Re: System 6.0 Reliability

[meekins@tortoise.cis.ohio-state.edu (Tim Meekins)]

In article <SKNKWRKS.92Dec10194050@sonny-boy.cs.unlv.edu> sknkwrks@sonny-boy.cs.unlv.edu (Scott Alfter) writes:
>Is it just me, or is System 6.0 an awfully flaky system?
> 
>I've only started messing with it in the past few weeks.  The system
>almost never fails to crash at least once a day...usually more often
>than that.  I've had to reinstall the system twice in the past 24
>hours.  Files would seem to be corrupted, but the Finder insists that
>the integrity of both of my partitions is OK.  What gives?  It can't
>be a memory shortage as I now have 4.25 megs in the system.  Aside
>from a (properly-configured...I think) RamFAST, nothing particularly
>exotic is in my system...and the RamFAST has always worked great
>before.  I'm used to the knock-on-wood reliability of ProDOS
>8...unless there's something wrong with the System 6 installation
>disks I was given, I have more than a few doubts about the reliability
>of GS System 6.0.
> 
>The big question: has anybody else had problems?  Things are happening
>that simply shouldn't happen.  Most of the problems seem to be in the
>Finder...sometimes you close a directory and the system crashes.
>Sometimes you go to start up a cdev and the system crashes.  It's
>extremely frustrating sometimes...sometimes even a reboot won't clear
>the problem, and that's when I have to reinstall from floppies.
> 
>If you're not having such a wide assortment of problems, could you
>provide me with some information on your system configuration--
>including the software you use?  I don't even have that much in the
>way of GS-specific software that I use...but the system crashed on me
>once while trying to load ProDOS 8 so I could load ProTERM!  The only
>GS-specific software that's seen much use so far has been the
>following:
> 
>* SHRConvert (an old version--and I need a better GIF viewer anyway)
>* soniqTRACKER (pre-1.0--and I know this program has some bugs that
>                sometimes cause it to crash, but it shouldn't cause
>                the Finder to crash)
>* IconEd (old program, but I haven't had any problems with it so far)
>* AudioZap (no problems, other than that it's nagware)
>* Teach (no problems here)
> 
>Who knows...maybe soniqTRACKER is causing some problems (and it's used
>more than the other software), but that still doesn't explain the
>Finder's seeming lack of reliability.  Any clues?
> 

I think you have some something majorly wrong in your system....maybe you 
shoudl try re-installing system 6.0.

I've been using system 6.0 daily since it was released and i've never
had unexplained crashes (and the crashes I have had are rare and usually
explainable)..

I wrote soniqTracker which you mention, and I know of -NO- outstanding
crash bugs in it. If you can -consistently- crash it let me know. I've
never seen soniqTracker crash since about version .4. it's possible i have
a rare strange bug in it, but i've never seen one occur. i've had a few
reports quit crashes, but no way to verify it was actually soniqTracker
and no way to reproduce it.

do you have any strange or suspecious INITs/DAs/CDEVs that could be causing
you trouble?

TIM MEEKINS                    Ask me about GNO/ME! - MultiTasking on a IIGS!
meekins@cis.ohio-state.edu     Procyon, Inc., 11738 Aqueduct Drive
AOL: GNO Tim2 (@aol.com)       Littleton, CO 80127   (303) 933-4649
                          
      "Computers aren't intelligent, they just think they are."