This version should address the following problem:
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"The SCSI Manager Update corrects a timing issue that may occur on some PowerBase computers when external SCSI devices are connected. PowerBase computers experiencing this issue will hang at the gray screen presented during the startup process and progress no further."
It is VERY important that you become familiar with the read me file, especially the known issues. Customers should be ENCOURAGED to study the read me.
Who needs the update:
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- PowerBase customers using ONLY SCSI Hard disk devices who are freezing at startup due to a scanner or other SCSI device being attached.
The problem has most often been reported with UMAX scanners. Customers who are not experiencing the issue should not use the update. Based on some reports that Chris Heatherly has run, only between 2,000-3,000 PowerBase machines shipped with an internal SCSI hard drive. We estimate maybe 200-300 of these customers have scanners or other devices that may cause the issue.
Who does NOT need the update:
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- customers using FWB 2.05 (it already applies the patch code)
- customers with an internal IDE drive, whether they have external SCSI devices or not. They can apply the 6360/54xx/64xx update to their internal IDE drive.
Issues to remember (also covered in the read me file):
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1) Customers should backup their drive/data before applying the patch and fix and current disk damage with Disk First Aid or Norton Utilities.
The patch works at the disk driver/partition level. If there is any weird corruption on the drive, the patch may cause damage. Backing up and making sure the drive is in good shape assures a successful application of the patch.
2) Drives should only have ONE HFS partition.
Due to the way the patch has to be applied, it will only work if there is one partition. The application will warn if there are too many partitions. Only solution is to backup and reformat to one partition, and then apply the patch.
3) Do not use FWB 1.7.7 or earlier to update the driver after applying the patch.
This will be the MOST IMPORTANT issue. Because FWB 1.x does not recognize patch partitions and the way they are implemented, after applying the patch, FWB 1.7.7 or earlier will say the driver on the disk is no longer an FWB driver. This message is wrong. What is happening is that FWB only looks at the active driver which is code Power put on the drive to load the patch. Then, the patch loads the real driver. Sort of a chain.... FWB can not walk the chain and find the real driver.
The SCSI Manager Update does install FWB's 1.7.7 driver. The user is up to date. Customers should ignore the message and hit cancel.
If they update the driver, the patch chain is broken. The update application can not fix the chain of drivers and patches. Only solution is to back up and reformat and apply the patch or to use FWB 2.05 to update the drive.
IMPORTANT FOR TECH SUPPORT: If you have a PowerBase customer with a SCSI disk drive and they get the message about a non-FWB driver controlling the disk, ASK IF THEY HAVE APPLIED THE SCSI MANAGER UPDATE. If so, ignore the message by hitting cancel.
4) Sometimes the machine will still freeze after applying the update
Hard drives have to spin up to speed at startup. We found in testing that some drives do not spin-up fast enough (IBM DORS). When this happens, the MacOS will start to scan the rest of the SCSI bus. It will hit the scanner and freeze if the drive has not spun up in time to load the patch.
The solution: Select the disk in the startup disk control panel. This will cause the MacOS to wait longer for the drive to spin up. This allows the patch to load before the OS scans the SCSI bus.
Final Comments
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The best long term solution for customers is to upgrade to FWB 2.05 or later. However, some customers want a cheaper, short term solution. The SCSI Manager Update allows customers to stay with the 1.77 version of the FWB driver. That driver was not engineered for these types of OS fixes and hence there are a few issues as documented above.
In the future Apple will probably deliver other patches via this mechanism. Only FWB 2.05 or later will support that patch mechanism. Apple has documented this patch feature for 3rd party driver vendors. Future OS patches will only be supported via an upgrade to 2.05.
There was much discussion about whether to proceed with release of the patch or to upgrade everyone to FWB 2.05. This was due to some of the issues with the update application as mentioned above. The decision made was to release the patch because it would fix customer problems now. Customers have been waiting and waiting. Moving to 2.05 would have involved even more time and customers have been waiting too long.
Machines Affected: PowerBase