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MicroCenter Sale B&W G3/300 Configuration Info: Steve Weisel reports on the 20% off B&W G3/300 Microcenter special sale noted in yesterday's news. These are new systems he said (not refurbs), but appear to be the educational model with 4MB RagePro VR card (video capture, input/out) and Avid Cinema bundle. The system also had a ZIP drive but no modem. I had him check the system for the Rev 2 new features - and they were all there (revised IDE chip, dual drive bracket and cable) - except for the Rage128 of course. Still quite a deal for under $1000 (after the 20% limited time discount). Steve noted one system box didn't have the sticker 'Powerful Multimedia and AV Capabilities for Education...' - so I can't say if they all will have the features Steve noted. Officially the sale is only good for tomorrow (Sunday 11/14/99) he said. Tomorrow's sale includes PB G3s, Yikes G4/350s, iMacs and iBooks according to Steve (subject to availability of course). If in doubt call or visit Microcenter for more info (15 stores across the country) as I'm getting this 2nd hand.
Steve also noted a Viking Mac USB 56K modem for under $30. (These sold out he later said.)
= 3:15 PM Update Follows =
HP OS 9 Printer Driver Updates: A reader sent word that that HP has updated printer drivers for OS 9:
"
HEWLETT-PACKARD ANNOUNCES RELEASE OF A DRIVER UPDATER
FOR MAC OS 9 USERS!
HP is pleased to release a driver updater for the printers listed below:
- HP DeskWriter 600, 660, 680, 690 Series.
- HP DeskJet 850, 855, 870 Series.
The updater will make changes that upgrade existing v.9.4.0 & v.9.4.1
drivers to v.9.4.2 & v.9.4.3 respectively. You must currently have installed
driver versions 9.4.0 or 9.4.1 for this updater to function properly.
The updater is only for Mac OS 9, and should not be used if you are
currently running any version of MacOS other than Mac OS 9.
NOTE:
SUCCESSFUL INSTALLATION OF THE UPDATE IS CRITICALLY
DEPENDANT ON CAREFULLY FOLLOWING THE INSTALLATION
INSTRUCTIONS SUPPLIED WITH THE DRIVER UPDATER SOFTWARE.
IF THERE IS ANY QUESTION ABOUT WHICH VERSION OF THE DRIVER
YOU ARE CURRENTLY USING OR IF THE DRIVER HAS BEEN MODIFIED
BY OTHER SOFTWARE ON YOUR SYSTEM, HP HIGHLY RECOMMENDS
DOWNLOADING AND INSTALLING A FRESH COPY OF THE DRIVER
FOR YOUR PRINTER BEFORE RUNNING THE UPDATER SOFTWARE.
CURRENT DRIVERS ARE AVAILABLE FROM THE HP SUPPORT WEBSITE
LISTED BELOW.
To download the updater and/or driver go to the HP Support Website at:
http://www.hp.com/cposupport/
OTHER HP INKJET PRINTER USERS
GOOD NEWS!!
Each of the following printers has been tested with Mac OS 9 and has been
found to be compatible. Each printer was tested using the latest
driver listed below. These drivers can be downloaded from HP's support
website at: http://www.hp.com/cposupport/.
HP DeskWriter, HP DeskWriter C - driver ver. 6.0.4
HP DeskWriter 510c, 540c, 550c, 560c - driver ver. 6.0.4
HP DeskJet 810, 812, 830, 832, 880, 882, 895 - driver ver. 1.1
HP DeskJet 970 - driver ver. 2.0"
= 2:30PM Update Follows =
Important OS 9 Installation Note to G4 Upgraded Macs: [Note: OS 9.1 was later released, which does not use these 4 extensions and will remove them if installed. See the G4 related articles page for an article link titled "Altivec Extensions Tests OS 9.0x/OS 9.1".]
This has not been documented anywhere else that I've seen yet, but I thought it would be important to readers that were planning or have G4 CPU upgrades. Note that OS 9.0 installed on an Apple G4 Mac has 4 extensions that are not installed by the standard OS 9 installer on other systems. Even if you have a G4 CPU upgrade in a B&W or older Mac (I tested to verify this), the following Altivec OS 9 core extensions are not installed by default:
- vBasicOps
- vBigNum
- vectorOps
- vMathLib
To have these extensions installed on non-Apple G4 Macs, try choosing the 'Universal Installation' option in the list shown when you select a customized OS 9 install. (Tome Viewer is also a way to
extract specific files from installers. Point Tome Viewer at Mac OS 9:Software Installers:System Software:Mac OS 9 Additions:Tome)
The other Altivec support on G4 systems is contained in the Adobe folder inside the 'Application Support' folder inside the Extensions folder.
This of course is not present on the OS 9 CD (only on Apple G4 systems). As noted in the news here recently, Powerlogix reported that Adobe will be releasing their Altivec extensions for Photoshop 5.x. XLR8 ships a Photoshop v3/4 Altivec extension with their G4 Upgrades.
400MHz Yikes running at 500MHz? Don't try this at home folks, but a reader is writing an article now on how he used voltage boosting tweaks to run his 400MHz Yikes at 500MHz. I'm shocked that
it's reliable (esp. after Motorola reports 500MHz with the current chip rev resulted in
corruption) and have asked him to run extensive tests. Watch for an article on this next week.
G4 'Enabling' Software - Sonnet Comments: In a followup to the Sonnet PR noted
in Thursday's news Sonnet provides an explaination of their 'enabler' software:
"Because altivec is a separate functional unit in the G4, much like the
floating point unit in the Motorola 68K family, it is necessary to declare its existance to
system software for it to be used. Sonnet Engineering has developed a method that
informs the system of this at a very early stage, so that all system services and
applications can register and take advantage of it.
In particular, Macsbug, a common programmer utility, has support for the
altivec unit if it is declared properly, which we do.
This enabling software makes Altivec available; however, it is up to
applications to use it. ÝThis enabling software does not bring anything to an Apple G4 system
that it does not already have; instead, our goal was to make an upgraded G3 or a
upgraded 9500 type machine behave exactly like an Apple G4 system (which is more complicated
than it sounds!)
Any app that supports the altivec unit on an Apple G4 system will also
support it on system upgraded with a Sonnet G4.
Again, it does everything that the Apple G4 system does; but it does not
provide anything more that the Apple G4 system provides.
Henry Kannapell
Engineering Manager
Sonnet Technologies, Inc
"
I'm still not clear if this means Sonnet's software has the same core support as the
OS 9 extensions noted above, but it's clear that you should not expect non-Altivec apps to show improvements as I mentioned the day of the press release. In fact, in my tests so far in the B&W G3 and 9600/350 with G4 upgrades, even with the OS 9 Altivec extensions CPU/FPU intensive apps that are not Altivec aware like Infini-D 4.01 showed literally no gain with or with the extensions added to OS 9 (I retested twice). G4 owners will have to use Altivec enhanced applications to see the full benefit of the G4 as noted here in the past. Otherwise, MHz for MHz the G4 seems to perform no faster than a same speed G3 in current (non-Altivec enhanced) applications. (see the CPU upgrades page for recent reviews like the MAChCarrier G3/500 and XLR8 G4/400 first look for examples of tests).
DV Capture Notes on ATA/66 Drives in ATA/33 Macs: In general I've had nothing but
good reports and experiences with Maxtor drives in all IDE based Macs but this reader
notes some reports of capture issues with some models of Maxtor drives. I'm also curious
if the presence of the SCSI card/drive have any effect (as most reports I have are from
IDE drive only owners).
"
As previously noted on xlr8yourmac, the current generation of Maxtor 'EIDE'
drives are 'choice' - fast, quiet, inexpensive. Many of the new ones now
come with UltraDMA/66 interfaces. These are supposedly backwards
compatible with UltraDMA/33 and indeed they are 99.9 % of the time.
However the other 0.1% can be a gotcha. Adding a Maxtor DiamondMax Plus
7200 rpm UltraDMA/66 drive (Model 92048U8) to the 'primary' UltraDMA/33
controller of a Rev 2 G3/450 (OS 8.6, Drive Set Up 1.7.3, 9 Gig Ultra2
SCSI) caused major problems with digital video. Every 15 mins or so the
entire system would stall (temporarily freeze) for about 30 secs when
editing or printing video to tape. Stalls occuring when printing to tape
are particularly problematic as this is a streaming operation. EditDV
1.6.1 (a great application BTW) reports dropped frames due to 'late
interrupts'.
This might only be an issue for DV applications due to their high disk
demands. It might not occur in the finder or in other applications. Or,
if it does, it may not be attributed to the Maxtor drive as there are other
potential sources of system stalls such as the Autostart virus, CD roms,
etc). There does not appear to be any file corruption associated with the
stalls.
Some digging around and experimentation reveals that the problem and
solution depends on particular drive model :
6800 series (DiamondMax 5400 rpm) - Has the stall problem.
Stall can be fixed with a (Mac executable) firmware update. The firmware
update is not on Maxtor's website but is available (with a bit of prodding)
from Maxtor technical support.
5120 'Plus' series (DiamondMax Plus 7200 rpm) - Has the stall problem.
No firmware update is available to fix the problem on these drives.
However, a work around is to use the drive as a slave to the CD-ROM on the
'secondary' (ATAPI) controller. This is still fast enough for printing DV
to tape. [Note- this may slow the drive performance overall however, since the CDROM interface is ATA/3 and the primary B&W G3 bus is ATA/33. In general I do not like to have
a fast IDE drive a slave to a slow CDROM.-Mike]
6800 'Plus' series (DiamondMax Plus 7200 rpm) - Does not have the stall
problem.
Brent Robinson
"
Quicktime Movie Capture Tips: A reader responded to my comment on
washed out colors in movies noted in my VR128 report in the late update to yesterday's news:
"[In reply to his comment to view NTSC capture on a NTSC monitor, I asked if the comments applied to NTSC captures saved as Quicktime movies-Mike]
No, this is only for video editing. If you wanted to convert to a quicktime movie, you can change the capture settings in premere (in 4.2, go to recording settings in the movie capture menu when you have the capture window open, then select video settings, then in the dialog select image from the drop down list, then you should see settings for brightness, contrast, hue, lightness, etc. (if your card supports it). Also, media cleaner pro is good at cleaning up qucktime and adjusting color.
Jokton
"
Movie Input Quality & Macrovision: A reader responds to a previous post from
a Rage128 VR owner on input quality:
"
Just caught up on the news from Tuesday and ran across the following:
[previous post]
I got the Xclaim to connect my 9500 / 21" monitor to a DVD player. At first
there were faint, closely spaced horizontal lines that would vary in
intensity; sometimes strongly visible, sometimes barely apparent. I wasn't
sure if they were caused by the card or the DVD player. I suspected that the
purple external Xclaim TV box and / or the powered grey S-Video cord might
be causing interference patterns to show up, as I had the video and the
audio from the player plugged into the purple box and the box was connected
to the computer. After I plugged the DVD player directly into the S-Video-in
port on the Xclaim card itself, every bit of interference was removed.
I think what he hit upon here is good old Macrovision copy protection. The
interference pattern is mad of pulsing/fading intensity lines scrolling
across the field. You'll see them if you go through too many levels of
indirection (ex. if you connected your DVD player through a VCR to the TV
set, it will be worse than directly). [S-Video outputs should not have the AGC circuit
tricks used by schemes like this-Mike]
So I think this isn't as of a result with the XCLAIM hardware per say, but
instead of the hardware level protection they put into all DVD players these
days. There are filters you can buy to clean this if people have setups
that go through devices rather than directly to the display.
-MJ"
Many think Macrovision is only used on VHS tapes, but a reader replied to this post saying it is also used on Cable systems as well as DVD. S-Video
connections are always clearer than composite video since they separate the Y/C
inputs for sharper image clarity. Always use S-Video if your hardware supports it.
Apple Retail Stores? I missed this yesterday, but News.com has an interesting series of articles on Apple
expanding their retail presence; hinting at Apple retail stores and several new store related domain names.
For a blast from the past see what was on the front page news here one year ago.
Friday's News Summary
- My ATI VR 128 Test Comments (Video Capture at 640x480, audio and more)
- More Details on Apple vs Lucent Wireless Networking
- Powerlogix cancels plans for L2 Cache Slot G3 Upgrades
- Reader's IX3D 2.0 Drivers Tip
- Upgrading Tips in Tuesday's news added to
FAQ's General Mac Questions and CPU Upgrades topic.
- Reader comments on Lucent Wireless Networking and Apple Airport
- MicroCenter 20% Off Sale
- Today's List of Popular Upgrade Questions & Answers: (G3 Drive Recommendations, adding drives to a 8600/9600, Voodoo2 SLI mode, fastest 2D video card, FPS tests, V3 2000 vs 3000, older mac upgrades, Apple ZIF swapping)
- Reaper Utility and OS 9
- More VR128 Tips on extensions and audio capture
- More feedback on IX3D 2.0 Drivers
- Reader raves on MacOS Speech Commands
- XLR8 G4 CPU Upgrade in a B&W G3 article link correction
- Other Net News
Thursday's News Summary
- 3D Card Roundup updated for OpenGL 1.1.2 tests (final release)
- iMac DV SE review updated for OpenGL 1.1.2 game tests
- IX3D 2.0 Driver Feedback
- Save HyperCard Petition
- Reaper Dynamic RAM Allocation Utility
- More on the VR128 'Havoc' Codec
- Sherlock 2 No-Banner Patch
- CPU Review Database Exceeds 2,600 Entries
- Game/Video Card Performance Database Exceeds 700 Entries
- Game Reviews Database updated
- Sonnet G4 Software PR
- PC Spoof Poll
- Xappeal streaming QT preview
- AvPnews has update on Aliens vs Predator game for mac
- Other Net News
Wednesday's News Summary
- IX3D 2.0 Driver Feedback
- Update to IXTV/TurboTV drivers
- Rage128 VR Feedback page updated
- Talks with Apple regarding OpenGL 1.1.2 Final Version
- Important note to those that installed OpenGL 1.1.2f6 beta
- More on VR128 640x480 Capture
- VR128 Audio Capture Problems
- Formac OpenGL Beta & #9 Rev IV Cards
- More on Virex/OS Compatibility
- Other Net News
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 G3 Upgrade? Check the CPU Upgrade Owner's Survey results and search for owner reports by Mac model and/or card brand. Readers post new entries daily and the database is updated several times a week.
I urge any owners that have had problems to report this via the Survey Form. Always give the most weight to recent owner reports (dated in the listing) as in many cases problems are later found to be due to settings errors, slow L2 cache, etc.
Note: Before sending tech support related questions please check the Answers to Common Questions, Troubleshooting page, 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.
Please try the Men in Mac Help page as an alternative on requests for tech support to help me be able to spend more time on reviews and getting caught up in mail. Thanks.
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Answers!