I thought I'd post a small finding that I uncovered recently. I started on a mac IICi, then moved to a 7100/80av, then to a Blue & White G3, and finally I'm residing on a G4/2-450.

My topic is this:

Since the earliest use of control strip in the mac OS, I've noticed that my systems have been entirely more stable without Control Strip loading.

I've been able to show some consistency in finder crashes based on a "stock load" Control Strip? (I've also been able to replicate these crashes with Drag Strip)

Since my realization, I've stopped using Control Strip, and now rely on Dragthing and the Apple menu. I ran my G3 for months under heavy photoshop, illustrator, Kaleidoscope, Kineticon, QuarkXpress, etc. without crashing.


When I bought my G4, I decided to leave Control Strip active: CRASH, CRASH, CRASH. It was a vivid reminder

Has anyone else experienced this?

[Misha]

Moving to Mac OS Forum:
http://forums.macnn.com/cgi-bin/foru...=20&LastLogin=

[elzinat]

yes, the Control Strip is notoriously unstable, but so very useful that many of us use it anyway

[Evangellydonut]

Control Strip only crashed me when I force quit the app and try to launch it again on my G4. And lately, that problem seemed to have gone away.
Keep in mind that there are a lot of other background apps running in addition to control strip, and many of those are contributing to the instability (ie time synchronizer or something else). The only background App I have running on my 9.0.4 G4/450 is control strip, and its been solid as a rock. I'm just very much saddened that Appled pulled the plug on it with OS X

[wlonh]

there are some CSM's that are known to be less than good and make the control strip unstable, my control strip gives me no trouble at all... true.

[Cipher13]

Friggin' OS X.
Anyway, you run Kal and Kineticon and yet you're worried about the Control Strip causing problems?
Ditch those 2. They're nothing but trouble, and for what? A fancy looking desktop?

Cipher13

[wlonh]

couldn't agree more, KAL is a baddie

I've toyed with many system inhancements, as well as interface inhancements. My point was simply to share a finding. I've come to realize that so-called "unstable" apps become significantly more stable without Control Strip only. Without Control Strip, my machine is bullet proof

I've proven this on machines both at work, and at home; these machines varried from 601 based up to current machines. I can use buggy apps without crashing :}

Stick to whatever you'd like. I was just sharing.

[GORDYmac]

The Control Strip is a necessary evil for me too, it's the only way to dial up in the background.

I have found that if I hide it with command-control-s, I don't get as many problems. I only show it when I need it. Since doing this, I can't recall a control-strip related crash. I used to get finder quits and instability at startup.

Instability at startup is the big one for me!

Once the startup crash happens, it's pretty consistant until I either re-install Control Strip, or take it out of the startup sequence.

I've just created alias of things I use (like Dial-in) on Drag Thing, and use its "floater" function.

Works quite well for me

[Cipher13]

So the control strip is our new scapegoat is it? What about USB? That REALLY sucks...
I guess we can have a hardware and a software scapegoat, even though USB does just fine in both areas... however, personally the Control Strip has never given me any grief, and I don't know what I'd do without it!

Cipher13