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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.

Hot Topics


Just Updated 3/24/2000

Crescendo 1.4.2 installer: Thanks to many of my readers I now have the Crescendo 1.4.2 installer for their L2 G3's. Tiong wrote to Sonnet on what was changed with the 1.4.2 driver and here is their reply.

It seems all they changed was the installer? I guess they felt this was not worthy of posting? I don't know exactly what they changed but they did it for a reason so I'm posting it for all of you :)

Audio cable for a Pioneer 32x SCSI CDRom: Bill just purchased a Pioneer SCSI CDRom to replace the stock 6400 CDRom but the 6400's audio adaptor will not work? I remember someone sending me info on how to modify the audio cable to allow it to fit non-standard Apple CDRom's but I cannot find this info anymore? If you have info on how to do this could you please email me. Thanks.

More DVD info: Cyril wrote with some info on the previous DVD info I had posted in mny Just Updated 3/18/2000. Cyril has the Wired 4DVD card and here is the previous info I have on it. Thanks Cyril.

Speaking about DVD/CD Rom drives, I have been getting more requests for info on replacment SCSI CDRom's for the stock 6400 CD drive. I have a page posted with very minimal info as I haven't recieved much info on this topic. If anyone wishes to send me info on their upgrade experiences with internal CDRoms I would appreciate it :)

PCI timing extension may fix L2 G3 audio issues?: I found this on Accelerate Your Mac's web site.

2 readers 6400 upgrade experiences: Both Vu Tien and John sent me their upgrade experiences with their 6400's. They both did what most typical 6400 users want to do so I thought I would post them :) Thanks guys.

Info on the naming of Apples mother boards and computers!: John sent me a link to a site that has posted an artical on the naming scheme (or lack there of?) for Apples line of computers. Its very interesting reading. Thanks John.

Dual video sources with just one monitor?: I found this info on Accelerate Your Mac's web site Voodoo3 forums. It seems you can use a VGA switch box to run 2 video cards to 1 monitor. Very interesting!

The switch box idea does work! I tried it on my B&W G3 with a Voodoo3 and ATI VR RagePRO cards but ghosting is a real problem :( I just got a cheapy $19 VGA switch box with 2 extender cables and then I placed a PC to Mac adaptor then a Mac to PC adaptor together to keep the second monitor active so both would be on all the time. The $19 switch box did not make both monitors active on its own as it supplies no signal to the "B" monitor if "A" is selected so the video card on the "B" switch will be off.

The problem is that I could only find 6 foot cables and my screen is now majorly ghosted. It is horrible! I will try to find either better cables or perhaps the box is causing the problem? Since SoS also mentioned he had ghosting even with a $100 box I will hope just better cables will fix it? I don't see why this couldn't work for those of you that have the 6400's built in video in/out cards and want to add another PCI video card. If you can get this setup to work without ghosting then you can have both your stock video in/out for TV or video recording and also have a better video card for 3D games and such. Let me know if anyone gets this to work and look nice :)


Just Updated 3/18/2000

OSX DP3 on a 6400 update: I was able to get my hands on OSX DP3 to try loading it on my 6400. I wanted to try installing it on a SCSI HD from my PB which is OSX compatible, then move the HD to my 6400 and see what happens. Well I haven't been able to get my PB to install OSX onto a SCSI HD but it is running on my PB G3 :) Click here to read what I had to go through to get it installed! By the way I still think the 6400's Open Firmware will be an issue as it was designed to look for a normal Mac OS System folder to boot from. My PB experiences tell me that the firmware must be altered to run the new UNIX style System folder whether its on an HFS+ or UFS formated HD? I'll keep trying :)

More info on using the Beige G3 56k internal modem on a 6400!: Well the verdict is in and the modem does work! It seems several people are using the Begie G3's modem part number #661-1510 in their 6400's with really no trouble at all. Data and fax both seem to work but voice transmitions don't. That means no MegaPhone or Apple Phone but this is a minor issue for most. Kiwi used to sell them but I think they are out right now? Also I was told that SmallDog Electronics had them? Also it seems you don't even need the software if you only go online. One user told me that they just picked the Apple 56k internal modem from the list of modems for AOL and it connected with no problem? This is probably because AOL allows you to pickthe which port the modem is connected to so it may not rely on the modem software for this at all? I do know the software for it is called Telecom (serial) and is located on the OS 8 or OS 8.1 install CD in the CD Extras folder. Thanks for all the info everyone!

Getting the Geo modem control panel to work under OS 9: Thomas wrote to tell me of a little trick to get the Geo modem control panel to open if you have OS 9 installed. Thanks Thomas.

I had this info posted on my OS 9 info page but didn't know if it worked or not? Well I guess it does :)

New Sonnet user NOT having trouble with Avid Cinema: Bob just purchased a Sonnet G3 upgrade for his 6400 and says Avid is running fine with the G3. Thanks Bob. Also note that he says the Crescendo driver has been reved to 1.4.2. Its not available on their web site yet though :(

Oh, and COMM II ethernet cards have worked with Sonnets L2 G3 so this should not be a problem.

Strange info from Newer on their 300Mhz L2 G3 upgrades?: I was sent this letter from a person that wrote Newer on the status of their 300Mhz L2 G3 upgrade. They got a very interesting reply! Thanks.

I don't understand why Newer says the 300Mhz CPU's are unavailable? I thought all the other G3 upgrade Vendors were still selling 300Mhz cards? Very strange!

Update on Newer Maxpower 2.0.2fc3 driver and Speed Doubler: Brent wrote me last week that he had trouble getting the new MaxPower beta driver to run if SD was installed. He also wrote MacFixIt who email Newer on this subject and got yet another strange reply! What's with Newer these days?

Brent was able to get SD working again on a tip from me by renaming the SD extension by adding some spaces in front of it to make it load before the MaxPower extension. I had this same problem with Vimages drivers and making SD load first worked then also. Saying that certain utilities aren't needed anymore is just a cop out in my mind! If it worked before then obviously they caused a problem with their update. They could at least say they are sorry it doesn't work or maybe even try and fix it but to just belittle the product is ubsurd! Thats just my 2 cents :)

Info on why the Sonnet Clocker won't work on a 4400: J.R. writes that the 4400 version of the Sonnet G3 is designed in a way inwhich the Crescendo extension is not needed to activate the G3. Its only needed to turn on the L2 cache. I knew that there were different designs for the 6400 and 4400 but did not know this was what was different? Thanks J.R. Also note that this is how Newer says their L2 G3 for the 6400/6500 works.

Fixing sound issues with L2 G3's installed: I read a posting on Accelerate Your Mac's web site that suggested turning off VM or reducing the sound rate from 44Khz to 22Khz might solve the problem? If this works for you then please let me know.

Info from a Sonnet 500Mhz L2 G3 owner: Tiong just recieved a 500Mhz G3 for his 6500 and wrote with some nice things to say about it. Thanks Tiong.

I was wondering if anyone could send me the 1.4.2 driver so I can post it for others to use? Thanks.

Reader Request for DVD info: Brent would like to know if anyone has info on DVD's with the 6400/6500? I have little info posted on this topic mostly because not many 6400/6500 owners tried DVD drives but if you could shed some light on this topic I would appreciate it :) Also please copy me any info you send Brent. Thanks.

Reader Request on a printing problem: Alexandra is having a problem printing with a Personal LaserWriter NTR. She keeps getting a not enough memory error? Please email her if you can help. Thanks.


CD containing the 6400 Zone plus past history for sale9/3/1999

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 :)

amazon.com, books and more 7/2/98

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.

Link to my site that gets rid of AOL's ads! 9/16/98

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 :)


Current Problems with my System

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[ Home ]_[ Updates & Upgrades ]_ [ Info & Help ]_[ Magazines ]_[ 6400 Info ]
[ My Reviews ]_[Readers Reviews]_[My OS reviews]_[6400 Clocking Info]
[Reader Reqests]_[Mac Equipment for Sale]_[Geo Modem Info]

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, PM 6100 G3/240 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.

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This page last updated 3/24/2000

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