Last Word on VPC USB Printing: Here's the final word (from a very reliable source) on VPC/USB printing:

"USB support is not required for a USB printer to be available to Virtual PC. If you are not able to set the printer up in Windows with USB drivers (older version of VPC, Windows 95, etc.) you just use the provided driver and select the printer in the Mac's Chooser. The document will spool over to the Mac for printing. What USB allows you to do is actually use the Windows drivers for the printer, providing faster printing and better quality."

Last post on this I promise. (This is probably in the VPC manual, which my friend with the original question/problem seems to be allergic to. ;-)

Rage128 Pro Cooling Fan Comments: I wasn't aware the new Rage128 Pro (faster chip w/DVI outputs) had an on-board fan. This owner comments he doesn't like the added noise of the fan:

"This is mostly a FYI,
Today I received my Apple Rage 128 Pro AGP Card Upgrade. My excitement quickly faded when I opened the box to see that the new 128 Pro card has a fan attached to it. My horrors were confirmed when I booted up and my quiet G4/450 now sounds like a P3 box! Had I known about the fan beforehand I might not have done the upgrade. I really like a quiet machine. I have tested the deep sleep function of the G4 and the new card powers down during sleep. I have not noticed any obvious improvements as of yet but I have only tried the flightsim Fly and it seems the same (15-45 fps).

On the bright side the kit does come with an updated G4 software CD that has OS9 instead of the OS 8.6 CD that shipped with my machine.
Mark "

I've been meaning to order the upgrade at the Apple store ($99 + tax/shipping). The advantages are a) faster chip for better 3d performance (game reports bear this out, but still not as fast as the voodoo3), b) digital LCD output port and c) the OS 9 G4 system CD. [Update: I later posted a Rage128 Pro AGP vs Rage128 AGP article comparing performance of the two cards in my G4/AGP system. The Video topics page has reviews of later/faster AGP cards also.]
There are some reports of Rage128 Pro 3D game performance in my Mac Game/Video Card Performance searchable database. If you're an owner of a new 3D card and haven't already, please enter your results (please follow the settings and test tips on the entry page).

Rumors of nVidia Mac GeForce Drivers: [Update: see the Video articlecs page for later reviews/tests of Nvidia Graphics cards in Macs.]
A reader sent a note that Utterer.com is reporting a rumor that nVidia is developing GeForce AGP card drivers for the Mac, with assistance from Apple. Just rumor at the moment, but I'm checking now to see if I can get any further info. Last month someone sent a note they were testing alpha drivers from Creative, but my talks with one of their product guys indicated he was not aware of any such development.

The GeForce is a screamer but I wonder if the Mac's AGP port can source 6 amps of 3.3V current needed for the card when running 3D Games. If the rumors are true I'm sure it can, otherwise there would be lockups seen almost immediately in 3D games. Some PC motherboards can't source enough current in the AGP slot for the GeForce to run reliably (I know - I saw it here in a friend's 1GHz Althon - a Motherboard swap was needed to cure the lockups in 3D games despite running the 1x AGP mode Athlon/GeForce drivers). The issue of current is noted on the Guillimot web site Prophet GeForce support page motherboard compatability PDF file. I think 3dfx addresses the issue with a power supply connector on the 64MB Vram/dual chip VSA-100 Voodoo5 series cards and a separate power supply on the 128MB Vram/4 Chip 6000 card version.

Orange Micro Firewire/USB Card Tip: A reader sent a note that disabling the Firewire enabler improved performance of the card in his Beige G3:

" I have installed an Orange Micro Firewire/USB card and I finally got it to work in my overclocked G3 (beige). Im doing my editing with Final Cut Pro in PAL. When I first tried it, the quality when doing transitions was really horrible with color change and noise. But when disabling the "FireWire Enabler" extension everything works great.
Regards
Jack Zimmermann"

I've had very mixed reports on this card over the last week or so.

My good friend Randy Mita sent a link to some great Mac quotes. You may have heard some of these before, but they're still great fun to read.

More Sound Manager Update Game Problems: Although I didn't see any problems so far in casual tests on the G4/450 (OS 9 with QT 4.1, Audio Update 1.2) in Quake3, Unreal, Rainbow Six, etc. several readers are seeing problems with the new sound manager in games (esp. on older macs it seems). Here's a report of Myth II problems solved by reverting to the previous sound manager version:

"After updating both my iMac and Powerbase(running a powerlogix 300) to QT 4.1 Myth II would crash right after the intro map. Looking at the log created by myth during the failure it was full of audio error notes. I removed the new sound manager extension and went back to sound manager 3.5.1 leaving the rest of QT 4.1 intact. Myth started right up on both machines and ran without a hitch. Obviously some kind of bug in the new sound manager.
Elliot "

He said the Audio Update didn't help the problem on the iMac (333Mhz) system.

iMac DV/OS 9 Audio Update 1.2 Feedback: One iMac owner wrote that he could not boot his machine after the Audio Update 1.2, saying the ROM update included with it appeared to be the problem. No other reports of iMac problems with the update but I welcome other owner comments.

VPC 3.0/OS 8.6 USB Printing: More replies to the reader request posted in yesterday's news

"I have a Lombard running OS 8.6 with an Epson 740 connected via USB. VPC prints fine, it just spools the print job to MacOS...
Justin "

Another reader replied that a USB to (PC) Parallel adapter worked with VPC 2.x and 3.0 on a pre-OS 9 Mac. (For most printers, if the printer works in the macOS, it should work in windows)

"I've used both an Epson stylus color 600 with USB to parallel adapter and my new Epson stylus color 740 USB printer with VPC 3.0 (and 2.1.3) prior to upgrading. In fact, my Epson USB to parallel adapter worked with VPC, even before v3.0 was released...
Don "

The reader that sent the request said the HP 880C didn't work in VPC 3.0 on a B&W G3 running OS 8.6. He's found a later mac printer driver that may help, however I'm not sure he's read the VPC manual or has checked the VPC settings (mapping of PC to mac ports, etc.). Connectix's info indicates OS 9 is required for full Win98 USB support but apparently if the printer is working in the Mac OS it should be fine based on reports so far.

Newer Tech GaugePro Released: Many readers had asked where to get GaugePro, a utility I've used in recent G4 CPU upgrade reviews here to show memory bandwidth. John Weber sent a note that it's now available at http://www.newertech.com/software/gauges/. See the sidebar links here under CPU Related articles or the CPU Upgrades page for links to G4 reviews that include results with GaugePro.

Orb Tools 1.3: Edmond Lai wrote that Castlewood has released v1.3 of the ORB drive mac tools at ftp://209.185.119.20/orbtools/mac/

Ratings Databases Updated: The Rate Your CPU Upgrade, Mac Game Reviews, and Mac Game/Video Card Performance searchable databases were updated again with new reader submissions.

For a blast from the past see what was on the front page news here one year ago.

Thursday's News Summary

• ATA/66 IDE Raid Performance
• Western-Digital exiting high-end Hard Drive business
• Reader Request: VPC 3.0 USB Printer Support with OS 8.6?
• QT 4.1/OS 9 Audio Update 1.2 DVD Audio Sync Feedback
• Quicktime 4.1 Sound Manager Causing Game Problems:
• Audio Update 1.2 Download Link
• Notes on my 9600/350 G4 Upgrade Issues and Fix
• Aqua Kaleidoscope Theme
• GameSprockets 1.7.3 Available
• Analog Video to Firewire Tip
• More Analog Video/Firewire Converter Feedback
• WiredInc Firewire Products
• Odd DVD Audio Sync Fix Tip
• More on G4 vs 1GHz Althon RC5 Benchmarks
• Another Competitor for Intel? (Fast, 1 watt CPU design)
• Today's Forum Topics in G4 Forum and 3Dfx Forums.

Wednesday's News Summary

• Quicktime 4.1 Released/OS 9 Audio Update 1.2
• Canvas 7 G4/Altivec Update
• Free BeOS Not Apple G3/G4 System Compatible [updated]:
• G4/450 RC5 Results Verified - Faster than 1GHz Athlon
• RamDoubler File Mapping Performance Impacts
• Firewire PCI Cards w/G3 Upgrade/QT4/OS 9 Report
• Sony Analog Video to Firewire Adapter Feedback
• Advantages of RD9 vs OS 9 VM
• Firewire PCI Cards/QT 4/G4 Upgrades Issue?:
• Analog Video to Firewire Converters
• RC5 Performance of G4 450 vs 1GHz Athlon
• Turbomax IDE Card A/V OK in 9600/350
• BeoS for Mac and PC to be released for free
• Rate Your CPU Upgrade, Mac Game Reviews, and Mac Game/Video Card Performance searchable databases updated
• Today's Forum Topics in G4 Forum and 3Dfx Forums.

Tuesday's News Summary

• Speed Doubler 9 Requests (write Connectix request)
• Jam-Packed J700
• Recommended Reading: Apple Confidential
• Caution Note on 8500 RAM/Cache Upgrades
• Ram Doubler 9 Feedback
• Softraid Cache Tweak Tip
• Wired4DVD Card in Apple G4 Macs
• More Pioneer DVD SCSI Drive Feedback
• More on E100 Firmware Bug/G3 Upgrade Cards
• Incorrect Shared Volumes Size
• Rate Your CPU Upgrade, Mac Game Reviews, and Mac Game/Video Card Performance searchable databases updated
• Forum Topics in G4 Forum and 3Dfx Forums.

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.

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.

-Freq Asked Questions