Eric Feinblatt sent word on the amazing spread of the AutoStart Worm virus and a source of a free 'Eradicator' for it:
"
Hi Mike,
Just thought I'd like to warn your readers that the AutoStart Worm is alive
and virulent in NYC. I found my computer contaminated, then all of the ZIP
disks I use for courses, then the Academic Computer Lab computers at the
University where I teach. I sent my students out into the world to get
Cyclones and Irises and Fierys made from their final Photoshop projects, so
we can safely assume that the service bureaus around town are by now
contaminated too! If you don't have either Virex or Symnantec's offering
you can download the freeware "Eradicator" [4.4MB download written by Uptown Solution-Mike] from this site in Hong Kong:
http://www.hkmug.org.hk/. Perhaps, there's even a cure for the hard disk
problem people are complaining about."
Eric says he scanned the utility and it's clean. [4:30PM Update]
Just a note that I ran the 350mhz Mach 5 CPU card (originally a 300mhz) for several hours
last night with zero problems. Checking the heatsink temperature I found it was barely
warm, no more so than it was at 300mhz. I'm looking for a 9600/350 Mhz card (not a 300mhz clocked up) to modify to 400mhz. If you have one for sale or trade, contact me. I'd be willing to offer this 350mhz Mach 5 card and a 64MB DIMM
or cash in trade as well.
Steve Rosenberg sends his theory on why the new G3 Macs have master/slave IDE capability:
"
Mike,
This crazy idea just came to me. While I know you're not a rumors site I thought I'd lay this one on you and solicit your opinion. Why has Apple just added two IDE busses to the G3? Just so someone can add a second hard drive? Maybe there's another upgrade in the works. I'm thinking that Apple will jettison the Zip in favor of Sony's HiFD. Sony has been secretly talking to several OEM's....Apple? It would certainly add value without adding too much cost. We all know how much Steve Jobs hates the floppy and wants to simplify the product line. We could say goodbye to the click of death forever. If 400mHz G3's are not too far off, these announcements coming in tandem would really give everyone something to talk about.
Steve"
Anything is possible, but my guess is cost is main reason. Iomega is making many more IDE internal ZIP drives than SCSI (at lower cost I'll bet as well). Volume is much higher on the IDE ZIP version since all the PC mfrs have been using them for some time. Apple had to add slave capability to use the IDE ZIP, however it does leave the door open to other upgrades.
Michael Pitogo asked that I post a request for info on enabling G3 backside caches under Rhapsody. (See a similar request/tip for Linux in the April 28th news page regarding Resedit mods to the Newer extension.).
"
Would you please post something about how to enable the L2 backside
cache of G3 upgrade cards under Rhapsody DR2. I emailed newertech and
am waiting for their response."
If you have any tips/info that may help, please contact me.
John Selvia sends a warning about pricing on upgrades when buying your new G3"
"
Please warn all your G3 users NOT to buy their video ram upgrades at the
store where they bought their machines. I should've known to look online
for price comparisons, but at the time I had no idea vid ram was so
cheap. The "superstore" in Cincy where I bought my machine charged me
$139 for a 4meg vram upgrade for my G3/266. I knew regular RAM was
cheaper online, but had never priced video ram. Imagine my horror when I
found it online for less than half of that. [About 1/3 now-Mike]I almost could've gotten a
3DFX card (almost) for what that store charged. I was so excited about
getting a new machine, I guess I just told him, sure, go ahead and give
me that 4meg vram upgrade. Geez.
You live and you learn...
John"
Even the big mail order catalogs still seem to have much higher priced Ram and Vram upgrades than
is available elsewhere on the net. For info on how to install your own Ram/Vram upgrades in the G3 -
see my G3-ZONE pages.
Key Vaidya sent news of Keyspan working on a USB card:
"
Hello Key,
We are planning to introduce a Keyspan USB card soon. Our anticipated
release date is August (to be timed with Apple's release of Mac OS 8.5).
Pricing has not yet finalized. We'll post more information on our
website as August gets nearer.
Jose Arellano
Product Specialist
http://www.keyspan.com/"
The more Macs with USB capability, the more likely Mac drivers will be made available for all the
current and future USB devices (we need all the market share we can get). As reported here earlier,
USB Stuff (www.usbstuff.com) has a good selection of what's out there now for USB equipped computers and now has a link to the Devworld Mac USB page as well.
New Forums Coming: I'm don't want to say too much until it's finalized and running, but I'm working with a well known Mac figure to provide more and better user discussion forums. Hopefully they will be available very soon. The forum software will be different, to hopefully provide better performance than the current Perl based script. Stay tuned to the daily news for updates on this.
Rhythmic Disk accessing Problems - More Feedback: Here's the latest in our continuing coverage of the problem:
"
Mike:
I don't have the problem, so I only have a speculation and an easy experiment
for those FreePPP users having rhythmic disk access:
If you have the problem, see if you have these two extensions: Opentpt Remote
Access and Opentpt Modem. If you don't have them, try installing them — Just
install OT/PPP, but don't set it up; in fact, you can trash PPP and Modem
control panels. The two extensions (plus Opentpt Serial Arbitrator) will be
installed in the process.
In the past, users of Open Transport who used FreePPP noted that installing
OT/PPP but not using it solved crashes. These two extensions apparently
"patched" a bug in Open Transport at the time (see MacFixit on November 2,
1996, for example). Possibly installing these two extensions also might
"solve" this disk accessing for some people.
It seems that FreePPP is one possible common factor, or maybe a Seagate
drives... still unclear.
Our best to you and Kay!
Jim Stoneburner"
"
Hi Mike,
I think I've isolated the source of the problem for my machine
(8500/120, Sys 8.1). But first, here's what *isn't* the problem:
* Thoroughly checked machine for viruses, including the Autostart
worms. None found.
* Toggled TCP/IP controls every which way. No change.
* Zap PRAM, rebuild desktop, run Norton & Disk First Aid. No change.
I also tried the "Load only when needed" fix, and also met with
failure. However, I made progress in another area - I identified the
single, 3rd party cdev which seems to be *a* cause of the problem (I
won't say *the* cause because so many people seem to be experiencing it,
but it's worth a try for those affected!)
The culprit in my system turned out to be the PPP Menu control panel
which ships with FreePPP.
It's now very easy to stop the rhythmic disk access - I just drag PPP
Menu out of the Control Panels folder and restart. Presto, no constant
disk access! Add the file to Control Panels again and restart -
constant access returns.
I'd be interested to see if this works for other people.
Erik Giberson
"
"
While this may be true that FreePPP is common on many of the problem
machines, it may just be that FreePPP is a commonly used application.
Kind of like saying that many of these users also use Simple Text.
Since there is at least one user who has FreePPP with the problem I'd
think that something else is responsible.
Is anyone sure it isn't just a thermal recalibration from the drive?
[I don't think thermal recal. would be occurring every 5 seconds constantly-Mike]
I had something similar to this for a while on my Ultra Wide Barracuda
but it was paced about every 2-3 seconds, not every second. It no longer
happens but I didn't do anything specific to fix it. Didn't do much
except reformatted without HFS+.
So factors that need to be tracked:
Do they use FreePPP - though this is not a likely cause
Do they have a custom font on their menubar clock
Is the drive a Seagate drive
Is the drive with the problem a boot drive
Is RAM Doubler or Virtual memory installed
OS Version
And maybe a few others. Get these items answered from about 10-20 people
with the problem AND 10-20 people without the problem, then maybe you can
see a better trend.
Shame the Seagate guy didn't say why he thought it was normal behavior.
Later.
-Chris"
If you do have the problem, please let me know if your system has the following items:
- Catalyst Motherboard (7200, PowerCenter, PowerCenter Pro, or just note model)
- A Seagate Hard Disk (and if it is the boot disk)
- Virtual Memory on?
- Free PPP installed?
- Any other 3rd party extensions (Ramdoubler, etc.)?
Contact me with the above info and I'll try to summarize and isolate common factors that may be the root cause.
Diablo/G3 Net lag: Here's the latest feedback on the lag problem reported with G3 CPUs:
"
Hello Mike,
Just wanted to let you know I have been playing diablo extensively with
2 G3 macs both on battlenet and on a 10 baseT TCP/IP network and have
seen little to no lag at all. The G3's I have outperform all of the
PC's that I have seen without a doubt. One machine is an apple G3 233
minitower w/96 megs RAM. The other is Powercomputing PowerCTR 132
w/Newertech's 300/150 G3 accelerator and 160 megs RAM. Both machines
are using OT/PPP and MAC OS 8.1. The Apple has GV internal 56k and the
PowerCTR has GV external 56k. Have also used external 33.6 U.S.
Robotics sportster on both machines with negligible lag. On the 10baseT
network there is no apparent lag at all. Also the machines above are
not even using optimized extensions sets, i.e. there is gobs of stuff
turned on that is not needed.
Ian Kimbrough"
"
i have a theory on what could be causing the problem on the apple g3
computers, but i'm unsure about what's wrong with the other computers with
g3 upgrade cards.
as you know, most apple macintosh g3 computers have ide cd-drives. now
since macdiablo only loads four megs of data on your hard drive, it reads
everything else from the cd-drive, including the music. just about all of
diablo's graphics, sound, music, etc. are in a .dat file somewhere on the
cd. so if the cpu is under a heavy load while playing diablo (background
apps?) and diablo is trying to access the data on the ide cd-drive, it
would produce a slowdown because ide drives use the cpu when accessing the
drive. i've tried to copy cd tracks using toast and an apple macintosh
266tower g3 with an ide cd-drive, the mouse gets really jerky. [non-DMA IDE devices
often use a high percentage of CPU cycle time when doing transfers-Mike]
i haven't played diablo on a g3 myself but i have a access to apple ones
and ones with upgrade cards. i'll be sure to load up diablo on them when i
get a chance and email you the results. ttyl.
Ajay Ayyagari"
I'm looking for feedback from Apple G3 system owners that reported Lag problems as to whether updating to Apple's latest Ethernet v2.04 extension helps. If it does, please contact me.
Just an update on the 7200 RPM IDE drives I covered in Thursday's news. Eugene Shekhtman says he's
decided to return the drive, not for the heat issues (he said 4.5GB seemed to run cool in his 6500), but for
vibration issues. He writes: "
Mike:
Just wanted to jot down a quick note--don't feel compelled to post
this--about that 7200 RPM drive. I am sending it back after all.
I've started to notice in the last couple of days that my whole
computer desk was vibrating slightly. After a while, this vibration
really started to get on my nerves.
Upon closer examination of the phenomenon, I realized that the
vibration was caused by the Medallist Pro. Although it does not
generate all that much heat and harmonic vibrations, the thing
produces quite a bit of mechanical vibration. It's too bad, because
I really like the drive. But I simply can't stand the constant
vibration. Once I put my old Maxtor in, the vibration stopped
immediately.
I suppose I could simply put my 6500/300 on the floor, solving the
vibration problem that way. But then I am sure something else would
creep up that would annoy me. I think the sad truth is that EIDE
drives are simply not ready yet for 7200 RPM speeds."
I found this interesting, as the fluid bearings of the Seagate Medalist Pro
was used in part to reduce vibration and platter wobble (as reported in my February 27th news page)
Farallon has special price reductions on their networking products while supplies last.
See their promo page for details.
Mike Rowe reports problems with his new G3 system out of the box:
"
hi,
just letting you know that I picked up my may production G3 266 DT
yesterday, and yes, it does have rage pro chipset, ide ZIP drive on the
same IDE bus as the CD but, unfortunately the sound don't work, not even
a startup boing,
Has anyone had similar problems? What is the fix?
"
For G3 owners with problems, check out my G3-ZONE's troubleshooting page. It contains a list of things to check and image links
in the text to show you what and where these items are inside the G3. It could save you a trip to the nearest
service center.
Cheng-hung Hsieh writes with a tip that helped with his G3 CPU card upgrade:
"
Dear Mike,
Thank you for your help. My G3 220 is runing well on 300/40/150
now. after testing this card on my brother's 9500, i think the problem is my
Hard Driver. if i format my hard driver with apple driver setup 1.4, the HD
will crash, when i reboots with G3. I formated it with HDT 2.5.2 first, then
use driver setup 1.4 formated again. it is working well now.
best regards
cheng-hung hsieh"
More responses to Thursday's request for JazJet feedback:
"
I have an Advansys card Model UBP 970UA (Jaz Jet) the card
works fine in a Powercenter, but has a quirk with cd-rom drives
connected on the same bus. My suggestion is to get the Advansys
Model then you dont have to deal with Iomega if there is a problem. UBP
970's are available at Cyberian Outpost for about $80
and can be booted from at startup if that is a concern for some people.
It is bundled with Charismac software and is dead easy to install.
Warren from Canada"
"
Mike
I ran a JazJet card in a StarMax 3000 so it should also work in a
Mac 4400! Bye the way I was the one who first told you about the card.I
have a friend who ran one on a 7500, can't remember what daughter card
he had at the time, though.
Ray Hill
"
"
Hi Mike,
I've got the Ultra-SCSI JazJet running in a PM7600. The card seems
to be fairly well designed, as I have not had any compatibility
problems. I've tried numerous drives including: Micropolis 3387N,
IBM DORS-32160, 4G Quantum Atlas-II, 4G Quantum Viking, various
Quantum Fireball, HP DAT8e. Formatting software that works includes:
Apple Drive Setup, APS PowerTools, CharisMac Anubis, and Adaptec Remus.
I've used the card with MacOS 7.6 and MacOS 8.1.
Single drive performance with a 4G Atlas-II is 10-12MB/s for both
read and write. With two Micropolis 3387N drives in a stripped
array (Remus) I was getting sustained reads of 15-17MB/s, but was
only getting about 8.5MB/s on the writes (about the same as a single
Micropolis drive). Anyone got any idea why the writes are not
faster with a striped array ? [Odd, check the Remus drive mode page
options (write cache enabled?), and possibly apply the Remus lite patch
at Adaptec's web site-Mike]
Additional system info: 233MHz 604e, 1M L2 cache, IMS Twin Turbo
video card.
Dale Sandford"
"
I am running a JazJet in my 8500 with a Seagate Barracuda ST34271N. It is my
boot drive and is running with no problems..
I also have the random HD access problems. It is only the my Cuda and not on
my Apple Original 2 gig Ultrastar.
BTW - I was running a 180MP card in my 8500 (Apple Brand). System 8.1
continuously crashed and after several clean 8.0 installs and 8.1 upgrades I
gave up and stayed with 8.0. Last week I put the original 132 card back in
and upgraded to 8.1 again - it has run without a crash since!! I guess those
cards really don't work well in an 8500 ....
Dan Hines"
Sean Kelly reported that stability problems he had with a XLR8 G3 266/177 card were cured
by replacing the 1MB Rapidcache with the stock 256k cache (unusual):
"
Thanks for your prompt response. As per your advice I set the XLR8 266/177
card to 40mhz at a X7 (280mhz cpu speed) ratio.
That still didn't work, so as a last resort I replaced the 1MB RapidCache with
the 256k Apple cache that my 7600 originally shipped with. Voila! Last night
I ran the card reliably for 8 hrs at 280mhz with a 1.5:1 backside cache ratio.
Right now I'm test running at 300/200. Your suggestion that I keep the bus
speed as low as possible was a sound one -all combinations at anything above 40
mhz seem to be unstable.
Any theories on why the motherboard cache needs to be present on some systems
but not others? Also, if XLR8 were to include a utility to disable the onboard
cache, would that free the card up to run at different ratios above 40 mhz?
Thanks again for your help!
Sean Kelly"
I have no idea why some combinations like to have a cache dimm installed and others don't.
Possibly it's due to the installed RAM in the system, but it seems to vary by card, even of the same type. In answer to his final question, I'd expect the
same results with the cache disabled via software as with it removed - but that option would be nice
for owners of soldered-in motherboard cache (9500s, some 9600s and UMax S900 models). PowerLogix is working on adding that feature to their control software (among other things) as we speak. Please don't flood them with mail and calls asking when
this will be available, that will just slow down the effort to incorporate these features. I'll keep you up
to date in the daily news.
Reader Requests:
Rory Ross is asking for help with a PPP/Networking problem:
"
I have recently gotten a G3/300 with a 4Gig UltraWide
SCSI at work. We are hooked up to a Unix server via
10 Base-T ether net. I also have a modem for internet
connection (no internet through the server, yet). My
question/problem. With my TCP/IP set to PPP for my
internet connection, when I mount a volume from the
server, my internet connection is dialed first. We have
an 8100 with the same set-up, and it does not do this.
It will just mount the volume. I have tried all the
new Ethernet extensions that have been listed and searched
everywhere I can think of for other people with the
same problem, but have found nothing. Any help would
be very appreciated."
If you have any tips, comments or suggestions that would help, please contact me.
Doug still urgently needs help with Media 100/MP/OS 8 problems:
"
Dear Mike,
I wouldn’t email you normally, but I have become desperate to solve this problem as I am losing business with my Media 100 no longer
working properly. After all my testing, I am clearly on the wrong track and don’t know where to go next.
I have a 9500 with a Daystar MP processor card. After upgrading to system 8.0, the system freezes whenever I try to copy information from
my internal drive to any drive connected to a drive connected to either an ATTO or Adaptec SCSI card (I have both and tried each one
separately.) Does anyone know how to fix this?
I have upgraded the Hard Disk drivers to what comes with the PowerDomain software (Diskbasics). I have also tried FWB Raid toolkit 2.0.2.
I have also tried the drives striped and non striped.
BTW, the external drives I have tested are some Micropolis 9 gigs and Quantum 4 gigs. All were running fine and furious under system 7.5.5
and my Atto card.
Thanks in advance.
Doug"
If you have any tips, comments or suggestions that would help, please contact me.
A reader sent word of Newer Technology 225/604e CPU cards from Small Dog for $169.
Mac Freeware/Shareware:
Net News:
This site is 100% Intergraph free - no persons working on this web site have ever been
on the payroll of any PC manufacturer.
Please check your bookmarks - make sure you are using www.xlr8yourmac.com.
3D Column Logo Contest: 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). GIF (animated OK, but try to keep file sizes small) or JPEG format for the final image.
If you'd like to submit a 3D Logo design (full credit given of course), please contact me.
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.
Yesterday's News
Please keep this site alive by visiting my Sponsors
|