"Mike:
The problem some folks have been having seems to be the same as one that was discussed here at work. If both the computer and the hub have "auto-sensing 10/100baseT" ports, which port is in charge, what makes it choose 10 over 100?

Our Technology Service Dept. installed an intellegent hub that allows you to select the speed for each port on the hub (via software). We tell them what ports should be at what speed, and they set it for us. Some PC NIC's (SMC 10/100 for instance) allow you to select 10 or 100baseT in the software driver. I haven't seen this in the Mac control Panels for any cards.

Thanks for the great site Mike. It has become my choice site for setting as the homepage in store's, university labs, and other such environments!!
Jeremy M. Leland
Composer/Technologist"

Thanks Jeremy! If anyone knows a specific autosensing hub brand that has worked well please contact me (preferably proven with many B&W G3s in a mixed network).

Another related story on mixed networking speeds:

" Curious!! I have the exact same problem as one of your readers. I have a 16port Asante FS4016E 10/100 switch running a mixed 10/100 environment (all 100BT iMacs and B&W G3s except 2 laser printers and an old Performa 578 w/ 10BT card) and I have *terrible* speeds over my network. I can sustain around 750K/sec between an iMac and a B&W G3 tower with standard FileSharing, but that's it!! I use the newish Carracho Server over my LAN and can sustain 1.4MB/sec with it...better, but still slow.

The switch's LEDs indicate 100BT is available and being used, but I certainly am not seeing 100BT speeds. Even with straight TCP/IP and clients like Fetch and Vicom FTP Client I see only 600K/sec between 2 B&W G3s!!! BAH!!! What gives?? I used to get better speeds between a 6150 and 8600 and a 10BT crossover cable with SpeedDoubler! :-)
Parker B."

Has anyone used Lan Diagnosis tools (something like LanWatch or Compaq's stuff for the PC) to see what is happening on the network? The last time I saw a really slow 100BT Network (PCs), it was fixed by replacing the server network card after LAN tools showed that there were excessive receive overruns and CRC errors.

Removing OS X on Partitioned Install:

"Hey Mike,
I haven't heard anyone else experience this but it's something to look out for. I recently installed Mac OS X Server on a 1GB partition on my B&W G3 350; by doing that you basically lose that partition since its in UFS and not recognized in the Mac OS.

I hadn't used OS X too much so I decided I wanted that space back. I knew I had two options, wipe the entire drive clean (since drive setup sucks) or use Hard disk toolkit to remove that partition and reinitialize it (I had successfully done this on a beige G3 300 so I didn't think anything of it). Well, I removed the partition with HDT 3.01 but in order to get the space back you have to update the driver on the hard drive with their own. Before you can use HDT to get the partition back you must restart. Upon doing that I got a grey screen with a mouse (before the happy mac appears) but it would completely lock up at that point. Cleared PRAM, no go, pressed the PRAM clear button on the motherboard, no go, tried to boot to the 8.5 CD and the same thing kept happening.

Called Apple tech support and they suggested everything I'd already done, so they suggested I go to an authorized service center since they said my HD was hosed. So I bought an internal PC ATAPI Zip drive and tried to boot to that using a bootable disk I had previously made, still locked up. I decided to do something potentially dangerous and dumb. I disconnected the HD from the motherboard and booted to CD, it booted fine. Restarted and while the Mac OS logo was on the screen I plugged my hard drive IDE ribbon into the motherboard and the CD loaded to the desktop but still no HD. Went into drive setup on the 8.5 disk and ran it. It showed my HD but said it was not mounted, so what I did was update the driver and reboot to the CD again. This time the HD was mounted on the desktop and I was able to boot to the HD again with no problems. Everything's fine now but I still have a 5 gig HD rather than a 6. I wish there was partition magic for Mac.
-Zack West"

I've heard of similar stories with SCSI working as a last-ditch fix attempt, but never suggest 'hot plugging' devices. Glad he's back up and running again.

OS X Drawing Tool Released: M. Onyschuk and Associates Inc. (OAAI) today announced availability of GlyphiX, a business/technical drawing tool for Mac OS X Server. GlyphiX can be downloaded from OAAI's GlyphiX website at http://www.oaai.com/GlyphiX. Until licensed (activation key), GlyphiX runs as a document reader. Keys cost $199.95, directly from OAAI by calling toll-free 1-877-367-7815, or from the OpenBase store at www.openbase.com. (OAAI says they offer substantial discounts to students & educational institutions.) More details are in their web site Press Release.

I'm having email problems again with my ISP (mail server down I think). If you're looking for answers to questions make sure you check the Frequently Asked Questions - answers to over 200 common questions on literally every topic (Older Mac upgrades, CPU cards, Memory, Video cards and much more). It's fast, easy and has far more detail than I can repeat in email. If you're wondering how a specific CPU card will work in your mac model - check the searchable Rate Your CPU Card database - there are almost 1,000 entries now for literally every brand of card and upgradable Mac model (including overclocking reports on Beige/B&W G3s and iMacs).

Thad Brown sent Issue 39 of our Mac Audio column with news on new audio software and cards for the Mac. The latest issue and links to back issues are always at www.xlr8yourmac.com/audio/

The 3D Gaming News page has another daily update with more feedback on CVGS Cdrom brand compatibility, reader solutions to Unreal networking problems and Type 12 errors, a fix for Serpantine weapons patch errors, a report Unreal v224 is due out this week and more.

Vimage Lowers prices: From their press release (edited a bit for brevity):

"Torrance, CA (13 April 1999) The Vimage Corporation today announced a series of dramatic price cuts.

The Vpower PB 1400 G3/233 (512K of backside cache, 2:1 backside cache bus clock ratio) upgrade for the PowerBook 1400 has been cut by $160, to $339. The PB 2400 G3/240 (512K, 2:1) has been lowered to $489, and the wildly popular PB 2400 G3/320 (1MB, 2:1) has come down to $899.

[For PCI Macs] The Vpower G3 300/512 (512K, 2:1) has been reduced in price from $399 to only $295, while the powerhouse G3 366 (1MB, 2:1) has been cut to only $659.

Vimage has lowered its Vpower 400Z (1MB, 2:1) ZIF upgrade to $899 [for Beige G3s].

The PM 4400 G3/240 (512K, 2:1) for the Power Mac 4400 and StarMax 3xxx/4xxx is now only $289. The PF G3/240 (512K, 2:1) for Power PC-equipped 54xx/55xx/64xx/65xx machines is being offered for only $339. And, the new PF G3/320 (1MB, 2:1) is now only $499, down from its previous price of $599. "

I've not verified this on the Mac Excel version yet but it works on the PC Excel 97.

"In case you guy's haven't seen this. Start Excel
hit F5, type in X97:L97 and click ok
hit tab
then press and hold ctrl + shift and click on Chart Wizard with the mouse.
Probably the main reason Excel is such a large program.
Stephen Kreher "

Use the mouse to scroll the view of the planet surface that appears to see a monolith with scrolling Excel credits. Read the credits for a good laugh...

Kent Kanja wrote that Storage Review has a review of the 10,000 RPM Fujitsu drives mentioned on sale in yesterday's news ($350.42) - but notes that the drive they reviewed has a 1MB cache where the Onsale drive specs showed a 512K cache model.

Several readers reported that MOS Rumors indicated Apple might add 3dfx/Opengl support to the OS. As readers of last Friday's News saw, I had a quote from ID's John Carmack stating that was a possibility. Note that for cards with 2D capability (ie the 3Dfx Banshee, Voodoo3) you will not be able to just plug a PC card in, due the firmware differences. IF the drivers were complete and Voodoo1/Voodoo2 compatible, you might be able to use PC Voodoo1/2 cards for *opengl games* (Voodoo1/2 cards do not have any firmware) and as shown in the FAQ for over a year, most PC Voodoo1 cards run fine in a Mac with the drivers from Techworks web site (see links page). Only Microconversion's Game Wizard has (legal) Voodoo2 Mac drivers however (Rave and 3dfx/glide). For more info on on all types of 3Dfx cards - see the 3dfx topic area of the Frequently Asked Questions.

More on B&W G3 CDrom IDE Cable: In a followup to the post in yesterday's news on the mysterous notch cutout in IDE cable for the CDrom/Zip, a reader replied that according to this post in Apple's Tech Forums it was supposed to be there. The answer there (that it's for master/slave operation) is not correct, as shown on my B&W G3 Slave article, slaves work fine on the primary channel without any conductors cut. I'm beginning to wonder if the corresponding pin has an undesired connection on the motherboard, and rather than remove the pin from the connector they modified the cable instead. I'd also like to verify if the older IDE cables keying scheme of blocking one pin in the cable connector (with a missing pin in the mb connector) is the same pin/conductor number as Apple's cut conductor. I suspect it might be. Since the CDrom/Zip cable is a custom (far longer than any IDE cable I've ever seen), it's pretty much a moot point. If you ever did need to replace the cable you'd get one from an Apple dealer. Custom made IDE cables are available and most likely are cheaper than Apple's cost I suspect but you'd have to cut the conductor or remove the pin if there is some problem with having that connection intact.

Several readers asked if replacing the stock Apple ZIF in a Beige G3 with a faster *Apple* ZIF would work (ie put a Apple 300/150/1MB in a 233/512k beige G3). It will work, but unless you change the jumper block for a higher bus/CPU ratio it will only run at the original system speed. Lifting the tape on the jumper block *voids the warranty*, but the info on speed settings is listed at the G3-ZONE's overclocking page.

RagePro VR Capture in B&W G3: A reader replies to my request for info in yesterday's news:

"I have been able to capture video easily. I have my main (Apple Studio 17) monitor connected to the Rage 128, and my Sony 200es connected to my Xclaim VR 8mb rage pro. I had to play with the drivers for over an hour, for conflicts--that is all it takes to get them working in order. Email with more questions if you need to.
Scott Kingston"

I asked him to send a list of what extensions are installed and enabled.

Wired is reporting that Sony failed to block a startup company from releasing software that emulates the Playstation on a PC.

More on Slow G3 Networking: More on the thread from yesterday's news:

"Hi Mike-
Despite the fact that Steve Jobs used a stock iMac to send files through ethernet faster than a NT4 box using TCP/IP, I couldn't get fast copies at all between my iMac and B&W G3 (via a new Asante 10/100 SWITCH) It seemed like it was using the 10, not the 100 base.

So, I went back to what works best for me; installed Speed Doubler on all my machines and choose "use TCP/IP if available." Now I get "1.6 meg/sec" and can copy a 100 MB photoshop file in about 1.5 minutes-Way better than that guy who seems satisfied with his Scitex RIP taking 6 minutes to copy a "79.5 MB" file. That seems to be 10baseT, not 100baseT.

I am satisfied, but at my prepress shop I copy the same 100 MB file back and forth between my gray G3 /ultra-SCSI and my NT server/huge RAID in "less than a minute," at a rate of 2.5 MB/sec! Now that's fast, and its been consistently fast for about a year now.
Bill Costello "

Some say the hub type is an issue, and there have been many reports of B&W G3s and networking/ethernet problems. See my B&W G3 compatibility page for a sample (disappearing networks, etc.)

VideoShop 4.5/B&W G3 Video Capture: This just in from a reader:

"Mike,
I recently bought the VideoShop 4.5 upgrade available on Strata's website thinking that I could use it to capture video on my new 400MHZ B&W. Wrong! VideoShop 4.5 supports IEEE-1394 third party cards but not the on-board Fire Wire in the B&W G3 models released the first week of this year. Nowhere on the Strata site is this fact communicated. Finally today they sent me the following letter:

[Bret:] The application does not seem to work with the on-board IEEE 1394 (FireWire) however. The 'video On' and 'video settings' are grayed-out. If you try to record a clip from the digital camera (Canon ZR) all you get is the audio. I know that the video is coming into the Mac because I can see it with the Apple Video Player application. I know that all cables and hardware are good also. I re-installed the application clean and the indications stayed the same. [They replied]
Bret,
While testing on the B&W G3 last week, we encountered the same scenario. We tried many things to try and get the Video Settings menu's back, and the only thing that worked was reinstalling the system. That suggests to me that (even though the Apple Video Player works) Apple hasn't quite worked out all the bugs in their internal FireWire support. If you haven't done so yet, you should download the FireWire 2.0 drivers from the Apple site. They fixed a lot of bugs with the initial release. ... I am now working on a bulletin describing what we know of the problem. It will be distributed internally, as well as being posted on the website. I have been pushing for a better Tech section on the web site, and we are currently developing it.

[Bret:]There does not seem to be an updater file avialable on the site either.

Again, this is in the works. Our engineers are working with Apple towards a solution.
Thanks for you patience.
Blaine Sanders
VideoShop QA Manager
Strata, Inc."

If you missed any recent daily news a summary is below (details on the past 2 days, and links to the last week). For a blast from the past, read what was on the news page here exactly a year ago.

Other Net Computer News:

• Inprise to name former Apple Exec as CEO (News.com)
• Lycos Sues Micro (News.com)
• MS to unveil Net Audio Software (News.com)
• Linux for Consumers Due (News.com)

Monday's News Summary

• Hole in B&:W G3 CDrom cable
• Reader Tips for Slow Networking
• 10,000 RPM Fujitsu drives for $350.42
• Yamaha releases SX1000XG Mac Drivers!
• 3D Game News page updated
• Grappler/Magicscan G3 Update report
• RamDoubler/Speeddblr lowers G3 temp?
• More on OS X/G3 CPU Cards:
• OS X/8.5.1 Dual Boot B&W G3
• Request for RagePro VR/B&W G3 capture info
• $99 (after rebate) 8.4 GB IDE drive
• iMac Overclocking reports
• Nubus SCSI/G3 Upgrade Issues
• MacTell ZIF Upgrades for C600
• Scrolling Wheel USB Mice
• FAQ Updated with Nubus G3/SCSI issues
• G3 CPU Upgrade Ratings database updated
• Other Net News

Weekend News Summary

• Beta ROM for Orange Micro 930U SCSI card
• Sonnet/Nubus SCSI issues reported
• OpenGL drivers affected CDR burning
• Mystery Mac at Ebay
• MoluCad OpenGL app
• VillageTronic MP850/750 1.01 driver update
• Mp850 OpenGL driver notes
• 3D Game news page updated
• XLR8 G3/400 card runs 480Mhz in 7500
• Miles 1.08 update fixes B&W G3 IDE slave problem
• OpenGL drivers fix Canvas 5 problems
• Resizing partitions with HDT how-to
• Bottom Line ZIF G3 Upgrades Sale
• B&W G3/Cubase Authorization Tip
• Umax G3 updater works with OrangeMicro SCSI card
• Other Computer 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
[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)
OrangeMicro 930U Beta
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:
OrangeMicro 930U Beta
MP850 v1.01 update (2.8MB)
ATI OpenGl Drvrs
Office98 GUID Patch
Fuse v1.8
Java Runtime 2.1.1
Drive Setup 1.7.2
USB Overdrive
Mac Mesa OpenGL
USB Drivers
Blue Label Update 1
Mouseworks 5.20 (1.5M)
Inspire 3D 1.0C (7.2MB)
NavCom Cache Cntl 1.3
Logitech MouseWare USB
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