"Effective immediately, we have reduced the price of the OWC Mercury G3/400mhz w/1024k 2:1 to $285. That will make it the best price by far. Free shipping for online orders as always.
Carrier Bundle price not affected.
Best Regards,
Larry O'Connor
Other World Computing, Inc. "

Hotmail Security Hole: News.com is reporting that there is a security hole in MSN's free Hotmail service that two websites have exploited to allow full access to any Hotmail account without a password (only the userid is required).

An Apple Dealer (I assume) wrote with more info on the reader reported promo offer extension that I could not find at the Apple Store this morning:

"The actual rebate coupons that dealers like me have says September 25th. We have a slightly different offer that the Apple store does.
Fred Evans"

PCPro G3 Upgrade - How Much Gaming Gain?: I've added results of testing of the MAChCarrier450 (at 480/240/60) in the PowerCenter Pro w/Voodoo3 card to my Game Framerate database. To see the difference it made in performance over the stock 210MHz 604E card, select 'PowerCenter/Pro' as the Mac model, 'Voodoo3' as the graphics card and select a game title (then press search).

The lack of interleaved RAM in the PCPro motherboard design does seem to hurt performance but 41 FPS at 1024x768 in Quake 2 for example is not bad really. One 420MHz G3 upgraded PowerCenter Pro owner reported higher scores at 640x480 (but not 1024x768). That PCPro was running OS 8.6 and had increased Quake2 allocation to 100MB and trimmed extensions. I left my std OS 8.1 extension set active and did not change Quake2's defaut (70MB?) RAM allocation. As noted in my interleaved RAM article, Unreal (and other apps/games that move a lot of data) really seem to benefit from interleaving RAM in Macs that support it (ditto for the faster bus speeds and improved PCI/memory controller in the Apple G3s).

CarrierZIF Setup Guide: Last night I posted an illustrated guide to installing and configuring ZIF modules in the CarrierZIF. It includes an overview of the card details and features, correct heatsink clip arrangement (several readers had temperature problems due to having the clip reversed), compatible ZIF modules, switch settings, tips and more. Although Other World now bundles a similar guide and the XLR8 manual is thick and well illustrated, I think this article will be of value to those that want to know more about configuring the card before they buy.

I was able to get the PowerCenter Pro's OpenGL problem solved and finished tests with the MAChCarrier450 in that machine early this morning. I'll be writing the review up tonight and hope to have it posted tomorrow. Then the ProFormance III review (w/3D glasses) and OWC 350/400 ZIFs are next in the queue.

OWC 400 ZIF CPU Marked 450: As noted in the weekend news, the OWC 400/200/1MB ZIF I received had a '400U' label on the cache but the CPU marking indicated it was a 450MHz model. I asked Larry at OWC about the marking and he commented: "We did notice that. All of our '400s' are that way. I assume them to be 450s that didn't quite make the cut."

AOL Mail Configuration: In reply to my post in the weekend news that my replies to AOL readers were often bounced back with 'not accepting mail' messages (my guess was their AOL mail prefs), Gene Steinberg wrote with more concrete details:

"There is a feature called Mail Controls that lets you clock e-mail from specific sources (such as all Internet e-mail). It's not a standard setting; the user has to do it.
More than likely, these users set their Mail Controls without realizing the impact.
Gene Steinberg"

AOL readers should make sure that you have your AOL mail set to receive mail from 'cstone.net' (my ISP) if you want me to be able to reply. Thanks.

Free TombRaider II Offer: Derek sent a note that Newer Technology is currently offering a free copy of Tomb Raider II with the purchase of any of its MAXpowr G3 upgrade cards. The offer is valid between August 21, 1999 and November 30, 1999.

More Rage128/Carmageddon Tips: More reader suggestions to solve the reader problems noted in the weekend news.

"Mike, Just letting you know that Carmageddon 2 runs in 640 x 480 (the highest offered resolution) on my Nexus. The reader might want to delete the Carmageddon 2 preference file so that the game will revert to the default settings. The graphics quality selection is not made in the game itself but rather in the little settings application (hold down 'control' after launching the game if it does not come up by default). This app will then launch the correct version of the game based on your selection and the hardware present in your machine. The different versions of the game are found in the 'Carma2' folder and are , 'Carmageddon 2 Lores' for no 3D acceleration, 'Carmageddon 2 Rave' for ATI, or 'Carmageddon 2 3dfx' for Voodoo. You should be able to force the game to use 3D acceleration by just launching the appropriate game version.

There indeed does seem to be a bug in the driver, however, since I get the same texture problem as reported by the other reader. If I recall correctly a while back someone at ATI acknowledged the bug and said they had fixed it, but this fix does not seem to have made it into a public driver resealed yet.

My system is a PowerMac 8600/300 with 160MB RAM. The Nexus is the only PCI card in the machine and it is in the middle slot. I'm running MacOS 8.6 and the drivers are from the ATI Universal Installer 4.0.1.

All in all I'm very pleased with the card. I only wish it would have shipped on time, it took exactly six months and one day from the time I ordered it to the time I received it. Keep up the great work with the site, as it is one of the best Mac resources on the web.

Hope this helps
Galen Faidley "

Sunday's Game news page had other tips as well such as installing the Carma2 CD ATI driver update). Yesterday Chris Bentley of ATI told me he had fixed two Carma2 issue while on 'vacation'. Dedication...

Rage128 Patch/Vimage G3 Issues: Although the recent ATI patch seems to have solved most 44-6500/Starmax, etc. owners problems with the Orion/Nexus cards, this Vimage G3 upgraded owner reported he still has problems:

"Well I just thought I would comment on the recent patch to the ATI driver set involving the resource manager. I recently downloaded and installed this patch to find that it did indeed fix the problem with startup. But alas I find that while enabled this extension continues to cause problems with my 6400 w/vpower 240. I have yet to be able to run any 3d accelerated programs including q3test considering any time I try it locks down my system.

I have found that not only does this occur with 3D programs but also with general applications that involve scrolling. This includes netscape, finder menus, and even the Extensions manager. I have done a bit of trouble shooting including base system extensions and the ATI and so on. The only fix so far - disable the ATI resource manager again and deal with the lack of acceleration. I am a bit miffed at this continued difficulty but understand from posted statements that this is not the result that all users are having. Any suggestions as to what I might do to solve this problem would be appreciated.

Scott Fletcher
Apple Certified Tech. "

One thing that might be a factor - his G3 upgrade. I asked if disabling the cache control software (extensions) helped and if he had checked www.vimagestore.com for any updates to the G3 software. If any readers have seen this problem and have a fix please contact me.

More PowerCC Feedback: Although it's far from typical in my experience (I've always been happy with my PowerTower Pro and PowerCenter Pro), Larry Lloyd sent me the URL to his powercomputing experience. He finally gave up and bought an Apple Mac. I've added the weekend PowerComputing feedback to my recent page on PowerComputing Upgrade Failures. So far my two PowerComputing models have survived many G3 upgrade cards.

Serial Ports Sharing/Switching: A reader asked for info on a multiple serial port device/switch (to allow connecting more than one serial device on one port and switch between them. The Tips page had a Umax S900/Portjuggler but I remembered a reader had said that Bottom Line sold a better alternative. George Cole provided more info:

"Roger and Mike, We have two items that may be what you are looking for:

A 3-port serial switch box
Or a 6-Port Geoport Switchbox
One of these should solve your problem.
-George "

105MHz B&W G3 Bus Speeds: Although removing resistors is not for anyone but real risk takers (don't try this at home folks), I found this Rate Your G3 upgrade overclocking report interesting:

"B&W G3/350 at 420/210/105/35 (PCI) Removed R811 as described on: http://www.bekkoame.or.jp/~t-imai/g3ce2.html to get the 105MHz system bus. High temp before was 28C, now is 32C. Same idle temp of 24C. Macbench5 score of 1383/1392. My 3 PCI cards (ATI Rage 128, Miles Bluenote SCSI-2, and GameWizard Voodoo2) seem fine with the higher PCI bus rate. The Rage 128 is actually running at 70MHz. Frame rates only improved ~12% in Unreal so I probably maxed out the Voodoo2 card. It would've had a rating of 10 if 472.5 MHz worked :-)
Steve"

Tip for Onboard video/G3 Upgrade owners: If you're having video artifacts after upgrading to a G3 CPU in an older mac with onboard video this recent Rate Your G3 Upgrade post might be of interest. G3 upgrades and onboard video have a rocky past (as noted in my first 1997 G3 CPU upgrade review of the Newer Tech G3/250 - thousands colors artifacts) and PowerForce G3 article on 7200 Graphics accelerator extension conflicts):

"7600/200 w/CarrierZIF & OWC 366 ZIF
About 2 weeks ago I got a XLR8 ZIF Carrier w/OWC Mercury G3 366mhz 1024k 2:1. I originally had problems with video artifacts that were really noticeable at bus speeds of over 48Mhz but still existed when it was lowered below 45Mhz. Disabling the "Built in graphics acceleration" extension solved that problem as indicated on xlr8's message board...
Andrew Wise"

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:

• Apple planning 'major news' for Seybold (ZD/Net)
• Life after Pentium (ZD/Net)
• S3 to release new graphics chip - Savage 2000 (News.com)
• Intel preparing 'megahertz megablitz' 13 new Pentium III desktop/mobile/server to be announced this fall (ZD/Net)

Weekend's News Summary

• Game News page updated with Rage128/Carma2 tips
• Mail replies to AOL users bouncing back - AOL mail config settings
• OWC 350 and 400 ZIFs arrive. 400ZIF has 450 marked CPU?
• G4 Seybold configurations likely a hoax
• Stealth Voodoo3 Cooler Review
• XLR8 Software Install won't run on 601 CPU
• RAGE 128 Update/Fix Feedback
• Formac 3D Glasses First Impressions
• Wanted: PB G3 Game Framerates
• PB G3 292 CPU Modules - Sold Out
• TrueX CDrom Drive reader repeat failure report
• More PowerCC failure reports
• Nexus 128/Carmageddon 2
• Mac Game FPS database updated
• Rate Your Mac Games database updated
• Rate Your G3 Upgrade database updated
• Other Net News

Friday's News Summary

• RAGE 128 Update to fix 44-6500, Starmax problems
• Game News page updated
• Atlas 10K RPM HD Review
• (Rare) PowerCC system failure after G3 Upgrade
• PowerCenter Pro Game Performance comments
• Sudden problems with OpenGL games in PowerCenter Pro
• More OWC CPU Specials
• 3Dfx Future Plans (Apple/Linux) interview
• New Mac OpenGL App available for download
• Mactell Voodoo3 Status
• First G4s just modified G3s?
• More Realplayer G2 Comments
• MAC3dfx.com updated
• Mac Game Framerates database updated
• Rate Your G3 Upgrade database updated
• Rate Your Mac Games database

Thursday's News Summary

• OS 9 install checks for BW G3 ROM update?
• MAC3dfx.com post on Voodoo2/Apple monitors
• Reminder to check the Got Questions page and site resources
• XLR8 Lowers Prices
• IDE Barracuda from Seagate fast, affordable
• Nisus Writer Competitive Upgrade
• More Realplayer G2 Feedback
• Important N2MP3 Update
• 200GB CD - 40 movies on one disc
• Gates says 'Pirates' Movie not accurate
• Mac Game Performance (framerates) database updated
• Rate Your G3 Upgrade database updated
• Rate Your Mac Games database updated
• Other Net 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, 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