"Mike,
here is the "Retrospect 4.2 Driver Update" including my Yamaha CDRW8424 fix. I also changed the version number from 1.9 to 1.9j, so there's no confusion between the two versions.

I tested the burning of a CD-RW with Retrospect on a G3/233 using the internal SCSI. I was able to recover files from the CD on the same Mac. In addition I was able to re-create the catalog from this CD on a B/W G3/350 with an Advansys Ultra SCSI card (using the same Yamaha drive of course). I did not, however, try a large backup spanning several CDs.
Jorg"

I've had two reports today that RAM prices may rise on Monday. The first said prices were 'moving' and the second warned of price increases of perhaps 10% early next week. Not sure what will happen, but just posting a FYI. If supply prices do rise, end user pricing may not be affected until current stock is depleted. (RAM prices could go up or down of course, but last time I ignored a warning prices did go up, so I thought I'd post this one.)

Adaptec SlimSCSI 1480 Driver Update: Patrick Gallagher of Micro/Mac Warehouse wrote to say that Adaptec's PowerDomain Slimscsi requirements page has been updated with a link to a driver update that resolves the Pismo (PowerBook Firewire) compatibility issue. However they say the driver requires "Mac OS 9.03 or a later revision of OS 9". (All Pismo's I've seen have OS 9.02 installed.) Patrick also said the new driver is in all current shipments and that only a small number of cards shipped with the previous driver version.

Barney Buoy sent a list of links to Software Updates/Other Net news.

A reader had trouble finding the L2 cache dimm article here that was referenced in documentation with an XLR8 upgrade card. (Removing the Apple L2 cache dimm if possible is recommended when installing most CPU upgrades since the stock cache dimm is usually too slow for the faster bus speed of the CPU upgrade.) The article they are referring to is the one listed on the sidebar L2 cache page links - the 8500 Cache upgrade guide. Other mac models have easier access to the L2 cache dimm than the 8500, which requires removing the motherboard so get qualified help and exercise caution when attempting this. It's easy to break off the small capacitors on the motherboard as noted in the article.

Site Sponsor OWC sent a note on their $209/256MB Dimms/SOdimms for Macs:

"I think our TPW256 256mb PC100 2-2-2 CL2 SO-DIMMs at $209 for G3 Series PowerBooks and iMac 233/266/333 is among the best price out there. Same goes for our TPC100SD256 at $209, 256mb SDRam dimm for G3/G4 Desktops and Minitowers, iMac 350/400, etc.

Both are listed on the XLR8yourmac specials page they are both higher on the general site.
Best Regards,
Larry O'Connor
Other World Computing, Inc."

An OWC 128MB PC100 SODIMM was used during the review tests of the Powerbook G3/500 (Pismo). (RAM prices are subject to change at any time.)

Reader's Fix for Yamaha 8X SCSI CDR & Retrospect: I've asked this reader to verify that the backups restore correctly. [See later update for his report on backup/restore test results.]

"Mike,
I think your page is the right place to let Mac Users know about the fix I have applied to the "Retrospect 4.2 Driver Update" to make Retrospect 4.2 work with the Yamaha CDRW8424.

I own this drive (external SCSI unit) since mid December and have not spoiled a single CD so far. Even though I hope that the recent firmware update fixes the rare hang-ups on my beige G3 using internal SCSI.

Retrospect obviously is lagging behind on supporting the newer CD burners. So I used ResEdit to look into the "Retrospect 4.2 Driver Update" file and found several Yamaha CD-R entries in resource SDid 11730. I simply changed the identifier of one of the Yamaha CD entries to CRW8424S (the SCSI response of that drive), without increasing the length of the resource.

It works !

The Yamaha CDRW8424 is now recognized by Retrospect as CD-R output device and I successfully backed up smaller sub-volumes (my 200 MB System Folder e.g.) onto CD-RW. Because the CD has a special format (like tapes) you need that same drive and Retrospect to make use of those CDs and recover from them.

I don't know what all those entries (besides the name) for each 44 byte block in the SDid 11730 resource mean, but the difference between the newer Yamaha CD-burners doesn't seem to matter too much.

If other users can't wait for the update from Dantz, I can mail them my hacked version of the "Retrospect 4.2 Driver Update" to try out -- no guarantees of course.
Jorg "

My Dantz contact requested I not post the patch here saying it may not be reliable in all configurations. He said they were working on a driver update for the CDR with the new firmware now.

Reader Article on Peliter Cooled G4/Yikes: Todd Eddie sent an article on his Peltier Cooled G4/Yikes that's running at 500MHz he says. He includes performance comparisons at various speeds. Due to the risks involved it is not recommended you try this. A DOA Mac is far slower than one running at the stock speed.

OS 9.04 Changes: A reader that was lucky enough to get the update commented that it appeared to have updated Applescript, ATI drivers, Iomega extension and had OpenTransport 2.6.1. What's odd is that he said running checking for software updates (via the control panel) after applying the OS 9.04 upgrade resulted in it listing OpenTransport v2.6 as an available update (despite already having v2.6.1 installed). I've still seen no updates available using the review Pismo - but often I see no response from Apple's server while watching Remote Access send/receive activity during the Software Update check. It could be the servers are too busy or not all of them have the update, or perhaps it's been pulled for some reason.

Interleaved RAM Solves Quake3 Audio Stuttering: A reader post in the 3dfx/gaming forum indicated the audio dropout problems he was having in Quake 3 (intro) with his G3 upgraded 7600 were solved by interleaving his RAM. He also noted a substantial performance boost. Last year in my Interleaved RAM article I saw a 23% performance gain in Unreal with interleaved RAM in a 9600/350 (Kansas) system.

"...found the fix for the sound in the intro movies in Quake 3 listed in earlier posting. again my machine is a 7600/ zif upgraded366 mecury clocked at 400, the ram was not interleaved because of stability problems with OS 8 (I think). Gauge Pro listed moving 42 mb sec, after trying all else I decided to remove my ram (4 64 md matching 60 ns) and reinstall it interleaved. first thing I did was fire up Quake three and it worked. The ram must be interleaved and all appears stable with OS 9. gauge pro shows that I am now moving 59-60 mb sec (a 20 % increase) frame rates in game play appear up too!"

GaugePro/VM Oddities: A reader commented he was getting higher GaugePro memory bandwidth scores with Virtual Memory enabled on his Pismo than shown in my review of the PB G3/500. He report just over 100MB/sec where my tests with VM off and the default memory allocated to GaugePro were just under 90MB/sec. I tested with VM off and On here (rebooting of course) and saw no differences.

I then tried something that did show a gain (temporarily). Remembering that MacBench often reported higher scores if more than the default RAM was allocated to it - I increased the GuagePro allocation from appx half-MB to 2MB and re-ran it. Scores improved to over 90MB/sec. Then I increased it to 4MB - scores jumped to about 104MB/sec (I took screenshots to prove this). I then disabled VM, rebooted and ran the test again - back to the original 89.x MB/sec. I enabled VM again and rebooted - same 89.x MB/sec score. I then changed the memory allocation again - scores increased.

It seemed with VM enabled, just changing the memory allocation and rerunning the test showed an immediate gain in reported rates (until I rebooted). This oddity was only seen with VM on. With VM off, changing the memory allocation did not seem to change scores. I'm using v 1.01 of GaugePro, the latest version that I am aware of. I have only tested for this on the Pismo running OS 9.02.

Promised Toast 4.02 Update Still A No-Show: [Note- late Friday night the update appeared - but beware, some readers reported the update made matters worse. See reports in Saturday's news.] Many readers have expressed frustration at the still MIA update (as of this morning). Adaptec's own mail list promised it days ago. I know 4.02 exists, as a friend got the full installer weeks ago via password protected download. (That was not a patch but a full installer however.) I think they should at least issue an updated mail notice with a revised schedule if the update doesn't appear soon. That would do wonders for customer relations from those that are constantly checking the web-update function for the promised patch.

The Owner's CPU Upgrade Ratings, Mac Game Reviews, and Mac Game FPS databases were updated late last night with new reader entries.

Other Net News/Software Updates:

Software Updates:

• Canvas 7.0.1
• Seti Unit Manager 1.7
• Adaptec Slim SCSI 1480
• Surfdoubler 6.6.1

  News:

• Terra Soft Solutions Announces AltiVec Technology Support in Black Lab Linux (Excite)
• Eight MP3 Players For The Macintosh (applelinks)
• Opera 4.0 is sleek, slick browser (PCweek)
• Microsoft confirms Whistler leaked, investigation under way (C/Net)
• AT&T's 'Project Angel' spreads its wings (C/Net)
• Second Backdoor Found In Playstation 2 (Techweb)
• Sharp, Sony Size Up Storage - 1GB portable MO device (PCworld)
• Yahoo, Ebay considering a merger (news.com)
• CompUSA names new CEO (news.com)

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.

Thursday's News Summary

• Yamaha Comments on New 8X SCSI CDR Firmware
• PB1400/Sonnet G3 Upgrade Feedback
• Pismo/iBook ColorSync Profiles Tip
• OS 9.04 Update Out?
• AMD/Motorola Nitro Info
• Yamaha 8X SCSI Firmware Update Feedback
• LCD ColorSync Profiles Comments
• Other Net News/TIL Updates/Software Updates

Wednesday's News Summary

• CNBC Apple Story/Stock at Alltime High
• Pismo ColorSync Profile Feedback
• Pismo/iBook ColorSync Profiles Here
• PowerBook G3/500 Review (a real one):
• IDE DVD RAM Drive From Promax
• Toast Deluxe 4.02 Update Still Not Available
• iBook vs PB Screen Comments
• Yamaha 8X CDR Firmware Update Due
• Tips/Info/Profiles for PB/iBook LCD Display Color Matching
• Owner's CPU Upgrade Ratings updated
• Other Net News/TILs/Software Updates

Tuesday's News Summary

• More on Pismo ColorSync
• QPS IDE DVD-RAM Drives (PC Only)
• XLR8 Lowers G4 Upgrade Pricing
• Toast Deluxe 4.02 Update Available
• iMac Internal CDrom Recorder:
• Another USB ZIP CDR Report
• Pismo LCD ColorSync Profile
• Slot Loading DVD IDE Drives
• Sources for IDE DVD RAM Drives?
• Linksys 10/100 Switch Report/Tip
• Owner's CPU Upgrade Ratings 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.