planting@cs.pitt.edu (Professor Harry Plantinga) (04/17/91)
I recently purchased a Quantum LPS52 internal disk drive from MacTel. A day or two after I ordered it, I read a message from someone who was having problems with a Quantum LPS drive. That message stated that there was a bug in the Quantum ROM. Sure enough, when I installed mine the computer crashes occasionally on exiting to the Finder and occasionally won't launch an application. These problems occur even with virgin system software. I haven't had it crash in an application yet, I don't think. Does anyone have any more information? Is Quantum supplying new ROMs? Does anyone have an address or phone number for Quantum? ---------- Harry Plantinga planting@cs.pitt.edu
planting@cs.pitt.edu (Professor Harry Plantinga) (04/19/91)
In article <10424@pitt.UUCP> planting@cs.pitt.edu (I) wrote: > I recently purchased a Quantum LPS52 internal disk drive from MacTel. A > day or two after I ordered it, I read a message from someone who was > having problems with a Quantum LPS drive. That message stated that there > was a bug in the Quantum ROM. > > Sure enough, when I installed mine the computer crashes occasionally on > exiting to the Finder and occasionally [has other problems]. Just a follow-up to this message. I contacted tech-support at the place I ordered this disk and got more information. When I ordered this disk, I specified mounting hardware for a Mac II. It turns out that the disk is also formatted for a Mac II, and cannot be used on a slower mac. Furthermore it cannot be reformatted to be used with a slower mac--doing so "blows the EPROM" or something like that. It has to be sent back to the factory. Sure enough, the disk runs without crashing on my mac II, but crashes on my mac plus. The vendor is going to replace the disk with one formatted for a mac plus. Moral: there seems to be some problem with reformatting these disks for slower computers. Be sure to get one formatted for the slowest computer you will use it with. ---------- Harry Plantinga planting@cs.pitt.edu
Don.Noll@p3425.f421.n109.z1.Fidonet.Org (Don Noll) (04/20/91)
PH> Just a follow-up to this message. I contacted tech-support at the place PH> I PH> ordered this disk and got more information. PH> PH> When I ordered this disk, I specified mounting hardware for a Mac II. It PH> PH> turns out that the disk is also formatted for a Mac II, and cannot be PH> used PH> on a slower mac. Furthermore it cannot be reformatted to be used with a PH> PH> slower mac--doing so "blows the EPROM" or something like that. It has to PH> PH> be sent back to the factory. PH> PH> Sure enough, the disk runs without crashing on my mac II, but crashes on PH> PH> my mac plus. The vendor is going to replace the disk with one formatted PH> PH> for a mac plus. PH> PH> Moral: there seems to be some problem with reformatting these disks for PH> PH> slower computers. Be sure to get one formatted for the slowest computer PH> PH> you will use it with. PH> Professor, the difference betwwen the formatting on a Plus and a Mac II is in the INTERLEAVE. The Plus <Without help from a read ahead cache> will still read a disk formatted for a MacII but at a reduced speed. The formatting software they are selling with the drive SHOULD be able to change the interleave itself. An eprom on a SCSI drive is an interesting idea, but I think the ROM in the machine is the problem. Suggested interleave factors for macs are as follows, 1/1 for MacII and faster(including SE/30), 2/1 for SE, 3/1 for a Mac Plus. * Origin: Not a cowboy, just a c'lone woof! (1:109/421.3425)
stevel@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Steve Ligett) (05/02/91)
It's very hard to decide what UseNet articles you can believe. Some things that I've believed have turned out to be false, and some of the most outlandish things have turned out to be true. If it weren't for the fact that we are about to place an order for 100 of the Quantum LPS52's, I would have ignored postings about problems with them as being outlandish. However, I spent most of yesterday formatting and loading various drivers onto an LPS52, just to watch them crash and burn under 6.0.7. (How? Among the bombs I remember were "Coprocessor not Installed", and Stack and Heap Collision".) I used an SE, and a Classic, with drivers from Unimac, Questronex, and a few that I borrowed just for the experiment. Frankly, I didn't isolate the problem enough to be able to point my finger at anyone. The 6.0.7 that I loaded on the LPS52 had about 30 inits in it, but it all works well on the Quantum P40, and it seems to work on the LPS52 with 6.0.5. Is that clear? The older Quantum drives are solid under any Apple software, and the LPS52 seems to work under older system software. When I reached Quantum's tech support, they were kind of nodding their heads towards Apple, indicating that Apple goofed up. However, with System 7 all but out the door, Apple isn't interested in putting out a 6.08.... I didn't call Apple to get their view of the problem. Quantum said that they are testing new firmware to get rid of the problem. So, I called Marshall Industries (our Quantum supplier), and said that the 100 drive order is on hold. I believe that Marshall will attempt to get me the new firmware as soon as possible to try out. Wierd. Outlandish, eh? Time to look at the Maxtor 7040s, I guess. -- steve.ligett@dartmouth.edu or ...!dartvax!steve.ligett