A reader asked if the SIIG PC IDE card could be flashed with the Turbomax firmware. I tried to reply to his mail but his address bounced. (I'm sure doing this would also violate some software licensing agreement.) The Turbomax has an Acard ATA/33 controller chip and I have no idea what the SIIG card controller chip is, so I doubt it would work. (Assuming the SIIG even has a flash rom.) I'm also not sure if the flasher looks for a Mac firmware signiture in the card before allowing a flash update, which could be the case. (Greg K., check your reply to address - the error on the bounce was 'Requested User Mailbox not found. No such user here'.)

Iomega ZIP CDR Problem Report: An owner of a Iomega ZIP CDR wrote:

"I cannot get my G3 CD-rom drive to read any data discs created by Toast 4 on my new Iomega ZipCD 650. I can get it to read and play CDR audio but only in mono. ( The discs play in stereo on the home audio ). Even then the Iomega/ Toast combination is very fussy about blank stock. It requires 1x recording on blue azo Verbatim but will record at 2x on Princo stock. I won't record anything at 4x. I tried FWB software drivers for the Cd-Rom drive but this made no diff. The CD-Rom drive is a Matshita CR-587. I run a B&W G3, OS8.6, QT4.0, 128Mb, 6G.
Daniel Crowley"

I assume this is the USB external version of the ZIP CDR (since he mentioned reading the CDs on the G3 CD drive). Many USB CDRs won't burn reliabily at 4x rates, and I suggested increasing the Toast cache to 8MB or more. If a USB burner, I also suggested trying USB Port 2, which I have seen to solve some USB storage device problems on my B&W G3s here (noted in the FAQ, I had to use Port 2 for a USB/SCSI adapter to work with a SCSI CDR for instance). Toast Deluxe 4.0.2 update may also help (due to be released soon I hear, some owners say they received the update after direct contact with Adaptec). I welcome any Iomega ZIP CDR owners comments on tips for the drive, settings or CDR types that might help.

Wanted: Pismo + USB Tape Drive Feedback: I'm looking for any Pismo owner comments on using the AIWA USB Travan tape drive (sold for $99 at Microcenter some time back). If you've tested this or other USB devices on a new Pismo, please contact me with details. (I'd like to add this info to the review compat. page).

Interview: Stephan M. Sprenger of Prosoniq Thad Brown sent issue 57 of the 'Bring in the Noise' audio column featuring an interview with Stephan Sprenger.

PCI Timing Update Fixes 6500 Audio Issues? One of the weekend's updates to the Rate Your CPU Upgrade database contained an interesting entry from a 6500 owner with L2G3 upgrade noting the PCI Timing update worked wonders:

" Mike,
model: 6500/225
96mb ram
Newertech G3/300/200 1mb
Audiomedia III PCI card
External zoom modem
Matsushita 24x scsi cd int.
Yamaha CDR external

The Audiomedia III PCI digital audio interface PCI card, has not compatible with Newer's L2 upgrade (with audiomedia/iii drivers etc. OFF) . Playback of internal audio files of any kind had popping if G3 was enabled, and would quickly lock up machine. Also serial problems and scsi issues if G3 enabled. Got an external zoom 56k, took out internal geoport. I am an Apple certified tech did everything I knew of, and Newer' support just suggested usual:

Clean installs 8.5.1-8.6 even low level format, remove, reset periphials, G3 card, ATI updates, zap Pram, etc. None worked

Well, here's what fixed it: PCI TIMING UPDATE 1.0!, from Apple's site, Apple said it will not work on any other machine, but the powercomputing/7200 based boards. But it has stabilized my machine since installing it .I have been Newer's beta 2.0.2 with cache contol software. (For me diff, cache speeds, and disabling/backside did not help?). BUT, the PCI timing extention, it did. I have tried and tried to crash it, doing all the things that caused it to lock up before, when the G3/ L2 was enabled. I decided another clean install (5th time,same set-up as before), base extentions, software, except G3 upgrade, and still crashed at least once a day as mentioned above for a month, I was gonaa send the upgrade back. Then I threw in this PCI timing update 1.0 out of curiosity, and have no trouble since.
Jonathan T. Clark
Macintosh Certified Technician/Audio Engineer "

Interesting. That update was noted on the PowerCenter Pro review and in the FAQ as far as Audio patches for Catalyst motherboards. ATI also includes a similar patch called Sound Catalyst with their video cards. [Note: Several readers wrote to say the 6400 has the Alchemy motherboard and the 6500 has the Gazell logic board (which is based on the Alchemy but with an improved ATI Rage II video chip and faster 50Mhz bus speed).]

10/100 Ethernet Switch Report: A reader notes his experiences:

"Mike,
Great site! Been relying on it for quite awhile, thought I'd "give a little back". There seems to be some question over which 10/100 switches will correctly auto-negotiate to full duplex mode with a G4. Apple and Linksys both indicate that the Linksys switches do NOT work. After learning nothing from dejanews, Apple tech support, Asante tech support, and Netgear tech support, I decided to try the SOHO NSH510 (a 5 port switch) since it was cheap (just under $100 after tax at my local CompUSA). I'm happy to report it works flawlessly. Both my G4 and my wife's iMac auto negotiated to 100 Mb/s and full duplex. Don't know if this is critical, but this is with the new G4 with the combo ethernet/firewire controller chip...
John Walzer"

Switches are preferred over Hubs for higher network performance.

20th Anniv. Mac/Proformance3/G3 Upgrade Report: A reader notes he had problems running any L2G3 CPU upgrade in his TAMs with the Proformance 3 graphics card:

"I have a couple of 20th Anniversary Macs. Both were using the 400 Mhz Sonnet G3 L2 cache upgrade cards. You'll see why that was written using past tense in a moment. Both have the Farallon Comm Slot II 10/100baseT Ethernet card. Both have 128Megs of memory.

One was using System 8.5.1, the other 8.5 (both are now using 9.0).

I purchased one of the refurbished SGI 1600SW digital LCDpanels. They didn't have Mac video cards anymore, so I purchased a Formac Proformance III w/DFP adapter, PCI video card. A nice card which will work in 33Mhz or 66Mhz PCI slots.

First machine, Sonnet 400 Mhz G3 L2 Upgrade. Installed the card, installed its drivers. Started fiddling. Lock up. Remove drivers. Fiddle, lock up. Remove Crescendo extension (which enables the Sonnet card). No lock up. Install video drivers. no lock up. Contact support. Formac helpful, Sonnet unhelpful. I can use one or the other, but not both seemingly.

Second machine. Okay, I already know the story on the Sonnet. So, remove Sonnet G3, install old Vimage 240 G3 L2 card. Add video card. Reboot. No lockup. Good. Switch to SGI display as main display. Uh....shimmering. Like a CRT would do if you hit it on the side while on. Disturbing, head ache causing. Change settings on card to more compatible. Reboot. Same problem. Disable G3. No shimmering.

So, the overall status seems to be that ProFormance III isn't compatible with G3 (or more likely vice versa) L2 accelerators...in the 20th Anniversary Mac.
Kim"

If there are any other owners of L2 cache slot G3 upgrades running a Proformance III let me know what your results were. Perhaps this is a TAM specific issue, or just a similar repeat of the PCI video cards issue noted by some other L2G3 owners in the past.

More Turbomax AV Performance Comments:

"Hi, Mike!
I have a Turbomax in my 9500 and 7600. I can happily report that I don't have stuttering problems with vieo or audio playback under the following circumstances:
The IDE disk must not be accessing for any other thing than playback. As soon as I do something else (e.g. play back an audio file AND open an application from the IDE drive) I get drop-outs.

I assume, this is a similar issue to PCI-SCSI-cards with a high transfer rate (may be noticeable with everything above 10 MB/s). The drives I tested were: IBM DPTA 372050 (ATA-66, 7200 rpm, 20 G) and the ATA-66, 15 G, 5400 rpm model.

Intrestingly, Logic Audio doesn't seem to be affected at all. But 'normal' apps like Games etc. show their 'drop-outs-on-access' phenomenon.

9500 config:
20G IDE + 4.5 G SCSI internal HD, 322 MB RAM, 54 MHz Bus clock, 422 MHz G3, Formac ZIF adapter and graphics board, Apple 10/100 Ethernet card, Turbomax (Firmware v1.74), Advansys 3940UA (U-SCSI), Emagic Audiowerk 8.
regards and best wishes,
Bernd "

More on 80Min CDRs and Matshita OEM DVD drive: Several readers replied to the weekend news post that they can read 80Min CDRs fine with the OEM Matshita DVD drive. Here's one sample:

"Mike,
I have a Rev 1 BW G3 and I had my DVD drive replaced by Apple because it died. The new drive is a Matshita revision D54A. I recently burned some 80 minute data and audio CDs using a Plextor drive. I used Memorex CDRs and they work fine in my DVD drive.

So my guess it would be either the CDR type or the newer revision. I would bet it's the CDRs.
Thanks,
Hugh McAnany"

The weekend news problem report noted a Matshita revision # D54A drive (his original D45A rev was a typo he said), Sony CDR CDU948S and green dye CDRs. I received many reader reports noting no problems reading 80Min CDRs with the other common OEM DVD drive, Hitachi. Perhaps the issue was just with his specific CDR/disk/DVD drive revision. (I'd suggest trying a different color/brand of CDR). As I noted in the news, I have seen some cases where my Wallstreet DVD drive won't reliably read some CDRs but the original CDrom drive module would. (I only found this out by trying to copy a folder from the CDR to the HD.) BTW: the Pismo DVD drive reported no errors copying the same folder.

An 8500 owner also reported he had problems reading PNY 80Min CDRs in an Apple 4x drive:

"I too encounter unreadable PNY 12x-certified 700MB CD-R disc on Apple 4x CD on 8500 running OS8.5. The Teac CD55S CD-R can read and write the PNY discs, as same, all the audio CD players -portable, car, and component- playback without problem. I also used Smart&Friendly 8x-certified 80min/700MB CD-R that is readable on my Apple CDROM.
"

Reminder on $69.95 Pismo/Lombard Battery Sale: If you missed the weekend's news - the Pismo Comments page also has a copy of the $69.95 Lombard/Pismo battery sale info. Not sure if they still have stock on this promo offer.

Nikon CoolPix 100 Not Compatible with Pismo: Also added to the Pismo Comments page is a note the Nikon CoolPix 100 (PCMCIA slot) camera does not work with the new Powerbooks (it did with the Wallstreet, PB 1400 and other models). A reader reported the issue this weekend and I verified it here with my Coolpix 100. No disk icon appears when the camera is inserted in the PCMCIA slot. I bought my Coolpix 100 for $92.00 back in 1998 when they were being discontinued, so it's not likely there will be any fixes from Nikon.

The Owner's CPU Upgrade Ratings, Mac Game Reviews, and Mac Game FPS databases were updated new reader entries at 3AM this morning.

Other Net News/Software Updates: (Thanks to Barney Buoy)

News:
• Sony's New Line of High Performance CD-RW Drives (Yahoo)
• IE5 'very soon', new Mac Office underway (Macworld UK)
• Netscape 6 coming within 25 days (MacUser UK)
• Be sheds more light on OS update (PCweek)
• Apple Powerbook 500 review (MacUser UK)
• 2-port KVM switches video and USB (AllUSB)
• Linux vs. Linux (ZD/Net)

  Software:

• Macast 1.0r2
• Rapster Beta 6
• WordPerfect Office 2000 for Linux Shipping (Corel)

The recent features page also lists articles posted (most recent first) as does the sidebar links here. The site topics pages (systems, cpu upgrades, etc. - see top and sidebar links on this page) also are places to check as well as the FAQ.

Weekend's News Summary

• iBook/Pismo Sleep Extension
• Atto ExpressPro Tools updated
• Another $69.95 Pismo/Lombard Battery Sale
• 80 Minute CDRs/B&W G3 DVD Drive Issue?
• Pismo Battery Life during DVD Playback
• Feedback on latest Beta Villagetronic drivers
• iBook/CVGS Update
• Adaptec Tech Note on Pismo/SlimSCSI 1480
• Owner's CPU Upgrade Reviews database updated
• Other Net News/TILs/Software Updates

Friday's News Summary

• Magma Mobile Audio workstation (PCI Expansion Chassis)
• Impressive Pismo battery life
• Bottom Line's latest weekly specials
• OWCs $255 12GB notebook drive & Quake3, UT under $35
• 450MHz G4 upgrades arriving
• New Beta Villagetronic Banshee/Voodoo3 drivers
• Yamaha 8X SCSI CDR Reports Page
• Tips for L2G3 Upgrades/Audio Problems
• More on Low SCSI Write Speeds
• G4 Speaker Noise Tip (may apple to all UMA macs)
• Pismo Comments updated for Adaptec SlimSCSI 1480 reports
• Owner's CPU Upgrade Reviews database updated
• Other Net News/TILs/Software Updates

Thursday's News Summary

• OWC 222 256MB Dimm price dropped to $219
• More on 39160 Write Performance
• Yamaha 8X CDR Feedback
• More Pismo/Compactflash reports
• Ultra160 SCSI Adaptec 39160/Quantum Atlas 10K Performance
• Specs on 3Dfx Rampage
• Pismo & CompactFlash PCMCIA Adapters
• Quake3 w/4MB Voodoo1 Card
• Rage128 Mobility Chip Details
• Newer Tech Beta Software/OS 9 Feedback
• Owner's CPU Upgrade Reviews, Mac Game Reviews and Mac Game/Video Card Performance searchable databases updated.
• Other Net News/TILs/Software Updates

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? Search the CPU Upgrade Owner's Survey results and search for owner reports by Mac model and/or card brand. The current database has more than 3,300+ reports and growing.