Watch tomorrow's news for some inside info on the All-in-one Mac and the PowerBook G3 as well. [9:30 PM Update]

G-REX 3D Update: The G-Rex 3D review has been postponed awaiting new drivers from Phase 5. The card has a lot of potential, and I sincerely hope the new drivers (coming soon says Phase 5) will address the issues with the current version. I hope to also get a pair of 3D glasses for the review to see how Quake plays with them. The card supports several versions of glasses. Should be interesting. I'll post a note in the news as soon as the new drivers are available. [9:30 PM Update]

Just a note that Dan Kuraisa reports that TechTool Pro 2.02 and Conley SoftRaid 2 have been coexisting fine for some time now. [9:30 PM Update]

TechTool Pro 2 + Raid: A reader sent this MicroMat reply regarding using TechTool Pro 2.02 with Raid arrays:

" Currently TechTool Pro 2 has not been fully tested on RAID setups. We have, however, been able to fix disk errors on a few RAID systems but not enough to feel full confident about all RAID setups. We will continue testing RAID setups for the product. If you would like to be automatically informed of MicroMat updates, you should subscribe to MicroMat News:

1. Send a message to:

listmanager@micromat.com

You must send the message from the email account that you wish to subscribe.

2. Message body should say ONLY the following:

SUBSCRIBE MICROMATNEWS

3. You'll receive confirmation of your free subscription and you'll be automatically notified each time we release a new update.

Sincerely,
MicroMat Tech Department"

XLR8 Announces new design 300Mhz G3 Card: XLR8 just sent the following press release:

" XLR8 ANNOUNCES ENHANCED SUB $1,000
300 MHz G3 PROCESSOR UPGRADE CARD

XLR8 by Interex a leading supplier of performance enhancement products for Power Macintosh Computers announces the arrival of a new and improved 300 MHz MACh Speed G3 card with 512-Kbyte L2 backside cache.

The enhanced card with improved compatibility will provide a wider range of bus speeds that yield even higher processor performance. Coupled with XLR8's exclusive MVP? (Multiple Variable Processing) technology, which allows the user to select the optimum bus speed and bus ratio, the refined card will allow the card to perform at faster speeds than earlier versions.

Further improving performance, the improved 300 MHz MACh Speed G3 card will include updated "fool-proof" cache control software.

Additionally, the new card will incorporate a design that lowers the cost of the card considerably, making it possible to offer the first 300 MHz MACh Speed G3 for $999.

The enhanced card will be bundled with XLR8's newly released utility Processor Info (PI). PI reports the exact system speed, cache ratio, BUS speed and processor operating temperature. As technology advances PI has been designed to measure processor speeds in excess of 400Mhz."

I have no other details on the new card or software so please contact XLR8 for details. I expect they will send a card for review when it is released. [12:30 PM Update]

Micropolis Drive Jumpers: Joe Borzello was having problems with his drive, but a search through my past news pages helped solve the problem.

" Hi Mike,
Thanks for the help on configuring the Micropolis drives. The problem was apparently a jumper setting that I had neglected. I missed the W1 jumper.

I don't know if you're interested but the settings that worked for me are:

set jumpers

W1 (Drive provides termination power)
W3 (Drive provides termination power to the SCSI bus)
W4 (Drive provides termination for the interface lines) This one because it's at the end of the SCSI chain.

Anyway, now I have no problems with the Micropolis drives that I own (models 3243 and 3391AV) both narrow Ultra SCSI.
Thanks again,
Joe Borzellino"

Tim Catlin sent word of problems with upgrading a PowerCenter 150 CDROM drive with a Apple 24x. It seems the stock SCSI cable had several conductors cut intentionally for the CDROM drive connection. I suggested he replace the cable for use with standard CDROMs.

Bill Reising sends a summary of the feedback on his request for info on bootable Toast CDs:

" Here is what I have learned about bootable CDs:

Gremlins are the main cause of problems. Different people have found different ways of getting this to work. Responses were split in half. Some got it to work just fine, the other half could not. Most reiterated the Toast settings required. Some needed to force their Macs to bypass the main drive at bootup- not a good solution for those of us with multiple volumes and system folders. However, I was able to back through Toast very, very carefully, and it worked.

You must defrag the dive, if you are using Speed Disk make sure it is set to optimize for CDR. Set the bootable option to on. Check all settings 6 or 7 times, burn, set the Startup disk to the CD and hope.

I have no idea why one disk will work when another will not. But Toast 3.5.4 will create bootable CDs with OS 8.1 and all your favorite extensions, apps and utilities :-)

One poster noted a driver issue. Just make sure that the drive for your CD drive is on the CD.

Thanks to all those who replied. While there is no definitive answer, it does work and that in itself is good.

Happy Burning!!
Bill Reising"

IXMicro< has a cool product for the new PowerBook G3s - called the Road Rocket. It uses the same graphics chip as the Ultimate Rez and provides a 2nd monitor with extended desktop space (not a mirror). [Note - I reviewed this product late in the year, see the video articles page for a link.]

Cool DVD Info: Arun sent more info on the product:

" Dear Arun,
Thank you for your interest in E4 and our CoolDVD products. We will provide a card only kit by May 15th through our web site. The CE card that you refer to is the TV, AC-3 daughter card that is included in the upgrade kit, as well as the card only kit.
Sincerely,
Mike Schmitt

E4 is proud to announce it is shipping CoolDVD Upgrade kit for the Mac G3 Tower with a retail price of $499.00. Visit our web site www.e4.com to find out where to purchase you kit today. Or fill out the following fax order form and have your CoolDVD sent to you.
[Note - the CoolDVD was later discontinued and I know of no sources for drivers, etc..]

What if my G3 has a DVD-ROM Drive in it already?
You will be able to buy the CoolDVD decoder card by itself by May 15th for $279.00.

What if I don't have a G3 and I want to be Cool?
In June we will have a kit that is just as Cool as the first but will include a SCSI DVD-ROM drive so you too can be Cool.

What if I have more questions?

Go to our web site at http://www.e4.com and visit our updated information for FAQ's, Product Specs, Where to Buy, and much more.

(Power Mac 7100, 4400, and G3 all-in one systems are currently not compatible with CoolDVD) "

Bottom Line sends word that the PowerForce 220/110 is in stock and shipping now.

" Just wanted to let everyone know that we have shipped all backorders on the PowerLogix PowerForce 220Mhz/125Mhz 512k and we have plenty available for immediate shipment. We have over 100 IN STOCK! This is not a joke! Looks like PowerLogix finally has caught up with demand. Sales Consultants are standing by if you need a tracking number on your already placed order, or if you want to place an order for this new and exciting low cost, and super fast G3 processor upgrade card.

We also have a few remaining 604e cards from PowerLogix:

PowerLogix PowerBoost Pro 604e 225Mhz Upgrade Cards
Our Part Number : PBP225
Regular Price: $299.99
Specials Price: $269.99*
*Only 11 available at this price!

"

They also noted that their Railguns are now shipping as well.

Chris Liu asks that we start an email campaign to convince Matrox to make a Mac version of their new PC 2D/3D G200 card.

Since they only recently made the Millennium II available for the Mac and I suspect the sales have not been good (based on very little feedback on the card). Although I'm not sure they will make a Mac version of the G200, but it can't hurt to ask. Their web site shows a sales contact of: graphics.sales@matrox.com. Mention you saw this at www.xlr8yourmac.com!

MetaStream Update: Don Lee sends a update on the status of MetaStream for the Mac:

" Mike,
Here is the official word on the new Metastream file format: MetaCreations is working on a Mac plug in which will handle the new format. I would assume that this plug in would easily be modified to work in some of their other programs. Hopefully they will incorporate the new Conix OpenGL library for RAVE hardware support as well into their programs."

MetaStream was originally said to be specific to the Intel Pentium II feature set, but I hope more than the plug-in (viewer) will be made available for their Mac (i.e. for Ray Dream Studio 5 and Infini-D).

Luke Hamburg responded to yesterday's Reader Request regarding problems with AppleScript startup scripts not running after a system hang or crash.

" Just thought I'd add the comment that I have seen this problem under 8.1 as well, and it affects normal aliases and applications as well, not just applescripts. I have had this problem often, and I never used any scripts in my startup folder. This only occurred after a hard crash (ie-power key reboot or cmd-cntrl-power key)
-Luke Hamburg
Technical Operations Manager
Machattan, Inc."

Peter Bethke of Dax Media wrote with raves about Adobe's new ImageReady graphics tool.

" Mike:
You might want to check out the Public Version (exp. July 13th) of Adobe ImageReady, Adobe's new Web-tool. Man, it is so cool! I'm going to go back and redo all my web graphics with it. "

I had to search Adobe's site to find the ImageReady download page.

Reader Requests: Reader submitted problems or bug reports, posted with the hope that someone will respond with a fix or workaround.

" Hello Mike!
Could you please post my problem, just to find a reader who possibly may help?

the fact is that i posted to newsgroups, searched macfixits archive and so on and found nothing on the system crashing backup mechanism of FileMakerPro server, nowhere!

The automatic backup of FMP server will crash my system (Starmax3000) with a chance of 1 out of 6. Switching from system 7.3 to 7.5, 7.6, 8.0 did not help, switching from internal IDE to external SCSI does not help either. Is it a hardware trick? Did not find anything but the well known SCSI bug of very old Starmax boards.

If somebody could be of assistance i would very much appreciate your help! "

If you know of a solution or workaround, please contact me.

Mac 3D Column Coming Soon: I have wanted to add an area here that covered news, tips, tutorials, and reviews of Mac 3D software for some time, but have just been too tied up with an overwhelming amount of support mail and reviews to make it happen. Thankfully David R. Klett has agreed to help get the ball rolling, and several other readers have offered to submit articles from time to time.

If this is an area that interests you, or you have something to contribute or just comments on the idea, visit the 3D page and let us know. If only 1% of the incredible Mac talent out there contributed, imagine what a resource this could be.

PowerForce/7500 Tips: I was getting so much feedback on this I made a 7500/PowerForce G3 page with tips from actual owner's experiences. It's linked in the Tips page for future reference.

RailGun Feedback: Mark Shurett sent a comment on his new RailGun CPU upgrade from Bottom Line

" I also have one of the Railguns and got mine to reliably run at 325/217 for extended periods on my PowerCenter Pro 180 except when running Virtual PC. After taking it down to 320/213, it runs flawlessly. A REAL value as far as I'm concerned. Does it fly!!! "

NT Secure?: Think again. Ways to hack Windows NT.

Just a note that I was working with a reader that had disk corruption problems with a APS 6GB drive, Conley Softraid and TechTool Pro 2. I suggested setting the new wide drive to ID 0 (not 8), and disabling the APS extension. The ID 0 change seemed to help APS Tools and resolve the problem. It has been reported that removing the APS extension is a solution to some conflicts in certain configurations as well.

MacShareware.com is celebrating its grand opening with an Ambrosia game giveaway. You can register to win your choice of any Ambrosia game title. Ten winners will be chosen, one each Friday for the next ten Fridays. They also offer a Newton Games library, a large commercial game demo section and a well rounded library of the best shareware games available for the Mac.

Search Tip! For searches on product names with mixed capitalization, use keywords like PowerBoost Pro (not Powerboost Pro or powerboost pro) and MaxPowr (vs maxpowr or Maxpowr). It seems that capitalization within the word on the site pages is throwing off the engine. Keep that in mind when searching for some of the odd product names.

Need Help? Before you send email for tech support, please check the Troubleshooting page or try searching the site (use quotes for exact matches! i.e. "mach 5" vs mach 5 which will match machine, 5, etc.) and to check the FAQ, Performance Basics, Links, and Forums for solutions to your problems or answers to tech support questions. They have a lot of good info and are a great source of help.

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