Firewire and Pro Tools (A mess)

[lupe]

That seems right. The question is when will they release a "Native" FW drive. Though, according to the tests, it seems like they are meeting the original expectations of the Firewire thruput standard with these last batches. Who knows? Either way, it's way of seperating us from our money. And that seems to be the point, right?

[cheese2]

While we're on the topic of FireWire drives, has anyone had experience with drives using the new "second generation" IDE to firewre bridges? Most of the drives I have seen are still using the original chipset, which maxes out at a paltry 10MB/sec. The new chipset supposedly will do 40MB/sec which is up in scsi range and should be more than adequate for even large sessions. So far, the only manufacturer I have confirmed to be using them is Ganite Digital. Has anyone got their drives? Do any other drives use the new chips? If so, how do they run?

Thanks,

Cheese

[Rader Ranch]

Carefuly with the Firmware update!!!!! If you have 3rd party RAM it may disappear! Check the following...

http://lowendmac.com/musings/foot.html

[Rader Ranch]

...and more on the firmware subject from macfixit...

TUE: March 27, 2001
Late-Breakers
Mac OS X Late-Breakers today:
Vendors on Mac OS X compatibility; more


Apple firmware updates: more follow-ups; a possible solution?

We have several further reports today on the continuing issue of the recent Apple firmware updates and potential loss of access to memory after installing the update. We hope this will be the last time we need to post info on this matter pending more information from Apple. Here goes:

Possible solutions We have already posted several reader suggestions for solving this problem. None seems universally successful. So here are some more:


Turn off Startup Memory Tests Several readers suggested that disabling the Memory control panel's startup tests may resolve the problem. To do this, hold down the Command-Option keys when you launch the control panel. A new option called Startup Memory Tests will appear. Click to turn the option off.


Data Memory System (DMS) has a web page where they suggest that turning memory tests off before you install the update may actually prevent the problem in the first place. After the firmware update has been installed, it will be okay to turn the memory tests back on. (Thanks, John Protopapas.)


Swap slots Eric Wolbrom had the memory loss problem in his Pismo PowerBook. he solved it by swapping the memory cards, moving the original card to the third party slot and vice versa.


Replies from RAM vendors


NewerRAM reply A reader received this reply from NewerRAM: "Yes, we are aware of the problem. We tested every density in Macs upgraded with the new firmware and have had no problems so far. A few people have brought this issue to our attention, but so far no complaints with NewerRAM."

RamJet reply Hal Stoen writes: "RamJet said that they had checked all of their RAM in stock, and found no problems. Further, RamJet said that they would replace my RAM if there was any problem. There was none. The update went smoothly, all ram recognized."

Coast to Coast reply Coast To Coast Memory told Simon Chapman they would not replace his RAM if it failed after the update.


Other information


Using test utilities George Snover suggests that utilities such as Apple Hardware Test and TechTool Pro will only correctly report potential memory problems if the RAM is tested on a machine that has not yet had the firmware update installed.

MicroMat informed Donna Hafford: "Unfortunately, Apple has proprietary information that does not allow us to make the determination of compatibility. We are only checking to make sure that the physically installed RAM is not damaged."

The problem is the firmware, not the RAM David Lerner (of Tekserve) writes: "I disagree on the idea that the Apple RAM test in the new firmware is 'less tolerant' of bad RAM. Industry standard PC100 RAM is supposed to work in Macs whether it is 3-2-2 (the slower cheaper type that Apple mostly uses) or the faster 2-2-2 RAM that most resellers carry. It seems to me that there is a defect in the new firmware's ability to test or recognize 2-2-2 RAM. The fault is in the firmware, not the RAM. We have thousands of dollars worth of RAM testers in our shop, and the RAM that isn't working with the new firmware is perfectly good RAM that meets all PC100 specs."

Thomas Carey concurs: "I did some testing, and out of over 2 dozen DIMMS, all of the PC100 322 worked, and non of the PC100 2-2-2 worked."


Other issues


CD/DVD tray eject Several readers have now confirmed the related glitch (first noted in yesterday's report) where the CD/DVD tray opens on every restart after installing the update. This can happen even if you do not also get the memory problem. We have no solution for this as yet.

USB problems Several readers also confirmed USB-related problems after the update (also noted yesterday), including Open Firmware errors at startup if a USB hub was attached. Clearly, not all readers are having this problem.


News from Apple


Apple investigating A posting on Apple's Discussion Boards states: "Yes, we are investigating these and other reports of issues with the update. When we have more information available, we will post it." (Thanks, Michael Colvin.) They are also soliciting feedback at this posting. (Thanks, John Strung.)

New firmware update coming? A reader contacted Club Mac about the memory problem with RAM sold by Club Mac. The rep said that they had spoken to Apple and Apple had told them they would be releasing a new firmware update to fix this problem soon. No exact date had been provided.


Finally, bear in mind that many users have successfully upgraded - even with 2-2-2 RAM. Still, we recommend caution here...

[tomcat]

I'm confused. Not only am I scared to update the firmware, but when I went to the firmwarelink posted above, it seemed to just be for the cube. Is this true? what gives? obviously none of us are using the cube with protools...

[lupe]

Tomcat
I did the update on both my G4s. I had none of the issues with third party RAM(thank god) that has been reported. I don't know why that link takes you to the cube. Here's what happened though with the Firmware Update. Previous to the update, when copying from one FW drive to another, it would hang. After the firmware update, it no longer hanged! I'm using 13 FW drives!!! It looks like Apple addressed some FW drive issues. But guess what? 2 days later both G4s are hanging up again! Nothing has changed! What gives? I don't know. I would stay away from this update. The potential for a useless computer is not worth it. Beside it hasn't helped what it was suppose to! Go figue.

[tomcat]

yikes! this is such a crazy dance we must do!!! I was using firewire drives without trouble with 5.01. now i get 9073 errors all the time, even with reformatted drives and smaller sessions. So I am tempted to see if this update fixes anything. NOw I'm scared though. Deadline pressure this week. Can't afford to render my rig useless right now. Ugh. Thanks for the info. I did find the right updater on the apple site.

[lupe]

Tomcat
It sounds like your having the problems I had a few weeks back. As time went by the "disk to slow" error increased until it was unbearable. While I can't say Ive completely resolved my firewire problems, I do have a working system. Here's what I did.

I moved to OS9.1 with Firewire Ext 2.8.1. I then got "heat" utilities (this is free software). 1st, with the heat ext off, I formatted the firewire drives using the "erase disk" from the "special" menu. I then activated the heat extension and rebooted. This will allow you to run some diagnostic tests on your firewire drives. One good thing about heat is the diagnostic tests are easy to understand. One of my major problems was that some of my firewire drives had some how gone funky (but they seemingly still worked). This heat utility found the problem drives ( the "1Mg read/write speed" tests were very slow on my problem drives.). The contoller card had bitten the dust, but not completely. This caused the "disk too slow" errors in Pro tools. This may be part of your problem. You might run the heat tests on your drives just to find that out. You don't have to format the the drive to run these tests. Just turn off any other 3rd party firewire extensions and activate the heat extension. That should do the job.
Now here's the catch, for some reason, when the Heat extension is active, my Pro Tools doesn't like some files (or should I say a lot of my files). This is only true when the Heat Extension is active. When in the import window, it may not play back certain files. The files are not corrupted. So to get my system working what I've done is use a firewire drive for digital video, the other FW drives for FX, but only as a server. I actually copy the sounds to a SCSI drive for the PT to access in a traditional way. One of your controller cards could of eaten it. I am currently playing with Radiological Extensions to see where that may take me. Any ideas?
This firmware update for the G4 is not good. It helped with the firewire and then ..it just stopped working. I hadn't added anything to either computer. I'm back to third party extensions.

I sure wish Apple would get their **** together! It seems clear that a lot of Mac die hards are starting to wonder about Apple(or at least firewire), especially after this lame firmware update. Who cares about OS X if you can't turn on your computer?