Note to AOL users - I'm getting a lot of mail bounced back from AOL address with 'not accepting mail' errors. I suspect there is an AOL setting that determines if you want to accept mail from non-AOL addresses, etc. If you want me to be able to reply please check your mail settings.

I received a Other World Computing 350 ZIF and what was labelled as a 400 ZIF ('400U' label on the cache) Saturday. Looking at the CPU marking (on the center of the chip) the '400U' labeled ZIF cpu markings had 'PRX450E' which I assume to be a 450MHz CPU. I've asked OWC to clarify if this was a 450MHz ZIF mislabelled. OWC is now including a 6 page illustrated guide to using their ZIFs with the CarrierZIF card, a nice touch.

I received several mails about the G4 configs posted yesterday (sent sometime Friday afternoon/night via my anonymous mail form) indicating that the info is likely bogus. I don't post 1/10th of the info sent this way but thought it was interesting at least. We'll all just have to wait to see what Apple's announcements really are at Seybold.

I'm got a ton of review writeups to do so if I'm late replying to mail bear with me.

Possible G4s Configs at Seybold?: An anonymous mail sent the following info, which seems to contradict earlier rumors that the first G4s would be modified G3s (no AGP):

"Info on some possible configs for Seybold...

Power Macintosh G4
Config 1 - 400 MHz G4 - 4X AGP - CD - 8 GB Ultra DMA 66 - 64 MB RAM - $1599	Config 2 - 450 MHz G4 - 4X AGP - DVD - 8 GB uDMA - 64 MB RAM - $1999
Config 3 - 450 MHz G4 - 4X AGP - DVD - 18 GB uDMA - 128 MB RAM - $2399 - unlikely considering minimal difference from previous config	Config 4 - 500 MHz G4 - 4X AGP - DVD - 18 GB U2 SCSI (single) - 128 MB RAM - $2999 (less if there is no config 3)
Server G4 - dual 500 MHz G4 [?!?] - 4X AGP - CD - 36 GB U2 RAID - 1000BaseT - 256 MB RAM - $4999 - OS X Server

Wireless networking possible through Airport Base Station ethernet only- i.e. what's the point of wireless if the desktop stays in the office?"

Again this is just rumor...but sure sounds interesting! Even C/Net is reporting that Apple may announce new models but they mention primarily the new iMac (rumored to have DVD, firewire and Rage128).

Stealth Voodoo3 Cooler: Randall Markarian sent a review of the Tennmax Stealth Voodoo3 Cooler (fan/heatsink). As he noted in the review - care needs to be taken on removing the old heatsink (his friend damaged a card). If you own a Voodoo2 that needs cooling last year I posted a review of the Stealth Voodoo2 cooler.

XLR8 SW Install Note: J. Vandenbrande noted in a recent Rate Your G3 Upgrade entry that the XLR8 CarrierZIF software installer would not run on his 601 CPU Mac (requiring a 604 or better he said). XLR8 recommends installing the software first and then the card (so you boot up with the 'virtual firmware' enabled) but in this case he had to install the card first. I've asked XLR8 for verification on this and the reader said he had informed them as well. Just a tip for 7500 owners that might have a 601 card.

RAGE 128 Update/Fix Feedback: As noted in last night's update, ATI posted a patch to address the Rage128 (Orion/Nexus) problems reported here last month with early PCI Macs (i.e. 44-6500, Starmax clones and others - see their tech note for more info). Here's some reader feedback from last night on the fix:

"I installed the patch and the Rage Orion works fine in my Performa 6400. Even better news is that it is compatible with the Vimage G3/240 cache-slot G3.
Jordan "

"Gentlemen,[sent so several sites-Mike]
On 29 July, I wrote to you reporting incompatibilities between the ATI Rage Orion and the Power Mac 6500 when using the current drivers (from ATI Universal Installer 4.0.1). I also reported an inability to recognize AppleVision Displays as such and thus to support their custom features.

Today, ATI released ATI 4.0.1 Software Update [noted last night-Mike], and since you all reported one or more of these issues on your Web sites, I wanted to update you with the results of my testing (good news) and a cautionary tale for owners of AppleVision and ColorSync Displays.

ATI 4.0.1 Software Update installs an updated version (1.3.1) of the ATI Resource Manager shared library, replacing version 1.3 from ATI Universal Installers 4.0 and 4.01. The Update doesn't install or update anything else.

There were two incompatibilities between the Rage Orion and the Power Mac 6500 and a host of other Apple and clone systems (see below for ATI's list of affected systems):

1. The system would hang during startup if the ATI Graphics Accelerator was enabled. Disabling this extension would allow the system to boot, but then

2. Any calls to QuickDraw 3D or OpenGL would hang the system.

Both of these problems have been corrected by the new ATI Resource Manager 1.3.1, and I have verified that 2D QuickDraw acceleration, QuickDraw 3D RAVE acceleration, and OpenGL acceleration all work.

The other problem I reported was the failure of the Rage Orion to recognize my AppleVision 1710 Display as such (the Rage Orion thought that it was a generic "VGA Display") and the consequent loss of the AppleVision Display's custom geometry and color calibration features.

The Rage Orion has a VGA video-out connector instead of the DB15 connector that Apple formerly used for video output. The AppleVision 1710 Display has a DB15 cable and came with its own DB15-to-VGA adapter, which I was using instead of the adapter that ATI ships with the Rage Orion. The two adapters are physically identical... on the outside. They obviously aren't so on the inside, because when I switched to ATI's adapter, the Rage Orion recognized my AppleVision 1710 Display as such, restoring access to the AppleVision's custom features.
Best regards,
Sean Smith "

"Hi-I have 6400/G3 Upgrade(Vimage). Installed ATI update and everything is running smooth.Tried Unreal-Falcon-X-Plane 5.0-etc. All well.
Norman Klampert "

Formac 3D Glasses Impressions: I just received a pair of Formac 3D glasses for the Proformance III. They look just like the Wickedvision (PC) versions except for a much more compact 'transmitter' that triggers the glasses. The effect was pretty good but Unreal 224B7 locked up the video within about 15 seconds (audio was still playing), but Quake Rave ran fine. The 3D effect was pretty impressive. Unreal looked good as well, at least for the few seconds it ran. I've written Formac about the Unreal issue. I was using GA control 5.5.7, since the 5.5.8 beta locked up in Macbench's graphics primitives tests during review testing.

Wanted: PB G3 Game Framerates: I've added the PowerBook G3 (Wallstreet1/2 and Lombard/Bronze) to the Mac models in the Game Framerates entry page and would like owner reports of framerates in Quake1, Quake2, Unreal, etc. Info on how to test framerates are in my FAQ (noted and linked on the FPS Entry page). I'm especially curious how the RageProLT in the Lombard performs.

PB G3 CPU Modules - Sold Out: By the time I got the URL from Steve Weisel (from a PowerWatch post he said) their web site listed the $299 PB G3 292 CPU modules (WallStreet 1) as sold out but did note they will have some 250/1MB modules for sale (price TBA). These are OEM Apple parts and may be used/refurbished but if you own a cache-less 233MHz PB G3 it might be worth investigating. It may take an Apple tech to install them (many owners may not be comfortable with the procedure). Check out http://www.powerbookguy.com/ for details.

TrueX CDrom Drive: A reader reported he just had his second TrueX IDE Cdrom fail. Failure reports from Mac owners have been rare and the 3 I have here are ok so far (but only one has gotten a lot of use really). There was an article in the Sept. Maximum PC magazine that said (if I remember correctly) 30-60 owners had reported bad drives and there was suspicion there was a bad batch perhaps but this was denied by the companies in the article.

More PowerCC Failure Reports: After yesterday's post of the PowerCC page on (rare) failures after CPU upgrades I received several mails from owners that had also had problems. The first post is a note on CPU connectors that I thought might be of interest even though its not a PowerCC report.

"Hi Mike,
Just a quick one on the Powercenter dead after upgrade bit.
I have seen a Mac (7300) that apparently died after upgrading, there was no visible sign of damage.

The cause of the failure was the CPU had been swapped many times - perhaps less than gently - and the solder joints for the CPU slot had been damaged. We re-soldered the connections and all was well again.
Thanks again for the great site!
from sunny Sydney,
Greg Hutchings "

Something to check. It would probably take a flashlight and maybe a magnifying glass to be able to spot any broken/cracked solder joints on the connector/motherboard pin contact area. Also check for bent pins in the CPU connector on the motherboard. I had one case where a CPU Card did not have a beveled edge on it and therefore it bent the pins in the connector (but that was so severe a problem the CPU Card would not seat).

More reports:

"About a year ago I upgrade my PowerCenter150 with an XLR8 266/512 [PowerForce design-Mike] upgrade card. The machine ran for two days, and then died. Before I performed the upgrade, I did every precautionary routine, diagnostics, drivers updated etc. First symptoms were inability to boot from internal drive, could still boot from cd-rom at this time, all diagnostics said all drives were fine. Upon re-booting several times the machine deteriorated to the point where even the floppy was useless. Paid $90.00 to COMP USA to have tests run, they said it was a bad internal drive. I knew that was wrong, but I hoped they knew what they were doing. Had a new Quantum 9 GB drive installed by them. They called and said 'Your machine is ready'. Picked up the machine. First time I tried to copy my Back-up (Retrospect) from my external drive to the new internal, the machine froze during restore. Upon restart, guess what? No HD recognized! Comp USA didn't even run any read/write tests after installing the new drive to see if it worked! [I wonder if the drive was terminated properly - as freezing during IO is one sign of this-Mike] The machine booted and they proclaimed it fixed.

Returned it to them for further 'testing'. After having some of their best "corporate techs" examine the machine. They returned it unchanged and unresolved. They just said 'It must be something on the motherboard.' No definite diagnosis. It sits in my closet, replaced it with a UMAX S900 (Cost $1000.00), but I still don't know why it died.

The only clue was an article posted by a former PowerCC employee who said that machines based around the 604 chip had repeated failures during preliminary G3 testing due to some timing issue I believe. It still bothers me that I had to replace a machine for some reason that cannot be explained. I feel responsibility for my unnecessary expense lies with one of the companies involved, but I expect never to know the real answer.

I wish I knew why a pre upgrade perfectly functioning machine died and how I can bring it back to usefulness. Re-installing the original CPU card had no effect. If anyone has a clue or suggestion, or question, please contact me at rfischer@nacs.net
Thank You
Rick Fischer"

This reminded me of a problem I had with my PowerCenter Pro back in February of this year. It was originally my Mac sever and was running fine for about a week (G3 CPU card, 80MB RAM) when I went down to my ISP to add more RAM. I took two known good 64MB Dimms, in a static bag, observed all precautions,etc. but after installing the RAM (replacing two 16MB Dimms) the system would not boot - no chime, no video, nothing. I did everything you can imagine (removing the battery for 5 minutes, swapping the RAM out, reseating/underclocking the CPU Card, etc.) to no avail. I suspected there had been some unrelated coincidental failure (Power Computing power supplies were not always the best...but that's another story). After sitting here for several months I decided to try it again - it booted right up again. With the same RAM, CPU card, Disk, etc. Go figure.

More reader reports:

" Dear Mike,
Earlier this year I bought a barebones Power Curve Tower (Case, logicboard, and floppy but no CPU, no RAM, no vRAM, no HD, no CDROM ) from MacResQ. I bought a MaxPower 250/125 G3 card, placed 32 MB RAM, 2 MB vRAM,24X CD ROM, Quantum Viking UW 4.5 gig SCSI HD on an Adaptec 2940 UW SCSI card. At the first boot it worked fine as well as all my peripherals. At successive restarts it started hanging as the extensions were loading or before the Newer Tech G3 logo, or after the start chime just a blank video. But every now and then it would successfully startup. But finally on the 3rd day there was no electric power at all. I returned it to MacResQ and I was told that the problem was fixed. I got it back and I reinstalled everything just like before and the most it would do after the start chime was a blank screen. I returned it to MacResQ and got a refund .
I then installed the MaxPower card to a Power Center Pro 180 and it is working fine.
Lamberto "

"Mike,
Recently had a client's PowerCenter Pro 210MT fritz out when upgrading w/ CarrierZIF. Short story is; ended up being blown L2 cache module, something goofy with the the ADB port (still not sure what, but it was only partially functional), and slightly mismatched RAM. Won't bore you/your readers with the hours, and days, of lurid details of messing with, and diagnosing, the crippled machine, but the broad strokes were: AllMac wanted $199 for a bare motherboard swap, and somewhat more if they did it, plus obviously higher two way shipping, and longer down time. New L2 cache about $180 [not needed with a G3 card-Mike], any way deal gets stretched, so potential repair costs were getting higher than client desired.

Had local tech shop replace ADB port on stripped logic board for $30 (was in conjunction w/ $300 repair to another machine from same client, so they waived usual $45 diagnosis fee, since I had already isolated [one of] the problem[s]) instead of swapping boards, and then played musical RAM with a pair of client's PowerCC machines, so that both then had matching pairs of 32MB DIMM's. Since they were put in service at different times, each had one original PCC 32 megger, plus additional same size/speed aftermarket. Didn't matter which matched RAM pair was used in fritzed machine, only that they matched exactly, even though both machines had run for over two years unmatched. [Powercenters don't interleave RAM-Mike]

Bagged G3 upgrade for time being, and restored to PCP210MT w/ 1MB L2, 2X32MB matched RAM, 4MB riser video, and have fingers crossed for continued motherboard integrity and performance. Upgraded another machine with CarrierZIF afterwards, which worked fine, but you won't get those details here :-) Buzz McBragg "

One other note - as I mentioned in my PowerCenter Pro review (compatibility info) last year - this model uses 3.3 Volt L2 cache - not 5 Volt as do most Macs. The manual mentioned a jumper on the motherboard for 5V cache but I've never went looking for it. Just a tip to someone that a) wants to use PCPro cache in another mac and b) thinks about putting a std 1MB cache in a PowerCenter Pro (most are 5V cache dimms).

I received one odd PowerCenter Pro/CarrierZIF mail that said that their bootup hang (gray screen) was solved by removing the ATI VR video card and putting it in the middle slot. I've never seen video cards in the 3 slot macs really care which slot they were in. Most gray screens are due to the card being set for too high a speed (bus/cpu) or not being fully seated. Other tips are in the Troubleshooting G3 Upgrades section of the FAQ.

This PowerCenter owner didn't report a failure, just some odd quirks with a G3 upgraded machine:

"Hello Mike,
I have been a reader of your page for well over a year, and have found your reviews very useful when deciding on upgrades for my PowerCenter 150. I've had a strange problem with my computer ever since I upgraded it with a MaxPower G3 250/125Mhz card (CPU to cache ratio set to 2.0) and an IX3DProRez Video card about 11 months ago. I am running System 8.1 and have the latest software installed for both of these cards. I'm contacting you because, although I haven't experienced complete system failure as you describe, I'm wondering if I could be experiencing a milder variation of this.

The first symptom is that if I start my computer up with extensions off by holding down shift, when I choose restart from the menu the computer powers on but there is no start up chime and the screen remains grey. I have to use the forced restart key combination 2 or 3 times to get the computer to start up. If I choose shut down, and then start up normally there is no problem. I do not have the energy saver control panel installed on my machine. All of my memory is 60ns purchased from PCC or MacGurus. Newer Gauges says everything checks out. [I asked her to make sure the CPU card was fully seated-Mike]

The second symptom is that if my computer is left running idle for long enough that the monitor goes to sleep (NEC Multisync M500), I cannot wake it up by taping a key on the keyboard. There is still power to the CPU, the fans are running but nothing wakes it up. It will restart after using the forced restart key combination 2 or 3 times. When it restarts I always get the alert message that the computer was not shut down properly. [I asked he to try turning the monitor off then back on when this happens to see if the monitor is asleep or the system and to try to repeat it with the onboard video-Mike]

I discovered the first problem immediately after installing the G3 upgrade. I didn't discover the second problem for many months because I usually turn my machine off when I finish working. I only discovered it when the computer was inadvertently left idle after a very long download.

I have not seen this problem reported anywhere. Have you? I would appreciate your insight. Otherwise, I am very happy with the performance of my upgrades and am just avoiding both of these situations and the problems that ensue. It does worry me though, and I am not terribly confident about the future life expectancy of my motherboard.

Thank you for an excellent site. Your continued support of PCC owners is greatly appreciated.
Sincerely, Colette O'Shaughnessy "

There have been reports even of Apple G3s with upgrades not waking from sleep. I also remind all PowerCurve/Catalyst based system owners to disable the '7200 graphics' extension as it has caused problems with some G3 cards in the past (see the CPU Cards page for a PF/PowerCurve article).

If you missed last night's update, I noted some comments to PowerCenter Pro owners to check that the video riser card was fully (squarely) seated in the motherboard connector. Based on hundreds of PowerComputing G3 upgrade reports in my Rate Your G3 Upgrade, these failures are rare but I wanted to try and determine if there was any truth to the reports from tech's that there are certain models of logic boards that seem prone to this problem.

Nexus 128/Carmageddon 2 A reader reported he can't run the game in other than 320x240 mode. If any Nexus 128 (32MB Rage128) owners have any experience with this game please contact me. The Game News page today has another report of a B&W G3 Rage128 (16MB OEM Card) having texture problems in Carma2.

Applelinks Loose Cannons latest article talks about the eOne and Apple's lawsuits and how Apple is protecting the (overpriced) iMac with lawyers instead of lower prices. I'd hate to see his inbox after this one. ;-)

If you don't check every day's daily news (updated several times a day normally) you might miss something valuable. Check the summary list below for highlights of the last few day's news and the archives page for older new page links. For a blast from the past, read what was on the news page here exactly a year ago.

Other Net News:

• InDesign Perspectives: A look into Adobe InDesign (applelinks)
• Connecting your office to the Internet (applelinks)
• Palm vets' new handheld to debut at Internet World (News.com)

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 your particular mac model as I have gotten several reports of issues with certain G3 upgrades in some Mac models (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).

-Freq Asked Questions