Speaking of PC notebooks, today a friend came over to use my Firewire CDRW drive to install software on his new Sony SR17 sub-notebook, which came with no CDrom drive. (Thankfully the SR17 has a firewire port that worked with my Sony firewire CDRW. But there are other caveats to the SR17's firewire port compared to the PB models.) I was surprised to see SR17 uses the S3 Savage IX graphics chip (8MB vram, dual display capable, with S3TC). After several hours with it I have some definite pros and cons on this under 3lb. notebook, but not sure that's really of interest to readers.

PowerBook G3/300 Wallstreet2
312MB (256/64) System 8.6
Comments:
" My long awaited upgrade finally arrived also. Instructions were clear consise easy to follow. I had no memory problems what so ever. I don't know if it is something Powerlogix did or just the faster speed, but waking from sleep is fast! I am still using System 8.6. I am very pleased with this upgrade. I am also getting lower temperature readings. Was 32-40*c now is 26-36*c. Have not had a chance to monitor battery life yet.
Gary Ratay "

Other Bluechip owners are encouraged to post an entry in the CPU review database after you've run the upgrade for some time.

" Hi Mike
Love your site - I check it every day.
Just a quick question about PCI busses - I have a Apple 7300/180 with a G4 Newertech card, an Acard ATA66 PCI Controller, a 20Gb IBM Deskstar HD, and a Korg 1212IO card. I am having frequent problems, and I have narrowed it down to the ATA card.

The problem is I think both PCI cards are fighting for control of the bus, and due to the huge amounts of data flowing to and from the Korg card when recording twelve 24bit audio streams, the ATA controller interrupts it and causes the Korg card to intermittantly fail.

I have narrowed it down because everything works fine without either one of the cards. Without the ATA card and the IDE drive, my stock drive records and plays fine, if a little too slowly. Could it be that the ATA drive and controller are TOO fast? No matter how much I record, the IBM drive doesn't even break a sweat. What I really need is a slower drive, or slower transfer to the drive. (Yes, this does sound ironic)

Is it possible to slow down the transfers of the controller? And is there any difference between PCI slots in a 7300, or are they all the same? I have trawled Apple's TIL for answers to this, but as yet haven't found anything.
Any help would be much appreciated.
Regards
Chris Vallejo

(I asked if he had the acard firmware v3.08 in the card and he replied-Mike)

You wouldn't believe it - the 3.08 firmware update fixed the problem! I have updated the flash rom before, but had an earlier version. (the card has a 3.01 sticker on it). I am surprised that the bios has that much to do with how the card controls PCI transfers - I guess it makes sense really. Maybe it had something to do with the 8mb transfer problem.

I would recommend anyone who has either an acard or sonnet PCI ATA/66 card to update the rom, as it seems to cause problems that at first don't appear to be related (like causing a Korg 1212 card to swap audio outputs randomly before crashing). Thanks so much for your insight! "

Currently the Acard.com bios downloads page is at http://www.acard.com/download/bios.htm. The 6260M file is for the ATA/66 card. New cards may ship with the latest firmware update already applied, but it's something to check.

I've added this report to the FAQ's Audio and PCI IDE controller sections for future reference.

(Transintl's comments)
"Hi,
I did little research; i checked the $299 company [512MB generic PC1000-Mike]; nothing but fake;

same goes for $138 deal; [256MB generic] actually it is worse. The lady told me that you can buy a 256 Mb on chance if work that fine; if not than 15% restocking fees; she recommended to buy $286 by some company Atlas precision.......
http://www.icentral.com/html/1stchoicememory/page493.html

This provides three choices...
Basic, Better, best.

I seem to figure out every thing ; but i can never give this option to the customer...
Thanks
Ken
(Transintl.com)"

OWC wrote:

" The [512MB dimm] 32x64 based parts are single bank and not Mac compatible. So, really can't get 512mb for Mac at $351 or 318 or $299... :)
Same applies for the 256mb parts.
Best Regards,
Larry O'Connor
Other World Computing, Inc. "

(Since RAM pricing and chip density/pricing varies over time, for the latest info/pricing on RAM, see the sidebar ad or check OWC's site specials page.)

" Mike,
I pre-ordered the card on Oct 17th, and it arrived today, the 24th. I definitely thought I'd be waiting longer.

I've had a chance to install the card and play around with it a little on my B&W G3/450 with Blueberry (VGA analog, not DVI) 15" Studio Display flat panel. Some quick, first, subjective impressions:

* Installation was straight forward. I removed my stock ATI Rage 128 from the 66mhz PCI slot, popped in the half-length Voodoo4 4500 (no need to plug in a power supply), closed the computer and installed the drivers. I checked out the installed 3dfx MacTools control panel and saw there were updated drivers, so I updated them to 1.10

* One immediate glitch: I could not adjust the tracking on my 15" studio display via the Monitors control panel--the Flat Panel tab of this control panel had vanished. I had to disconnect the monitor's ADB plug from the computer, reboot, then use the controls on the flat panel itself to adjust tracking. This is a minor but annoying issue, as the monitor controls are not as good as the software controls. I hope this can be fixed.

* I tested a variety of games, including Quake III (demo), Unreal Tournament (Demo), Diablo II, Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation, Bugdom (Demo), and Rainbow Six, using Glide if available, or OpenGL. In general, games played smoothly, even at !024x768 resolution. Unreal Tournament achieved average framerates of about 45fps at 640x480 and 35fps at 1024x768...not bad for a "low end" card.

* I turned on 2x FSAA, and the effect was noticeable in Tomb Raider:TLR and looked good. However, turning on FSAA prevented me from running Unreal Tournament in 1024x768 mode. I couldn't really tell if it was running in UT in 640x480, as the flat panel does its own anti-aliasing of images below 1024x768 resolution.

* One weird glitch: Most games have a pinkish-orangish tint. Not sure what's up with that. Adjusting the gamma slider in the control panel seemed to have no effect. I'll have to research this, as it's annoying.

Hopefully I'll be able to do more formal tests for you over the next few days. All in all, this card seems like it's going to be a great value for the more casual gamer (like me). It delivers more than half the performance of the V5 for half the money. However, it does seem like there are a couple of bugs to work out yet.

Best,
Mark Anthony"

Yesterday's news had Mark's Quake3 demo performance test results listed in a table and they're are included in the searchable Video card/Game/Benchmark performance database.

(Here's the reply I received to my inquiry on the Nascar Pro Digital 2 Wheel)

" The Pro Digital 2 wheel has not been released yet. One of it's feature is that it's Mac compatible and there should be MAC drivers included on the installation CD.
Regards,
Frank Morena
Guillemot/Thrustmaster Tech Support North America
Accessories Specialist "

" I just discovered MP3. Call me behind the times. I got SoundJam MP ($40 download) and have been playing with it. I decided to get a portable MP3 player, too. It turns out that most of them are overpriced, especially compared to Sony minidisc units, etc.

But, I found that buy.com has the Rio 500 for only $199 and Rio is offering a $50 mail-in rebate. Hmmm... $150 isn't quite as bad by comparison. MP3 at high-quality settings (192K VBR) allows about 10 songs to fit in the 64MB of RAM that comes with the Rio 500. It's so tiny, it easily fits in any pocket.

It showed up next day and works great. It came with v 1.04 of ROM, so I downloaded the latest (2.12) and flashed it. The only problem so far is that it thinks my files are ripped at 64K, which yields two problems:

1. The song track lengths are way high. This is just a cosmetic flaw.

2. If I try to REW in a song, it screws up, rewinding many seconds earlier than I want. Again, this is based on its funny conception of the song's length and encoding rate. This is a pain if you want to REW to hear a favorite part of a song.

I've written to Rio's tech support and we'll see what their answer is.

Anyhow, as the next generation of MP3 players is coming out, you can get better deals on older models and the Rio 500 is Mac-friendly.

The Rio 500 comes with an evaluation copy of SoundJam MP. After a certain number of days, it reverts to a Lite mode and you need to buy it ($40) to have full features. I'm not sure if this includes Rio downloads, though, since I bought the full version anyhow.
-- Wayne Folta"

CDRW Drives:
• Que Firewire 12x/10x/32x w/B&W G3
  (not bootable, notes audio CD burn issues)
• Que Firewire 12x/10x/32x w/B&W G3
  (notes problems, returning the drive)
  
  Hard Drives:
• IBM IDE 75GXP 30GB in 8600/300 with PCI IDE card (sonnet tempo)
  (noted no audio stuttering)
• IBM IDE 75GXP 30GB in B&W G3 rev 1
  (notes data corruption seen on checksum tests with >75MB files)
• IBM IDE TravelStar 20GB in PB G3 2000 (Firewire)
  (I recently posted a PB Firewire HD upgrade guide)
• OWC Mercury 60GB Firewire HD in 95/9600 Mac
  (having hangs in copies to any drive, scsi or firewire, but was running both orange micro and apple extensions. I suggested running only apple's drivers as noted here earlier this year on the Firewire combo card feedback page)
• Western Digital IDE WD205BRTL 20GB in 8500
  (noted if booted from the IDE drive movies played fine from it, stuttering happened if booting from the SCSI drive and playing movies from the IDE drive)

You can find these full reports by searching the database with the drive/brand/mac models listed above selected (the latest reports are shown first in searches).
If you've added a IDE, SCSI, Firewire or USB hard drive, CDRW, tape drive, etc. make sure you add a report to the database.

• Formac G3/366 (running 450) in B&W G3 (rated 10)
• Other World Computing G3/450 (running 500) in Beige G3/333 (rated 9)
• Other World Computing G3/450 (running 562 w/voltage tweaks) in Beige G3/300 (rated 10)
• Powerlogix BlueChip PB G3/466 Upgrade in Wallstreet2 (rated 10)
• XLR8 CarrierZIF w/G3 400 ZIF in 8600/300 (rated 7)
• XLR8 G3 400 in 7500/100 (rated 10)
  
  
• Apple 604e/200MHz in 7500/100 (rated 4)

You can find these full reports by searching the database selecting the indicated Mac model and upgrade card brand/type. If you've upgraded the CPU on your Mac, please post an entry in the database. Search the database of over 4,700 entries from most every upgradable Mac model *before* you buy. (Searchable by mac model/upgrade brand)

Software Updates:

• Default Folder 3.0.8b
• REALbasic 3.0a11
• Webshocker v2.2b
• DropZip 6.0
• Dropstuff 6.0
• Stuffit Expander 6.0
• Vicomsoft DHCP Server v6.7
• Vicomsoft SurfDoubler v6.7 (demo)

Apple TILs:

• Power Mac G4 Cube: Mold Lines in Enclosure Plastics Are Normal
• DVD Video: Region Manager Discussion
• iMac (Summer 2000): Apple Hardware Test Generates Error ata3/1/5

Rumors/Wild Guesses/Cruel Jokes Dept:
(These links worked on 10/26/2000, but may not in the future)
• G4 PBook?
• Cinemac?
• iMAC2?