The 3D Game News has another large update from Frank. Check out the tips on ATI Rage128 drivers (reverting back to Rage128. 1.0 specific extensions) for users of the Tanaka RAVE game demo.
There's also updates on Quake2, Falcon 4 tips/issues and much more.
Bruce Modell of CDW sent an exclusive offer for readers on the IXMicro Game Rocket (3dfx banshee, similar to VT MP850)
"
Pre-order Special!
If your going to wait for Ixmicro to ship the Game rocket Banshee card
you might as well save some money!
Pre-order now for $219!!! CDW PART #171545
Bruce Modell
Senior Account Manager
CDW, Inc.
800-400-4239 ext 8219"
Mention the site and price if you order. CDW's regular price is $235.39 per the product page. I had earlier received a note that IXMicro will have 200 cards next week.
I've gotten the first owner entry of the CarrierZIF in the Rate Your G3 Upgrade database. He's running the CarrierZIF with Other World Computing's $299 366/183/1MB ZIF at 400/200 in an 8500. Here is his report:
"8500/120
Other World OEM 366/183/1MB ZIF
Runs solid at 400/200 with a 50MHZ bus speed on a XLR8 universal carrier and thats with 70ns RAM!. Tried 60Mhz and 55Mhz but not even a sound on start up. 52 (C) degrees normal.
XLR8 forgot the thermal cushion [rubber gasked for heatsink plate] for the processor but said they'll be shipping the thing to me. My reasons for 9 out of 10 the 366/183 is an X Motorola processor. Hope it will last a year or more. Pretty satisfied just the same.
Andrew Klapatiuk
"
The database now has more than 1500 entries and growing daily.
Dan Kuraisa sent a note that CDW has a listing for the SCSI version of the Kenwood TrueX 52X drive but it is shown as backordered. As noted in my review of the IDE model, Kenwood mentioned a SCSI version was being made. The question is will it work with Apple's CDROM extension. [Bruce of CDW noted the SCSI version should start shipping the end of July]
As promised, I've posted an illustrated installation guide for
the Kenwood TrueX CDROM drive in Beige G3/86/9600 and B&W G3 Macs.
Of course it could be applied to any CDROM drive.
Dick Mead sent a note he's seen problems with FWB's HDT 3.0 RAID with a TurboMax IDE card:
"
Re: IDE Raid... I noticed a comment that Adaptec's REMUS supposedly supports
Raid 0 on the TurboMax. I'll pass on that FWB's HDT 3.0.2 apparently does NOT
as it would either quit with a Type3 error, or just hang whenever I tried to
create a stripe... It inits the individual drives just fine (WD 313000's).
It did not matter if I set the drives as master/slave or as single drives
on each IDE port.
Dick Mead
"
Note that you should never RAID two IDE drives on the same cable (channel). IDE cannot write to two drives on the same channel simultaneously and as one print magazine learned, this configuration would result in horrible transfer rates (less than 2MB/sec in their tests if I remember correctly). Although I have not tested it personally, one reader reported last week that he was able to use SoftRaid (the winner of my 5 RAID software package tests last year) with his TurboMax PCI IDE card (which makes IDE drives look like SCSI ones to the Mac). Officially SoftRaid does not support IDE drives natively.
Several readers wrote to say that nVidia (makers of the sceamin' TNT/TNT2 graphics chips) have released the source to their chipset drivers (X-Windows (Unix/Linux) and OpenGL). They are available at nVidia's Drivers page. I've posted several insider comments in the past that nVidia was/might be working on Mac drivers but nothing official was ever announced. Perhaps this will help in the effort to bring those excellent cards to the Mac. Note that I've only seen the TNT2 in AGP form factor, but the TNT card was also available in PCI. The chip is compliant with both, but the 4X AGP compliant TNT2 chip would be at its best in an AGP slot (maybe the Sawtooth?). I noted there the drivers page says that BeOS already has drivers available (Riva 128 version at least).
Greg Miller responded to the PCMCIA Clik drive post in yesterday's news indicating that according to Iomega's online store page
the card is for Windows only. I'd like to verify this, as I have used my PCMCIA CompactFlash adapter card reader in my PB G3 (appears as a PC Disk) even though a driver was installed (automatically) by Windows for it. Total PNP on the PB G3. Since in my opinion the Clik is a product looking for a purpose (as far as mass appeal) I'd think they would not want to limit the market.
While on the subject, does anyone else wonder why Iomega would call a product 'Clik' after all the publicity on the ZIP drive's 'Click of Death' problem?
The latest feedback in the WD Expert/B&W G3 disk corruption issue (not isolated to that drive)
"
Hello,
I have the same problem with a WD Expert 18GB Drives installed in a B&W G3. I tried to boot on the CD, format the drive and copy a disk image.
The disk image is corrupted. It's about 2 bytes each 2 to 4 Mega bytes. All
small files are copied correctly. I try to put the Hard drive as Main and not slave, but the problem is the
same.
I called Western Digital Hot Line, and they told me that the Hard drive go
alone to ATA 33 if a normal cable was used, so it should not be a problem
to plug it directly in a Mac.The drive was tested successfully on a PC.
I tested the Hard drive with the normal cable I used before I sold my second
hard drive, so it's not a cable problem.
I explained the problem to the Tech Support at Apple France, but they don't
have a solution. I'm happy you found the solution of the ProMax. I'm gone a
buy one.
Thanks,
Igor Schlumberger
Product Manager
Souvenir for Mac & PC
"
This reader reported he's seen no corruption problems with the new Maxtor 20GB IDE drive in a B&W G3:
"
I was in the process of finding another drive to expand my 6GB storage in my
B&W G3 when I came across all your articles on corruption with the various
large slave drives. After seeing you had no problems with the 10.0GB Maxtor
Plus drive, and that my OEM drive was Maxtor, I went with the 20.0GB Maxtor
Plus drive. Drive Setup 1.7.2 saw and initialized it fine. I copied over the
34MB MacOS 8.6 Update self-mounting image and double clicked it, while
crossing my fingers of course. It verified without problem again and again!
As far as I can tell I'm in the clear and everything is working well.
Marty
"
Although I've not seen the problem personally, one reader reported repeated font corruption with OS 8.6 (I did see two HTML files corrupted when saved to a PC formatted ZIP disk however).
"
I've had a problem (and others are too, though it's been underreported
considering what a problem it is!) with font files becoming corrupted on
a 9600 (xlr8 400Mhz/Miles2/Cheetah/416ram) running 8.6. They'd be sound
on my 8500 running 8.5.1, but would, apparently randomly, become damaged
whether copied over ethernet or transferred via zip disk.
Also, Font Agent would scan the fonts and ok them on the 8500, then
would scan the newly transferred ones and crash when it hit a newly
damaged file (when it should have fixed it or suggested it be trashed).
Font Reserve also goes wonky and crashes when it hits a newly-screwed
font file.
Locking the font files (thanks, Will!) before introducing 8.6 helps, but
is not a complete fix-there are still enough clapped-out fonts to be
troublesome. Locking my existing Font Reserve database before I copied
it over saved it (it was a useless mess without locking it first).
As I type this, however, I'm reverting (geh!!) back to 8.5.1...
"
If anyone out there has run Falcon 4 with the latest OpenGL 1.0 drivers on a B&W G3 please contact me. One reader reported image quality issues but he was not using the latest drivers (he used v1.4.7) and I'm not sure about other aspects of his configuration. I also reminded him of the two patches for Falcon 4.
Wesley Chin replied to yesterday's news post calling for mac support for Diamond's RIO MP3 player with a comment he was told at a show that there would be a future 96MB RIO with USB interface that would support the Mac. No official verification of this however. Note their 64MB Special edition already has a translucent case.
I've gotten several reports in the latest updates to the Rate Your G3 Upgrade database of Blue and White G3 owners running 400/200 with the OWC $299 366/183/1MB ZIF upgrade. Previously all entries had been from Beige G3 owners.
If you don't check every day's daily news (updated several times a day normally) you might miss something valuable. Check the summary list below for highlights of the last two days news and the archives page for older new page links. For a blast from the past, read what was on the news page here exactly a year ago.
Other Net News:
Wednesday's News Summary
- IXMicro's Game Rocket (3dfx banshee) info
- One $89.99 8MB Game Wizard left at Bottom Line
- iMac in 24 hours book review
- Comments on overclocking warranties (or lack thereof)
- Newsgroup info on 3dfx drivers/Quake 2 for Mac
- 3D Game News updated
- New drivers posted for Formac graphics cards
- OWC, Bottom Line and Macgurus have stock on CarrierZIF cards
- Villagetronic lowers prices on MP850 and MacMagic
- MS Unique IDs to reappear in Win2K (UK site article)
- More on new B&W G3 options at Apple Store (3950U2 Card)
- New audio column update on Price Cuts and GUI Ruts (Special offer on VisionDSP)
- Call for mac support for Diamond RIO MP3 player
- Ruffin Bailey's editorial on Microconversions closing
- Reader reports frustrating experience with Mac ADSL
- Other Net News
Tuesday's News Summary
- 3D Game News updated
- Clarification on TrueX booting CDs
- More on UltraDMA HDs and data corruption (beige G3/IBM HD report)
- Interesting page on new Powerbook concept designs
- Audio dropouts not the fault of Turbomax card
- Enabling VM or disabling UltraSCSI can help audio issues
- Sonnet lowers prices on PCI Mac G3 upgrades
- Reader sees TrueX drive fro $99 after $30 mail-in rebate
- Apple speed-bumps Blue and White G3s, more options offered
- Readers report problems with 128MB FPM DIMMs in older macs
- Note on fake PC100 DIMMs (remarked PC66)
- Performance tests of OS 8.6 vs. prev. OS versions
- Quantum's complete explanation on Atlas3/Viking II AV drives & data integrity
- Note on company offering freeware office suite/mac developement halted?
- G3 CPU Upgrade Ratings database updated
- Other Net News
For other recent site news/features links, see the Sidebar to the right and the Recent Site Features page.
