Re: Memory and hard disk testers

["Mehul N. Sanghvi" <mnsanghvi@comcast.net>]

Tommy Trussell wrote:
> On Fri, 19 Nov 2004 08:48:51 -0500, Mehul N. Sanghvi
> <mnsanghvi@comcast.net> wrote:
>
> > I wanted to test the RAM and make
> > sure the memory is good.  
>
>
> There is a Debian package called sysutils that includes a memtest
> utility but I have not tried it.
>
>
> > The 13 GB IBM is just sitting around useless
> > because I seem to get data corruption, although from reading at
> > http://lowendmac.com/  it seems that the corruption might be due
> > to the fact that I have a Rev 1. B&W which has a bad IDE controller
> > chip.
>
>
> I, too, would like to know a way to evaluate my IDE controller -- 
>
> I have a PowerMac 9600 with an IDE controller added and I can install
> Debian just fine IF I use ext2 filesystems, but if I try to use ext3
> it has a tendency to corrupt everything. I'm thinking it's probably
> not ext3 per se, but probably the kernel is trying to use a higher DMA
> mode or maybe the controller just cannot handle the throughput.
>
> I resolved a similar problem on an old Compaq Pentium 200MMX system by
> installing 80-wire IDE cables. On the PowerMac, this improved the
> situation but did not completely resolve it.

Thanks for the information on sysutils.  I'll try it out and let you
know.

You should check the http://lowendmac.com/ website.  They have a FAQ
and a database of drives that work, that has information on such things
though it does require some reading through :)



cheers,

      mehul