Carmine's MiM News Feed [links may not work in the future]

• AppleTIL Updates (SATURDAY_02.13.99)
   NEW 30905 Jackhammer Control Panel: Version Information
   NEW 30902 MacDNS 1.0.4: Read Me
   NEW 30901 LaserWriter 8500: Cannot Change EtherTalk Zone
   NEW 30904 QuickTime 3: Intel Indeo Video 4.4 for Macintosh
   NEW 24813 Mac OS: Out Of Memory Errors And Corrupted Finder Preferences
   MOD 58238 Power Macintosh G3 (Blue and White): Frequently Asked Questions
   MOD 60015 How To Turn Off Your Macintosh
   MOD 30903 QuickTime 3: Intel Indeo Video 3.2 for Macintosh
• Powerlogix G3 Cache Control 1.4.2 [G3 Cache Control 1.4.2 (which replaces both G3 Cache Control and G3 Cache Utility) is used to configure the backside cache on all models of PowerForce G3 and PowerForce G3 ZIF] (PowerLogix)
• Top 10 Wired Cities in the U.S. (Yahoo)
• Young developer foils browser filter [A 20-year-old creates a way around Internet Explorer 4.0 and 5.0's content filtering feature, as he did with Netscape's browser last year.] (News.Com)
• Firm unveils fingerprint ID system [The biometric terminal, which includes a Fingerprint Identification Unit manufactured by Sony, is part of a growing emphasis on security technology.] (News.Com)
• Home networking gets a new shock [A handful of technology firms are racing to create technology that allows consumers to plug in their PCs-and share an Internet connection-simply through their electrical outlets.] (News.com)
• Putting Sizzle Into FireWire [Manufacturers attempting to put sizzle into IEEE 1394 FireWire development are being thwarted by a litany of problems, including an increase in Apple Computer's licensing fees and limited support from Intel] (TechWeb)
• AOL Playing Catch-up with Y2K [The online juggernaut reveals that it's not sure how many systems are vulnerable to Y2K. Worse, the company is only just starting to test its hardware.] (Wired)
• Nintendo Emulator Code a Fake [The so-called source code for a Nintendo 64 emulator is said to be nothing of the sort, only a decompile of the original application.] (Wired)
• Censoring Censorware [One University of Massachusetts student is so opposed to the idea of censorship that he's offering software code to disable the blocking software provided by Internet Explorer.] (Wired)
• Game makers ga-ga over AMD's 3-D [Game developers stand up for AMD's 3-D technology, as Intel readies its own competitor.] (ZDnet)

OS X - Hope for 8x/9x00's?: MacGurus sent a note that Stepwise has an article with promising comments from Dr. Ernest Prabhakar, the Mac OS X Server Product Marketing Manager on OS X compatibility, at least for some Mac owners.

PL Cache Control 1.42 Feedback:

" Mike, I installed the new Powerlogix Control Panel last night, version 1.4.2. It is causing a conflict with ATI Graphics Accelerator version 3.7.9. Version 3.7.9 is from the alpha of OS 8.6.

Conflict Catcher identified the problem. I have to disable one or the other to complete a boot.
Dave B. "

This should be resolved before the release of OS 8.6. Hopefully no other versions of ATI's extensions are affected.

Norman Braskat wrote in response to today's earlier report of problems with an Apple PC card/B&W G3 to say the existing drive image from the previous machine should work.

I prepped the PowerCenter Pro last night for Webten, a new 100base-T network card and am taking it to my ISP today to get the connection rolling.

More TurbMax PCI IDE Card Feedback: [Update - for the latest info on Mac IDE controllers and drives of all types - see the IDE articles page.]
Ryan reports some issues with supported drives that I find disturbing:

" Hi Mike!
Well, I got my TurboMax ATA card yesterday, and I immediately installed it in my 6500 and hooked up my 10GB Deskstar GXP, and the stock 4GB Western Digital drive. As many other new owners have found, Drive Setup recognizes the drives that are hooked up to the card as SCSI. The WD 4GB, not surprisingly, was listed as unsupported, but I don't mind using it on the onboard IDE bus anyway.

The IBM drive wouldn't mount, but I could initialize it if I wanted to. (Don't expect to be able to take your drive off of the onboard ATA and be able to use it with the TurboMax card without initializing it first.) There's no way I can keep all of my important data that is on the IBM without buying another drive. I have a file I need to still take off of the 4GB WD drive, but I can't put it on the IBM drive because I can't mount the darn thing! It's crazy. Basically what Promax told me was that I would have to get a THIRD drive that could be supported by the card, just so I can transfer all my data onto one drive and be able to initialize the IBM drive. I suppose that as long as you use the drives that Promax recommends, they'll work fine.

As soon as I find out how to solve my rather painful dilemna, I'll give you a testimonial as to how well the Promax card works in a 6500.
Ryan Mantle "

This is very odd. For the card not to support a drive that the onboard IDE does is strange, as is his issues with a new IBM UltraATA drive. Most IDE controllers are backward compatible 100%. Another reader commented on the card.

" I've gotten a TurboMax Ultra DMA Contoller card, but there's no instructions and support from ProMax was unhelpful and even contradictory.

[Q]: What do you mean? how were they not helpful? What kinds of contradictory comments did they make?

[A] (The) ProMax person said I couldn't Master-Slave two drives unless I purchased their "specially-configured" drives with the the controller. I did it anyway on the basis of your articles, and it seemed to work, but thought I may have done something wrong and didn't want any long-term or future problems.
Mike C. "

Kevin Rudman commented on the low pricing on PowerForce G3 ZIFs at http://www4.viaweb.com/powerlogix/powg3zif.html. Prices are currently $599, $699 and $1099 for 333, 366 and 400MHz respectively.

Cresendo 1.3.2 Feedback: Andrew Rodriguez sent a reminder to all Sonnet owners that upgrade their extensions that the previous version must be removed manually.

" Mike
It appears that a reinstallation of the Crescendo extension solved the sporadic crashes I experienced. Have been running for over four hours without incident. No freeze ups with IE and Netscape as I previously mentioned. Still running at 43'F [C I suspect-Mike].

Keep in mind though that installation of version 1.3.2 does not remove the previously installed version of the Crescendo extension. This may be the conflict some people may be experiencing.
Andrew "

Rage128 Update/ColorSync Conflicts:

" Hello Acceleration King,
I recently purchased a new G3 400 from the Apple Store for my recording studio. Everything was perfect with the new beast until I installed the new Rage 128 drivers. Since then I have been having startup problems. One of two things happen: either the startup process just freezes while either Color Sync or the Color Picker is loading, or ConflictCatcher 8.04 tells me that one of these extensions is interrupting startup. The auto conflict test yields no results, and the problem occurs even if I disable all the extensions in the new Rage package. Only disabling the Color Sync group avails. As this is an audio-only machine for me, I just leave the group disabled and the machine runs like a dream.

I was wondering if you had heard of anything like this before, although I assume not, as I read the site every day. I was also wondering if the new Rage driver install might affect any other system software in any way, or if my Cybervision C112 monitor might have anything to do with it.

If you have any ideas I would love to hear them. Thanks again for the great site,
Andrew Salamone

I suggested the usual tips of making sure the ATI update was done with extensions off (shift key down during boot), and possibly trying the new Apple Displays software that has a ton of new software (including colorsync). I'm open to other suggestions for Andrew.

More on ATI Rage Pauses in RAVE: Several readers reported that the ATI Rage 3D/Game pausing tip (disable launcher) in yesterday's news did not help. Pausing occurs in games like Unreal in Rave mode at 800x600 even with the Rage128/Yosemite. Only running lower resolutions (ie 640x480) seems to fix the problem.

Powerlogix has released G3 Cache Control 1.4.2 (Speedmeter 1.2 is also available there).

B&W G3/Apple PC Card:

" Hello,
I tried to install my Apple 166MHz PC Compatibility board in my new Yosemite. Since I don't have a floppy drive to reload DOS I copied my C: Drive image from my old Mac to the Yosemite. The card powers on fine but will not boot to DOS or Windows95. My guess is that it is looking for the floppy drive and can't find it. I know that Apple says the card is not compatible with OS 8.5 but it worked fine in my PowerBase 180 under OS 8.5 if I disabled PC networking which I didn't need anyway.
Thanks,
Gordon Zimmerman "

If anyone has fix for this please contact me.

Other Net News:

An Open Letter to CompUSA: 'Please, Don't Become Another Best Buy' (theiMac.com)

Gamespot's reader's choice and editor's choice awards

Yesterday's News Summary

• Macgurus B&W G3 Ram pages
• Apple Sys. Profiler IDs for RageII/RagePro
• TAM G3 Temp Comments
• MythII/Rage128 Rave Resolutions
• Carmine's TIL Updates and Net News Feed
  (New GV modem Script, Apple Display Software)
• Reader comments on our 8500 Cache/Ram upgrade guide
• Xlr8 300/200 G3 card feedback
• 3D Gaming News page updated
• Sharkey's Extreme article on 3Dfx Voodoo3
• Lots of ATM Deluxe 4.0x comments
• Free Seminar for Electric Image users
• SCSI Probe Tip for Mounting SCSI disks w/G3 CPU Upgrades
• Reader Tip for fixing pausing in 3D/Rave games w/ATI RagePro/Rage128
• ATTO Tools updated
• 2 Sonnet G3 upgrade owners reports
• Workaround for PalmIII/Keyspan SX/B&W G3
• Slow video refresh report on 1GB RAM B&W G3
• PL offers 466MHz G3 Upgrades
• Other net news
• Summary of prev. days news

For other recent site news/features links, see the Recent Site Features page.

Note: Before sending tech support related questions please check the Freq. Asked Questions, Site Contents, CPU Card reviews/articles, SCSI reviews articles, Graphics card reviews, Tips/Misc, Message Boards and Help pages - in many cases the answers to your questions are there and they have far more detail than I can list in an email. For Apple G3 system info - see the G3-ZONE. For links on recent articles, see the Recent Features page. Please try the Men in Mac Help page as an alternative on requests for tech support to help me be able to spend more time on reviews. Thanks.