<b>Wake-from-sleep crash affects non-Apple drives; a possible solution

Jon Gotow (author of Sleeper) reports that the wake-from-sleep crash problem that was fixed for certain Apple-brand drives via the 2-3-4-6 GB Firmware Utility (see previous posting) also affects some non-Apple drives. Macs containing these drives may crash when the disk is powered back up after being put to sleep by Apple's Energy Saver or St. Clair Software's Sleeper.

"In particular, Quantum has acknowledged that the firmware in their Fireball ST drives contains a bug that may cause this. All the cases I've seen so far have been on Fireball ST units with revision 0F0C firmware, which is the latest version shipped by Quantum, APS, La Cie, and other drive vendors."

Unfortunately, Apple's utility will not work on these non-Apple drives. Quantum has no plans for a utility fix but will fix the firmware if you ship the drive back to them (call 1-800-826-8022 for details).

Happily, there may be a simpler solution. Dave Hamilton sent Jon instructions on how to modify the 2-3-4-6 GB Firmware Utility so that it works on non-Apple drives. Jon has posted this solution on a web page. Use at your own risk!

For more background on this issue, check out two other web pages (a and b) on Jon's web site.