Click for iPod Batteries and Accessories!
Click for iPod Batteries and Accessories!
 The Source for Mac Performance News and Reviews Got Questions? - Click Here! |
- Freq. Asked Questions (FAQ) - - Systems Features - - CPU Card Articles - - SCSI/Disk Articles - - Video Card Articles - - Audio Articles - - Game Related Articles - - Tips & Misc Articles - - L2 Cache Articles - | PF 400MHz ZIF Upgrade Review for G3 Macs! XLR8 400MHz G3 Upgrade Review Visit the G3-ZONE for G3 Specific info! Bring in the Noise! (Mac Audio) Complete Site Contents Send News items, Tips and Guest Reviews Advertise here! - Help support Accelerate Your Mac! |
| 01/28/99 - Thursday's News: | |
VGS 1.1 Update Connectix has posted a v1.1 update to Virtual Game Station that I believe will address the Cdrom drive model problems in the Yosemite. [After 5 minutes I have 12KB of the 820KB file downloaded - the site is choking on traffic I guess)
Correction: [Note: the G3/220 cards were later discontinued. The following was accuate when posted in Jan 28th, 1999.] " Hey Mike and Stephen, Based on this reply from the mfr of the cards, I've deleted the earlier post. Sony Files Suit over VGS: Paul Constantine just sent a note that according to this SF Cronicle article, Sony filed suit against Connectix yesterday over the Playstation Emulator. This angers me, as the emulator was a great Mac product and could have sold a lot of Sony PS CDs (which is where the largest profit is - not the machines). I personally want to write a letter (and email if I can find the proper channel) to Sony protesting this action. It will read "I was going to buy several Sony playstation CDs for the emulator but now I'm boycotting ALL Sony products in protest." In fact I think I will return the Sony surround sound speakers I just bought from Sears yesterday. Carmine's MiM News Feed (links may not work in the future)
I've added the ATTO SCSI firmware update link to the Yosemite Compatability page. The grapevine says that that Toast 3.5.6 should be available Adaptec's web site on Feb. 2, with updates to DirectCD not far behind. Hopefully support for the Plextor 8X CDR will be included. [Note - Toast updates are now at Roxio.com.]
3Dfx Voodoo3: [Update - for later articles, tests and reviews of Mac 3dfx cards including the Voodoo3, 4 and 5, see the Video articles page, graphics card, section.] The Article also comments on Voodoo3 being exclusively available from 3Dfx (mentioned here when the STB merger was announced last month), which casts a cloud over the plans for a Mac Voodoo3 from MicroConversions. I've not gotten any firm word if they will still be producing the card. If the merger did not affect their ability to sell a Mac Voodoo3 card I don't see why they don't publicly announce it to put this issue to rest. Possibly 3Dfx may market the card themselves as they will do with the PC version? Nobody's saying for sure yet. Other Voodoo3 links at Sharkey's:
Another interesting Voodoo3 tip from the VoodooReview newsletter - EBWorld.com and enter 'voodoo 3' [space between voodoo and 3] in the 'find a product' search box - the results show Voodoo 3 graphics cards due 4/1/99, priced at $129.99 (2000 model) to $179.99 (3000 model). More Yose Slave Drive Reports: In a follow-up to today's earlier post on Yosemite IDE slaves, Gary Lindstrom reported freezes and problems with a slave drive. See the updates to the rev 1 B&W G3 slave drive article, the rev 1's IDE chip makes adding a slave drive or even replacing the original OEM drive risky. Often you'll see data corruption with any modern drive in a B&W g3 as reported in the drive database here and from results of tests with the data corruption tester (linked in the FAQ and article.) The Yosemite Compatibility page has updates on JazJet and SCSI HP scanner problems (but success with an Epson scanner). Dan Kuraisa responded to the earlier post on a dual monitor IXMicro card to say he was told it was based on the same IX3D chip used in their current line.
Yosemite/Initio Miles Advisory: Matt Kingman wrote that Intio.com today has a Product Advisory on compatibility with the new B&W G3s. The bad news is we seem to have the first case of PCI card hardware incompatibility (or else the existing firmware chip is not large enough to hold the new code). They promise a beta flash update for the Miles U2 card in early Feb, but the following applies to the original Miles cards: " All Miles UW products that have been shipping since Jan. 15th, 1999 can be upgraded with the boot-enabled firmware (SIM). All current owners of Miles UW products (i.e. products that were shipped prior to Jan. 15th, 1999), will have to upgrade their card to allow it to boot in the new G3 systems. There is a nominal charge of $50 for the current owners to upgrade/exchange their cards to the new cards with the new SIM. The upgrade program will go into effect by mid-March 1999. " I'll add this to the Yosemite Compatibility page as the final word on the Miles UW cards. I saw disabled Rave acceleration with my original Miles card (latest bios 1.06) in my G3/400 with no drives attached. Others report using the Miles without problems (not bootable however). I did receive a confirmation on the Rave issue (memory allocation problem I was told). I'm running beta Rage128 drivers so perhaps that was one factor. Yosemite/Palm Pilot: In reply to a post in yesterday's news on Palm Pilot software working with a USB to Serial adapter (required as the new G3s have no serial ports), John Fotiadis wrote: " Yes, I use the Keyspan Serial adapter with my Palm II Cradle--I am running the Beta vesion of Mac Pac 2.0 Rev34. I have plugged the adapter into the USB port of my Yosemite keyboard (400 Mhz with Apple (Adaptec) Ultra SCSI2 card and drive)... BTW, I have the Macpac cradle connected to port #2 of the Keyspan adapter--working " B&W IDE Slave Drives: In response to my B&W IDE Slave Drive article yesterday, Henri Baccouche wrote: " Heads up Mike..... All I can say is that mine works fine and the comment that 'some' Yosemites lack support is puzzling, as they all have the same motherboard, ROM and controller hardware. It should be an either/or issue normally. However like the OEM SCSI cards that Apple shipped with beige G3s, often times mfrs don't officially support (i.e. offer tech support or recommend) other additions to the interface to minimize problems and tech support calls. I'd like to know more on this issue, but until then I can only believe what I have tested personally. My yosemite so far has run fine for a week with a Slave drive installed on the primary IDE bus. One other Yosemite owner also reported success (that's a small sample but so far no reports of failures). However as cautioned in the article, this is not an Apple supported configuration, and may void your warranty (I know you're as tired of reading these disclaimers as I am of writing them). Another reader commented he is running a 17GB IDE Slave drive on the 2nd channel (in the bay under the CDrom where the ZIP would normally be). I'm asking him to try a few timed tests to see how it performans. He reported a lot of MS applications (IE 4.5, Word 98) crashing even during lanches off the original hard drive. I've had no errors on my Yosemite running off either of the drives. Dual Monitor Cards: Frank Bernier sent a note that IXMicro will be offering a dual monitor output card in March. Not sure if it's based on the same IX3D graphics chip, but I hope they use something with more 3D capability. Of course we've all heard about the dual output Rage128 Yosemite option that may be coming in the future. [Note - this did not happen. However in 2002 ATI released a retail PCI Radeon 7000 card with dual monitor support. See the Video articles page for first owner feedback on that card.] The current record holder (most monitors from one card) as far as I know is Appian Jeronimo Pro cards, with up to 4 monitor outputs (quad 3Dlabs Permedia2 graphics chips), but they are for Win9x/NT only. More Yosemite Risk Takers: Reports on G3/400's running 450 are mixed but here is the latest feedback from the Yosemite Speed Settings page: " Mike, That temp is higher than most 450s so I suspect his CPU is a Motorola based on feedback and current specs. Other Net News:
Yesterday's News Summary
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
|
|
|
|
|
for allowing me to work so much on this site. For the current news page Click Here Site Logo Design by Jamie Bakum
 All brand or product names mentioned here are properties of their respective companies. Legal: Users of the web site must read and are bound by the terms and conditions of use. |