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.

Site logo contest web page: Judging has began! Go and check out all the submissions I have and email me with the number of the image you wish to have as my next Home Page logo :) Please put the number of the submission in the subject line of your email so I can sort them easier. Thanks. Good luck all!

Apples Service Manuals are back!: Gary found a new link to Apples Service Manuals which include TakeApart instructions for just about every Mac model out there. Click here and go get your manuals :) Thanks Gary.

6400 QTVR: Craig just sent me a QTVR image of a 6400. Visit my 6400 Info page to see and play with it. Thanks Craig! Let me know if you have trouble viewing it. It took my a little while to figure out how to even get Netscape and AOL to display it for me :) I think I got all the bugs worked out?

Sonnet Clocker II app not working anymore?: Timo just wrote to let me know that the Sonnet Clocker II app (the one that can also clock the 6100/7100/8100 Macs) no longer works. I tried running it and it displays a message window that is all garbled and when clicked on OK the program quits? Maybe it was written in with a demo version of Real Basic and has expired? The Sonnet Clocker app continues to work but it won't clock the above mentioned Macs. I will email the author to see if he knows what happend?

Sonnet 400/1M card reveiwed!: Craig sent me a wonderful review of Sonnets new 400/1M L2 G3 card for the 6400/6500. Click here to read all about it. Thanks Craig.

More Aqua desktop makeovers: Craig also sent me a link to a site that has links to another Aqua Kaleidoscope scheme and they also have a link to an Apple Apearance Manager theme. Thanks Craig.

[I just got the latest Aqua Kaleidoscope extension (NOT AquaX) from www.interfacelift.com. Their scheme is much more thorough and more realistic than AquaX, which looks like the scheme you're using to create your artwork for your page. Better download it before Apple tells them to take it down :)]

I tried both and the Aqua Theme is nice for an Appearance theme but it needs to be in millions of colors to look its best. The Apple menu icon looks pretty dithered in thousands of colors. On the other hand the Aqua Kaleidoscope scheme looks great in thousands of colors. Also both of these have the Green and Orange minimize and maximize buttons set correctly. Green was shown to be a maximize button in Steve Jobs speach but the AquaZ scheme used the orange button for that?

My new popup menu doesn't working in older browsers: Russ wrote to let me know that my new popup menu for the Hot Topics list gives him errors when he tries to use it. He is running AOL 3.0. Thanks for the info Russ. If anyone with HTML experience can help me correct this I would appreciate it. I have tried it with AOL 4.0 and Netscape 4.6-4.7 and they all work fine.

[ Just tried your Pop up menu and got this:

Could not find a procedure to handle method "POST" of URL
"/_ht_a/TMK12v/(Empty Reference!)" on members.
For further assistance, contact the server administrator


AOL 3.0 built in browser. Just the pop up menu. The pop up pops up but every selection goes to the error page. The "go" button has selectable text in it, not just a button that clicks.
Good luck
Russ]

Newers Guage Pro 1.0.1 released: When Newer released version 1.0 it had some trouble reading some L2 G3 upgrade cards such as Sonnets. This version has correct the problem. Click here to download it and let me know if you have any trouble with it.

Newer Tech in financial trouble?: There is a lot of speculation going around about a letter that was posted on the web from Newer to their creditors requesting a new payment schedual for their debts. A lot of people are saying this means the end of Newer? It might be and it might not? I'm sure Apple went through all of this many times over their dark period. I for one do not want to count them out yet. They did just announce the new iMac G3 CPU upgrade and are rumored to announce a PB G3 CPU upgrade as well. But times are tough as there are so many G3 upgrade vendors now that it must be very cut-throat for them all! It was brought to my attention that they no longer have the 300/512k L2 G3 listed anymore and the 300/1M card is now $299. I think this puts their 300/1M card on par with Sonnets 300/1M card but Newers runs the Backside cache at 200Mhz instead of 100Mhz and Newers is more compatible with the Voodoo3. I hope they stay around as I would hate for Sonnet to loose their only competition :)

Proof that Sonnet rev'ed their L2 G3 cards: Greg found an ad posted for Sonnets 300/512k L2 G3 cards and noticed that there are 2 ads for almost the same card but one has a rev A at the end of the model number. Thanks Greg.

[Hi. I've been an avid reader of your site, and it's great. I have a 6400/200 power mac. I've learned a lot about it through your site. I was just ordering the Sonnet 300/512k Card From OWC, and noticed that they had two different models of that card. Same card but one is only compatible with certain machines. I asked about it, and it seems that they were having some trouble with the 5400's. Could be possibly related to those start up issues etc. But anyway it is the same card and is Ten Dollars cheaper. $229 from other world computing. (macsales.com)

Hope this info will help anyone who is looking for a card and I will let you no how it works as it should be in today. Keep up the good work.
Greg]

Here is what I just clipped from Sonnets site. It doesn't have a separate model for the 5400 but does have a distinction between the 6400/6500 family and the 4400 family. Maybe this is what they meant to say?

[Two Different Product Categories:

Part #: BG3-250-512, BG3-300-512, BG3-300-1M,
BG3-400-1M*, BG3-500-1M*

(Support the Power Mac 5400, 5500*, 6400, 6500*; Performa 54XX, 6360,
6400, 6410, 6420; 20th Anniversary Macintosh*; Power Computing
PowerBase; and UMAX C500, C600.

*Note: Due to bus speed restrictions, these products run on the Power Mac
5500, 6500; and 20th Anniversary Macintosh only.

Part #: B4G3-250-512, B4G3-300-512, B4G3-300-1M
(Support the Power Mac 4400, 7220; and Motorola StarMax 3000, 4000.)]

I looked over both Sonnets site and OWC's site and they do not seem to match at all? Sonnet has the above distinction between the 6400/6500 and 4400 type Macs and nothing metioned about the 5400 needing a different model. OWC lists one 300/512k model for the 5500/6400/6500/6360/TWA and another model which is $10 more for all Alchemy based Macs including the 4400 and Starmax systems? These clearly don't match! The strange part is that only the 300/512k is listed as having 2 model numbers and not the other speeds of G3? Could only the 300/512k card have had a problem with the 5400? This is very strange and confusing. Anyone with a clue as to what is right please email me. Thanks.

ATI says don't use their Rage128 with a L2 G3!: Michael recieved a reply from ATI that is not very good. according to this letter, ATI is telling us to not bother to try their Rage128 cards as they have a 60% failure rate with any L2 G3 upgrade! This would coincide with the different reports I have been getting over the past year about their video cards. I guess they could not find a fix and decided to just tell us not to use them :( Its too bad as a L2 G3 upgrade and a Rage128 card make for the perfect upgrade to our 6400/6500's.

[Hi,
I emailed you the other day and thanks for your quick response. To let you know I personally talked to a ATI Tech. on a call back on 2/9/200 and he suggested the owners of the 6400 and the 6500 NOT USE THE ATI RAGE ORION 128/16mgs even with the new 4.0.2 drivers on the website and according to him ATI is going to post this on the site. He said that no matter what G3 card you had that the Rage 128 60% of the time wouldn't work on the 6400 and the 6500. He suggested for these models with a G3 card to get the Rage Pro if you can find them. And he told me to send my ATI Rage Orion 128/16mgs back for a refund because it wouldn't ever work like it should no matter what I tried. Thought I'd let you know and its OK with me if you want to post this on your site using just my first name don't want any bad feelings towards me I'm just repeating what the ATI Tech. related to me. Thanks,
Michael]

Here is another letter from Russell who was told by Sonnet that the Rage128 cards don't work with L2 G3's :( Thanks Russell.

[ Tom,
Russsell here. The one you helped with the Sonnet G3/L2 geo modem.
Just after I told you I was getting good results with G3/L2 and Rage Orion some problems have surfaced. I wrote Sonnet tech about some skipping and sound distortion I was experiencing during games during heavy action. It was not the end of the world, but was making playing games like Tomb Raider 3 and Unreal not much fun! Anyway, here is there response. I was surprised at their response! One has to go? Would you give up that quickly and return the Sonnet? (I have had the orion since November, so I doubt I could return it.) What do you think? I bought the sonnet primarily for 3d game enhancement.
Russell

Reply to: RE: Sonnet TechForm
Russell,
Rage Orion has not been tested and is believed to be incompatible with the G3 processor, at this time. One of the products has to go, at least for the time being. If you purchased the Crescendo directly from Sonnet, please let me know, and I will facilitate a refund. If you purchased from a vendor, please contact them for a refund. I apologize for the inconvenience.
Christy
Sonnet Technical Support
support@sonnettech.com]

Here is a letter from the 40% that do get the Rage128 card to work :) Simon sends word that his Vimage 240 L2 G3 works fine with the RageOrion. Thanks Simon. Although from the letters above from ATI and Sonnet I don't think much of us will have the same luck as Simon :(

[My name is Simon and i just want to say that i got my 6400/200 with a Vimage L2/240 to work with a Rage Orion. I have no problem at all with the setup and it works perfect.]

Running Quake3Arena with dual monitors: I found this info on Mike Breedens 3dfx news site. It tells how to configure Q3A to pic the monitor of your choice in a multi monitor setup.

[Subject: Q3 dual monitors
Edit your q3config.cfg file with a text editor.
Set the line

seta r_device "0"

if you want to use primary monitor. Otherwise, try

seta r_device "1"]

Sharing Epson printers over an Apple Talk network: I found this site from a guy who hacked Epsons stylus inkjet drivers to allow for printer sharing over an Apple Talk network! Epson had just released drivers for many of their newer printers and incorporated AT sharing into them. They are version 6.x drivers. They did not update their older drivers for this capability yet though :( So this guy hacked the driver from a 760 AT driver extension and made it work with several older Epson Stylus inkjet printers. I downloaded the Epson 700 and Epson 600 drivers for my printers. Let me tell you that these things work great! I now have my Epson printer shared between all of my Macs and it was free :) Yes thats right. Since he only hacked their driver it would not be right to charge for it since most of the work was done by Epson already. You have to follow a specific installation procedure which he outlines very clearly and then it will just work! remember though that the Mac with the physical connection to the printer must be running with Apple Talk enabled for this to work.

Reader Request page updated: I posted a letter from Andy who is having trouble getting a Sonic Systems COMM II slot ethernet card recognized on his 6400. Click here to read the letter and please email him if you have an answer.

CVGS back in business!: I just read on MacsOnly that Connectix has won their battle with Sony over the making of CVGS. Here is a clip from MacsOnly's site. Hopefully now they can update it :)

[Connectix Wins Appeal of CVGS Injunction just a few days after we bemoaned the lack of news (or updates) in Sony's lawsuit against Connectix over the PlayStation-emulating Connectix Virtual Game Station. Read the 9th Circuit Court's opinion if you can handle the legalese, or just glance through Connectix's press release and the ZD News story.]

More Linux on the 6400 info: Andrew sent me some tips on getting the ATI Rage Orion card to work under LinuxPPC. Just so you know he doesn't have a L2 G3 installed. Thanks Andrew.

[Tom,
I realise that there are a couple of other things I meant to say when I last e-mailed you but forgot:

1.) The ATI Orion works brilliantly under Linux as wells as MacOS on the 6400, but the release 9 of Xpmac and a later kernel (I'm using 2.2.12) are needed to get the full benefit (i.e. that's the ATI accelerated version of X windows). The X server is available at "Blue G3 Linux":

http://www.linuxppc.org/blueg3/

That site also talks about special kernels being needed. This is not true for the 6400, as these are for supporting the newer G3 machines' USB bus and other new stuff. If you just want ATI acceleration, only the X server is needed and a standard (but recent) kernel.

My 6400 just gets nicer and nicer as a Linux box!

(As an aside, the 3rd edition of "Running Linux" by Matt Walsh et al (O'Reilly, 1999) mentions LinuxPPC with a section entitled "LinuxPPC 4.0 and 4.1 Uideo Issues". Its recommendation is to go for a modern kernel and use KDE version 1.1 or higher OR upgrade to release 5.0 (aka LinixPPC 1999) or highrt as the video will be accelerated. I remember that your initial comments on Linux was with a version 4 and you mentioned the slow video. For the stock 6400 video, this has now been cured and the video in LinuxPPC 1999 is acceptable. However, the ATI board has a slowness problem unless you use the accelerated X server I mentioned above.)

2.) Your site mentions possible SCSI problems with MacOS 9 which "Apple is aware of" and a possible fix in 9.0.1. I'm puzzled as I've not seen any problems and I have a Umax 1220S scanner, which is one of those devices that show problems first. I have all the latest Umax drivers, though (VistaScan version 3.5).

All the above and no L2 G3 card or Geoport modem. I notice that Newer is in financial woes and Vimage has gone, which will leave Sonnet as the sole supplier of L2 G3 cards.
Yours,
Andrew]

Click here for more on running Linux on the 6400. Also note he isn't having any issues with his SCSI UMAX scanner and OS 9. Not everyone is having trouble but a majority are. Click here for more on this topic.

Site logo contest: The judging has began. Good luck to all that submitted a logo. They're all winners in my book :)

Popup Menu: Thanks to Jeff I know have a popup menu for my Hot Topics list above. It was very easy to do once I saw his coding. All the other web sites I visited that have these types of menus had some sort of CGI or Java Script control how the menu worked. I knew it had to be easier and Jeffs is by far much better then what they all had. Thanks Jeff!

Web Site Frames: I am starting to experiment with frames on this site. I want to make a frame at the bottom of this page that has all my main page links on it so they are visible from any page on this site. What do you think of that? I have a lot of work to do to update my links as I never set how they should work if used in a frame setting. Some of the links do strange things when I active the frame :) I should be ready to display it by next week.

Become an Apple certified tech: I just came across this link on Apples web site. Seem they are offering to tech anyone now to become an Apple Certified Tech. I think it was an at home based CD-ROM training for about $299. Then you can take a test from Apple to get your certification. Kind a neat :) I might have to try it when I have some spare money?

More 128M DIMM info: Well unless the guy who originally said he had 2-128M DIMMS working I think the answer is going to be NO :( I did a lot of emailing on this topic and here are some of the replies I got.

[Hi Tom!
Thanks a lot for the information that you have posted recently. I checked the Macsolutions web site http://www.macsolutions.com/ and I found a page to order 128Mb DIMM for 6400. It's seems to be the same memory used by some Mac clones. I think you should put a permanent link to this page in your site!
WOW! imagine, now we can boost the memory of our 6400 to 264Mb add a G3
Daniel]

OK, so I emailed MacSolutions and got this answer:

[I see you have 128M Dimms FPM/EDO ram listed for 6400/6500 series Macs. Is this ram 2K refresh? Also what is your return policy if the ram doesn't work?

Thanks, Tom

Yes it is 2k. If the ram goes bad, you call/email us, and we'll give you
an RMA# to send it back. The ram does carry a lifetime warranty.
thanks,
macsolutions.

sales@macsolutions.com
orders@macsolutions.com
customer_service@macsolutions.com
webmaster@macsolutions.com

www.macsolutions.com
1-800-873-3RAM]

Sounds like they are willing to let me try.I will have to ask them for a sample. But then I got this:

[Jon wrote:

128's will work in most machines, but I know several people that have
put 128's in the 64/6500's and they show up as 64mb DIMMS. It just does
not see the rest of the Dimm.

Jon]

And OWC which also lists 128M 2k DIMMS sent me this:

[The 128megs will only show up as 64megs in the 6400 Mac. The largest we recommend is the 64megs. This is the part number we recommend: 064MB (60ns) TechWorks 5v EDO MacDimm w/Lifetime Warranty (TWDIMM5VE064) $139.00
OR
064MB 60ns 2K EDO Mac DIMM w/Lifetime Warranty (TPDIMM5VE064) $115.00

Both have the same performance and specification. The only difference is Techworks handles the warranty on their ram and we handle the warranty on the OWC ram.]

So I will try contacting MacSolutions and see if they will give me a loaner to test. This will answer it once and for all.

Update on hack to make a 28.8 modem run like a 56k modem: DClark tried it and said it didn't pan out as expected. Here is his letter. Thanks.

[I downloaded the Modem software claiming true 56k speeds with a stock 28.8 modem. I could not tell a difference. In fact....it seemed slower a few times. I do, however, use the scripts contained in the shareware..Modem Puppet Show. They work excellent. For the fun of it...I tried setting my modem control panel to use the Apple/GV 56k script (the one from Modem Puppet Show) instead of the 6400 script. I could see a major speed increase. Thought I would let you know...thanks ]

Shortage on Newer L2 G3 cards: Tim sent word that Newer is having a shortage right now with the L2 G3 cards. They did not forcast properly. They should be back up to full stock soon. Thanks, Tim

I also just saw in the latest ClubMac catalog that the 300/512k L2 G3 is not advertised? Newers site still has it showing though so this may be just due to the shortage mentioned.

Newer Online Store: Newer has just announced online sales of their products. So now you can get them straight from the source. I just checked last night and it was not up and running yet :( They also announced a 466Mhz upgrade for revA-revD iMacs. Very cool! I heard thru the grape vine that PB G3 series upgrades are next.

SCSI and IDE both on a PCI card?: I came across this info on Accelerate Your Mac's web site. I think its a Japanese company called Century that is offereing a PCI card with both SCSI and IDE connectors on it specifically targeted towards the Mac! This would be perfect for the 6400 as you not only get another IDE channel but a faster SCSI bus ta boot :) Click here for more info on IDE adaptors for the Mac.

SCSI and IDE PCI card
http://www.century.co.jp/e_products/ideon.html

product page
http://www.century.co.jp/e_prod_main.html

century corporation home page
http://www.century.co.jp/e_index.html

Using G3 Throttle to get the Geo modem working with a L2 G3 upgade: Russell sends word that using this helped get his Geo modem running again with a Sonnet L2 G3 upgrade. Thanks Russell

[Tom,
Thanks for the hack info. I am sorry I didn't see the geo modem stuff on the hack page under sonnet. I must be blind. Anyway, I installed g3 Throttle and when I set the wait to 4 the modem will work. Yeh! I messedaround with different settings but my computer crashed so I will stick with that. Thanks for the fix, it seems to slow everything down enough for the geo to do its thing.

I know I said this in my last email, but here I go .... The G3 L2 and Rage Orion are working great together. I had decent success with just orion, but as you said on your site the g3 makes it fly. I read more about the voodoo combo, so I thought you should here from someone who endorses the G3 and Orion.

Thanks for your help.
Russell]

I have links to G3 throttle on both my Updates & Upgrades page and the Hack the crescendo page.

Tip on speeding up IE 4.5 on the Mac: I got this from Gary who got it from an Apple enployee. I have read this tip somewhere before and thought it worth posting here. Thanks Gary.

[Hi Tom,
Below is a post I made on the Performa Discussion Forum. Maybe some of your 6400 Zone readers could benefit from it, it's a trick that works great to speed up IE 4.5 Browser. By the way this trick came from somone who works at Apple.....

Here is a trick that will speed up your IE 4.5 browser. When you click on a link in IE 4.5 It looks for a Proxy preference, not finding one it returns errors and that slows things down. So here's what you do. launch IE 4.5, open the preferences, scroll down the menu until you see Proxies and click on it. Now we're going to create a Proxy server preference, we are not going to use it, just have it so the browser won't return errors.... check the box that says Web Proxy, click on Settings, in the window that opens, for the address put CYA.com, for the Port use 99, Method Normal, user name I used John Smith, for the Password just make one up, click on OK to close the box, now uncheck the Web Proxy check box, close your Preferences and you now have a 200% speed up of your browser. Now remember this does not speed up the net just your IE 4.5 browser, but it is a *big* help.....

Best Regards, Gary]

Clocking a Powerbase 180: Here is some info I got from a Powerbase 180 user who clocked his system to 200. Thanks.

[I have a power computing powerbase 180 mac clone which I just up to 200 by changing R4 to R3 ( on the daughter card) uping my computer to 200mhz I tried to move it to R2 ( 240 mhz) but It wouldn't take. I'm going to try to change to oscillator to up the speed even more!
soupvw]

Gaming Info --------

Running Unreal Tournament without the need for the CD!: I came across this trick at the 3dfx forums on www.mac3dfx.com. It really does work as this is how I play now :) I actually only used an 800k disk image as the file is only about 400k. Lets see those PC guys do this!

[Re: UT and disk IMAGE
Chris -- Sunday, 23 January 2000, at 1:25 a.m.

Don't forget that you need to do the full install for the 1mb disk image to work.

Re: UT and disk IMAGE
Eric Chan -- Saturday, 22 January 2000, at 6:29 p.m.

Here's a smaller solution.

Using Disk Copy, create a new disk image (about 1 MB) and name the volume "Unreal Tournament"

Mount your blank image and create a folder called "Textures" inside.

Then, insert your real Unreal Tournament CD and open its Textures folder. Copy the file called "Palettes.utx" and copy it to the newly created Textures folder on your image.

Then, whenever you want to play UT, just mount the image, then open the application.

That's it, and it only takes 1 MB !
ec ]

UT 4.0.5b patch for the Mac: I also just found this on the same forum. I tried it and its running fine on my system so far.

[http://www.westlakeinteractive.com/download0014.html

UT 4.0.5b mac patch
Unreal Tournament v4.0.5b Updater is available for download and brings the Mac version up to par with the Windows version. "This update is for the full retail version only. Among the fixes in this update are automatic skin/map downloading, remote server management via the web, some RAVE tweaks, as well as all the fixes from the PC 405b."]

PodRacer 1.0.1 patch: Here is a link to the latest patch for the StarWars PodRacer retail game (not the demo). It fixes a few bugs and has more Voodoo2/3 card support. I thought the latest Voodoo 2/3 drivers from 3dfx did a pretty good job of that? Now I guess we have a patch on both sides of the fence :)

My Vimage Info page on Vimage's G3 upgrade for the 6400

My Vimage Compatibility page

My Vimage User Letters page

My Vimage install reviews

My Sonnet Tech Info page on Sonnet's G3 upgrade for the 6400

Hack to make Sonnets G3's more stable

My Sonnet Compatibility page

My Sonnet User Letters page

My Sonnet install review

My Newer Tech Info page on Newer's G3 upgrade for the 6400

My Newer Compatibility page

My Newer User Letters page

My PowerLogix Info page on PowerLogix's G3 upgrade for the 6400

L2/G3 comparison page

I was wondering if anyone would be interested in purchasing a CD with my entire up-to-date site as well as my 6400 Take Apart manual plus many of the past Just Updates included? I think this would be a great idea for anyone who hasn't been able to keep up or never saw my site until recently. Also for those of you with Sherlock the CD is even better cause you can tell Sherlock to index the CD and then you can do a search on any topic and if I ever talked about it, you'll find it! I have info as far back as mid 1997. I'm asking $15 which includes shipping for US residents (not sure what the price for international shipments would be yet?) and I will even include a few surprises! To make this offer even juicier I can add some download that you've been trying to get but just couldn't for some reason. Lets put my cable modem to work :)

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's an even better link http://members.aol.com/zone6400 I like this one better :)

I use a Performa 6400/180 OS 8.6, Performa 6400/200 OS 8.6, B&W G3/350 OS 8.6, PowerBook G3/233 OS 9, 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.