Adding a "What Works" to DATA base

[Bruce Graham]

Hi All;

Here I sit in Canada, with an HDR and a d8b, having difficulty getting info on what parts work when I can not find the original parts for these "Still Alive" boat anchors.

For example, I am making the plunge into SSD drives instead of the old fashion mechanical drives and am not sure what to look for or what brand works, and, more importantly, which don't.

Do they operate on SATA 1, or 2, or 3?

Does KingSpec SSD's work or does Patriot work more reliably?

What should I look for in an SSD Drive when looking to purchase? (all those numbers on the case of the drive or the spec sheets must mean something?)

I think I need a new ether-net card (as nothing else I have tried worked), for my HDR and have no idea which do or do not work, or what to look for or ask for when I find box full of them.

Can I use a CF (Compact Flash) as a storage media on my HDR, and if not, why I can't?

What kind of adaptor do I need for a CF to interface to IDE?

These and many other things I have come across are question that I do not know where to go to, to get answers.

I think, maybe, it should be here? The d8b Forum! The best, if not the only, place for all things Mackie d8b/HDR/MDR/SDR and where all the smarty pants guys are!

Perhaps this could be added to the DATBASE.

Any thoughts?

Thanks and cheers
Bruce

[garrett21allen]

Hi Bruce

I'm in the same boat that you are in. I to would like to know what works and what doesn't work
I hope someone will post something about it on this forum.

thanks, Joe Allen

[arjepsen]

check the same thread in the d8b forum

[Gary Stone]

SATA III SSD's can work. The key is having the v1.3 brain chip. I had 2 identical HDR's and one of them wouldn't see a 120 GB SATA III SSD, and the other one would. I found out that the one that would recognize it had a v1.3 brain chip, I swapped them out and it worked. I promise this wasn't a sales pitch, but I make these chips, and the large hard drive BIOS chips too. I've never seen an SSD that an HDR won't recognize with this chip. Most HDR's have v1.2 and it's finicky about SSD's. Some work, some won't.

[Gary Stone]

Yes. That's the one. Behind the LCD. As far as I know, there's no way to tell which firmware it is unless it's written on it. The LCD only shows the version of the OS you're running, and the monitor doesn't display it either. I've had around 20 HDR's pass through my hands somehow and never saw one with firmware v1.3. They were all v1.1 or v1.2. And the only difference I can tell is the SSD thing. Maybe more stability, but I can't be sure. v1.2 is very stable. I got my v1.3 chip from Eric Russ when I bought an upgraded MDR and have since burned my own duplicates and upgraded all my machines. Have never seen an SSD it won't recognize. 120GB limit still applies, but I've tried several brands and sizes. I've actually seen v1.2 recognize a drive initially, then freak out and display a weird code in place of the drive's name on the first boot screen where it lists the drives. I was pulling my hair out. Took me forever to figure it out.