Ads side bar section added: I have been pretty much ad free for a very long time with only the Amazon.com ad at the top of this page. Well, I haven't gone ad crazy but my wife sells Tupperware so I thought I would add a link to her website :) If any of you are interested in Tupperware please visit her site. Thanks! I also created a little ad for my CD I sell. I'm not to keen on the ad and may change it shortly?

MacWorld Expo!! So did you all like what you saw? Probably the most note worthy news relating to us will be the release of OS 9.1. Even if Steve didn't talk about it, OS 9.1 will be very big for us. I have heard its a very stable OS on many different Macs. I hope it fixes my floppy drive issues with OS 9.0.x? This may be the last OS we ever get to try?!? It better be a good one :)

Personally I would like the new PowerBook! I fell in love as soon as I saw it :) I'm not to interested in the G4 lineup as my B&W G3 should last me a long time. It will only need a ZIF CPU upgrade when prices drop and that's it. The only other major differences that would concern me are the faster IDE bus and ability to run master/slave drives that the original B&W is know to have trouble with. Faster ethernet, airport card slot, and Altivec don't concern me at this time. The G4's are much better then they were and I hope the 733Mhz versions ship in enough quantity to not make a lot of unhappy shoppers.

OS 9.1 link: Here is a link to OS 9.1 on Apple site. I was unable to get the large one file download because they removed the link for some reason? But the smaller 56k friendly files came down fine. I am running it on my B&W G3 at the moment and its pretty much like OS 9.0.4 except it moves a lot of your folders around to get ready for OSX. It moves the Apple Extras, Utilities, Internet, and maybe a couple of others all into a folder named "Applications (Mac OS 9)" which by the way cannot be changed? This is to make the install OS OSX easier so you know where your old apps reside when the new OSX apps get installed. All of your aliases will still work because the files are only being moved in the same HD partition. Only when you move a file off a HD partition does an alias get broken. I'll have more as I use it.

TIL on OS 9.1 turning off VM on a TAM: Here is a link to an Apple TIL that says the install of OS 9.1 will turn off VM. All you have to do is turn it back on if you need it.

Link to MacFixIt's OS 9.1 help page: Need I say more :) Click here.

OS 9.1 on the 6400: I'll be starting my OS 9.1 info page shortly. Here are a few letters from users of 6400's with G3 upgrades on how well the latest OS is working. Thanks.

[I don't know how to post for all to see that I upgraded to Mac OS 9.1 on my 6400/180 with a NewerTech G3 300mhz card. It works GREAT!!!!!!! No problems at ALL.!!
Mark]

[Has anyone else commented on running 9.1 on a 6400 with a Vimage 240? Mine ran fine on 9.0.2 using the 1.01b driver, but seems much slower on 9.1. I tried the newer drivers on your web site, but it made no difference. My impression is that the computer is much slower with 9.1 and I wonder if the G3 card is not working with 9.1. (I do have the double restart, though, and the extension appears to load.)
John]

[Tom:
Just wanted to drop you a note to advise of my pleasant surprise of using 9.1. Installed it today (upgraded from 9.04) and have not had a system freeze for 7 hours running.

After adding an Evergreen USB/IEEE 1394 PCI combo card to use with my new HP Deskjet 970 and Sony Spressa I-Link CD-RW, I was getting freezes about every 15 -20 minutes. Both are now working flawlessly without any freeze or system crashes.
Thanks for your time and continued support of an excellent site.
Al]

So we have one report on Newers G3 working great and one report that Vimages G3 may not be working? Also note Al's report of getting a freeze (pause?) every 15-20min before the OS 9.1 upgrade. I had this exact same problem that I thought was do to my USB mouse? Maybe it is now fixed? One can only hope :) The conclusion I came to was that the PCI chassis was causing my problem. Al is using a FW/USB combo card which has a PCI bridge chip in it like my chassis. Maybe these bridge chips are causing issues with USB cards? Well it looks like OS 9.1 has fixed it anyway. Please email me your OS 9.1 experience. Specially if you have a G3 upgrade. Thanks

Turn off VM to get UMAX scanner to work under OS 9.0.4: Here is some info I found on MacFixIt about this issue.

[Comments on VersionTracker indicate problems getting VistaScan software to work with UMAX scanners. Dan Schmidt found that turning off virtual memory was a solution, as described on this UMAX support page.]

My UMAX Astra1200s is working just fine with OS 9.0.4 and RamDoubler installed which is similar to VM. Possibly only some version of VistaScan have this problem which may help those that have reported issues with OS 9 to me when it came out?

Good Ram prices!: Here is a link to TransIntl.com which sells Mac ram at very reasonable prices. Last I checked, 64M memory for the 6400 was only $119. Best around right now!

L2 G3 spec comparison page update: I updated all the prices and availability of the L2 G3's left in the market. Only Sonnet sells them now and for the 6400/6500 only 400Mhz and 500Mhz versions (500 only for the 6500). Their slower 300Mhz and 350Mhz cards are for the 4400 and Starmax clones. I suggest if your looking for a L2 G3 that you get one while they last! Pretty soon you'll only find them on Ebay or refurb locations.

Acard IDE-SCSI adaptor: I found another IDE-SCSI adaptor to add to the list of IDE adaptors I have going. I also moved all my IDE adaptor info to their own page. What's interesting about the Acard adaptor is that its not just a card that sits on the end of your IDE drive like Blackfires does. It is a little cage that you put the IDE drive in then the cage/HD fits inside your computer case. It is designed to fit in a 3.5" space but possibly a full height space unlike the IDE slot on the 6400. The Blackfire card was designed for a 5.25" space. If anyone tries this, please send me some info. Thanks

Voodoo3 tests results with different driver versions: Here is a page on Accelerate Your Mac's web site that has some reader test results on the Voodoo3 card and different driver version mixes from the beta9 V3 drivers up to the 1.1.3b V5 drivers. A very interesting reading! It seems that the Voodoo3 really works better with V3 beta drivers and not V5 drivers. All tests with the V5 drivers show decreased performance :(

Apple TIL on improving video capture with a Beige G3 AV system: I found this TIL the other day and although its for a Beige G3, I thought it might help you guys get better capture results :)

I found a couple interesting notes, one of which says 320x240 30fps is not possible with OS 8.1 and audio also being captured? Second they note to move the capture window to the lower right corner as much as possible? Something about better capture down there then in the upper left corner? Strange??? I hope this helps anyone.

Newer Maxpower G3 drivers posted: Since Newer is going out of business I added their drivers to my site for download. You can find a link to them in my side bar if you needed.

VirtualPC help site: VPC Central is a site dedicated to helping users of Connectix's VPC get the most use out of it. Cool!

How to Move System and Desktop to a New Hard Drive and Re-bless: Ralph sent me some good info on how to move your System folder to a new HD and have it work correctly. Yes just copying the folder to the new HD will work but a lot of your aliases and other items associated with the original HD will not change. Ralph just did this not to long ago and has some tips for the reset of us on the process. Thanks Ralph. I made it a text file as it was rather long. Also he is a little more info he sent to help out.

[Rich also added that as a temporary measure, and if you had a SCSI hard drive available, most older Macs can swap out the CD-ROM drive for a SCSI HD and you can use that as your temporary startup drive and when your done just put the CD-ROM back.]

iMovie info from Ralph: Ralph also sent me a lot of misc iMovie info which some of you may find usefull. Thanks Ralph. Again its very large so I made it a text file.

iTunes released from Apple: iTunes is a new MP3 player from Apple that does a whole lot more! It can play and categorize your MP3's, burn them to CD, create MP3's from CD's, download MP3's to your portable MP3 player, play CD's, play internet radio stations, and much more. I have installed it on my 6400, B&W, and PowerBook so far with no troubles.

I have read a few reports from pre iMac owners stating that iTunes quits with an error during launch. Apple states that iTunes is for iMac and newer models only. My 6400 with Vimages G3 is not having any trouble that I know of with it. I did disable the Authoring Support extension as I do not have a CDR/CDRW on that 6400. Maybe that is causing the crashes on pre-iMac systems? At this time only the Macs just announced with CDRW drives can burn CD's with iTunes but Apple hopes to change that soon. Me to :)

iTunes info from MacInTouch: Here is a link to MacInTouch's iTunes info page. On this page I found reference to a hack to get other CDRW drives to work with iTunes.

iTunes info from a 6400 user: Brian sent me some tips on getting iTunes to work. Thanks.

[By the way I was able to get iTunes to work on my 6400 (upgraded as in my previous email). I was initially unsuccessful as the program would hang on launch and require a force quit. One of the forums on this program at MacFixIt detailed problems with iTunes including noting that UMAX scanner software is incompatible with the program. Just unplugging the scanner's USB connector allows the program to launch however. Also the Soundjam extension must be disabled in the Extensions Manager. A work around for this is to place the Soundjam extension in the Soundjam folder (the program can apparently access the extension from there) and all works well. I do not have a CD burner so I have not attempted to hack the program to allow other than Apples burner to work.
Again, thanks for the assistance and for running a GREAT site!
Brian]

Firewire Direct FW/USB combo card doesn't work in a 5500: Armand is having no luck getting this combo card to work in a 5500. Has anyone else tried this card on a 5400/5500/6400/6500/TAM?

[Hi Thomas,
I do not think this information is still hot but may be it is usefull to other readers. Last week I received my Firewire/USB card from Firewiredirect. The specs of this card are great: 2 external USB connectors, 3 external + 1 internal FW connector. Another reason why I bought this card is because it uses the TI chipset for the Firewire side and has also the possibility to power it externally and not over the PCI slot. However, the card is still not working. The card is visible in the system profiler but the latest Apple drivers ( 1.4.1 for USB / 2.5 for FW) do not make it work. Together with the support guys from firewiredirect (great 'direct chat' option !!) we tried some other things without result. I even loaded the PCI-bridge patch Orange Micro has for their card. They are now doing some more investigation about this issue and will come back to me next week. I got worried the moment I saw the big chip from Intel on the board. Such a big chip for such a slow -USB- protocol.. can't be good...

I'll let you know when I know more. Of course I am also interested to know if others got this card working on their 5400/5500/6400/6500/TAM.
Kind regards,
Armand]

[Dear Thomas,
Yesterday I mailed you about the problems I have with the Firewiredirect.com combocard for USB/Firewire. Today I found out that this card is 100% identical to the card from Evergreen, named fireline. On the Internet I found some 'issues' with this card in combination with 5400/5500/6400/6500 Mac's. Combo cards from other vendors seem to have problems too. Is there a problem with the cards or with this generation of Macs? I have read that these machines -may have- problems with bridged PCI cards (2 functions on one PCI card). If so, why is there absolutely nothing to find about this 'issue' in the TIL?
Kind regards,
Armand]

He is correct that our Macs do have trouble with these combo cards. The main problem is power draw through the PCI bus. Our Macs cannot handle the power draw from these cards so they just don't work correctly. OrangeMicro's combo card was the first to have this problem. They also had another problem with the PCI bridge chip on the card to fool the Mac into thinking it has another PCI slot. This is how they get two completely different functions on one card. The 6500 needed a patch as it could not handle the way this bridge chip was implemented. I don't know what Orange did but I have a PCI chassis which uses two bridge chips to get 7 more PCI slots added. I haven't had any issues of the bridge chips not working but the chassis does have its own power so there is no strain on the PCI bus.

Sonnets Tango FW/USB combo card is said to not have the power draw issue but it to needs the PCI bridge patch for the 5500/6500/TAM systems. These 3 systems have firmware issues that rendor PCI bridge chips usless on them without this patch. I'm not sure if this is some specific patch for Sonnets card of if it is the same as Orange Micro's patch?

I had posted a letter from Al above about his install of OS 9.1 and he noted running an Evergreen FW/USB combo card in his 6400. Maybe the bridge chip is the only problem on the 5500? And it would seem we have another combo card that works in the 6400 :)

Click to view The 6400 Zone Archives

The 6400 Zone Forums L2 G3 Upgrades PCI Timing Extension My 6400 TA manual Sonnet Clocking Gaming News ATI Rage128 Voodoo3 Voodoo 4/5 OS 9 info OT 2.6 for older OS's iTools info iMovie info Run Alternate OS's ATI_Radeon

Spec Comparison Page Vimage compatibility user letters install review Vimage drivers, latest Sonnet Tech compatiblity user letters install review hack for stability Sonnet clocking Mac OSX support Crescendo 1.4.2-1.4.5 Newer Tech compatibility user letters Newer MaxpowerG3 drivers Power Logix

6400 Clocking Info 6400 TA manual Alternate OS's Archives: 6400 Zone ATI Rage128 ATI_Radeon Avid Cinema Backup Battery (UPS) Cable/DSL Modems CD/DVD Drives Cooling The 6400 Digital video help Firewire and USB cards FrankenMacs Geo Modem Gaming News Help Links IDE Adaptor cards iMovie info iTools MacOS 7.5.x - 9.0 info Mac Equipment for Sale Magazines Magma PCI Chassis Misc Mac Info Reader Reqests Readers Reviews Software Links TV/Video System USB and Firewire cards Voodoo 2 Voodoo 3 Voodoo 4/5

6400 Icons ColorStyleWriter4000 OS 9 Geomodem Shutdown Newer MaxpowerG3 drivers OT 2.6 and OT 2.6.1 SetVolume to 1 script Sonnet Clocker Sonnet Clocker II SonnetCrescendo 1.4.2-1.4.5 UK Telecom software Vimage drivers, latest Voodoo2 beta drivers

The 6400 Zone- 6400 Zone Forums Apple- Discussion Forums Legacy Hardware Accelerate Your Mac- Mac Forums MacSpeed Zone- 6400 Forums TechSurvivors.com- Help Forums