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01/23/99 - Saturday's News:	Current News Page
Carmine's MiM News Feed (links may not work in the future) AppleTIL Updates (SATURDAY.01.23.99)  Power Macintosh G3 (Blue and White): Certain Keyboards Disallow Open Firmware Booting  Modem Updater: Revised Read Me  iMac: Troubleshooting "Modem Not Responding"  Mac OS: The Euro Currency Symbol  Apple Modem Update: Read Me  WebObjects 4.0 NT NSTimeZone Bug Workaround  Sybase Adaptor Primary Key Generation Bug Workaround Apple USB DDK driver development kit for writing USB drivers - 1.3m (Apple.ftp) Apple Network Assistant network management software - 839k (Apple.ftp) iMac Tops U.S. Retail Mail Order Holiday PC Sales (Yahoo) Top Microsoft Manager Denies Intel Charges (Yahoo) Y2K Forces Close of Online Service (Yahoo) Entrepreneurs Profit From Y2K Bug (Yahoo) The week's news @Home buys Excite (News.Com) Sour Apple (TechWeb) iMac Sales Stay Strong As PC Prices Fall (TechWeb) Graphics board bundled with wide-screen LCD Mac monitor (TechWeb) Apple's next step By Don Crabb (ZDNet) Mac Tip Play MP3s with MacAmp (ZDNet) Beige G3s/IDE Slave drives: I'm getting a lot of mail recently asking if owners of early G3's can add slave drives in their system. As noted many months ago at the G3-ZONE (dedicated to apple G3 systems since Feb of 98), there is an easy way to tell if you have a G3 Rev 2 or later (rev 1's do not support IDE Slave drives). Look at the ATI graphics chip on the motherboard: If it says "ATI RageII+..." you have a Rev 1 (no Slaves) If it says "ATI RagePro..." you have a Rev 2 (or later) There was a serial number range posted last spring as well but the fastest and surest way is just to look at the ATI chip. All the other info is on my IDE Drive upgrade page and I'm adding this information there as well to clarify things. Adaptec 2906 SCSI Update: The 2906 is a narrow-only, SCSI-2 (10MHz/10MB/sec max) PCI Card that I believe is the OEM $49 card option for the new G3s. I just received this from my Adaptec contact: " Adaptec has published the 2906 software up on its website. This software will be added to the AVA-2906 PC/Mac kit around mid February. 2906 Mac Software will come on a CD-ROM in the AVA-2906 SCSI Card Kit. http://www.adaptec.com/support/overview/macintosh.html " For more information on the 2906, see Adaptec's 2906 product page. Jackhammer SCSI Card: I upgraded to the new firmware in the HammerStorage Jackhammer SCSI card in the beige G3 and installed it in the Yosemite 400 (IDE based). Booted up fine first time, no PRAM Zap needed. So far I've only run the external SCSI ZIP drive but that has worked fine so far. It's a shame to have to hang slow devices like ZIPs, CDRs, Scanners, etc. off a PCI SCSI card as they are not nearly fast enough to stress even the obsolete SCSI in the beige G3. Of more concern is cable lenght. Remember on UW SCSI the max cable length is 1.5M, (internal+external length, including cable inside a external enclosure). If you're running a UW SCSI HD internally and running external drives/devices watch overall cable lengths and some manuals (ie Jackhammer) suggest disabling Ultra-SCSI when mixing non-Ultra and Ultra SCSI devices on the same card (reducing the card clock speed). Right now the most attractive U2 SCSI card is the 2940U2W for it's isolated narrow and UW SCSI connectors, but some report the U2 channel is not as fast as the ATTO or Miles U2 cards (which are U2 connectored only, attaching UW SCSI devices will reduce the card clock speed to std UW speeds (20MHz vs 40MHz U2 mode)). More on USB problems: With the supplied USB keyboard extender cable in place (needed due to the terribly short keyboard cable) my USB keyboard only works on USB Port 2. Several other readers also reported this issue (dead keyboard unless used on Port 2). Odd, it worked the first day fine on Port 1 (for a few hours at least). No bent pins in any connectors anywhere. Something's not kosher here...too many owners are reporting this same issue (since day one literally) and it's obviously not cable related if it works in one port and not the other. The old saying 'Buy in Haste, Repent in Leisure' comes to mind. Early buyers get to find out where all the initial problems are. I'm confident most will be worked out in the future but as mentioned here early on, this is one thing to be aware of when making a upgrade vs a new model system purchase decision. Yosemite/Virtual Gamestation: [From the Game News page] A reader reports being unable to get VGS to run on his Yosemite: "VGS worked 1st time no problem on a rev. B Imac with system 8.5, but we've tried everything and can't get it to work on new G3 Yosemite 300...reinstalled VGS several times...tried at least 20 different possible extension conflicts...virtual memory off and on...even re-installed all system software and VGS again...it always just ejects the CD...tried several different CD's also...I thought I read that there was a trick, like disabling a particular ATI extension or something to do with rage 128, but I may be wrong...any ideas??? " I welcome feedback from other Yosemite/VGS owners. I've still not gotten my copy of VGS. Guess it was lost in the mail. OS 8.5.1 Ethernet/PCFx card: This reader reports on his PCfx (PC CPU) card networking issue with OS 8.5's Ethernet extension and wonders if it could be a reason for the Yosemite networking problems reported yesterday: " This tip may be useful even though the circumstances are very different. After installing my PCfx card, Win98 could not access ethernet no matter what I did (7500+Railgun G3, OS 8.5.1). A talk with Orange Micro's tech suuport revealed that their emulation layer cannot deal with Apple's new Apple Enet extension. The solution was to revert to the System 8 Ethernet (built-in) extension. Not sure how the two Apple extensions differ, but if one of his apps was written to interface with the older extension and is now faced with a newer version with a different interface.... best, Dave " This makes me wonder on software emulators... [All of the above items have been added to the Yosemite Compatibility page for future reference.] G3 Modem Update: Last night I flashed my G3/300 (beige) internal modem with the V.90 update (apparently the flash rom is too small to hold both the V.90 and legacy 56Flex code - a problem noted early on in some lower cost PC 56flex modems when the V.90 updates were released). Connecting to my ISP's (original) 56Flex line (now V.90) resulted in a 41.3K connect, while using the X2 line (now V.90 as well) resulted in consistent sub-33.6K connections. I verified I did have the V.90 update installed (not the 56Flex) by rerunning the V.90 updater. Mac's 15th Anniversary: Frank Bernier wrote that to his recollection tomorrow will be the 15th Anniversary of the Mac. I bought one of the first ones in 1984 but I can't remember the launch day. Frank Bernier sent more info on his tests (without success) to get OS Booster to work in Unreal: " I tried to start unreal in software mode without success. So the problem I see is not due to a 3dfx card. I also ran several sets of extensions, but no luck. I also tried to give 50MB , no luck. Memory is not a problem I am sure since I have 224 Mb of real RAM to play with... [He later wrote] I retried OS booster latest version 1.02, but still no luck with Unreal. Quake also showed no performance boost in demo1 and demo2. I ran Virtual PC and tried Rocket Jockey (very far from being a CPU torturer like the latest games) and it was was as slow and as unplayable as before. So I guess OSbooster might only maybe be useful with slow 040 Macs like they said. If you can ask them to send the complete listing of the extensions they use for Unreal and how much memory they allocate, that would be great. If it works, I`ll be the first to promote its usage. Also, that would be great if they would put some numbers on their web page showing the speed improvement in games like Myth I , Quake or Unreal in various machines. Best regards, Frank Bernier " I believe they used the original release of Unreal but have asked for specifics. I was testing SCSI cards in the Yosemite and doing ram tests and did not get a chance yet to try it personally. I did run tests of the latest public beta of Unreal with the Yosemite 400 and both the Rage128 and a 12MB Game Wizard I'll have updated scores on the Yosemite Gaming Performance page tonight if I can, but the scores were similar I think to the unreleased beta ones already there. I also have taken the photos and will try to finish my article on installing a 2nd IDE drive in the Yosemite. I do want to relax a bit today, it's been a very hectic the last few weeks. Today's Unreal page has another massive update of gaming news (including Quake 2/Quake 3, too much to list). BTW - just sold a few more Macs last night (at least one G3, a PB and possibly an iMac) during a diagnosis of a failed Packard Bell system that a friend had. Every little bit helps, as they wil then tell others, and so on (binary tree effect). Many people are now looking to replace their PCs and that's a great time to talk to them about the new Macs. Many are fed up with a history of PC problems and are more open minded now that Apple is healthy and getting some good press. Before you send mail asking about tech support - please read the FAQ and check the vendor of the Upgrade for information (ie www.powerlogix.com, www.vimagestore.com, www.newertech.com, www.sonnettech.com, www.atitech.com, etc.) and try the Men in Mac Help page. This would really help me get more articles done if I didn't have to repeat the info listed already in the site FAQ or other Contents, or what's listed at the upgrade vendor's web site. Thanks for your cooperation. Reviews, notes on compatibility issues, or news tips are always welcome of course. Yesterday's News Summary Yosemite in Black! Change that bondi-blue Photo guide More Yosemite Networking issues Vote for the Mac as a viable Gaming platform at Gamespot poll Connectix replies to post on Yosemite/Virtual PC issues Carmine's TIL Updates and Net News Feed OS booster revised and their performance comments are posted Frank's tests with OSBooster in Myth II and Unreal Yosemite Ethernet problem report Yosemite software install problem report Unreal/Gaming news page updated New Hard Disk cooler Navcom updated Summary of prev. days news For other recent site news/features links, see the Recent Site Features page. Note: Before sending tech support related questions please check the Freq. Asked Questions, 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. For links on recent articles, see the Recent Features page. 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. Thanks. Make a Difference: Be the Difference Randy Mita, Brad Lau and I came up with a new slogan and theme for Mac advocacy - "Make a Difference: Be the Difference". We're asking that all Mac owners take advantage of every opportunity to let others know the Mac advantage. It's a grass-roots approach that will surely help.