The 6400 Zone is created to help you gain access to useful software updates and great shareware programs that add functionality to your system. It is also a one stop road map to other informative sites for answering your questions. Most of the info here is geared towards the 6400, but it is useful for all PCI Performa models and even the 6500 and all-in-one Macs based on the same. It's even useful to other MAC systems. I will be referring to my 6400/200 clocked to 220Mhz as just 6400/220, OK.

I will keep it updated as often as I can but I don't have much free time to work on it, so I suggest you check back at least once a week. That should be sufficient. If you don't see something you would like to see here or have your own software / web site that would benefit the MAC community, please write to me at TMK12v@aol.com and I will check it out.

• Mac equipment for sale
• Current problems with my system

Long delays between posts: Sorry for the lag in updates. My new work schedual has limited my computer time at home. Expect updates to be at least once every 2 weeks until I can get more organized and set in a normal routine again. Thanks for understanding.

New blue/white G3 from Apple: Well have you seen it yet? I feel in love the minute I saw it! It a very attractive case and has lots of power. Visit Apple for all the details. I have been considering replacing both my 6400's with one of these, but before you get upset about my possible drop of the 6400, read on.

I have read all the specs and considered all the possible upgrades and adaptors I would need to get the same usability out of it compared to my 6400 and I think I will wait for awhile. There is just too many things missing on the new G3's to make buying one not worth it for me right now.

Sonnet announced G3 upgrades for the 6400!: Its about time another vendor gets a G3 upgrade for our computers made. Sonnet just announced the below configurations for all 64xx/65xx and others built on the same mother boards. Newer had announced a 4400 version awhile back but didn't expand into the 6400 world. Sonnets pricing is very aggresive compared to Vimages also.

G3/240 512k cache for $399
G3/300 512k cache for $499
G3/300 1M cache for $599

Click here to get a PDF document of the press release from Sonnet. These prices are all lower than Vimages and from rumors of Vimages next release (the G3/320Mhz card) from MacWorld Expo, it will run around $1399! Thats awfully high even for a copper based G3. I've seen 400Mhz G3's for less than that. Vimage my have to reduce their pricing or get cut out of the market.

On the other hand, Vimage is getting a reputation for being more compatible with other devices than the other G3 card vendors. Remember both Sonnet and Newer had problems with their PDS versions and Vimage is one of the only cards that is compatible with all SCSI cards.

Sonnet says they should have their cards out by next month. I will be starting a new page for info on Sonnets cards as I recieve it.

I have asked MacCPU for a card to review when they get them. I will keep you all posted.

320Mhz copper based G3 for the 6400: Vimage told me they should have their cards out by next month too and have released this FAQ about their cards in comparison to others. It is pretty interesting! It will be very interesting to see what happens with prices now that there are 2 companies selling upgrades for the 6400.

Connectix makes Virtual Sony Play Station for the Mac: This is going to be a great year for the Mac. This product, according to Connectix, will allow G3 owners to play most of the games made for the Play Station. They have stated that it will only run reliably on Apples G3 systems and not G3 upgraded systems. It also needs ATI's chip set.

I have been reading on Accelerate Your Mac that many people have been getting it to run on G3 upgraded systems even without an ATI card! It seems that you only need a few of the ATI extensions for the Rage PRO card even if you own just a Rage II. Connectix says that it does not play totally as fast as the Play Station and on slower systems it will drop frames to keep the speed of the game in sync. It s not available yet to the general public as it was only sold at the MacWorld expo. It is said to be ready by next month. I will be getting a copy to review as soon as I can get one. For now visit Accelerate Your Mac for up to date info.

Over Clocked 6400 mother board!: Thorsten may be the first person to have bumped up his MB speed from 40Mhz to 48Mhz successfully! This also increased his CPU from 200Mhz to 216Mhz without changing the CPU resistors on the MB. Click here to visit my 6400 Clocking Info page to read his letter. I have asked for more details on the procedure he used. Thanks Thorsten.

UPDATE: He sent me a reply and here it is. I must mention that I made a mistake on the CPU speed. He actually had to lower the CPU speed to 180Mhz then it got increased to 216Mhz with the bus speed change. If he didn't lower it then it would run at about 240Mhz and lock up.

[>Wow you got your 6400 mother board faster. May I
>ask how you did it and can I post your info. a lot of 6400 users tinker with
>there computer and would love this info. Thanks for the link from your site
>too.


I found the manual to changing the crystal on this japanese Site. The Link also stands on the ClockChipping Homepage.

Just i have take out the original (40MHz) SMD-crystal and replazed it with a 48MHz standard-crystal. I´m looking always to a 50MHz-crystall but it´s so hard to find ist :-/


Now i have found a Dealer, but i must take a minimum of 10 pieces...


I have the CPU clock changed to multiplied 4,5 x Bustakt. In the original coding will the CPU running at 240 MHz, but this will freeze the 6400 in 10 seconds.


Now i have from the Gestalt-Code information a 6400/180 but the most good programms (TechTool Pro, Gauge-Series) can see the realy frequenzes. With a 50MHz crystal will the CPU running with 225MHz (i hope so) and this is wat i want :-)
I hope, the Vimage-G3 Card will run in a overclocked 6400 Board!?
Thorsten]

Another fix for the mysterious OS 8.5.1 Finder slow down: Hal has sent me a post he made to another site with a response on the Finder slowing down with VM turned ON. It seems that having a Desktop Picture may cause the problem. I use a Desktop Picture on both my monitors so I'll have to try removing them and see what happens. Thanks Hal.

[I posted this at the dealmac forum and a responder sent me here.

>This one has me stumped.
>First, PCC powercenter 200hz 604e, 144mb ram, 2mb vram, twin turbo 2mb (v4.06), 2 PCC 15" monitors both set to 1024x768 75hz......
>
>The problem: when I place a picture on the builtin video system's monitor,
>all desktop icons vanish and take a LONG time to came back- one icon at a
>time. If I move a window or use windowshade, the image may take as long as
>2 seconds to rewrite. I switched monitors. No effect. I switched startup monitors. Still no effect.
>
>What will fix it is turning off virtual memory (there is plenty of room for the virual memory file.) This is verified on a seperate startup disk.
>


The difference for me seems to be that only this one instance caused the general slow down. When I removed the picture background, all would be fine right away- I didn't even need to restart.
Hal]

And yet another fix for the Finder slow down: Jordan sends word that using Ram Doubler may be a temporary solution to speed things up. I will be trying this as time permits. Thanks Jordan.

[I was reading about how Virtual Memory has been slowing down computer's with Mac OS 8.5.x. I too noticed that with VM enabled my computer is very sluggish. When I ran Deluxe Pyramid, a shareware game, the sound was distorted and moved very slow. Also I have the Platinum sounds turned on and when I open a window it makes a sound. But with VM on, the sound seems to get interrupted and sounds like its choking. I have a Performa 6400 with the Vpower G3/240 and 136 megs of ram. I ran Macbench 5 with VM on (file mapping) and my scores were 25% slower in the CPU speed test. I like VM because it keeps the ram requirements down. My finder without VM on is at 25-26 megs and with VM on is only 15-16 megs. So what I did is I tried Ram Doubler 8 instead. I turned on the file-mapping option and I ran Macbench 5 again. This time I got only a 5% slowdown. My finder is at 19 megs, which is better than 26 megs and it still feels responsive. So I guess this could be a solution for VM, until Apple fixes it.

Jordan]

Low volume with the TV/Video system and OS 8.5.1: Steve sends word that this is a common problem and that turning off the Finder Sound affects in the Appearance control panel will fix it. Thanks Steve.

[Hi,
D. Lawson's loss of sound using the FM/TV card is a WKP (Well Known Problem). The problem is the Appearance control panel with sounds turned on. The workaround is to turn off Appearance sounds before running FM radio or Apple Video Player. You can turn on Appearance sounds afterwards. There is an applescript around that automates this. Check for it on versiontracker.
Steve]

A readers 6400's CD-ROM drive stops working after OS 8.5 install: I got this letter from Ed who can't get his CD to run anymore after an aborted install of OS 8.5. If any of you has an answer, please email me.

[Subject: Performa 6400 - CD quit working
Author: EVM
Email:
Posted: Tuesday, 1/5/99 12:09 PM CST
Category: Performa 6400 Series
Model: Performa 6400/200
System S/W: System 7.5.5

I tried to upgrade my Performa 6400/200 to Mac OS V8.5 (from V7.5.5) and received the following error: "Problems were encountered reading source file 'Installation Tome'. Installation can't continue..."

I researched this problem from earlier posts and determined that it was hopeless to continue with the OS V8.5 upgrade.

My system was in a semi-installed Mac OS V8.5 where my modem, CD, etc. would not work. I tried to reinstall my original System CD Disk (OS V7.5.3) but could boot from the CD. I luckily had a backup of my OS V7.5.5 System Folder which got me back to a Mac OS V7.5.5 which fixed all my problems but one.

Problem: My CD-ROM drive does not work anymore. The icon does not show up when I insert a CD or I can not boot from this drive. One thing that I noticed is if my computer is off for long-time (e.g. over night) when I restart my system and insert a CD; the icon appears and I can access the contents of the CD but the system hangs after about 30 seconds of CD usage.

This seems weird to me but I'm all out of ideas! I know there is a long history of failed CD-ROM Drives for this machine but it seems (to me)toclosely related to my failed installation of OS V8.5.

All my CD Extensions are running: Apple CD ROM (V5.1.7), ISSO 9660 File Access (V5.1), High Sierra File Access (V5.1), Foreign File Access(V5.1)

I also tried zapping the PRAM. Any suggestions ??Thanks,
Ed]

Laserjet 4MP printer problems on a 6400: Cartoon has had some problems with his laserjet and would like some assistance. If any of you have an answer, please email me.

[I have a Laserjet 4MP which has 10 meg ram. Works fine. I have 2 HD's,
one with OS8.1 and the other with OS8.5.1. Since installing 851 my HP4MP
will not print unless set to forground printing. On the OS8.1 side it
still runs OK.
Now- the puzzling problem that even HP cannot answer! I upgraded my
HP4MP Ram to 22 meg (2x 8meg chips). The printer sees and aknowledges
the 22 meg ram, apple laserwriter utility on the OS8.1 and OS8.5.1 see
the 22 meg ram. However, neither OS will print to the printer whilst the
printers ram is greater than 10meg. The Mac sends the data, printer
ready light flashes and then I get- Communications error. And nothing
prints.
If I take the chips out and leave it at 10 meg ram or 6 meg ram, the
printer and Mac get on happily (excepet in OS 8.5.1 where I have to
print in foreground).
Anyone have a fix? Other than buy a new printer.]

Email address request: Jeff, I have recieved a request from Eric who would like your email address. I have deleted it already, Thanks

[I'm wondering if you have Jeff's email address so I can find out more
about fixing the sound problem on my 6500?

"6400's volume not as loud as it used to be?-"

Thanks,
Eric]

Welcome to the new year! I hope you all enjoyed the holidays. This will mark the beginning of the third year for the 6400 Zone. I hope it will be as good as the last year. For those of you that haven't noticed, I just started using the full year in my updates. Just making sure my web site is Y2K compliant :) My family and I had a great time. My wifes parents visited for New Years and on both Xmas and New Years we video conferenced with my parents. It was real neat to toast the new year over a video connection!

Apple is about to make a lot of announcments to at this worlds MacWorld. I here the new Yosemity line of G3's will be announced which will have trancelucent dark grey cases similar to the iMac. They should start with a 300Mhz or 333Mhz G3 and go up to the 400Mhz G3. They will have USB, FireWire, ADB port, and ATI's new Rave128 graphics chip. SCSI is out and so is the floppy. They will still be in desktop and tower designs. Also I here the iMac will be beafed up with a faster CPU and maybe a larger screen (doubtful) but it will also have mutiple color options! This is real cool if they do it right. Just like picking out the color case for your Motorola pager :) They have had nothing but profit for the past year too which is really great and their market share is increasing.

Slow Finder with OS 8.5.1 and VM ON: I recieved this letter from Trevor who owns a 5400 exhibiting the same problem. I think we have a real problem emerging and Apple needs to be made aware of it! Thanks Trevor

[Thomas,
Hello. I read your 6400 page regularly. I noted with interest your slow-down using OS8.5.1.

Last week I installed a new HD in my 5400/180 (a Maxtor 6.8GB). I then installed System 8.5 and upgraded to 8.5.1. Previously I'd been using OS 8.1. Also, I formatted the drive as HFS+. I too noticed a slowdown drawing windows, contextual menus and other Finder operations. Not too annoying at first but in time it wore on me. Also it seems to me that the slow down gets worse the longer I work on the computer. After a long session a restart seems to make a marginal improvement.

I have 104 MB of real RAM and was running VM enabled set to 105 MB. The System set my cache to 3328k.

Like you, I turned off VM and have noticed a dramatic _increase_ in the "snappiness" of the Finder.

I find this even more annoying. I like the smaller amount of real RAM virtual memory enables. It annoys me that to get the best performance out of my machine my system (under about this computer) is bloated to 25MB! With VM enabled it takes only 15 MB.

Thought you'd like to know.
Trevor Ettenboorough]

I too need VM enabled to make more room for apps to run. I have 136M and set VM to 137M for just that benefit. I really feel the RAM squeeze now! My OS 8.5.1 system will bloat up to 45M when I'm running Photoshop and Corel and copy/paste between the 2. This is just rediculous. Apple must be counting on everyone running VM to keep RAM requirements down. I was usually around 13M to 20M with VM enabled.

Epson Stylus 700 inkjet printer: I got a new printer for christmas! what a nice gift. basically the 700 is the same as the 600 but uses 6 colors instead of 4. These 2 extra colors really make a huge difference in quality. Photographic images are very close to the real thing. I used to get little pixels showing for gradiants on the 600 but they are practically invisible on the 700. Installation was a breeze. I just visited Epsons web site and downloaded the latest drivers for it (I assumed the drivers on the install CD were older than what they had posted since they get updated often somtimes). After removing the old software I just installed the new software and then connected the printer and rebooted. I suggest removing the old software first as Epsons installers have always been touchy installing over old copies. Anyways it was only 3 selections in the Extensions folder to get rid of them and they are right next to each other. The printing dialog box is almost exactly the same as the 600's but with a few refinements like Photo Quality Glossy Paper became Photo Paper and there is no longer a choice for Maximum size and Centered. All there is now is Centered yes/no. Since I now have an entirely new OS and printer, either could have fixed it? Since these 2 printers are almost identical you can check out my Epson 600 review for more info.

BeOS on the 6400? The debate continues: I recieved this letter from Andrew who replyed to my last comment on the BeOS not running on G3 upgraded Macs. Thanks Andrew.

[This is not strictly true. The BeOS will not run on Apple's G3 *motherboards*. There is no reason why it should not run on G3 upgraded older machines as the G3 uses the same instruction sets as the 603e et al. Or rather there may be reasons, but they're different ones - for example, in the Vimage 6400 upgrade case, this may be due to the way in which the card is turned on - if the BeOS (or Linux) cannot be told to use the card, then they'll just use the 603e instead. So it's worth trying for both BeOS and Linux.

I hope someone finds out how to do this!

Yours,
Andrew]

I have to agree the BeOS will run but maybe not with the G3 enabled. For those trying make sure the Vpower extension loads before the BeOS OS switcher extension. Thus way the G3 will be enabled but may get disabled once Be is running. G3 upgraded 604e systems don't have this problem as their CPU is on a daughter card and does not require software to enable it, only the backside cache. For now I will say that it will run but probably unaccelerated with the 603e chip until someone writes a BeOS G3 enabler for it. I could be wrong but until I recieve proof otherwise, I will stop quessing on the outcome. Please email me if you know for sure one way or the other.

OS 8.5.1 freezing due to InputSprockets?: Here's a letter from Rob who's 6400 kept freezing for unknown reasons until he removed the InputSpocket set of extensions. My reply follows. Thanks Rob.

[<<Hi Tom-
My Performa has been freezing while copying and dragging ever since upgrading to 8.5 and then to 8.5.1. I seem to have found the culprit in my case, one of the files included with Apple Game Sprockets 1.5. I haven't had a single freeze since disabling all files from that group. I haven't narrowed it down to which one yet. Maybe one of the sprockets is looking for a piece of hardware that I don't have? I hope this helps you and your readers.

Rob>>

Thanks for the info. I have removed all the sprockets that I don't have devices for so maybe this is why I have better luck. The only sprockets I have are.
DrawSprocket LIB
InputSprocket CH
InputSprocket Keyboard
InputSprocket Mouse
InputSprocketLib
Try these only (remove the CH one cause thats for my game pad. Unless you own a CH controller) and we'll see what happens

Tom]

Sound issue with OS 8.5 and the 6400's TV/Video System: Here is a letter from D. Lawson who is having a low sound issue with his 6400 after upgrading to Os 8.5.

[has anyone else mentioned sound issues after upgrading to 8.5? My specific sound issue only deals with the volume from the Apple TV/Video System, and I noticed it only after upgrading to 8.5, so I'm guessing the two are related. When my sound source is set to CD-TV-Video, the sound gets extremely quiet, even though I've cranked every possible sound level slider. (Alert sounds are still at the correct volume when the Video is the input source, though...strange.) I've tried pulling the CD-ROM and reinstalling it (like your latest update says), but it didn't help. One thing I did notice, though...there is a litte plug (with 4 female connector pins) hanging off the back of the CD-ROM connector inside the 6400. Is that supposed to be attached to anything? There doesn't appear to be any connector for it anywhere that I can see, so I'm just wondering what it's for.

Anyway, thanks for the great site! Let me know if anyone has any solutions.

D. Lawson]

If any of you have this problem please email me. I did mention to him that the little connector he found dangling is for sound out from the CD-ROM drive and that maybe it came loose and was shorting inside possible pulling down the signal on the CD-TV-Video sound input line.

7/24/98 This message is for Martin of Martins Communications: Hey Martin your link is no longer working on your banner ad at the bottom of this page and the email address I have no longer works either. Could you please send me the updated addresses? Thanks.

Vimage is the first to produce a G3 upgrade for the 6400. It will be through the L2 cache slot, not a PCI card. Click here to read more about Vimage's upgrades.

I found a great way to earn some money while getting great deals to you on Macintosh books and software plus they have all kinds of other books, music, and more. Please click on the amazon.com link on the top of this page whenever you feel like purchasing something to help sponsor this site. If you're unsure of what you want and wish to get a list of Mac related items, just type Macintosh in the search field on their home page and you will be presented with many choices to select.

Jeff did some digging in to the new code that displays the frames on my site with AOL ads and found a link that can be used which will not show those annoying ads. Here is the address. http://members.aol.com/_ht_a/TMK12v/home.html
Thanks Jeff, for sending this info. PS don't let AOL find out :)

Here I have listed parts that people would like to sell. Please email them if you are interested. SHIPPING NOT INCLUDED IN PRICES unless specified! Please email me if your parts have been sold so I can remove them from this list or if you would like me to post your parts here. Thanks (NOTE: all Ram listed as fitting or coming from a particular computer will also fit in any other Mac or Clone that uses the same size chip)

Kent - Cityman@aol.com

• $40 - Apple MPEG card for older PDS slotted Performas (NOT a PCI slot like the 6400)

Alec Hall - thehalls@globalserve.net

• $5.00 - 8M FPM 70ns 2k refresh 5v 168-pin DIMM from 6400
• $40 USA or $55 Canadian - Gravis Blackhawk joystick

Gary - clarknag@dnai.com

• $10.00 - 8M FPM 70ns 2k refresh 5v 168-pin DIMM
• $20.00 - 16M FPM 70ns 2k refresh 5v 168-pin DIMM
• $40.00- 256K L2 cache from 6400, will also fit 5400, 6360, PowerBase
• $125.00- 1MB L2 cache from MacGurus, will also fit 5400, 6360, PowerBase
• $85.00- 2.4 GB, 3.5" Quantum Sirocco internal IDE hard drive from 6400

Jim - jnearing@home.com

• $15.00 OBO- 8M FPM 70ns 2k refresh 5v 168-pin DIMM from a 6400
• $25.00 OBO- 16M FPM 70ns 2k refresh 5v 168-pin DIMM from a 6400

John - Jaw4tylo@aol.com or call (408) 738-3398 / 736-8737

• $25.00 - 16M FPM 70ns 2k refresh 5v 168-pin DIMM from a 6400
• $15.00 - 8 M of Ram from Powerbook 520c
• $40.00 ea./3 for $100.00 - AppleDesign Keyboards-NEW (in the original boxes)
• $165.00 - Visioneer Paperport Strobe (color) as new, with v5.1 (CD) Software, Xerox Textbridge and Photodeluxe v1.2. SCSI cable and all books
• $350.00 - Alps MD-1300 Photographic Quality (Dry Sub Ink) New (In unopened Box) 100% Complete PC and MAC. Retails for $550+tax

Paul - CajMacJack@aol.com

• $200 - Avid cinema card with all s/w and manuals
• $200 - Apple 100Mhz 7" PCI Dos card with all s/w & manuals

Ryan Mantle - mantlfam@northcoast.com

• $20 OBO - 33.6 Internal Geo/Express Modem from 6500

I just tried to print a gif file from AOL 3.0 and AOL crashes with a type 10. I have the Epson stylus 600, background printing turned on, OS 8.0, and I was not logged on at the time. If any of you have had this problem and fixed it, please email me the details.

Update 10/31/97: I have been in contact with another person having a similar problem but he was not running OS 8.0. This tells me the problem is more likely AOL's and not Apples.

Update 6/9/98: Thought I forgot about this did ya? Well I just tried it again and even with Epsons newest printer drivers I still got a type 10 error. This definitely leads me to believe that AOL 3.0.x is the problem as my entire system has pretty much been changed since my last update. I have not had a problem printing when online.

Update 1/1/1999: Since I have the newer Epson 700 printer and no longer use the 600 I may never know if ths problem was fixed? I will attempt to test the 700 for this problem and will note it here.

I use a Performa 6400/180 OS 8.5, Performa 6400/220 OS 8.5.1, PowerBook G3/233 OS 8.5.1, and a PowerBook DUO 270c OS 7.5.5. All of the software updates posted here are currently running on one or the other with minimal problems. If I do encounter a problem, I will post it for all to read and respond to. If you are having any problems and would like help just email me and if I can answer it I will, or I will post it here for others to read and respond to.