Re: Digital Exorcism
Re: Digital Exorcism
- Subject: Re: Digital Exorcism
- From: email@hidden (Anthony Sanna)
- Date: Thu, 22 Feb 2001 12:06:35 -0600
>
a Complete Software Exorcism is:........
Thank you John for your lengthy trouble-shooting explanation. However,
at times, when hours of work disappear into digital vapor and the true
meaning of DEADline begins to dawn on me, I sometimes yearn for the
Ludite promise of a Y2K where we'd all be blown back to a level playing
field of scratch pads and slide rules, and our no. 2 pencils never
crashed.
Of all the items in your long list of exorcism rites, the one that I
haven't really considered is heat. For the most part, I've covered the
rest. My most recent and complete attempt to drive out the demons went
as follows:
1) Reinitialize HD with Drive Setup.
2) Install 9.0.4 from AppleCare System Software Recovery CD (May,2000)
3) Run Software Update (needs to be run twice)
4) Begin installing key software from CD by age (oldest to newest), with
more minimal installs on the older software, while keeping track of the
content, versions, and dates of extension, prefs, and font folders
BETWEEN INSTALLS so that A) newer files aren't being overwritten by old,
and B) that the extensions that were just added with a particular
software package can be linked and annotated in Conflict Catcher so that
later on I can tell who belongs to what and I can enable/disable sets of
extensions related to a particular program I suspect. An example of
progressive installation would be: Basic install of PageMaker 6.5; update
to PM 6.5.2 while marking all the odd Kodak (& other) extensions and
system files added. Run PageMaker. Installation of Dimensions 3 and its
latest update. Run Dimensions & PageMaker. InDesign 1.5 and 1.5.2,
noting system folder alterations, and running applications. The same for
Acrobat and PressReady. Then comes Illustrator 9 and 9.0.2, followed by
Photoshop 6. Run them all. Now start adding plug-ins. Then begin with
other applications and utilities.
Now this is rather time consuming, but one big benefit from documenting
such an incremental clean-install is you begin to identify large groups
of files that were previously mysteries. Take for example Kodak's Input
Profile Builder. It installs 34 extensions and libraries in the
Extensions folder, all of which are not identified with IPB and all of
which have no definition in Conflict Catcher or Extension OverLoad.
Maybe these extensions never caused a problem before, but now when I'm
not profiling scanners (which is most of the time), I turn them off as a
group.
Even with all this, there are still questionable extensions floating
around, so I may disable some of them. Usually if one is needed, an
application will post a warning. There have been several cases of
software installs loading conflicting extensions, and cases where a
device will work better if you disable its own drivers. But I
digress......
Mind you, all this work comes after running SystemWorks, TechTool, and
MacTestPro for their extended and extensive hardware, software, and virus
tests. By this point I have also removed and reseated all the memory,
PCI & AGP boards, and replaced my logic board as well. ....and all of
this has been done with minimal USB, serial, FireWire, & SCSI
connections, and with the Mac fully plugged.
BUT........... My office temperature varies widely, mostly due to the
heating system, but also because of the number of machines and lights
that can be running at one time. The heat is tempered by opening my one
window, which happens to right behind the G4, so I suppose the computer
fan could go from sucking 80 degree air to 60 or less in a moment.
You pointed to temperature/processor heat-sink problems. Well, the ONLY
thing I haven't done is replace the processor board. I stopped short of
that.
Your suggestions have given me some new things to watch for and consider.
I certainly will be paying more attention to the temperature in here,
and noting any coincidental effect on my Mac.
However...... now that you've brought up the possible connection between
computer demons and hellish heat, how might this excess room temperature
affect the qualities of scans from my Imacon? I have heard that "cooled"
CCD's produce less noise in a scan. Would it be beneficial to park a
Blue Ice packet on top of the FlexTight's column (that's where the CCD's
are). I imagine I could drop the internal temperature considerably.
This reminds me of a battle I once waged back in Grad School against a
stingy landlord. The building's temperature was controlled by a single
locked & caged thermostat, set to 62 degrees, and screwed to the hallway
wall. Placing an empty cottage cheese container with a couple of ice
cubes on top of the thermostat's cage could really get the building warm
& toasty on a cold winter's night - at least until the landlord
discovered the cheese container and pulled the control all together.
....ah, but then, it was turning spring and time to graduate.....
Thanks again, John.
Tony
Anthony R. Sanna
Vice-President
SACO Foods, Inc.
6120 University Avenue
Middleton, Wisconsin 53562 USA
email@hidden
www.sacofoods.com
1-800-373-7226
(608) 238-9101
(608) 238-8149 - fax