ID Comments on Q3Test Problem Reports: Bruno Blondeau sent a URL to Graeme Devine's (ID Software) plan file with comments on reported Quake3Test problems. Included is the often reported 'not enough memory' video card error and more. Note this Tidbit on a VOODOO3 card in the Mac!

" I have both an ATI Rage 128 and a Voodoo3 plugged in to my system for development work. If the V3 is in the 66Mhz slot and the ATI in any other PCI slot, Quake3 will fire up on the ATI just fine.

However, if the ATI is in the 66Mhz slot and the Voodoo3 in a PCI slot, I get an error message that says "Could not initialize OpenGL". This appears to happen after the video mode change."

I posted a note last month that the latest guess is summer for the Mac Voodoo3 cards to be available - good to know they are already working in a Mac.

The 3D Game News page has another large update with interesting info on Quake 3's status icons for networking rate, the 'talk-bubble' feature, MesaQuake beta7 update and other Mac game news.

News.com is reporting there may be a chip war, with ATI and Intel announcing new integrated graphics combined in new multifunction system chipsets.

News.com also has an article on Western-Digital's announcement of their new Expert 27GB IDE hard drive. Like their other recent drives, I suspect this one to be fully Apple G3 compatible. The previous Expert 18GB drive was their fastest so far, a 7200 RPM, ATA/66 drive with 2MB cache. The Expert 27GB is expected to be available this summer.

Sony has delayed shipments of their 200MB floppy-compatible drive according to News.com.

In a follow-up to the post in yesterday's news, Jee-Hoon Yoo wrote to say WiredInc stated their Wired4DVD card works with any DVD drive.

One of the latest additions to the Rate Your G3 Upgrade database is a report of a conflict between a Sonnet G3 upgrade and an ATI VR graphics card in a 6500:

"Initially i couldn't use my 6500 because of many random freezes, that i discovered were caused by a strong incompatibility between the Sonnet G3 card and the ATI Xclaim VR Rage Pro PCI video card i had installed into my 6500. After removing the Xclaim VR, and using the Rage 2 built in video card, everything worked perfectly, no bombs, very very stable! Performance is more than double than before upgrading!
Alessandro Pisani "

I'll generally post compatibility issues like this in the news to make readers aware, and to also get any reader tips/workarounds or conflicting reports.

New MesaQuake Beta: Frank just sent a new update B7 version of MesaQuake (448KB) direct from the author. I've not had time to test it but welcome reports on any improvements. (initial reports say it is an improvement)

Jeff Guffey wrote concerned after a comment in a WD manual that standard IDE cables could not be used in Apple macs (noting the stripe was on pin 40, not pin 1 (??)). Not sure what they mean, as all my Beige G3 cables are striped on pin 1, as is standard. As I told him I used a standard IDE cable in my beige G3 (upgraded rev 2 motherboard), when I swapped the stock SCSI ZIP for a ATAPI/IDE model as a slave.

Another reader noted that his All-In-One (AIO) Mac supports IDE slaves, like the Rev 2 and later beige G3s.

Deathmatch Quake3Test: My Quake3 page has been updated with screenshots from last night's game. Apparently I was the sole Modem player in this particular game (I had a ping as high as 999, other players were in the 200-300+ range). I was amazed that despite frequent 'stalls' from my slow connection, I actually had the highest score when I bailed out after the net connection degraded to the point where freezes became too frequent to continue playing. It was great to use the Mac for some stress relief for a change, and Quake III so far has been a blast.

I've not forgotten the more 'serious' work, and after the game I continued running tests on the next review - the PowerForce G3/400/200 ZIF. It's running at 450/179 in the B&W G3. With the CPU set to 450MHz, the fastest the cache would run was a 5/2 setting. Also, keep an eye out today for a special announcement of a PowerForce G3 466/186/1MB for $649.

Quake3Test Note: Andrew Lindsay sent a note to Mac owners running OS versions prior to 8.x:

" I thought I'd let you know that I got Q3 running on my PowerTower pro 180/techworks V1/sys 7.6.1 today.

One thing that needs to be noted that I haven't seen mentioned anywhere is that it Q3 test *requires* appearance extension. (for those of us not running 8.x) If it's not installed, you get a type 3 error. Took me a few tries to figure that one out. Other than that, all ran as people have been saying. I had no crashes after playing for a good 45 minutes.
Andrew Lindsay "

Apple recently posted a G3 Networking TIL #24887 that talks about using auto-sensing 10/100 hubs with the new Macs.

QT4/MP3 Playback Tip: If you kept a copy of Movieplayer 2.5 around this tip may help:

" Quite a few people have noticed the "jumpy" mp3 playback. One solution that works well for me is to tell Movieplayer to preload the entire MP3 to RAM.

So far, I can only do this in Movieplayer v2.5 with the add-ons. In the Info window, under Soundtrack and then Preload, there are options for "Preload" and "Cache hint". I'm not quite sure what cache hint does, but I have them both checked. To make this work correctly, I had to close the file (Save As a different name so I don't change the original, keeping dependencies so that I don't eat up hard drive space), and re-open the new file. At this point, even the new Player will open and load the file correctly, assuming it has the RAM it needs.

This plays smoothly even if I hold down a menu--which, on my system, seems to put everything on hold. The only quirk is an somewhat jumpy mouse. Oh, and sometimes opening up an application just after I hit play, will crash me.
--steven lee "

OrangeMicro PCfx/Ethernet: A reader reported a solution to the PCfx card/Apple Enet booting issue.

" Here's the reply from Orange Micro to my email about PCfx not booting in the presence of Apple Enet (which OS 8.6 requires to initialize the Ethernet port).

..IF you use the version of Apple Enet that comes with 8.6 (v 2.1.2) and get the latest G3 Ethernet (built-in) (v 2.0.4) from Apple the PCfx will boot and be able to access your ethernet. "

Infoworld reported that Lombard, the next generation Apple notebook will be less than an inch thick, have a detachable LCD display for use with goggles (heads up display?) and start with a 400Mhz G4 CPU.

More on $200 Premiere 4.2LE Upgrade: A reader sends more info on the post in yesterdays news:

"Just verifying what the other read said about the $200 Premiere 4.2LE to Premiere 5.1 upgrade.. The url is http://www.adobe.com/prodindex/premiere/upgrade.html I took advantage of this offer last summer with the purchase of my Fuse card - it's an excellent deal! The Fuse is only about $500 now, so you can get a capture card and the latest version of Premiere for $700!! This is $200 less than the retail price of just Premiere ($895).
Javin"

CIH 1.2 Virus Victim: As mentioned in the news yesterday, March 26th was the date the latest strain of the CIH virus was to attack PCs. Although worldwide little damage was done ZD/Net says, a friend's Uncle was one of the victims. The nasty consequences are listed below (makes you glad you use a Mac):

" My Uncle Bill - A staunch believer in NEVER accepting anything from the Internet, scans EVERYTHING using McAffee with all the updates and EXTREMELY paranoid about computer Virii, got the Chernobyl virus (of course, McAffee never saw it as usual.)

Here's what it did to his HP Pavillion computer...
Boot.
"No Operating System Found" black screen message.
Boot with floppy.
OK. Shows A: prompt.
Change to C: drive.
OK. Shows C:> prompt.
DIR
"No Directory Found" error.
Go back to A: drive.
OK. Shows A:> prompt.
DIR
"Insert Disk In Drive" error.
Try to read the CD ROM now.
Change to D: drive.
"Device Not Available" error.
OK. So let's try A: drive directory again.
DIR
A complete directory listing of his CD ROM is shown.
OK. So let's see what's on the C: drive now.
DIR C:
"No Directory Found" error.
OK. So let's re-boot the machine with floppy disk again and CD ROM in drive. Boot. -"No operating System Found" black screen message.

Starting to get the picture here? The BIOS has been completely re-written. It swapped drive letters on him (randomly at times it seems.) Anything you stick on the machine (write protected or not) is infected.

I have to say, hat's off to this Virus. This is most impressive! Not quite sure how to fix it all yet, but the duty has fallen on me as the computer geek in the family. I would guess all the hard disk info is still there, but the BIOS is blocking it out somehow [I think it wipes the FAT (File Allocation Table) - so data cannot be accessed-Mike]. Going to re-flash the BIOS and see if I can get anywhere with that. Ain't life grand?
-J- "

I not sure you can even boot from a floppy clean enough to flash the bios. Note that Symantec says although NT system files can be infected, the virus cannot activate on the system while running Windows NT and memory will not be infected. News.com has a story with some tragic data losses from the virus. Thankfully there is no CIH virus on the Mac, but the potential is there for the new Macs (ROM modification).

MacsOnly has a review of MacTell's G3 PowerJOLT 400 MHz CPU upgrade card which he calls a 'solid speed demon'.

If you don't check the news daily, you're sure to miss something useful/interesting. Check the summary list below. For a blast from the past, read what was on the news page here exactly a year ago.

Other Net News:

• Apple's Road Ahead Part 10: Think Local, Act Global (MacOpinion)
• Student Surrenders Appleimac.com domain (News.com)
• AMD's K6-III vs Intel's PII, PIII and Celeron (GameCenter.com)
• Celeron 466 Boosts Graphics on a Budget HP, Compaq will ship systems with high-speed, low-cost chip. (PCworld)
• Netscape Offers Free Web Pages (PCworld)
• Intel launches new Graphics Effort (News.com)
• Anonymity Guaranteed on the Net For $9.95 per year, ISPs will erase all trace of your Web travels. (PCworld)
• Speech Recognition Goes Corporate IBM offers Linux version, while Dragon Systems offers speech smarts for mobile users. (PCworld)
• A Dealer for your Digital Stuff MyPublish site lets you easily publish and sell digital content. (PCworld)

Monday's News Summary

• 3D Gaming News Quake3/Half-Life updates
• More rumors of Mac TNT2
• Quake 3 Tips/Screenshots page posted
• More OS 8.6 GM Feedback
• Lower Powerbook temperatures with OS 8.6?
• More details on WiredDVD Card
• Reader report on Premiere 4.2LE Upgrade
• OrangePC CPU Card in B&W G3
• B&W G3 ROM Update fixes issues with PCI Cards
• OS 8.6 w/B&W Firmware Update report
• Reminder on site LAN tutorial
• BW G3 Firmware Update page revised
• G3 CPU Upgrade Ratings database updated
• Other Net News

Weekend News Summary

• 3D Game News page updated with Quake3 and Half-Life info
• Quake 3/Arena Test Feedback
• B&W G3 Firmware update tips/fixes
• Mac-Friendly DSL Providers Page
• Carmack's comments on Mac OS/Mac Gaming
• My B&W G3 firmware update experience/tests
• B&W G3 Firmware tips page updated
• B&:W G3 IDE Slave drive article updated for Cable Tip
• Reader reports QT4 PR1 had updated files from first beta
• Super Cooled CPUs (-50C) article
• Rate Your G3 Upgrade database updated
• Reports on BW G3/300 overclocking

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, you might want to 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:

-Firmware Update
-MagicScan G3
(912K G3/Scanner Fix)
ATI OpenGL
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]

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:
Fuse 1.8.1
Virtual PC 2.1.3
OrangeMicro 930U Beta
MP850 v1.01 update (2.8MB)
ATI OpenGl Drvrs
Office98 GUID Patch
NAV 5.03
April 99 NAV Defs
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)
Stuffit Expander 5.1

Games Related:
MesaQuake (GL)
Joyport Update
(InputSprocket fix)
Myth Updates
Unreal Updates
MacMame(emulator)
3Dfx Checker Util
Descent 3Dfx
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