I thought I would just throw a benchmark out for Starmax uptime. I use a Starmax 400 MT with a Joe Card, 128MB RAM and a PCI USB card as part of my home automation system. The machine had been running non-stop from Christmas vacation (when I moved it to it new location) until a power outage during a heat wave in July. I estimate about 200 DAYS or 4800 hours. This is system is not sitting idle either. My home automation program is written in RealBasic and polls several web sites to bring me updated local weather. It is also my MP3 server. I use a video card with NTSC output and rebroadcast the output on an unused channel all around my house. I have a keyspan media remote unit set up to receive commands that are relied to the automation program to allow control over the house and MP3 selection.
Prior to using the Starmax 4000 I used a stock Umax c600. It's update was normally about 2 weeks before halting due to a memory leak in my automation program (caused by the version of RealBasic I created it with.) Since removing it from automation service it has been mostly reliable as my daughters computer. The Starmax has been real reliable but does not compare to a Quadra 605 I have been using as a mail & html server. That system run non-stop for over two years until the recent power outage. Just this past week I finally shut it down when I replaced it with a PowerMac 8500/(G3 400) running OSX 10.2, this "new" system may end up replacing the Starmax once I get my home automation program working properly under OSX. I currently use RealBasic 3.2.1 for Carbon. It still sometimes crashes when developing (editing??/saving??) under OSX but it doesn't take the whole system down there. RB 3.2 does not support serial ports under OSX so that is what I am working around right now. RB 4.5 does but I can't justify the upgrade price of RB4.5 Pro right now. Earlier versions of RB (2.x) had know problems with memory leaks in the generated application. Anyone using older versions *WILL* have problems keep a program running long term. Charlie. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Telcontar" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "StarMax List" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, September 04, 2002 5:08 PM Subject: StarMax SCSI > PS I managed 99 hours 45 minutes 37 seconds uptime according to version 1 of > my Uptime app (with added LCD display readout). I was really looking > forwards to seeing it crash at 100 hours (it can't handle more than two hour > digits), but REALbasic destroyed the Finder and the OS when I was working on > a replacement Uptime app (I was just typing in it at the time, I think - > there are more bugs in REALbasic than in what I was making!) and ruined my > changes. > > *sigh* Surely it's possible to get more hours out of Mac OS 9.1 - it was > doing really well, too (and I had stacks of apps open, dnetc crunching data, > etc). Guess it was my fault for not periodically reloading REALbasic to that > it can't stab itself full of enough holes to sink itself. > -- StarMax is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... / Buy books, CDs, videos, and more from Amazon.com \ / <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect-home/lowendmac> \ Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> StarMax list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/starmax.html> Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/starmax%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Macintosh? Get free email and more at Applelinks! <http://www.applelinks.com>
