02/13/98 - Today's News:
- One more time: I've just gotten another "can I use a PC 2940UW in
my Mac" question and I think posting it here again will help answer that for
a lot of others who missed posts in the forums or here before.
The Mac PCI is card has a different bios and the file is larger than the
PC bios version. Also beware that some of the low-cost PC 2940's I've seen are OEM versions that do not have a flash bios. (Where I worked we bought those in droves.) One person I know way back hacked the zeros (padding
he says) out
of the Mac bios and flashed a retail 2940UW (w/flash bios) and it worked, and some cards may have a large enough bios chip, but based
on mails to date many do not.
- Japanese PB1400 G3 Upgrade? Masato Ogawa of Toyko sent in this hot news tip, now if I could only read Japanese. 233mhz PPC750 upgrade for the PowerBook G3:
"
Japanese "Interware" announced 1400 G3 upgrade card. It said the
card for 1400 is the first in the world. Really?
All spec's are tentative though, and scheduled to release in April.
Japanese page only:"
http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/pc/docs/article/980213/interwar.htm
http://www.iijnet.or.jp/Interware/products/BoosterPB14.html
http://www.iijnet.or.jp/Interware/
For a nice full-size picture of the upgrade card, click here.
- PowerForce Price War: MacGurus fires another shot in the latest PowerForce 250 price war:
"
Inform your readers that they can request the "BLOL Eat Our Dust
Special" from MacGurus and get their PowerLogix PowerForce G3 from us for
$1389.99.
To qualify for this special pricing, all your readers need to do is paste
that sentence in the comments field of our secure hardware order form.
We would like to gently point out that, if they are really savvy
shoppers, they can then use that price to extract a further $25
concession from BLOL, and get the fastest G3 daughtercard currently
available anywhere for $1,369.99."
Now aren't you glad you read this site everyday? Where else can you get price wars, special sales, timely news updated several times a day, and the best reviews and tutorials on the Net? :-) I think I hear another round incoming....
- Iomega responds to the Zip drive "click of death" issue at News.com. Changing the subject to better quality hardware, they also have a article on Apple's 2nd generation G3 PowerBook, hinting of 300mhz PII notebooks in April
as competiton (?). The article mentions the possiblility of a model similar to the current G3 PB for $3600 (active 12.1" screen, 250mhz PPC750).
- Forums back ON!: I've turned the forums back on now. Sorry for the outage but hey, the server's just a Unix box ;-) Please remember that the G3 forum is only for Apple G3 systems related posts - for G3 CPU card upgrades use the Upgrades forum.
- New Mac mail order firm Global Economy has donated a Cheetah drive to the site in exchange for advertising. For more information
about the company see their press release and Grand Opening Specials page.
The Cheetah will be used as one of the upcoming G3 page upgrade projects. I hope to have the G3 pages
online by this weekend. I didn't check/read mail night before last while testing/writing the latest SCSI update and am paying for it. 200+ messages behind now and by the time I answer those another 200 roll in.
Please limit mails to news items and those comments that do not need a reply for the next few days - I have to catch up. Please. Thanks!
- MacWorks Sale Items Related Mail: Due to the high volume
of mail with questions/problems regarding various items from Apple CPU cards
to drives and controllers I cannot answer mail anymore regarding these products.
All questions and issues regarding their Micropolis drives, cpu cards, 2940 scsi card, etc. should be directed to them. I'm sure they welcome the chance to serve you. Many people mail me first as I usually answer immediately, but I've reached my limits lately - it's seriously hurting my ability to support this site, honor commitments and provide new reviews on products.
Do the right thing - give them a chance to help you. They made a profit on the item, it's their job to support it, which I know they are happy to do. They may get a lot of mail every day but I'm sure they will get back to you (or try calling them).
General upgrade questions, issues with products from my site sponsors or feedback is always welcome, but for the next few days please limit mails to news items and mail that does not require a response to allow me to catch up on backlogged reviews, new pages and some sleep :-) Thanks!
- Suspect/Counterfeit 2940's? I've never seen so many 2940 card related problems lately, with mail regarding problems with cards from Onsale.com and Macworks.
Headlines from the 2940 feedback:
- Adaptec has a article at their site regarding a lawsuit settlement
over counterfeit Adaptec AHA-2940 host adapter boards. Several companies are named in the article.
- More Onsale.com feedback. Matt Kingman wrote:
"I had the same problem as Mike Fayman with onsale.com's 2940UW
"PowerDomain" deal. It did take a few email exchanges and phone calls to
get return authorization but it was no problem sending the card back and
they paid for the shipping. I've bought other items from them without
incident. Also, I noticed in a recent auction that they've removed all
references to "PowerDomain", however the ad copy still makes references
to "SCSI Manager 4.3"."
- I had mail from two different MacWorks customers who are exchanging their Adaptec 2940s after experiencing
problems/poor performance. One customer reported better results with the Initio card. In both cases they gladly exchanged items. One reader (G3 owner) said that Macworks told him the 2940 did not work with the G3, which is wrong according to my readers. I've gotten several reports of G3 owners running 2940's fine. Here's one from Hugh Walton:
"My new G3/266 DT arrived Tuesday...
I installed my almost new Adaptec 2940 UltraWide Card and Viking Quantum
7200 RPM UW HD, which had worked perfectly in my PM7300/250, in the free
top bay of the G3. And viola! They work just fine and dandy in a G3, also!
I am using OS 8.1 with HFS+ as supplied by Alsoft's PlusMaker. I even
reformatted the G3's existing 4GB IDE HD with PlusMaker HFS+. And it works
just fine, too! Of course, it is about 200 points slower than the UW HD
combo (according to MacBench 4.0). The UW Disk score was 465. The IDE Disk score was 250.
"
- Apple G3 Power Supply Ratings: Timothy A. Seufert wrote in regards to my wish for a power supply
upgrade for the G3 with the following comments:
"
Also, I'm not sure you're giving the PowerMac G3 power supply a fair shake.
See the following Apple URL, which claims that the desktop has a 240 watt
maximum power supply. (the article shows 230W for the desktop, 240W for the
Minitower max, but my power supply in the G3 Minitower here is 171w max, verified. -Mike)
http://www.apple.com/powermac/g3/specifications.html
A similar page for the 8600 (substitute "8600" for "g3") shows a 300 watt
max supply for it. I think you may be comparing the maximum (surge) rating
of the 8600 supply to the continuous rating of the G3 supply.
"
Maybe I got cheated as the power supply label on my G3 reads "Total 171 watts Max" (Made in China). I'm going to write Apple about this, as it's important to me and appears that they are shipping models with power supplies that do not meet their own specifications. I'd expect a 170W supply in a Packard Bell tower, not a Apple G3. I still want to find out if it's a std PC ATX style, as that would allow low cost upgrades.
A pinout check with my meter would tell (it's on a long list of things to do now).
- G3 Mintower Cooling Fans: Did you notice that the G3 Minitower plastic cage/handle/cover
over the PCI rack has what must be mounting provisons for two fans? One would cool the PCI slots, the other
is above only empty space, but may still help in cooling devices inside the case. I'm going to measure the
mounting pattern and try to obtain a fan from Radio Shack to try.
- More Adaptec Gripes: Bret Harris wrote in to add to my complaints recently of moving links
and a lack of Mac drivers at Adaptec:
"
I know you did not wish feedback on your Adaptec website gripes but
I need to add a few more and then propose a solution. I have also emailed
them about the broken link problems. You forgot, however, to mention that
they do not have any benchmarks for Mac products in the benchmark section
of their website. (Good Point - Adaptec has an excellent disk benchmark
for PCs at their site called ThreadMark, which shows IO rates and CPU
efficiency. I wish there was a Mac version. -Mike)
Worst of all, none of the hard copy documentation for
their Mac products, i.e., Toast CD ROM Pro, 2940UW SCSI card, Remus Raid
software, mention each other much less cross reference or explain how they
might work together to enhance system performance. I realize that the
software products were acquired through corporate acquisitions over the
last couple of years but new versions of the software and hard copy
doumentation have been written by "Adaptec" since. I know because I own
and use all three. (I was peeved there was no Toast v3.5 reduced cost upgrade
for existing owners when they bought the product.-Mike) Yes, they had a slick booth at MacWorld but it takes
more than that to impress us bleeding edge MacHeads.
Solution: I live two blocks from their Milpitas, CA corporate headquarters
and have applied for the "Mac Applications Engineer" position #17696. Mac
users interested in a better, more responsive and coordinated Adaptec can
suggest in their email that their Mac products manager at least interview a
twelve-year MacAddict for the job. Someone like me."
Not the answer to all the Mac Support issues, but one more Mac Fanatic on staff would help.
- OT/PPP Speed Tips: Clark Shishido sent in the following tips on maximizing OT/PPP modem speeds:
"
...another factor which affects connection
speeds is the modem script (aka CCL) that OT/PPP uses. They're the same
scripts that come with ARA which doesn't turn on compression (v.42bis)
and uses a lower serial port speed (57,600). There's a how-to fix OT/PPP
scripts page at http://www.versiontracker.com/special.shtml which
addresses these issues.
"
- PowerComputing MotherBoard Info! Peter Koplan comes through again with URLs to Apple's new PowerComputing docs:
I've added these to my new PowerCC section of my Links Page as well.
- ATTO SCSI Card Bios 1.2: I've reported recently on some owners problems with v1.2 of the ATTO
SCSI card bios. Mike Keenly sends wrote with his experience:
"
I had exactly the same boot and mounting problems with the ATTO firmware
after going to 1.2 (at ATTO's recommendation). When I originally got my
dual channel card, it came with 1.1, which is why I had no problems (of
that kind) last month.
As I also noted last night (and you may want to pursue) the same problems
arose with both ATTO's driver and the latest Drive Setup. The only
solution I could find was to use HDT on all drives connected through the
ATTO controller. Within the next couple of days I'll probably update all
of them to HDT 2.5.
Cable length limitations are real, and are closely tied to timing, which is
a function of length, as well as noise. Non-differential SCSI is riding on
the edge anyway and is an unfortunate economy. I put it in the same -- no,
a worse -- category than non-parity memory and bus structure. I'm using
good quality cables (but not Granite).
As to the ATTO drivers, not only did I have specific problems with them,
they also aren't as flexible as HDT. FWB can be difficult at times, but
they seem to be the best that's available. I've used Nubus JackHammers for
years, always with HDT but -without- FWB's special control panel.
"
In case you didn't know, my Raid setup uses only the finest Granite Digital cables, about 18" in
length, with ferrites and heavy shielding. With all the testing and equipment changes I can't afford
to deal with suspect/poorly made cables. I also run Granite's forced-perfect active terminators on
the raid case as well, all bought from MacGurus. I've ensured that cabling and termination is not an issue here.
- Reasons why I don't use Appearance Extensions: I've never used 3rd party appearance extensions,
as they often are the source of problems and can complicate isolating conflicts with new software. Here's
a case of exactly what I mean - where OT/PPP and OS 8.1 were originally thought to be the blame, but in
fact it seems to be another appearance extension (Kaleidoscope) issue. Ryan Grimes originally wrote
of this problem with his G3/OT PPP:
"
OS 8.1 has screwed my G3 up BIGTIME! I haven't got a clue, the finder
quits whenever it wants to, type 1 and 2 errors are flying around with
Netscape 4.04.1. I'll have to get back to you in a few about that one. My
computer will work for about 20 minutes then decide it's tired and quit.
I'll work out the bugs that are plaging it now and write back with the
results."
I just received the following mail from him:
"
I think I finally narrowed down the problem to Kaleidoscope 1.8.1.
I have disabled it and everything seems to be running correctly(finally)
This took me about 2 days and 20+ restarts to come to this. My Mac
actually seems a lot faster now...I'll get back to you with some results
after tomorrow.
"
I thought this might be helpful to other G3 owners reading the page.
- G3 Sound Input & IPX Issues: Apple's InfoAlley has articles
on Power Macintosh G3 and Sound Input Settings and
Power Macintosh G3 and MacIPX
- More G3/IPX Issues: Although the Apple article above deals with Netware IPX, Thomas P. Andre had written me yesterday regarding a G3 specific IPX problem. He wrote:
"
Have you tried to connect an G3/266 MT with an IBM-Compatible over
ethernet and played games, such as Warcraft II with Network game set to
IPX? It just works fine with my 7600/132 but not with my G3. I can
connect the G3 and the 7600 together over ethernet, but the G3 won't see
IPX."
Anyone with a fix for this please contact me.
- RealPC 3DFX enabled Betas: In case you missed yesterday's late post, Insignia has released the beta RealPC and Softwindows 95 updates that support 3Dfx, Ace reporter Peter Kaplan tells me. Read the
Press Release. Download the files at:
Yesterday's News
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