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11/22/98 - Sunday's News:	Click for Current News Page
Orange Micro 620/PCfx Cards - No L2 Cache??: According to one reader that owned these - the real reason for the dismal performance reported by Rob here in the last few days news is these cards have no L2 cache. Based on my tests of various CPUs (mac and PC), I'd say that's a 30% penalty at least. I hear their 660 card will have L2 cache. Softraid 2.1.5: There is an updater for versions 2.0 and above of Softraid at: http://www.softraid.com/Updates.html. More on Modem disconnects on PB G3's: More feedback on the disconnect problems that have plagued PB owners (see the PowerBook Zone's modem page for more details): " I have been using 8.5 on my PB G3 since I got it, but have experienced the same connection related problems. I am also looking into this. ever since I 'updated' with the new driver/script/firmware flash update from Apple I have been experiencing constant Apple Remote Access disconnects, lousy throughput, 'network errors' in IE4, etc. Before 8.5 I could use PPP as my connection method. now it seems with 8.5 I must use ARA and it is not nearly as stable or reliable.... jc " Ever since day 1 I've seen frequent disconnects (as often as every 20 minutes) on my PB G3 regardless of modem script, phone line used or ISP modem bank. Some readers think it's a modem issue (defective or poor design) and there are rumors of Apple using a different modem model soon (unverified). Note that the iMac (similar modem, if not identical) has also had many reports of the same sorts of problems. For the record - OS 8.5 on my PB G3/250 (with modem updates) has been much worse as far as disconnects than 8.1 was, and that's saying something ;-). OS 8.5 Battery life: In a followup to yesterday's news post several readers wrote that they saw much less drain in *sleep mode* under 8.5 than 8.1. Here's a sample of the replies: " Mike, I also noticed that I get much better battery life DURING SLEEP with OS 8.5. With the system 8.1 that came installed on my G3/250, if I put the powerbook to sleep with two fully charged batteries for more than about 36 hours (e.g. over the weekend), I would find that the powerbook was no longer asleep but was shut down, and most annoying, all PRAM settings were reset, so I would have to go in and reset the time, mouse, AppleTalk, etc. With one battery, or one half-charged battery, I would see this happen with an overnight sleep. I tried deleting Energy Saver settings, etc. but nothing helped. Have you seen this ? You probably never let it sleep that long. I always prefer to sleep the powerbook than to shut down, and this was never a problem with my previous PowerBook, a 170. With the 170, I could sleep it for as long as a week before it shut down, and even then it would never lose PRAM. I thought I had a defective PowerBook, or that it was waking up somehow when closed and running the battery down. However, I could not understand the repeated loss of PRAM settings compared to my old (ancient) PowerBook 170. But then Apple put out a glib Tech Info Article that implied this was normal for the G3. (See http://til.info.apple.com/techinfo.nsf/artnum/n30580). Since installing 8.5 the day it came out (clean install), I have not had this problem a single time. Now, it can sleep all weekend on a single battery, and the battery will still be half to 3/4 charged. I have not noticed whether battery life is better when it is awake. I think there was a bug in 8.1 on this PowerBook that caused the battery to drain too fast while asleep.... Bruce " Note that the PB G3 (wall street) is the first computer I've ever seen with a motherboard (Pram) backup battery that will only keep the novram (stores Pram settings) powered for several hours with the main battery removed. In my opinion, that is a poor design choice, especially for a notebook. More on Speed Doubler 8.1.2: Although Ken Wehr wrote the update resulted in lower disk scores in Macbench in yesterday's news, other readers wrote that they saw a small increase in performance: " However, as a result of the appearance of an inconsistency, I did MacBench 5.0 tests on my PowerMac 7300 using the versions of Speed Doubler Ken tested with MacBench 4.0. I have a PowerLogix G3 275/275/1mb upgrade card in my Mac and have it running at 337mhz. For these tests, I was using MacOS 8.5 with V.M. off and disk cache set at the default. I got the following results: Speed Doubler v8.1.1 disk score: 750 Speed Doubler v8.1.2 disk score: 790 So, (according to my tests) your original statement was correct. MacBench 5.0 disk scores with Speed Doubler 8.1.2 installed were about 5% faster than disk scores with Speed Doubler 8.1.1 installed. " Another reader with a 6500/300 wrote that the scores remained identical on both versions under OS 8.1. Stubborn DVD disk Tip: Those of us with PowerBook DVD kits have seen some disks that would not play normally (Tomorrow Never Dies is one that has been a common problem for everyone I know). Randy Mita sent a tip that helped on that disk and another problem DVD disk: " Hi Mike, I exchanged my refuse-to-play Enter the Dragon DVD, but the same thing happened with the new one. "Apple DVD player cannot authenticate this disk." Now I'm sure it is not the DVD but the player, as we originally suspected. BUT, in desperation did a variation on the get-to-the-menu before the opening sequence trick, and got to the menu just like Tomorrow Never Dies...and it ran fine from there. Just had to bypass the opening movie studio credits. On these DVDs that run into trouble "authenticating," you obviously need to get to the menu *before* letting the opening sequence run. But, the DVD player cannot read the disk until it is in motion. Thus you have to hit the "play" on the DVD controller to start the DVD into motion, but kick it out of this opening sequence *before* the opening movie studio credits run. To do this you hit the "play" button, and then immediately hit the "menu" part of the controller in the upper left hand corner AS SOON as you hear the DVD start spinning. You then bypass that opening sequence, getting the go-to-specific-scene and the other choices. You can then just start the movie from anywhere including the beginning, and it should run flawlessly. Try this with any stubborn DVD that your DVD player refuses "to authenticate." It's worked with the two DVDs that I've had trouble with: Tomorrow Never Dies and Enter the Dragon. Randy Mita " Kensington Mouseworks Performance: Many months ago I posted a series of news items on this issue (including Kensington's comments). Most reported only a few % performance loss (on my PowerBook the productivity benefits outweigh the slight cpu hit in my opinion, due to the time saved on keystrokes, etc. during the day using it). The latest reader comments (not sure what version he used): " For those of you who are using Kensington's MouseWorks software, I have a warning for you: It eats large portions of CPU time ( ~5%-10% as measured by Norton System Info on my 6100/60 +Crescendo G3). I got large (5%-10% as I said above) gains in benchmarks when I disabled the "Kensington Startup" extension, and a quick Quake test showed very perceptible increases in framerate. I have contacted Kensington, and I'll relay any useful information they send me. -Choong " Also note that many extensions will do this - esp. virus checkers (in autoprotect mode) and the biggest drain I understand is QuicKeys. Download SpeedTester to really see what the effects of your extensions are. ResExcellence had an excellent article on extensions and their effects on system performance last month. Andy Olson wrote saying that he preferred the Dvorak keyboard layout and that it allowed much faster typing. He noted a copy of the Dvorak keyboard map is at the Umich Mac archive at: http://www.umich.edu/~archive/mac/util/organization ( He used the Dvorak International layout there - dvoraklayouts.sit.hqx.) For more information, see the Dvorak International web page at: http://www.dvorakint.org More on Mac USB PCI Cards: " Mike, I just found out about a new USB card for the Mac. It is made by Belkin, and is called the USB BusPort. Belkin's page about it is located at http://usb.belkin.com/html/body_f5u005.html. I just got a new MacWarehouse catalog yesterday, where it was advertised for $39.99. On a related note, the SIIG Inc. USB DualPort PCI Card ( http://www.siig.com/prodinfo/usb/USBdual.htm) that I told you about before that Fry's Electronics has for $29.99, uses an Opti host controller chip, so it should be compatible with Apple's USB DDK (http://developer.apple.com/dev/usb/download.htm). It is advertised as Mac Compatible as well. -Brian " If you missed it recently, we have a review of the Entrega USB PCI card written by Chris Martin. The new 3DFX Hardware/Software Message Board has a bizarre post on a solution to a Game Wizard Voodoo 2 card type 12 errors in OS 8.5. It seems like he said my tip worked, but then commented on another printing utility patch (stylescript) type 12 error fix. More posts there on the Mac Magic and other topics as well. Frank's taking a day off and so there will be no update today (maybe tonight) to the Unreal Tips and Tricks page. Yesterday's News Summary Unreal news page updated Carmine's TIL updates and Net News OS 8.5 battery life comments OS 8.5 modem disconnects Speed Doubler 8.1.2 tests (reader submitted) Maxtor drive mixup - 7200/5400 RPM drives Final words from Rob on PCfx PCI-X - new 133MHz/64 Bit in process with major PC mfrs (may be servers only however) More on SCA adapter and drives Reader submitted DVD Ram drive ($499!) how-to article. 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. News and guest reviews that don't require a reply are always welcome. I hope to catch up in the next few weeks. Thanks. Looking for past articles? Check the menu frame topics links (CPU Cards, SCSI, Graphics Cards, Systems) under the logo above or in the menu frame below or check the Recent Features page. Make a Difference: Be the Difference Randy Mita, Brad Lau and I came up with a new slogan and theme for Mac advocacy - "Make a Difference: Be the Difference". We're asking that all Mac owners take advantage of every opportunity to let others know the Mac advantage. It's a grass-roots approach that will surely help. You might save someone from a lifetime of Windows in the bargain.