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Speed Doubler 9 Requests: To those that would like to see an update to Speed Doubler for OS 9 compatibility here's what you should do (from their official statement):
"Speed Doubler will not be updated for Mac OS 9. If you wish to voice your
opinion as to why the product should continue, in particular, what features
you would like to see live on, you can email us at sdmsupp@connectix.com and
your comments will be forwarded to the Product Manager"
= 1:30 PM Update Follows =
Jam-Packed J700: A reader sent a note that his heavily upgraded Umax J700 works fine
with an Orange Micro Firewire/USB combo card, TurboMax IDE card and more. A real testament to the upgradeability of Macs:
"Just wanted to drop you a note to say, so far, so good. I am amazed at how
well my old mule is holding up with everything jammed inside. It took a few
hours to get everything to be friends including swapping slots with the
OrangLink and Aurora Fuse, but at this point, it's time well spent. And when
it was all over, all the original extensions I had were turned back on.
It is a UMAX j700 with:
*a NewerG3 220/110/512 running at 275 (stable for two years and counting)
*a TURBOMAX ATA/33 with two 17GB drives in slot A (Raided with Raid toolkit)
*the OrangeLink in slot B with my Mitsumi mechanism USB CD-RW
*the Aurora Fuse in slot C
*an xlcaim VR rage pre in slot D
*240MB in interleaved, non-matching RAM (different brands and sizes [by pair])
*An OEM 8x CD-ROM that came with the j700
*an OEM original SCSI ZIP drive out of an old Power120
*two 3.2 GB scsi Quantum Fireball HDs
I added a dual cooling fan card that normally goes in a PC to one of the
dummy slots on the chassis (over the slot F area) to bring in extra air (a
cheap, effective solution to keeping things cooler.) The machine is
absolutely full. If anything could go wrong here, you'd think it would. I
run OS8.6. (I am worried to go to OS9)
Well, it all works! I was having trouble with the CD drive, making weird
noises and not reading the last tracks on AUDIO disks. I was about to try to
replace it when I realized that I was still running CDT 2.2e OEM, a five year
old program. So I splurged for the FWB online download upgrade price of $35
for CDT 4.0.1, and now the drive works great. I copied Aerosmith's Greatest
Hits (which was very problematic before) directly from the CD to my Pacific
Digital USB CD-RW at 2x with Toast 3.8USB, and it worked flawlessly (4x makes
coasters, but this is a known problem.) I have yet to test the FIREWIRE, as
I don't have any Firewire peripherals, but I'll let you know.
Hope any PC readers out there are taking note. This 4 year old Mac clone is
still better equipped than most currently shipping PC's! Sure there's no AGP
or PC100 RAM, and the bus is only 50MHz, but it is fast, stable, decked out,
networked, and can still be made better with a G4 and new graphics card.
We'll see what happens when OSX comes out, but all indications seem to be
that it may run on these systems after all (unsupported).
Long live the Macintosh!
Mike Kramer"
Recommended Reading: Apple Confidential I recently received a copy of the book 'Apple Confidential - the real story of Apple Computer' by Owen W. Linzmayer. I've only skimmed it so far but it's definitely earned a spot on my bookshelf. Filled with photos of Apple people and product history (released and unreleased models), interesting tidbits and so much more. This book is a must-read for any Apple fan in my opinion. I would have bought this book for the photos alone. It lists for only $17.95 and is published by No-Starch press. Get it for $14.36 (20% off) at Amazon.com. Reader reviews of the book at Amazon rated it an average of 4.5 stars.
Aaron Hedquist replied to today's earlier reader post on incorrect shared volume sizes with an explanation:
"It's a limitation of Personal File
Sharing. It's been this way forever. ASIP doesn't have this issue, but
just sharing a disk does. There's TIL articles about it:
http://til.info.apple.com/techinfo.nsf/artnum/n58371
Aaron
"
= 12:30 PM Update Follows =
Caution Note on 8500 RAM/Cache Upgrades: A reader wrote that my warning on the possibility of damaging (breaking off) the capacitors on the 8500 motherboard during removal (for RAM or Cache dimm upgrade/removal) is good advice. He said he broke off two capacitors during the procedure. These may be only decoupling capacitors and I suggested he not try to solder them back on himself. (Most folks would just make matters worse by perhaps shorting something and there's usually no leads left on the device to work with.) If the motherboard is not functional I suggested exchanging it at one of the sources listed in the back ads of Mac magazines (or www.macresq.com perhaps).
Removing the 8500's stock L2 cache dimm is often required to run a G3 or G4 CPU upgrade (or even a faster bus speed 604e card as I noted in my 604e reviews in 1997). Other Mac models are far easier to access RAM and Cache than the 85/9500, but I wanted to caution readers again to be extremely careful during this procedure and to get qualified help if necessary. In 1997 I posted a 8500 Cache Upgrade article that details the steps involved for those that are curious about the procedure. The steps also apply to the 9500, which has a very similar case design. Thankfully the 8600/9600 and even 73-7600 Macs have much easier access to RAM and Cache.
Ram Doubler 9 Feedback: Here are two reader replies to my request for RD9 feedback in yesterday's news:
"Mike
I ran RamDoubler 9 on my upgraded Powercenter 150 (433MHZ G3) and
MacbEnched it. The drop in performance was jaw dropping. I went from
1350 to under 1000. Or about a 35% drop in performance.
Uninstalled it immediately.
John Oswald"
Another reader noted some stability issues in his system:
"Mike-
On my recently upgraded 6500 (now has a Sonnet G3/L2 500 card and Voodoo 3,
running OS 9), I was running perfectly for about 72 hours straight until
installing RAM Doubler 9, at which point I had a few random lock-ups, as
well as IPNetRouter's faceless background application failing to work
properly. Needless to say, I have removed RAM Doubler 9 and am running
perfectly again. That, and while running RAM Doubler, my system used an
extra 3mb of RAM that it didn't use under OS9's VM.
-Jarod Wilson
"
I welcome other reports of RD9, especially reports of how performance in applications, etc. compare to OS 9's native Virtual Memory.
Softraid Cache Tweak Tip: Although the Softraid Cache Tweaking article was from some time back, a reader noted it also worked with the latest 2.2 version and that he's seen similar performance in HDT:
"Yes-- I saw the a dramatic increase in sustained writes when I changed the
number of cache segments from 4 to 1 in the Softraid 2.2 driver. My dual IBM UltraStar array connected to a Adaptec 2940UW showed a sustained
write increase from ~18MB/s to ~33MB/s. Other parameters were left nearly
the same--none negatively
affected.
Since then, I reformatted my array with FWB Hard Disk Toolkit 3.0.2 which
now supports RAIDs. The default cache segment(s) =1 and the performance is nearly identical to Softraid (actually the sustained reads are ~20%
higher). I think I'll stick with HDT.
Alex"
I'm not really a fan of HDT, since it often costs $$ to upgrade
for new OS updates and they still don't seem to be fully OS 9 compatible based on comments.
Softraid is the fastest raid I've seen, and the lowest latency driver I've ever tested (highest I/Os per second). I did an extensive test back in 1998 (4 scsi cards, 5 raid
packages) - and still think that Softraid is the best out there - and it's free with some Initio SCSI cards. Another 3rd party option (non-Raid) is intechusa.com's drivers;
good performance, nice mode selection for IDE and lifetime free updates. If possible however it's often best to use Apple's disk drivers for general use, as OS upgrades are smoother that way (no compatibility problems when upgrading OS versions).
Wired4DVD Card in Apple G4 Macs: As a follow-up to my comments in yesterday's news I'd like to say I've had zero problems playing DVDs in my Sawtooth G4/AGP system with the Wired4DVD decoder card. This card allowed me to replace the Rage128 card with a Voodoo3 and still play DVDs. DVD out to my TV worked perfectly, with no lip-sync issues at all and the hardware decoding makes the system ten times more responsive when playing DVDs. ClubMac has the card for $179.00 currently, the lowest price I've seen. For more info on the card, see the Wiredinc.com web site. Links to bundled kits (card plus SCSI or IDE DVD drive) have been linked in my FAQ's DVD section for some time as well.
More Pioneer DVD SCSI Drive Feedback: Another reader noted he's seeing the same issues with DVD movie playback I am with the SCSI Pioneer drive. He also said that using Intech's CDTools driver allowed the drive to work as a CDrom drive and mounts DVD disks as well, but the issue of playing all chapters on DVD movies remains on most titles. Based on comments, this may be a firmware issue perhaps but even the latest 1.10 firmware for the drive doesn't help (and you have to flash the updates on a PC as there are no Mac flashers for the drive that I know of).
More on E100 Firmware Bug/G3 Upgrade Cards: A reader notes that a friend is testing a fix for the E100 networking/G3 upgrade card issue noted in my Umax E100 compatibility page (bug in the E100 firmware). The Newer Tech cards are immune to this bug due to the fact they do not use Novram locations for speculative processing fixes, but a reader said a friend is beta testing a Powerlogix fix that seems to be working.
Incorrect Shared Volumes Size: [Update - see the later post and Apple Apple TIL n58371
TIL on the issue for reasons.]
"I just noticed a small bug with my Airport. When accessing a shared disk of
17GB on my desktop computer from my iBook, the volume size is listed as
1.9GB, with 1.9GB free, and negative 2,000MB used. Other 8GB volumes have
similar results (0MB used, or 500MB used, both not true). Has anyone seen
this, and if so, is there a fix? I use OS8.6 on both machines.
Thanks
Mike Kramer
"
I added more entries to the Rate Your CPU Upgrade, Mac Game Reviews, and Mac Game/Video Card Performance databases yesterday.
For a blast from the past see what was on the front page news here one year ago.
Monday's News Summary
- Comments on Wired4DVD card in Apple G4
- Pioneer DVD 303S SCSI Drive Control Panel
- Problems with DVDs on Pioneer 303S
- Ram Doubler 9 Performance Impact?
- Interview with Dan Phillips of Korg USA (Audio Column Issue #52)
- Report on FireWire Enclosure/Adapter for IDE Drives
- $207 28GB Barracuda IDE Hard drives
- More Toshiba SM-1212 DVD Drive Reports
- Frontier's Smart Copy (Folder Sync)
- Reader Request: Modem Country Code for Israel?
- More Umax E100 Card Feedback
- Powerlogix working on fix for E100 firmware bug
- Rate Your CPU Upgrade, Mac Game Reviews, and Mac Game/Video Card Performance searchable databases updated
- Reader posts gallery of MWSF 2000 photos
- Forum Topics in G4 Forum and 3Dfx Forums.
Friday's News Summary
- Another Toshiba 6X DVD/Beige G3 Report (more in FAQ DVD section)
- E100 Ethernet/G3 Upgrade Issues? (See Umax E100 compat. page)
- Still Hope For SpeedDoubler 9?
- How Do I... (see FAQ How-To articles section)
- HP 4M Tips page for G3/G4 Macs
- More info on USB Microscopes
- F/A 18 Korea GL Beta Update, how to test FPS in UT at Game News page
- AMPradio 1.5 released
- Still More Cachedoubler Compatibility Reports
- GV Fax Update Installer Warning
- Forum Topics in G4 Forum and 3Dfx Forums.
- Other Net News
Thursday's News Summary
- Fix for my Kodak DC280/iMac DV USB Errors
- G4/HP 4M Solutions (Thanks Readers!):
- Gates Resigns as CEO
- Mac USB Microscope Info (Scalar Scopes Web Site)
- Reader Request: G4/HP 4M Printer Feedback Wanted
- Cries for Speed Doubler 9
- iTools Update
- Kodak DC-280 Firmware Update
- More AIWA USB Tape/USB PCI Card Reports
- FireNet - TCP/IP over Firewire?
- Umax E100 NIC/SCSI Card and Turbomax Issues
- PowerLogic Comments on Dynamic Pwr Mgmt
- 3dfx Glide Still Alive (Developer comments at MWSF)
- OWC Selling Games
- More CacheDoubler Compatibility Issues
- Distant Suns updated for Seti@home
- Today's Forum Topics in G4 Forum and 3Dfx Forums.
Wednesday's News Summary
- Mac Quake3 Point Release (Beta) Patch
- 'Free DSL' May Not Be
- More PF G4/350 Feedback
- Powerlogix MW Expo sale reminder
- Rate Your CPU Upgrade Reviews Exceed 3000 reports!
- PF G4/350 owner reports using Sonnet control software
- PF G4/350 Virtual PC 3.0 problems
- Apple store has $15 G4 Plaintalk Mic kit available
- More AIWA USB Tape Drive/PCI USB Card Reports
- Umax Cache Doubler Compatibility Notes
- More on Beige G3/Toshiba 6X DVD Drive
- PCI Cards and Low Power Mode
- Game News page updated w/Rainbow Six Mod Report/ Free GL Tron Game info and tip for brightness (gamma) settings
- Rate Your CPU Upgrade, Mac Game Reviews, and Mac Game/Video Card Performance searchable databases updated
- RC5 Altivec boost reports
- Forum Topics in G4 Forum and 3Dfx Forums.
For links to older news pages see the Archives page. The recent features page has a lists reviews/articles you may have missed.
For a guide to finding answers to questions - see my Site Guide page.
Considering a CPU Upgrade? Check the CPU Upgrade Owner's Survey results and search for owner reports by Mac model and/or card brand. Readers post new entries daily and the database is updated several times a week. The current database has more than 2,800 reports and growing.
Note: Before sending tech support related questions please check the Answers to Common Questions, Troubleshooting page, Site Contents, CPU Card reviews/articles, SCSI reviews articles, Graphics card reviews, Tips/Misc, Message Boards and Help pages - in many cases the answers to your questions are there and they have far more detail than I can list in an email. For Apple G3 system info - see the G3-ZONE.
Please try the Men in Mac Help page as an alternative on requests for tech support to help me be able to spend more time on reviews and getting caught up in mail. Thanks.
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Answers!