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Updated: 11:00 PM EST

 
PowerForce 300/120/512K Blowout: MacGurus sends word of an amazing sale with free shipping for my readers:

" Mike:
MacGurus and PowerLogix have conspired to drop prices on the new PowerForce G3 300/512k/120's to $698.99!

These boards are in-stock and available for immediate delivery!

For your readers only, FREE NEXT-DAY SHIPPING IF THEY REQUEST THE XLR8 YOUR MAC "ELVIS" DISCOUNT!

Thanks for your support!

And YES, those customers who purchased before the price drop WILL be grandfathered, and rebates credited back to their credit cards! "

Back to the email ball and chain for me... [11:00 PM Update]

(not so) Cheap SCSI Cards: The dealer that had originally told me $49.95 on the narrow only PCI SCSI cards (Advansys cards) now says the best they can profligacy do is $69.95 with a drive purchase. That's a far cry from the original price and I'm not happy about it. Next time I'll insist on something in writing first. (The dealer was not any of the site sponsors.) [10:00 PM Update]

CPU Card Feedback Wanted: If you're running a G3 CPU card upgrade (Nubus or CPU slot) I'd like to know the details. I've created a feedback form that will take you only a few seconds to complete and I'd be very grateful for the information.

I've got thousands of mails I've saved from CPU card owners over the last year, but I'd like to have a standard list of info on each configuration.

If you don't use the form and would prefer to send email, please include the following info:

• Mac Model: (Powercenter, 7500, 9600, etc)
• Card Owned: (PowerForce, RailGun, Newer Tech, XLR8, Sonnet)
• Stock Card/Cache Speed: (220/110, 266/177, etc.)
• Current Card Speed: (How fast are you running it currently [ie. 250/125, etc.])
• Comments: Brief note on installation, if you kept/removed the motherboard cache, etc.)
• How you'd rate the card overall (10 being awesome, 0 being paperweight)

Power3D Price Drops: Dave Riggle sent a URL to a Techworks Press Release (http://www.techworks.com/company/news/980608a.html) citing price cuts on the Power3D. The page notes that the Power3D for the Mac retail price will drop from $229 to $149. The Power3D for the PC price will drop from $159 to $119. Customers who purchase the Mac Power3D card from CompUSA or Microcenter, will be eligible for a mail in rebate coupon of $50 which makes the net cost of Power3D Mac card $99. [4:00 PM Update]

Apple Drive Setup v1.5 Posted: Ruben Brochner informed me of the new version:

" Mike
Drive Setup 1.5 has been posted to the Apple web site at:

ftp://ftp.info.apple.com/Apple_Support_Area/Apple_Software_Updates /US/Macintosh/Utilities/Drive_Setup/

According to the accompanying text file, 'Version 1.5 adds support for Power Macintosh G3 computers and fixes a bug where the write cache on some ATA drives was disabled following a restart.'
-Ruben"

Panasonic CDR Bios Fixes G3 Problems: Miguel Chavez wrote back to say the bios upgrade mentioned in yesterday's news does fix the problems with the Panasonic 7502 CDR when used with a Apple G3 system.

PC 3Dfx Cards in a Mac: Apparently some readers missed the post last Thursday on the NE3D 3Dfx adapter cables and keep sending mail about it. As mentioned last week, it is a cable and CD with drivers for using PC 3Dfx cards in a Mac.

My FAQ (question #27) covered the use of PC 3Dfx cards months ago and the links page has a link to the Techworks page where the drivers can be downloaded.

Based on reader feedback, the NE3D drivers are installed as part of the demo games on the CDROM. This kit does not allow the use of PC Voodoo II cards on a Mac - as even on the PC the Voodoo II cards cannot work with the original Voodoo card drivers.

If you have a VGA connector on your Mac video card and a VGA connector on your monitor cable you do not need the NE3D cable, in fact you'd not be able to use it (it has a Mac connector on one end). The PC 3Dfx cards come with VGA connectors on the card and pass-through cable.

ATI Extensions/Apple Monitors v1.6: Joe Borzellino sent word of problems he has with this combination in a PowerCenter Pro:

" Mike,
Awesome site! I hope Kay feels better soon.

I thought I would pass along an experience I had with ATI Xclaim VR drivers and the Monitors and Sound control panel and some other stuff.

I noticed that after installing an ATI video card, occasionally my Monitors and Sound control panel would give me an error that "System AV" was not installed. It in fact was installed and is the version that comes with Apple Displays 1.6 I then found this interesting note in a TIL file:

http://til.info.apple.com/techinfo.nsf/artnum/n30547

It said

'If you get an error message when opening the Monitors & Sound control panel that says the System AV extension needs to be installed, and you already have the extension installed, there probably is not enough memory available to load the extension. Try disabling some extensions or control panels, or turning on Virtual Memory, in order to allow the extension to load during startup.'

My mac has 192MB ram, so I thought this was an unusual explanation, so I just renamed the SystemAV extension to 'zSystemAV' to make it load later.

Now I have no problems with the M&S control panel, the ATI Desktop control strip module which would make intermittent appearences in my Control strip bar now appears regularly, and a Digidesign Sound Driver Init which would also load intermittently is now loading every boot.

Anyway, I thought that this might help some other people with ATI cards and Apple Displays 1.6 installed.
Joe Borzellino"

I just received an update from Joe saying that the renaming of SystemAV does not seem to have fixed the problem.

Sonnet Nubus G3 Upgrade Feedback: Adam Glick send a note on his experience:

" Hi Mike,
As always, great site & we all really appreciate your hard work. I wanted to send in some preliminary data on the Sonnet G3 240-250/120-125/1MB I just put in my 7100/80. Most importantly, it wouldn't boot until I yanked the motherboard L2 - it would hang with an illegal instruction set. This seemed similar to complaints I've been seeing in newsgroups about people having problems with these cards but no one seemed to have tried yanking the L2. Worked for me. Also, I've clock chipped the bus to 45 Mhz but the Sonnet card adjusts the clock multiplier so it wont go over 250 Mhz. It's reporting 248Mhz (and 118 deg. F). MacBench scores are 848 processor and 596 FPU. I'll be testing the NewerTech variant when it comes in (!) and hope that I can get it up to 270Mhz. I've also got an FWB SCSI JackHammer with an ext. 4GB fast-wide drive installed but haven't tested performance boosts explicitly with it yet. So far, so good for this old box!

Adam Glick
Bytehead Technology Consulting"

ISDN Bitsurfer Pro Feedback:

" Like the answer to this question already published on your site, I have a Motorola Bitsurfr Pro. I'm not sure if its still available in retail stores. I wasn't able to find it for the Mac, although mail order companies still showed they had it. Another alternative is to buy a second hand unit. There seemed to be a lot advertised on the internet user groups. Try the group 'comp.dcom.isdn'". Most of these sellers were switching to routers. I got mine for $110 including the Quicomm scripts. They make a big difference. I get 13K to 15k downloads on my 7600/G3 with the Bitsurfer using the script that bonds the 2 Bchannels together and sets the serial port to 230k.

One note on the Bitsurfr Pro; if you are using analog phones connected to the phone ports and you subscribe to Caller ID you have to set the time in the Bitsurfr Pro otherwise the time is not correct on the phone display when calls are presented. I use the Motorola supplied program that came with the Bitsurfr to set the time. I called them regarding the Caller Id feature and they were very helpful even though I was not the original purchaser.
Kelvin Ritchie"

Notes on the Quicomm scripts and ISDN have been covered here previously.

I asked Micro Conversions when the 12MB Voodoo II cards would be available and they replied that both the 8MB and 12MB cards would be shipping at the same time.

As reported yesterday, the cards are expected to be available at the end of the month. MacMall reported 6/12, but MicroConversions said they have not updated them with the latest ship date.

Photoshop Large File Printing Tips: Due to the large number of responses regarding printing problems in Photoshop with large image files, I decided to start a separate page in the 'Tips' area of the site. New feedback received yesterday is listed there now, with tips for Epson printer owners and using Graphic Converter as a way around the problem.

" All that talk about making apple scripts for the Finder, is ok, BUT why don't you take the easy way and use a control strip module. It stays on all the time (even when you Quit the Finder) and lets you startup the Finder again and other things.

If you are going to post this on your HP, (I don't mind) but give some credit to the author of this strip (not me).

Included is the control strip called Terminator Strip.

Greetings
Erick van Rijk "

I've not tried this strip, dated Oct 96 so I'm not sure if it works with all OS Versions. However I know a lot of you will want to Download Terminator Strip v2.5.

If you're having problems downloading the file (the browser is displaying the file), make sure your browser is set to save files with hqx extensions, or just hold the mouse down over the file link and select 'save..'.

" Hello Mike,
I have a couple of options that may help with the choppy video.

Option 1. After you have updated the firmware on the Miles and rebooted the machine, start the SmartSCSI utility and disable the disconnect setting on the UltraWide drive that you have connected to the Miles. After you make the change you must reboot in order for the change to take effect.

Option 2. If the disconnect did not resolve the issue, go back into the SmartSCSI utility and lower the max transfer rate for the UltraWide drive that you have connected to the Miles. As you know no drive has a sustained transfer rate higher than about 15 megs per second, so lowering the max transfer rate to about 20 megs per second should be invisible. A setting of 20 is usually good for most people, however some have had to drop the rate lower and some have even had to switch the transfer mode to asynchronous mode.

With some experimenting you should be able to find a setting that gives you the playback quality you require.

Good luck and please feel free to keep me updated on your progress. Dan
Initio Technical Support "

Disabling disconnect can affect I/O performance from other SCSI devices on that controller, but since during capture and playback most times you are not accessing other drives on the card it may not have any negative effects.

One Raid house also mentioned that lowering the speed of the Adaptec SCSI card to 16mhz (from 20) also seems to help that card. I normally would have used the video tuner for the Adaptec card, but this it is interesting to see that two different sources indicate lower speeds can help on two different brand cards.

Pat Berry of MacTell indicates that the $399 'lite' version of the Vision 3D Pro II graphics card (reviewed here) will have the same performance up to resolutions of 1280x1024. Full details on the card are in the press release.

Mail of the day:

" Mike:
What follows might have already crossed your mind, but I suspect I know why other on-line Mac resources neither post links to your site, nor reference the extremely useful information contained therein. Although many of the existing Mac-related Websites are excellent in their own right, their creators and operators realize that pointing their readership to your site will ineluctably result in an overall reduction of daily visits to their own pages and, consequently, in ad-dependent revenue losses, etc.

The vigor--and rigor!--with which you maintain your site and update its information is truly bewildering. No other Mac-related site that I've visited boasts the same kind of relentless and indefatigable drive of their creators. To be sure, others are also passionate about their sites, many of which are informative and useful. You, however, seem to be more than passionate; you seem to be seized with the cause to get Mac users as much information about their systems as possible. Mike 's brand of Macintosh proselytism, supported by copious evidence of our platform's superiority over Windows adduced by you on a daily basis, is also much more subtle and effective that the other Mac Websites'.

I may be off the mark here, but doubt it. The only other explanation would be not knowing of the existence of your site--this explanation, however, is highly improbable. Don't despair, though; the others will come around. In the meantime, you should view this conspiracy as the best possible compliment other Mac sites could ever pay you and your work.

My only concern is how long you can keep this tempo up.
Regards,
Eugene Shekhtman "

This site is 100% Intergraph free - no persons working on this web site have ever been on the payroll of any PC manufacturer.

Please check your bookmarks - make sure you are using www.xlr8yourmac.com.

Wanted: 9600/350 CPU Card: I'm still looking for a 9600/350 Mhz card (not a 300mhz clocked up) to modify to 400mhz. If you have one for sale or trade, contact me. I'd be willing to offer this 350mhz Mach 5 card (originally a 300 but runs just fine at 350) and a 64MB DIMM or cash in trade as well.

I've received many requests for to mod. Mach 5 cards for higher speeds and am considering it (with the proper written release).

3D Column Logo Contest: I'm still asking for all 3D artists out there to submit their creations for our new 3D Column Logo/Banner. The Logo should include the site URL (www.xlr8yourmac.com) but otherwise the design is up to you. Please keep file size down to 25K or so if you can, and use your name as the file name to help me keep track of who submitted the image (I get so many mails a day I need all the help I can). Thanks!

The winner (and any other interesting entries) are invited to write an article (complete w/screen captures ) showing how it was done. I'd like to have all entries by June 30. Resolution should be 200H x 500W (Maximum size - smaller is fine). GIF (animated OK, but try to keep file sizes small) or JPEG format for the final image.

If you'd like to submit a 3D Logo design (full credit given of course), please contact me.

We need your G3 info! Reader "Oz" has offered to help with collecting data on Apple G3 system compatibility issues (hardware and software) of all types. Please send him any Apple G3 system compatibility info/issues you have or are aware of at: oz@bbdoperu.com

Search Tip! For searches on product names with mixed capitalization, use keywords like PowerBoost Pro (not Powerboost Pro or powerboost pro) and MaxPowr (vs maxpowr or Maxpowr). It seems that capitalization within the word on the site pages is throwing off the engine. Keep that in mind when searching for some of the odd product names.

Need Help? Before you send email for tech support, please check the Troubleshooting page or try searching and to check the FAQ, Performance Basics, Links, and Forums for solutions to your problems or answers to tech support questions. They have a lot of good info and are a great source of help.

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