Virtual Game Station v1.4 Update: Barney Buoy sent a list of software updates and other net news including a note on Connectix Virtual Game Station v1.4.

VPC 3.03A Updater Posted: Connectix has posted a revised Virtual PC 3.03A updater. The addendum to the readme on the update page notes Virtual PC is now compatible with Stock Investor Pro and now works with floppy drives in both drive bays of PowerBooks.

George Cole of sponsor Other World Computing sent a note on lower pricing on Z-force/ZIF CPU bundles:

"PowerLogix Z-Force with Apple G3/233Mhz 512K Cache ZIF
Part Number: PLGZM233 - $139.00

PowerLogix Z-Force with Apple G3/266mhz 512k Cache ZIF
Part Number: PLGZM266 - $149.00

PowerLogix Z-Force with Apple G3/300MHz 512K Cache ZIF
Part Number: PLGZM300 - $195.00

Z-Force ZIF Carrier DaughterCard - Uses ANY G3 ZIF
Part Number: PLGZIF - $95.00 "

MS Office VB Extension Freeze: A reader asks if anyone has a solution:

" We have several G3 accelerated Macs in our office. On the 6500, two 7100s, and also a native beige G3 233, the Microsoft Visual Basic For Applications Extension freezes up the computers sporadically. (A message appears telling me this). It has also done it on other machines, but not in a while. They all have at least 80 Megs of RAM and are running OS 8.6

I contacted a support rep at Microsoft, but they didn't have any listing in their database on known conflicts for it. (He actually suggested that I disable the G3 acceleration extensions...I guess he missed the point of acceleration beyond the CPU's original speed).

They each have a variety of extensions installed, but nothing out of the ordinary and they share common sets with other machines that are not experiencing the problems. I at first thought it might be AfterDark, but some of the machines that it occurs on aren't running AD.

Any help would be appreciated. You can post my email address...cxjohn@lsu.edu
Thanks.
John G. "

IntelliMouse Setup for Unreal Tournament: A reader post in the 3dfx/gaming forums here noted a link to a great How-To article on setting up the Intellimouse for UT by Sean Carriedo. I've added this link to the FAQ's Game and Game Controllers topic area for future reference.

PowerBook 1400/Sonnet G3 Upgrade report: While adding the latest reader entries in the Rate Your CPU Upgrade database, I saw this report from a PB1400 owner with the new Sonnet G3 upgrade:

" Reviewer's Name: Christian A. Bargmann
Date Submitted: 4/26/00
Rating (1 to 10): 10
Manufacturer: Sonnet
Rated Speed (CPU/Cache MHz): 333/167
Max Speed (CPU/Cache MHz): 333/167
Cache Size: 1MB
Mac Type: PowerBook 1400c/133

Comments: This upgrade works great! Battery life is outstanding and the operating temperature runs at a cool 126 F constant. I have not tried to bump up the cache speed yet.

Documentation included is well written and easy to follow. Seating the daughter card was somewhat tight between the two receptacles. Glad to see this upgrade turned out to be a winner after the delayed release. My 1400c is breathing fire again! Thanks Sonnet! "

A previous PB1400/Sonnet G3 entry also noted he was very pleased with the upgrade. The Sonnet G3/333/1MB upgrade sells for $475. As mentioned in past entries in the database, previous PB1400s G3 upgrades (Vimage & Newer) took a toll on battery runtime. Both Vimage and Newer stopped producing PB 1400/2400 CPU upgrades last year.

More VPC 3.03 Feedback: [Note: the original v3.03 update was pulled and replaced by aVPC 3.03A Update.] I've not been able to read all mails, but here are couple (the G4 Forum has a very long thread on VPC 3.03 feedback):

"Mouse movement is definitely smoother, but overall Windows multitasking seems more sluggish. Windows Explorer seems to move quicker, and overall response does seem better, but ethernet performance is much more sluggish. I have a cable modem and on v3.0 could see upwards of 200k/sec in Win98, but now it chokes around 40k/sec... I think this is in part due to the sluggish multitasking. I am running VPC v3.0.3 on a G4/450 with 256M RAM (150M to VPC) with Win98.
-bb "

"I made the update (3.0 to 3.0.3) last night - Not one problem! Make sure you follow the instructions! The overall impression: W95 runs smother, apps open faster, video playback improved as well...
Mige "

"Hi Mike
...For your info, I also asked the good people at Connectix about gaming with VPC 3 and this is what Julia Diaz from Connectix had to say:
---------------------
Hi,
unfortunately, Virtual PC is not really designed to run games because in most cases, games demand very fast PC processors. Virtual PC only emulates a Pentium class processor, and even though the program runs great on G4s, games do not run well.

Your best bet aside from buying a PC is to get the OrangePC card since that includes an actual PC CPU chip.
Thanks,
Sales
--------------------- "

There are mixed reports on the 3D game performance with VPC 3.03. Some say it's still too slow for demanding 3D games, even with a Voodoo2 card (the fastest 3D card supported by VPC), others say it's playable (one reader in the forums reported 22 FPS with Half-Life using a G4 w/Voodoo2, which would be pretty amazing). The OrangePC card in my opinion is too expensive and too limited (older video chip/not upgradeable, limited ram slots) to be a good value for PC 3D gaming. For the same price you could buy/build a faster, more upgradeable gaming PC if that's what you're after. If anyone has compared Timedemo scores from Quake2 or Quake3 with VPC 3.0 vs 3.03 on a G4 system, please let me know your results (note your system info and if you're using a Voodoo1 or Voodoo2 card)

Audio Extraction w/SimpleText: (Several readers sent a note that any application that makes use of QuickTime's extensions to the Open dialog can do this.)

"Hi Mike,
I noticed a post about CD Audio Extraction software on the site today [yesterday's news-Mike] and thought I'd drop you a note about the audio extraction software that nearly every Macintosh user already has installed on his machine. Namely, SimpleText. Although very simple in it's ability to extract audio (it has no error detection or correction [that I know of] like some software, and can only do 1 track at a time) it can do the job for some folks.

All you do is launch SimpleText and then select Open from the File menu. Navigate over to the CD and the Open button will change to a Convert... Button. Select the track you want to extract and click the Convert Button.... You'll then be shown a screen where you can choose where to save the extracted file. There is also an Options... button on this screen. Clicking the Options... button allows you to set things like 44kHz, stereo or mono, 8 or 16 bits. etc. In addition you can also preview the track to make sure you've selected the correct one and you can even select just a portion of a track to be extracted (why extract all 10 minutes if you are just trying to get to a 10 second portion of the track.

Again, SimpleText is not for everyone. Some folks with older CD-ROM drives may get 'skips' in the track. This can happen if the drive has to start and stop while extracting. SimpleText has no mechanism to compensate for this. But for many folks, it does an adequate job (for something that comes for free!).
I hope this is useful to someone.
Thanks,
John Tessier "

Uswest DSL user on QT 4.12 and Streaming Media: This reader says the QT 4.12 update saved him $20 per month:

"Hi Mike,
One of the past biggest disappointments with uswest DSL is that unless you upgrade from dynamic IPs to static (about an extra $20 over the base rate of $50) you could not stream any live quicktime media (a bummer)

now with the latest quicktime update you can stream live media with USwest DSL and their basic package which has dynamic IP, hooray for APPLE!
Frank Farwell
Paragon Enterprises "

Reader Request: Help w/Pulsar Audio Card Errors: I don't own this product, so I'm hoping a reader can help:

"Hey mike,
I have Creamware Pulsar for my mac beige G3. I am having a problem that i cannot resolve and i have tried everything to solve it. I keep getting the "PCI master bus overflow message". For the past 4 months i have been writing Creamware and i have received no help at all. They keep telling me they will demand a response from Germany(germany is where the mac support is).

I was wondering if you could please post a message on your website for me so i could get in touch with other mac pulsar users. I have (literally) been pulling my hair out for the past couple of months trying to get this fixed. And Creamware is being no help whatsoever. This email doesn't even come close to describing my frustrations.

Here are the stats of my computer:
everything is pretty much a stock beige g3 266 except i have 416 megs of ram. the pulsar card is the only PCI card i have everything else is stock.
thanks,
Steve D."

This almost sounds like the errors from Digitools users with dual video cards but Steve has only one PCI card installed. If any Pulsar owners have tips or comments, please contact me.

SIIG Firewire PCI Card Report: A reader says the low-cost SIIG card works with Apple's latest drivers:

"I was able to get a Siig 1394 PCI i/e card to work on my Beige G3 MT without any added drivers. I am using Apple's latest Firewire 2.3.3 drivers. I'm only using it to connect my Que Firewire CD-RW drive (which is pretty cool except for the fact that out of the box it doesn't burn ISO9660 discs). The card retails for $65.99 at Insight.com so I guess it could be found for around $60. I got mine for a little less since I have a good relationship with some vendors :) "

He later noted the SIIG card did not include a firewire cable, which the $70 Western Digital card does according to a reader report. He also mentioned the card had in internal firewire port, as many PC versions do (not sure about the WD card).

Voodoo5 6000 Pics: A reader post in the forum noted HardOCP has a few pictures of the monster Quad Chip 3dfx card with 128MB of ram (scroll down to the yesterday's news section). No Mac version of this model has been announced, but it's interesting to look at. Stomped also has info on the card. There's also an interesting discussion of 3dfx vs Nvidia at Extreme Hardware. For Mac owners, the Voodoo4/Voodoo5 cards will be here before the ATI Radeon (late summer to fall quesstimate) or nVidia cards (end of year).

Julian Koiles wrote that there is a Mac port of the Opera browser underway. PowerPC, 68K and OS X versions are in testing they say.

Ratings Databases Updated: The searchable Rate Your CPU Upgrade and Mac Game/Video card Performance databases were updated with new entries. The updates to the CPU database included several more reports from Beige G3 owners with the OWC G3/450 upgrade.

Software Updates/Other Net News:

Recent Software Updates:
• Connectix Virtual Game Station 1.4
• VPC 3.0.3A
• Quit CSM 2.0
• StyleScript^TM 5.0

Hardware Related News:

• Clik! comes to the Mac [want high priced storage media that's on the endangered species list? IMHO] (MacUser UK)
• Breakthrough for digital cameras? (Macweek)
• USB 2.0 Promoter Group Announces Release of Final SPEC (businesswire)
• AMD Introduces Duron Processor (techweb)

General News

• Qualcomm warns of Eudora security hole (cnet)
• Grim Net Censorship Report (wired)
• Microsoft Unveils New E-Mail and Personal Information Manager For Office 2001 Macintosh Edition (MS)
• The Sims coming to Mac
• What's Next for Apple & Microsoft (Money.com)
• Amazon MAC Store
• Apple gives developers tech aid (macworld)
• Xerox, Microsoft team on digital rights (zdnet)
• Intel Nixes Chip-Tracking ID (wired)
• MAC to Minidisc tutorial
• HP's New Strategy? Read The Fine Print (macworld)
• Sierra announces Mac pub games (Macworld UK)
• Intel Plans To Sell Web Machine (Yahoo)
• Amazon sells Phantom Menace for 12p (20 cents - price typo) (The register)
• Macromedia reports record revenues (Maccentral)
• EarthLink to offer free DSL installation (news.com)
• Thunderwire (Site not responding at 8PM EST)

The recent features page also lists articles posted (most recent first) as does the sidebar links here. The site topics pages (systems, cpu upgrades, etc. - see top and sidebar links on this page) also are places to check as well as the FAQ.

Wednesday's News Summary

• Quicktime 4.12 Update
• Performance Comparison: Apple Drivers vs HDT 4.0
• VirtualPC 3.03 Update w/Altivec Support
• Native PowerPC Code Disk Drivers page updated w/FWB's Reply
• HDT 4.0 Performance Feedback
• Freeware Mac CD Audio Extraction Util
• Intech CD Driver Notes
• PCI Timing Update Solves 6500 USB Card Problems?
• Rate Your CPU Upgrade, Mac Game Ratings and Mac Game Framerates databases updated.
• Software Updates Listing
• Other Net News

Tuesday's News Summary

• Prosoft's Drivers also Native PowerPC
• SoftRaid Disputes FWB Driver Claim
• Intech Comments on Native PowerPC Code Disk Drivers
• Radeon Previews Listing: ATI To Become a Power Player Again?
• ATI Product Manager comments on Radeon on Mac
• Hard Disk Toolkit 4.0 released
• ADS Firewire Case + TrueX 72X CDROM Report
• Velo CDRW in a Mac/Is the Velo a Plextor Drive?
• Another PowerCenter Pro/1MB L3 Cache Benefit Report
• OWC Out of G3/450s
• Rate Your CPU Upgrade, and Mac Game Framerates databases updated.
• Software Updates/Other Net News

Monday's News Summary

• QT based Chat
• Rebel Macs at ILM
• MS Stock Takes a beating/Apple eyes FishPC
• Musikmesse Audio Show Report
• Airport Card Install Tip
• Cache Cooling Heatsink Project
• Tip for 64/6500 Owners w/PCI Video Cards (not a cure)
• G4 vs G3 CPU Details
• More Voodoo4/Voodoo 5 Previews
• ClubMac Firewire Case Performance (Beige G3/PowerBook Wallstreet)
• Comments on Wired4DVD Benefits
• Rate Your CPU Upgrade, Mac Game Reviews and Mac Game Framerates databases updated.
• Software Updates/Other Net News

For links to older news pages see the Archives page.

The recent features page has a lists reviews/articles you may have missed.

For a guide to finding answers to questions - see my Site Guide page.

Considering a CPU Upgrade? Search the CPU Upgrade Owner's Survey results and search for owner reports by Mac model and/or card brand. The current database has more than 3,700+ reports and growing.