.0.1, Speed Doubler 8.1.1, Conflict Catcher 8.0, Toast 3.5.5,
and AppSwitcher Control.
NUM 4.0
MacOS 8.5 GM


This feedback is actually more for 8.5, but I'm responding to the guy's
problem w/ 8.5 and NUM.


You should warn all your readers about the 8.5 installer, it has a problem
with autodetect & auto-install stuff. One criticial problem is the 
"Option" button on the "Easy Install" screen, you have the selection of "Update 
Apple Hard Disk Drivers", make sure you check it off if you have any 3rd party
drivers. Even though it says that it can autodetect it, it doesn't.

This wasn't a problem in the alpha stage but it is in the beta and still 
exists in the GM.

When I installed my GM version, I forgot all about the "Update driver" 
thingy and it screwed up my driver partition, yes, the partition itself. I wasn't
aware of this until I ran NUM 4.0 and it saw problems left & right. I 
 also ran Norton 3.5, it reports same thing. Apple Disk Fist Aid doesn't report 
anything.

HDT reports my Quantum 8.4gig having 4gigs free, and 4 gigs used. 
Needless to say, I had fun backing up 7gigs & reformatting the HD. 
(The 2gig IBM HD wasn't  affected, since I didn't install 8.5 on that) 


The 8.5GM installer also fails to recognize my ATI Rage II chip and 
didn't install the ATI video. You also can't do a true custom install either. I selected 
it NOT to install the Internet Explorer but use Netscape and deselected all the 
printer drivers, Apple Menu junk, and numerous stuff I don't need. Well...
the installer installs 'em anyways.


I also ran a benchmark and the speeds are a bit disappointing.
I see only a 4-5% increase of speed from 8.0 (I can't use 8.1, unstable 
on my computer) unlike the 17% increase I saw in 8.5f7. Yeah, same setup 
between f7 & GM.

Video is still up there, thank god. 37% from 8.0, in f7, I saw 46%.

FPU is still the same as the betas, 6% increase. 
Disk, same, just 1-2% increase w/ 128k cache. It's different with 2meg  cache,
I see anywhere from 10-30% incr compared to same 2meg cache in OS 8.0



The common "bugs" or problems in beta stage are still in GM. The watch 
cursor problem, the bleached windows & pull down menus, and Now Menu's 
would once in a while cause the Finder to quit & re-run. 

Oh, this is a weird one that I've never saw in the betas, just the GM. 
When I installed RamDoubler, Conflict catcher, speed doubler, and update them as 
well, the installer programs would first bring up a window saying that it can't 
quit the finder. Press OK, then the finder quits and everything is fine.


One last thing, remind your viewers to double check their SCSI 
termination stuff. I installed my Yamaha CD burner couple days ago and 
found out that my on board SCSI-1 wasn't terminated correctly on the TEAC 16x CD.
 I saw transfer rates jumped from an average 3.3meg/sec to 4.1-4.3meg/sec on the
 Adaptec 2930 UltraNarrow card. Wasn't aware a small little jumper block can make 
such a big difference. [Note - Some Teac CDROM termination jumpers are opposite of
other drives, my Teac drive is Jumper on to *disable* termination-Mike]