Documentation - Cache Control, Caches On, Caches On INIT
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These two programs, and one INIT, are designed to work around a problem with a Macintosh IIfx and Apple’s latest version of the 8•24GC INIT.
THEY ARE DESIGNED ONLY TO WORK ON 68030 MACHINES AND SHOULD NOT BE RUN ON OTHERS (Quadras, Mac II, Mac IIx, Mac LC).
At least under System 7, if the 8•24 GC INIT is in the Control Panels folder at boot, whether or not acceleration is turned on, the data cache on the 68030 is turned off. This slows down operation. And it’s apparently unnecessary; I’ve been told, unoficially, that this is a bug not a feature.
These two programs will let you turn the cache on. The small version, Caches On, simply turns on all of the 68030 caches. The larger version, Cache Control, displays the status of the cache and lets you (by responding to prompts) change it.
The INIT will force the caches on when it runs at boot time. If you run it, you should be sure that it runs AFTER the 8•24GC control panel—which means either that you should put the Caches On INIT loose in the System folder, or that you should change the load order with an INIT manager..
It is possible that, at some point, software may have disabled the cache for good reason. Thus, I can’t say that these programs are without risk. However, I’ve been running them for a while on my own IIfx without problems; so have a number of people. For easiest operation, just put Caches On in your Startup Items folder, and it will turn the cache on automatically at boot. For greatest information and control, run Cache Control from time to time. It’s surprising what software sometimes turns the cache off and leaves it off.
