Uh huh!
I DLed and burned a copy of Helios using a brand-new, high-quality CD-RW.
I installed on three machines. All the installations reported no errors.
Networking died on one, and an attempt to ping produced a segfault on a
second.
The third worked flawlessly!
Well, I watch "surplus" distributors these days for opportunities to buy 4x
and 8x CD-ROMs. I even buy the Panasonic/NEC/Toray PD/CD drives because
I get good results from them. It seems in this mad dash for speed (at list
"spin-speed") on the CD that most if not all manufacturers on CD-ROMs have
reduced specs for eccentricity and head positioning under extended use.
For the same reason, I tend to buy LS-120s and LX-120s not for their modest
ability to port data, but for their consistent performance as high-quality
floppy drives. There, the average price for a floppy is the competing factor
that again seems to have driven down quality. I have a dozen machines
ranging in age from manufacturer from 9 to 24 months. Precisely ONE can
write a floppy that all the others can read.
I wasted 6 hours installing FreeBSD this weekend with a defective 44X drive.
I put in another two hours finding and substituting an old 8X that installed
from the same CD.
Of course, I am on the wrong end of a chain of cargo abuse that has left
three of the last five computers I have received arriving with broken-off
speakers or detached CPU fan/heatsink combos arriving rattling in the case
and in one instance with a case smashed beyond recognizability, so I figure
the mechanical components arrive with an average of what three years normal
use would do from the G-forces imposed during transit. Perhaps the freight
was less abusive in the past, but even when I lived in "civilization", I do
remember this tendency for "hyper-fast" CDs to be intolerant of media.
Civileme
Robert J Bartels wrote:
> I had posted to the list before about having strange install problems with
> mandrake 6.1
> After reinstalling several times and swaping out almost all hardware I
> finally got it working.
>
> Background:
> Install system Dell optiplex gxpro w/ pentium pro. 128 megs ram.
>
> 27 gig maxtor ultra 66 drive, connected w/ regular ide cable to built in
> ide controller.
> I will install the promise ultra66 when the driver isn't beta..
>
> Adaptec scsi 2940
>
> Plextor ultraplex 40x *** This is the DEVIL!!! ***
>
> Removed scsi cdrom and installed a regular atapi 8x cdrom reader...
>
> System installed properly.
>
> My thoughts are that this ultraplex is reading/corrupting install files...
>
> Any comments?
>
> Bob
