Bill Fox of Macsonly writes:

" For your readers, I just posted a report with photos on the Apple User Group Summer Road Tour in the greater Washington DC area. It was hosted by my user group Washington Apple Pi this morning and was one of the first. Mine is the first web report and it has some new info on Mac OS X and iMac.

Here is the URL:

http://www.macsonly.com/wapaugsrt.html

Regards, Bill"

Thanks Bill. I've been so busy I've not checked Charlottesville for a Mac users group, but I suspect UVA may have one.

Build Your Own 3DFx Fan: If you've got a Mac case that uses screws to secure the PCI cards, then this article on Building a Voodoo2 fan might be of interest. It's shown installed in a PC, but it should work in many Macs as well.

The 8600 and 9600 Apple case covers have such large fans built into the cover that they should do fine for cooling any PCI card.

Unreal Screen Shots: I was not impressed with the full page ad images of Unreal in the magazines, but the screen shots at Creative's site did blow me away. I can't believe the realism in some of these scenes, they look like a photograph. Check out the stone walls and water reflections on this screen shot.

For a full list of samples, see http://www.soundblaster.com/voodoo2/games/unreal/screenshots.html

Hanzhi Tang wrote that a Lightwave 3D v5.6 patch is available on NewTek's FTP site at: ftp://ftp.newtek.com/pub/NewTek/Patches/. (Note: Netscape or a FTP client may be more reliable than IE on this link. )

A reader commented that attempts to use a PowerTower Pro 1MB cache in a 8500 failed. I expected it to work, since PowerLogix's  Rapidcache works in either machine but I've never actually tried it. The 8500 has been sold now for over a month.

PortDoubler Feedback: Kelvin Ritchie wrote with his experience with the product:

" I use Portdoubler 4.8.3 to connect my two printers, an Epson 800 and Apple Personnal LaserWriter 300, to my printer port. I found that the Epson only works if I set it to Port 1. The Apple printer works on both ports. When the Epson is configureed on Port 1 it can't be communicated with. Switching it back to Port 1 fixes it. I set an email to Momentum but never received a response. Do you know if there will be any USB products coming down the pipe that will fit in a PCI slot to allow USB peripherals to connect to current Macs?

Kelvin Ritchie"

I've hard that Newer Technologies is working on USB products for the iMac and might make a PCI USB card for older Macs as well.

Rhapsody DR2 - Not for G3 CPU Upgrades? An anonymous source writes with a story of problems with the DR2 version of Rhapsody running on G3 CPU card upgraded Macs:

" Hey,

Just a note, Rhapsody DR2 seems to not like G3 upgrades!

I installed DR1 no problem with my PowerLogix card, but DR2 won't even boot unless I use the factory card. (9500/180MP machine)

It also seems that 8500/9600 300s have problems with DR2 as well.

Maybe you can post something about this and see if others have the same problem? From what I've heard DR2 breaks some support for older boxes while adding Apple G3s.

Anonymous"

If you have a comment, fix or verification of this problem, please contact me.

Another reader writes of Rhapsody DR2 problems with a 2nd SCSI hard disk:

" I recently had a chance to get a Rhapsody DR2 CD and had a VERY hard time installing it.

Once it had begun booting on the CD in Rhapsody, it nearly stopped doing anything and after a while, a monitor windows appeared, asking me for the "root device". I assumed it was a problem about the CD, but well... I decided to boot it while pressing the "v" key, to boot in "verbose" mode, so I can see what happens. Here it was : In the boot process, the mach kernel looks for every devices. When it came to the SCSI chain, it first began with my original hard drive in SCSI id0, with no problem, and then to my additionnal hard drive, in SCSI id1. There was a problem here : the mach kernel didn't seem to be able to access it, staying a loonnng time trying, and then displaying a "drive not ready" message. And then to the CD Rom (scsi id3), it showed bus reset errors and couldn't boot on it (I assumed it had been idle for a too long time).

So I decided to open my mac, disconnect the additionnal hard drive, and boot again. You know what : it worked perfectly and Rhapsody installed without a glitch. The only problem is that when I tried to reboot after having reconnected the second hard drive, the problems came back. Rhapsody kept trying to access this disk, and it was slowing down the whole system (speaking about minutes to open a window...)

I tried to change the scsi numbers, but it didn't resolve the problem.

It's very strange, cos I've used MkLinux, and it doesn't have this problem. Could this be some kind of uncompatibility between Rhapsody and my second hard drive ? It's a standard seagate (2Go), it's even recognized by Apple's "Drive Setup" utility (I made a low level format with it, recently)

I don't have a clue to what the problem can be. "

If you have a comment, fix or verification of this problem, please contact me.

More Positive Sonnet Cresendo Feedback: So far I've gotten nothing but positive comments from owners of Sonnet's G3 upgrade for Nubus Macs. Here's another one:

" Hi Mike
Sorry to read about your wife's problems, hope she will feel better soon. I just bought for an PPC 6100/60 a Sonnet G3 240-250 1M upgrade card for $ 699 from Sonnet. I just thought you may want to know how well the card performs with one meg cache compared to the 512 most seem to buy.

6100/60, System 8.1, speed doubler 8.01, disk cache 1024, LibMotoSh 1.0
Processor 833
Floating Point 740
Disk 261

6100/60 same as above, but without LibMotoSh
Processor 820
Floating Point 581
Disk 270

Not bad for an 240 Mhz (Apple System profiler) 750. Have had no time to test more, but the computer feels much faster.
Thomas P. Andre"

Due to Kay being ill, I've not had time to really check the 300/300 card yet. If you are running a PowerForce 300/300 or other 300/300 card I'd like to know your results. Please contact me with your experiences.

Reader Requests:

" Mike, i found PL G3 220 does not work with Apple Driver Setup. if i use G3 220 with Apple Driver Setup to test my HD, the message "can't test your driver" appear. if i use Apple 604/132, everything is working well.

Hsieh Cheng-Hung "

He did not mention what OS or Drive Setup version he has, or what speed the card is running (I asked if setting the card back to stock settings helped but no answer yet.) Since I sent the PowerForce 220 back the day after the review, I can't verify this myself but I know there are hundreds of owners out there that can verify if this is typical. If can comment or verify this issue, please contact me.

Voodoo II News:

Canopus is said to have started shipping their Voodoo2 12meg "Pure3D II" which is said to have an onboard fan for cooling. Buyers of the card will receive a coupon to get the official id software Quake2 mission pack "The Reckoning" shipped to them when it's finished. I wish they made a Mac version of the card.

I've just read that Carmageddon will not be patched for the Voodoo 2. On the PC at least, the game will not run on a Voodoo2 card. However the Carmageddon team is said to be hard at work with Carmageddon 2, and hopefully Voodoo2 support will be included. According to the Carmageddon 2 page there will be a Mac version! For more info, check out: http://www.carmageddon.com

I received another order delay notice from Macwarehouse on the Microconversion Voodoo II card. I'm still hoping for June delivery. This card will have the Mac monitor sense lines passed through, a big bonus that will help eliminate the gamma and resolution issues we all went through with PC 3Dfx cards used in a Mac (even the Power 3D is really just a PC version).

See my Voodoo II FAQ for more info.

An insider tells me that Pios is said to be working on a G3 CPU card with up to 60mhz bus speeds.

3D Column Logo Contest: I've gotten about 6 offers so far, but I'm still asking for all 3D artists out there to submit their creations for our new 3D Column Logo/Banner. The winner (and any other interesting entries) is also invited to write an article (complete w/screen captures if poss.) showing how it was done. I'd like to have all entries by June 15. Resolution should be 200H x 500W (Maximum size - smaller is fine).

If you'd like to submit a 3D Logo design (full credit given of course), please contact me.

PowerBook Duo System for Sale:

• PowerBook Duo 270c with 2300 logic board upgrade (100mhz 603e)
• 16MB RAM/240MB HD (OS 8.1 installed)
• 14.4 internal model
• Apple MiniDock
• External Floppy drive
• Dual Charger and AC adapter

The Duo needs a motherboard battery replacement (battery is included) and the 3 included batteries don't have a lot of life in them but otherwise it's in excellent condition. If you're interested, make me an offer. (Top Offer so far is $525)

We need your G3 info! Reader "Oz" has offered to help with collecting data on Apple G3 system compatibility issues (hardware and software) of all types. Please send him any Apple G3 system compatibility info/issues you have or are aware of at: oz@bbdoperu.com

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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