Re: USB plug & case sparks

[Gary D.]

> The hub works fine still, but somehow  
> this seems wrong. Has anyone else seen sparks between USB plugs and  
> their cases?

Your might try rotating the plug of the computer OR the power supply
of the hub to bring the two sources into phase although it is probably
harmless.

G. D.

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Re: Recommended bootable external Firewire drives for G4 MDD Dual-1Gb

[Dan]

At 9:08 AM -0700 8/16/2010, artemis wrote:
Dan, I tried setting up a clone and booting it from a couple of my 
USB externals using the option key as you suggested - in my case, 
the drive appeared in the list - but when I selected it, it wouldn't 
launch (even when left for a half- hour) - not do-able with those 
particular external cases, I guess!


I've been playing with this myself, with very inconsistent results. 
I've got one external box that works only sometimes!  SimpleTech USB 
(IDE internal).  If the drive spins down before the boot gets going, 
it never spins back up.  And the box is fairly well sound-proofed -- 
so it's very difficult to hear if that's what happened!  :\


FWIW,
- Dan.
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Re: Recommended bootable external Firewire drives for G4 MDD Dual-1Gb

[Dan]

At 9:08 AM -0700 8/16/2010, artemis wrote:

So I'm looking at a few options, the LaCie Quadra among them . . .


After using USB drives for a while now, I gotta put in another "vote" 
for firewire.  Even if it's just FW400, it will really really really 
outperform USB.  Definitely worth the xtra $.


- Dan.
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- Psychoceramic Emeritus; South Jersey, USA, Earth.

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Re: USB plug & case sparks

[Richard Gerome]

   It is probably just a static spark if you can only see it in the dark??? Try 
sticking a piece of contact paper around the USB port (or ports) by carefully 
cutting out holes around the USB ports, this should act like an insulator and 
keep this from happening, you may have to double up the layers if it is a 
strong spark..? Or unplug what ever the USB plug is from first if it is a 
powered devise, and see if it still does this???   




-Original Message-
>From: John Carmonne 
>Sent: Aug 16, 2010 11:06 PM
>To: g3-5-list@googlegroups.com
>Subject: Re: USB plug & case sparks
>
>
>On Aug 16, 2010, at 7:58 PM, Kris Tilford wrote:
>
>> I've got a G5 PowerMac which has the full metal case. Last night I was 
>> plugging and unplugging a powered USB hub in the dark, and I noticed that 
>> simply touching the metal of the USB plug to the metal of the case caused a 
>> small visible spark between the plug and the case. This seems wrong to me, 
>> and I'm a little worried. The spark was very tiny, but it was consistent, 
>> and wasn't enough to do anything abnormal like pop a fuse or ruin anything. 
>> The hub works fine still, but somehow this seems wrong. Has anyone else seen 
>> sparks between USB plugs and their cases?
>> 
>> 
>I've seen it on one of the Cubes and it's unsettling so I'm very careful about 
>plugging in live now. I did ruin a TiBook with a power adapter  6mos ago.
>
>John Carmonne
>Yorba Linda USA
>Sent from my MBP
>
>
>
>-- 
>You received this message because you are a member of G-Group, a group for 
>those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power 
>Macs.
>The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette 
>guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml
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Scars only tell us where we have been, they do not have to dictate where we are 
going...

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Re: USB plug & case sparks

[Jonas Lopez]

This is from out of phase ac connection, you would be wise to get a plug 
checker at the electrical store, they cost about $ 5. with lights to tell you 
the wiring error, but you still can cause this even after the check passes the 
wiring by using non-polarized plugs.

This is a quick fix. 

Also, in the primary of the Mac power supply is a resistor and a capacitor that 
need to reduce RFI but that can be only parlty connected, try a different Mac 
to see if it sparks.

JML.
>On Aug 16, 2010, at 7:58 PM, Kris Tilford wrote:
>
>> I've got a G5 PowerMac which has the full metal case. Last night I was 
>> plugging and unplugging a powered USB hub in the dark, and I noticed that 
>> simply touching the metal of the USB plug to the metal of the case caused a 
>> small visible spark between the plug and the case. This seems wrong to me, 
>> and I'm a little worried. The spark was very tiny, but it was consistent, 
>> and wasn't enough to do anything abnormal like pop a fuse or ruin anything. 
>> The hub works fine still, but somehow this seems wrong. Has anyone else seen 
>> sparks between USB plugs and their cases?
>> 
>> 
>I've seen it on one of the Cubes and it's unsettling so I'm very careful about 
>plugging in live now. I did ruin a TiBook with a power adapter  6mos ago.
>
>John Carmonne
>Yorba Linda USA
>Sent from my MBP




  

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Re: Recommended bootable external Firewire drives for G4 MDD Dual-1Gb

[iJohn]

On Mon, Aug 16, 2010 at 1:45 PM, onelucent  wrote:
> These are compact, come in much larger sizes than the early days
> and can be purchased with 7200 rpm mechanisms.

FWIW, using a 7200 RPM drive as a USB 2.0 or even FW 400 attached
external drive doesn't really buy you anything extra.

Unless you use eSATA, USB 3.0, or FW 800 the throughput of the drive
is going to be limited by the bus used to connect the external drive.
It's sort of like buying a performance car that you know you'll only
drive around town and never take over 45 MPH.

I don't think there's any reason to pay extra for 7200 RPM if you know
you'll only use it in a context where the performance of a recent 5400
RPM with high bit density platters could be just as good.

-irrational john

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Re: Recommended bootable external Firewire drives for G4 MDD Dual-1Gb

[Dan]

At 12:56 PM -0400 8/17/2010, iJohn wrote:

On Mon, Aug 16, 2010 at 1:45 PM, onelucent  wrote:

 These are compact, come in much larger sizes than the early days
 and can be purchased with 7200 rpm mechanisms.


FWIW, using a 7200 RPM drive as a USB 2.0 or even FW 400 attached
external drive doesn't really buy you anything extra.

Unless you use eSATA, USB 3.0, or FW 800 the throughput of the drive
is going to be limited by the bus used to connect the external drive.
It's sort of like buying a performance car that you know you'll only
drive around town and never take over 45 MPH.


Ok.  You are correct, to a point.

The raw media transfer rate of a 5400 rpm disk *is* faster than USB 2 
or FW400 can throw data.  Typical is 800 to 1200 Mbps (depending on 
various factors - number of heads/platters, cache size, etc).   By 
comparison, an inexpensive 7200 rpm drive can usually throw at 1200 
to 2000 Mbps.


The problem is access time, aka seek+latency - the time it takes for 
the heads to reach a track, then the delay until the required sectors 
spin around to reach the head.  Quite often I've found that 7200 rpm 
drives will outperform slower drives simply because of the much lower 
access time, plus the fact that they usually have larger buffers, so 
you can read or write a whole track at once.


YMMV.

- Dan.
--
- Psychoceramic Emeritus; South Jersey, USA, Earth.

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Re: USB plug & case sparks

[Illirik Smirnov]

You may have a coolant leak that conducts electricity from the PSU to your
USB device. Just an insane thought, but it happened to me. Has the computer
had any wierd operation?
Sent from a computer running either the SPARC, Itanium, or PowerPC
architecture.


On Tue, Aug 17, 2010 at 11:20 AM, Jonas Lopez  wrote:

>   This is from out of phase ac connection, you would be wise to get a plug
> checker at the electrical store, they cost about $ 5. with lights to tell
> you the wiring error, but you still can cause this even after the check
> passes the wiring by using non-polarized plugs.
>
> This is a quick fix.
>
> Also, in the primary of the Mac power supply is a resistor and a capacitor
> that need to reduce RFI but that can be only parlty connected, try a
> different Mac to see if it sparks.
>
> JML.
>
>  >On Aug 16, 2010, at 7:58 PM, Kris Tilford wrote:
> >
> >> I've got a G5 PowerMac which has the full metal case. Last night I was
> plugging and unplugging a powered USB hub in the dark, and I noticed that
> simply touching the metal of the USB plug to the metal of the case caused a
> small visible spark between the plug and the case. This seems wrong to me,
> and I'm a little worried. The spark was very tiny, but it was consistent,
> and wasn't enough to do anything abnormal like pop a fuse or ruin anything.
> The hub works fine still, but somehow this seems wrong. Has anyone else seen
> sparks between USB plugs and their cases?
> >>
> >>
> >I've seen it on one of the Cubes and it's unsettling so I'm very careful
> about plugging in live now. I did ruin a TiBook with a power adapter  6mos
> ago.
> >
> >John Carmonne
> >Yorba Linda USA
> >Sent from my MBP
>
>
> --
> You received this message because you are a member of G-Group, a group for
> those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power
> Macs.
> The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our
> netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml
> To post to this group, send email to g3-5-list@googlegroups.com
> For more options, visit this group at
> http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list
>

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Re: Need an old SCSI Manager (from OS 8.0 or earlier)

[stewie]

This article http://lowendmac.com/tech/scsi5.shtml may shed some light
although I have usually found with SCSI that it is usually a SCSI ID
or termination problem that is the culprit.
OS7.6 I think was the first OS that used SCSI manager 4.3 so if you
can find someone that has 7.6 installed and ask them to send you the
file , it may help.


Stewie

>
> I have an old scanner application which conflicts with the SCSI
> Manager of OS 8.1.
>
> I was told I have to replace the SCSI Manager with an older version:
> from OS 8.0 or OS 7.6.

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Re: Sawtooth replacement

[MnDel]

Hmmm, I do like the idea of using two HD's as you've described. I am
tempted to just go for an early G5 tower.
However (embarrassed lowering of head) I am so far not behind the
8ball I do not even know about Dual processors. For instance, is a
'Dual 1.0 GHz' made of two 1.0 GHz processors side by side - giving it
4 times the speed, 4 times the amperage draw, and 4 times the noise of
my old 500 Sawtooth?
   A whole different tack, and do forgive my ignorance again, could
possibly be a laptop ? - can a laptop power my 18" Trinitron Screen?
(I recently got my wife a little beauty 1.42 GHz IBook for $200 that
included a 320 Gb HD and handles You Tube video OK)
Thanks again, Del


> - MDDs
> - They are nicknamed "windtunnel", meaning that they are rather noisy.

> Alternatively, I have a dual 2.0GHz early 2005 G5 with two HDs in it, one with
> 10.5.8 for everyday use, and one with 10.4.11 for using Classic.
>
> Trouble-free in the 2yrs+ I've had it.
>
> Ted

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Re: Need an old SCSI Manager (from OS 8.0 or earlier)

[Kris Tilford]

On Aug 16, 2010, at 9:18 AM, XFer wrote:


Where could I find the needed files?




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