Just a note that a reader wrote that MacZone (possibly others) showed Rage128 cards as due tomorrow. This is just due to their web pages not being updated. I verified again with ATI that the cards are not to ship until early May - as noted in my exclusive ATI report last month. I know readers are impatient, but this way you will get a better product, perhaps with OpenGL drivers in the box. I can't wait to see Quake Arena in 32 bit color...

Other World Computing sent news of another sale on G3 cards:

"New Vimage G3/300mhz with 512k Cache, 2yr Warranty, 30 Day MBG - $279!! Free Delivery if ordered online. Price good while supplies last. Special Purchase! For 73/75/76/85/86/95/9600s and compatible systems!
Best Regards,
Larry
Other World Computing
800-275-4576 "

I've finally gotten an answer to something I'd been wondering about for some time. The 2940U2W (retail) has a unique 'speedflex' feature that is designed to isolate SE and U2 devices connected to the card (normally any SE device connected to a U2 card will slow the card down from its 40MHz U2 clock speed). Rob Huigsloot wrote to say his tests on the 2940U2W (latest bios) shows there is no effect on speeds (per ATTO Tools tests) with his EZ230 and Ricoh drives connected externally. That makes the 2940U2W a very attractive card for those that have SE devices and want U2 support in only one PCI slot. Very attractive for IDE based B&W G3 owners. For tests on the 2940U2W, Miles U2 and ATTO U2 cards including comparisons to my Maxtor IDE drive (7200RPM Diamond Max Plus 10GB) see my Ultra2 SCSI Cards review. (Note that the Miles2 card I had contained a 44MHz oscillator (vs std 40MHz) which was used only on some very early cards I was told (a supply issue on the 40Mhz parts if I remember correctly according to Initio)- I received one of the first cards made. This 10% faster clock speed most certainly affected the test scores.

Note - the 2940U2W has external connector is Ultra2 SCSI (so that you can use an external U2 Raid, etc. - but the kit version includes a cable that allows the SE SCSI to have an external connector. This would take up a PCI slot (cover) on the Mac. Many PCs have 'knockout plugs' or extra PCI slot openings, but not on the mac cases. The benefit of SE/U2 isolation is still a big plus - esp. if you have mixed SE and U2 hard drives, or want to upgrade to U2 drives without slowing down the bus.

I must have missed this the other day, but XLR8 has posted a Tech Note titled 'MACh Speed G3 Control 1.3.1 and booting from the Adaptec 2940UW' with step by step instructions. They recommend installing the software before installing the G3 card. I've added this to my Troubleshooting G3 Upgrades and SCSI section of the FAQ

EZ230 Mounting Tip: Rob Huigsloot noted he used the pre-adaptec v5 SCSI Probe to mount his cartridges for the EZ230 drive. Using SCSI Probe 4.x to mount drives is also a tip for G3 CPU cards with Adaptec/wide scsi compatibility issues noted in my FAQ.

More on BlueNote Beta Firmware/Umax Scanners:

"Hi Mike-
I've now had a chance to test it with my Umax Astra1200S scanner, and the results are mixed. The scanner driver does indeed recognize the scanner now, and after a few seconds I'm able to scan a preview. The problem begins during the pre-preview scanner calibration, however. A bunch of "junk data" is sent from the scanner before the calibration is finished and the scanning starts. This results in a bunch of noise at the top of the scan window, followed by the actual scan. The end result is that I can still get a good scan, but I have to oversize the scan area to compensate for the junk data and then crop it out of the final scan. I'll try to pry that patch out of Umax and give another update later.
--James Rodriguez"

The latest update to the Rage128 Feedback page contains a reader report on Photoshop 5, Corel Photopaint 8 issue resolved and a note on reports of incompatibility with OpenGL mode in Lightwave 3D (it may be due to LW being 'hardwired' to use the original Conix libraries Ray Swartz told me). I'll try to verify this over the weekend and post a report in the news. (I've still not had time to install the drivers - I have LW5.6 and Inspire installed on the BW G3.)

OpenGL for 3Dfx Mac Owners: Although there has not been a lot of talk about this, I noted back when the Macworld/OpenGL announcement was made that I expected ATI (and their cards naturally) to have the best support, based on simple past history. The issue looming now for owners of 3Dfx Voodoo1 (Power3d, MacMagic, MP540/3D0, PC versions), Voodoo2 (GameWizard) [all reviewed in the past here] is one of when there will be OpenGL drivers for them (and how good they will be). With Quake II/Quake Arena to be released this will really come to a head I think. Promises have been made from both MC and VT and I can only hope the drivers will be available by or shortly after the release of these OpenGL games. Here is a mail from a reader with an interesting comment from ID Software:

"Mike
I recently emailed John Carmack asking about MacVoodoo2 support with Quake3Arena. Since Quake3 only uses OpenGL, and there are no OpenGL drivers for Voodoo based cards on the Macintosh, it looked like we macintosh Voodoo/Voodoo2 owners would be out in the cold. However, after an email with the big boy at ID, I got this reply.

'We only support OpenGL on all platforms. The current mac opengl drivers do not support voodoo cards, but Apple is intending to support them at a later date. Apple has NOT commited to it, but there has been talk about it, and I think they will have to. I, as well as other game developers, are pushing Apple to support them.'

Looks good to me
Grey Digger"

The card vendors will also have to provide driver support, which was said to be in the works from both VillageTronic and Microconversions. However as with RAVE, I suspect ATI to be the most pro-active on OpenGL support. They are a massive company that has the resources to actively work with game companies and frequently update drivers. Getting a Rage128 card might be a good bet for OpenGL games, especially if you are looking to update your 2D video card already.

Umax Scanner Patch: Ray Rimmer writes:

"Call Umax high-end scanner #, tech support option 3, for a patch... Umax emailed it to me. And to my surprise, it worked! (G3 400 with Bluenote card and UmaxPowerlook 2000, ver. 4.2 of their software). They have a list of scsi cards that are -after patching- compatible...Will now try the new Bluenote ROM.
Ray Rimmer"

Ram Price Cuts: Trans International cut RAM pricing again:

" Trans Intl cuts prices on Apple Memory Upgrades
Trans Intl. today announced another price drop on Apple Memory Modules, as predicted earlier the DRAM price erosion will continue until supply and demand curve balances out by the end of 3 rd quarter of 1999 as stated earlier in the March 24 Th. press release.
Trans Intl new prices for ... Power Macintosh G3 (Blue & White), PC-100 SDRAM are 256 Mb... $649; 128 Mb...$139; 64 Mb ...$76; 32 Mb ...$49

Power Macintosh G3 (Beige), SDRAM DIMMs are 256 Mb... $395; 128 Mb...$139; 64 Mb ...$76; 32 Mb ...$49

Power Book G3 (Wall street) & iMac 128 Mb...$149; 64 Mb ...$79; 32 Mb ...$49; Old PCI Macs and Clones (FPM DIMMs) 128 Mb...$215; 64 Mb ...$119; 32 Mb ...$62. "

In the past they had told me their PC100 DIMMs were 222 (fast aka 2CAS) types. That's the lowest price I've seen on 2CAS PC100 DIMMs.

StarCraft Action Figure Offer: Randy Mita, one of the two biggest Mac Evangelists I know (Brad Lau is the other) sent a note that this offer has been extended to the Mac version as well:

"Hiya Mike,
Just got Starcraft Mac last week and having quite a lot of fun. Blizzard had a promotion for the PC'ers where they got a in-box coupon good for a 'free Starcraft action figure' with proof-of-purchase when they bought the game way back when. I just read in today's Inside Mac Games that Blizzard has extended this free action figure deal to Mac folks buying the game now. The latest IMG issue says to e-mail your name, that you are a Mac owner, that you just bought Starcraft and would like a coupon, to: sales@blizzard.com to let Blizzard know; they're supposed to mail you a coupon. ;-)
Keep up the great work on the best site on the Web! Regards to St. Kay.
Randy. "

My Chinese wife Kay still shouts [heavy accent] "Suicide! Suicide!" every time I even try to play a game (translation: quit and straighten up the mac hardware that has taken over the entire house).

Day Job Softwerks released v1.3 of NavCom Cache Control, a small, PowerPC-only application that allows users to activate and adjust the memory cache of Netscape's Communicator and Navigator 4.x browsers (readers loved it when it was first released). For more info see http://www.io.com/~jackb/. The latest version is always at: http://www.io.com/~jackb/files/nccc.sit.hqx

I've having trouble with my ISP's mail server which is preventing replies or getting mail temporarily.

OWC $449 366MHz ZIFs:

"New Genuine Apple 366mhz/1024k 2:1 ZIF Upgrades - $449 Apple P/N 661-2092 made by Motorola. New w/1yr Warranty. They can be overclocked. 30 Day MBG.

Depending on sales response to this, it will be either a short term offer or an on going deal. The price is well below market and the speed jump from a 233mhz or 266mhz is certainly worth it.

Free Delivery for orders placed by Web. OWC Part Number Z366APL Best Regards,
Larry
Other World Computing
800-275-4576 "

If you do order make sure you fill out the Rate Your G3 Card survey and mention you saw this on xlr8yourmac.com. Thanks!

A reader asked for a list of tips to ensure reliability (over performance), so I added that to the FAQ's General Mac topic area.

A reader responded to the request in yesterday's news regarding EZ230 drives with a B&W G3. I was suprised to see he's running a Umax scanner on a non-Adaptec SCSI card:

" i'm running a syquest ezflyer 230 and a umax1200s off an orangemicro 930u grappler scsi card. again no problems. the 'syquest utilities control panel' mounts the disk with no prodding from me. as for the zip drive, the iomega driver v6.0.1 that ships with the b&w g3 cd is what i'm using...
thanks for the effort you invest in xlr8yourmac.
shalom, mark middleton

[He later wrote:]
the syquest utilities control panel reports the driver version as ProsoftSQ4.0.1 [www.prosoft.com did these?-Mike] "

A previous owner of that SCSI card could not get the EZ230 to work, and Umax scanners have been a common problem for most SCSI Cards (other than adaptec) in the B&W G3. I'm asking Mark for specifics on his firmware rev and scanner drivers. A reader mail awhile back contained a note that officially Umax only supported Adaptec 2906/2930 SCSI cards in the B&W G3.

More on 4th Partitions: Another reader comment on the thread in the last two days news:

" Mike, here's a FYI to add to what appears to be a growing 'issue' with 4th partitions. I've been having a problem with one of my systems that I've seen crop up before. Basically, the 4th partition does NOT allow Speed Disk to run. Gives forth a "vol not found" error. Now, the volume IS there.. it CAN be unmounted a remounted. It's part of a 4 partition RAID array. Drives are IBM match 4G 7200RPM UltraStores, software is FWB HST 3.0.1, machine is beige G3, OS is 8.1 (gosh what I'd do for a half day break in work so I can upgrade... then again this system is very stable and my home 8.5.1 system with half as many INITs running ain't nearly as stable).

Anyway, I've tried Symantec countless times, no help there. Might be a part of this issue, or might not be.
Paul Constantine "

Yesterday's news had mixed reports and several readers say they have never had problems with 4th partition problems after quitting the finder. Mike K recommended that for those needing 4 partions, make 5, with the 4th one very small and not used for real data. (This requires a complete wipe of the disk. Anyone know of a partition-magic like util for the Mac?)

OpenGL Driver Feedback: The Rage128 Feedback page has more reader comments on the OpenGL beta drivers. Keep sending in those OpenGL driver reports - results with Lightwave, or Hash Animation (Opengl apps) especially welcome.

Beta Bluenote Firmware/Scanners: No feedback yet from Umax owners on the latest Bluenote Beta update, but this Epson 636 owner says it did not fix the problem:

" Mike,
It didn't address the problem with Epson Expression 636. It did manage to access Silverfast, but when I go to prescan, it freezes. The ERROR indicator lights up on the Epson. Regards, Warren Tang "

I'm still asking for feedback from Bluenote/Umax owners (esp. those with B&W G3s)

Powerlogix wrote to say they have supplied G3 CPU cards to Steinberg and hope to have 'certication" (compatibility) status soon.

As noted on the Rage128 Feedback page, the 'ATI 3D Accelerator' included in the OpenGL beta is for RageII/RagePro, you don't need it for the Rage128.

In case you missed yesterday's 6PM update:
Kenneth Gan wrote that PowerLogix told him the Z-force (a press release was posted here on Jan 6th) is targeted to ship by the end of April. The Z-Force is a CPU card slot model with a ZIF socket, allowing use of Apple G3 ZIFs and potentially G4 CPU upgrades in the future. A lot of readers have asked for a status update recently. I've not heard the official word from PL but hopefully this date is accurate. More info as I receive it.

BlueNote ROM Update: James Rodriguez wrote to say that Initio has posted a beta update to the Bluenote (narrow Ultra SCSI) card that is said to address the issue of older, non-SCSI manager compliant devices. Get it at: http://www.initio.com/mac/mac_sd.htmHopefully this solves the Umax scanner issues. I welcome feedback from Umax scanner owners.

News.com has a story on an 8 CPU PIII Xeon based server from Penguin.

If you missed recent daily news updates, a summary is below.

Other Net Computer News:

• Apple's Firewire PC Card Codenamed MatchBox (PB Central)
• A Compleat [sic] Buyer's And User's Guide To High-End (Over $1,000) PowerBooks (MacOpinion)
• Miscellaneous Ramblings #10 Interesting Software Conflict On 5300; PowerBook Upgrade Resource; $1,000 for your 5300 Or 190; News From Singapore; And A Cautionary Note. (MacOpinion)
• Innovation: Part II LESS TANGIBLE - Is there a radical Mac in our future or just more colorful boxes? (MacOpinion)
• Flat Products coming to a wall near you (C/Net)

Thursday's News Summary

• Z-Force Status update
• Initio Bluenote SCSI card beta firmware update
• 466MHz ZIFs - info on CPU rated speeds (450 vs 466)
• Rage128 Feedback page has openGL beta info
  (incl. reports on DVD/CGVS/OpenGL apps)
• Info on Adaptec's 64-Bit PCI SCSI Cards
• OpenGL driver feedback
• Rate Your G3 CPU Card report on overclocking Sonnet/8100
• 472MHz report on XLR8/400 in 9500
• More reports on 4th Partition Thread
• More Audio Apps/G3 Cards Feedback
• 3D Graphics Chip Scorecard at Cnet
• Jargon page/FAQ explains tech terms
• Other Computer news
• Summary of previous day's news

Monday's News Summary

• First OpenGL driver feedback
• ATI OpenGL beta drivers released (For Rage128,Pro and II)
• MS plans another Dos based Windows
• Flat Panel prices may rise 10% soon
• 3D Game News page updated
• Using Stealth V2 Cooler as Hard drive cooler
• Reader reports problem Vimage G3/6400 incompat. w/ATI 3D Plus
• G3 CPU Upgrade Ratings database updated
• Reader report of Finder Quits/4th Partition Corruption
• Reader report on B&W G3 IDE Slave w/Western Digital ATA66 18GB drive
• Apple TIL may fix FaxSTF Problems w/new G3s
• More OS X/G3 Upgrade Reports (important backside cache info)
• Reader Report on TurboMax IDE Raid/Fuse Capture Card
• PowerForce G3/Logic Audio problem bus speed comment
• 3Dfx Forums FutureCop bug report
• PL Cache Control 1.5.1 released/fixes issues
• BestData USB external Modem report
• More on 2930/B&W G3/Scanners/Software fixes
• Guardbit/TurboTV problem report
• Cheetah U2 HDs run cool in 9600
• Other Net News
• Summary of previous day's news

For other recent site news/features links, see the Sidebar to the right and the Recent Site Features page.

If you own a G3/300 or faster Mac, make you get our PPC Checker utility that will report if your CPU is copper or aluminum based.

Considering a G3 Upgrade? Check the CPU Upgrade Owner's Survey results and search for owner reports by Mac model and/or card brand. The database is being updated daily for new reports. Also make sure you ask your dealer about any issues with current builds of some models (ie PF G3) as I have gotten several reports of issues with certain mac models in the last few months (Mach 5, PowerBase, 7300). I urge any owners that have had problems to report this via the Survey Form. Always give the most weight to recent owner reports (dated in the listing).

-Show All Topics-

B&W G3 Related:

-MagicScan G3 Updater
(912K G3/Scanner Fix)
OpenGl Drivers
FireWire 2.0
[File Download]
OEM B&W Ultra2 SCSI card
[File Download]
Miles/MilesU2 Updates
ATTO ExpressPCI 1.3.4
(U2 & UW cards)
Rage128 Update 1.0 (485K bin)
or Binhex (660K)
ATTO ExpressPro-Tools [2.1.1]
3940UW v4.1b1 ROM
(Get the 4.0 control below as well)
2940UW v4.1 ROM &
2940UW Control 4.0
Formac PowerRaid Updates
[get hqx version]
Jackammer v1.4 Update
VirtualGameStation 1.1
Plaintalk Enabler
[For B&W/iMac]
Fuse Drivers

Other G3 Models:
-Umax MagicScan v4 (912K)
(G3/Scanner Fix)
PPC Checker
Int. Modem Scripts
Apple Modem Update
[File Download]
PB G3 Modem 1.0.2
G3 Modem Update (V.90/56Flex)
See VersionTracker's G3 page for others...

G3 CPU Cards:
Vimage PB1400/2400
Vimage G3/240
(Vimage Update Info)
MacTell G3 Cntl
XLR8 Cache Cntl v1.3 [628KB]
PowerLogix SW
 -Cache Cntl 1.5.1
 -Speedmeter 1.3
 -GuardBit 1.0b2
  (Retrospect fix)
MAXpowr G3 1.3.7
XLR8 Cache Cntl 1.2

Misc/General:
ATI OpenGl Drvrs
Office98 GUID Patch
Fuse v1.8
Java Runtime 2.1.1
Drive Setup 1.7.2
USB Overdrive
Mac Mesa OpenGL
MP850 Glide 1.0
USB Drivers
Blue Label Update 1
Mouseworks 5.20 (1.5M)
Inspire 3D 1.0C (7.2MB)
NavCom Cache Cntl 1.3
Logitech MouseWare 3.0b7
Yamaha CRW4416 ROM v1.0f
(See Mac Update Utility page)
Apple Displays Software 1.7.1
GV V.90 Flex Preferred Script
IE 4.5 Plug-in Updater
Farallon NIC Update
Lightwave 5.6D GL Update
(7.9MB Download)
MacTell Vision3D Pro/Lite 5.4.0
(ROM update also)

Formac GA 5.4.0
(Graphics Card Driver)
Virtual PC 2.1.2
Stuffit Expander 5.1

Games Related:
Unreal 2.20 B3
MacMame(emulator)
3Dfx Checker Util
Descent 3Dfx 1.14
FutureCop 101A
MP850 Glide Drivers
CVGS v1.2
T.Raider2 Update

OS 8.5 Related
Check VersionTracker
for other updates.

See also Apple's Software Updates

Apple TIL Updates

Check here for cool Sherlock Plugins