Just Updated 4/20/2000 I have relatives visiting this weekend so my updates will be light and I might not get to all of your emails :( I should be back to full operation next week though. Sonnet releases Crescendo 1.4.4 installer: Sonnet just posted their latest G3/G4 drivers for download. Tiong sent me some info he got from the ReadMe file on the changes made since 1.4.2. Thanks Tiong. [ Sonnet stated in the read me file: "New in Version 1.4.3 - Fixes Metronome to display correct temperature for processors faster than 400MHz - Fixes a slowdown that could occur with Crescendo Nubus and Mac OS 9 - Unified installer for Crescendo and Encore upgrades New in Version 1.4.2 - Dynamic identification for G3 and G4 Crescendo and Encore upgrades." I haven't noticed anything new but the name change and that it loads later during startup. One thing I had noticed is that I no longer have to make it the first extension to load when using RD9 with my V3 (the 1.4.2 and older versions will make my 2D crawl if loaded at its default position with RD9). However, this could also be because of the new b12 drivers? But with VM on, the slow 2D is still there, even with the b12 drivers/ROM. Maybe my 6500 has been "Voodooed" as I haven't seen/read any case of slow 2D with V3 and VM on.] I don't know what was changed from 1.4.3 to 1.4.4? I guess I can remove the 1.4.2 installer I had posted :) Sonnet 320/350 L2 G3 upgrade?: Speaking of Sonnet upgrades, did any of you notice this? Sonnet has a 320/350 1M L2 G3 upgrade for roughly $349.95. I hadn't noticed this before. Thanks to Jordan for showing it to me. I have added it to my L2 G3 comparison page also. In a 6400 it runs at 320Mhz with the 1M cache running at 160Mhz in a 6500 it runs at 350Mhz with the 1M cache running at 175Mhz To me it doesn't seem worth it for 6400 owners as its only 20Mhz faster then the 300 model but roughly $100 more! Netscape 6 preview final word: here is a letter from VRic which pretty much sums up my experience with NS6 preview on my B&W G3 and it will not touch my 6400 until its fixed. Thanks. [I tried it on mine (french 8.6, Sonnet G3) without problem, except that it is ugly, very mac-dislike, slow and unstable. ---- VRic] Thanks to Tim for the cooling tips!: Robert read Tims post in my last update on removing all the accumulated dust in the 6400 to cool it down and it worked great for him. Thanks Robert, and thanks to Tim also :) [Hey Tom, Would you be so kind as to thank reader Tim (from Arizona) for me? His tips on how to keep your Performa cool have been invaluable. My 6400 had been running sluggishly for the last few days on and off -- really random like. (The way I could tell is that it took 15 hours to process a SETI@Home data package instead of the usual 10.) I read on your page that his system had been "bogged down" by heat and whatnot. Thinking "why not?" I opened up my computer and sure enough -- there was about a pound of dust in there. So I got the canned air and the vacuum cleaner and went after all of it -- and now it works perfectly! So THANK YOU Tim, and thank you too Tom, for publishing the tips! Once again, your site has come through for me! Robert] Hacked CSW4000 series drivers for OS 9: Sheldon sent me a hacked driver for the CSW4000 series printers from Apple. Please let me know if it works. Thanks Sheldon. [Hi Tom This is a resedited hack of the CSW (ColorStyleWriter) Printer Driver for CSW 4000 Series Printers that will work with Mac OS 9.xx. I got this from a MacFixit post-er Works well and is the only driver I know of that will work with OS 9 besides the HP (Hewlett/Packard) DW 6.0.4 version driver. Feel free to let anyone use this driver that is a CSW4000/OS 9 user Cheers! Sheldon] Later he sent this [This driver will make the ColorStyleWriter 4100 and 4500 models work under OS 9. Apple pulled support for these printers and the OS 9 installer will remove the drivers to these Apple printers. They (Apple), initially said that they would write new drivers for these two model printers ( which are actually HP printers) to make them OS 9 compatible........ but then later stated that there would be NO further support for these two models in which I'm sure many of your readers have and still use today.] Quake 3 tips for using the latest beta12 3dfx drivers: I found this on Accelerate Your Mac's web site. I personally didn't have any trouble with the beta12 drivers and any of my games but if your having trouble with Q3A then try this. [For those, like me, who had problems running Q3 with the new b12 drivers, here is what fixed it for me. Open the q3config.cfg file in a text editor. Make sure the following variables are set to 16 not 32: seta r_colorbits "16" seta r_texturebits "16"] I am assuming this tells Q3 to run in 16bit color instead of 32bit color? You might be able to just make these adjustments from the games setup menus? CD ROM model not working with OS 9.x's CD drivers: John sent me the info on his stock CD ROM from the 6400 which didn't work with OS 9 installed. Thanks John. You can use Apples System profiler to check the modem of your CD ROM before purchasing OS 9 now. But just so you know I hear that the drivers from previous OS's like OS 8.6 work fine under OS 9. [SCSI Bus 0 ID = 3 CD-ROM drive Driver version: 5.3.3 Mac OS partitions: 0 Removable media: Yes Vendor: MATSHITA Revision number: 8.0h Product ID: CD-ROM CR-8008 Serial number: Not available] Funny thing is that I have almost the exact same drive in my 6400 but mine works fine? The only difference that ASP reported is that mine is using Driver Version 1.3.5 and John's is using 5.3.3. Interesting! Infact if I didn't know better I would say that for some reason he still has the Apple CD ROM drivers from OS 7.6.1 installed? Not the Apple CD/DVD ROM drivers from OS 9.x. Anyone else have these drivers listed and having the CD ROM issues? Just Updated 4/14/2000 Voodoo3 Beta12 drivers out!: I just got the word that the latest Voodoo3 drivers are out. Go get them you game freaks! I already got mine :) My experiences with OS 9.0.4 on my 6400: Well I finally did it. I installed OS 9.0 then updated to OS 9.0.4 on my 6400/180. The install went very smooth and everything seems to be working ok. Now I can't test most of the issues that were found with SCSI devices or the Geo modem as I don't have the Geo modem on this 6400 and I don't have a scanner connected but my zip drive and my TEAC CDR seem to work well. The OS feels rather snappy compared to OS 8.6 which was previously installed. I did a clean install if that may have made any difference? OS 9.0.4 fixes OS 9.0 SCSI issues: Paul writes that when he updated to OS 9.0.4 his UMAX scanner worked again. Thanks Paul. [For those of you with scsi ID problems and Umax scanners working with OS 9 and the 6400's......................(scanner driver not recognized)........Good News! OS 9.0.4 fixes the problem. Now if we can just get Apple to update the CSW 4000 series print drivers! Paul] OS 9.0.4 CD/DVD drivers not compatible with all 6400 CD Rom drives: John writes that when he updated to OS 9.0.4 his computer kept crashing. Then he remembered reading that OS 9 had issues with some CD Rom drives that came with 6400's. Now this does not affect every CD drive that came with the 6400 as mine is running fine and no one has mentioned this to me until now. Could anyone with this problem please give me some more info on the type of SCSI drive that came with your 6400? Thanks. [Tom, I upgraded my 6400 from OS 9 to OS 9.0.4. After a few failed attempts during startup, I recalled that OS 9 installs the Apple CD/DVD Driver which is incompatible with the CD ROM Drive on the 6400. The 9.0.4 upgrade reinstalls that incompatible extension. The problem is easily solved by copying a pre-OS 9 Apple CD-ROM extension to the system folder. The MAXpowr G3 L2B extension loads. Even that pesky Astra 1200S scanner works just fine. John] As John mentions, reverting to an older version like the ones from OS 8.6 should work fine. Quake II not running on OS 9.0.4?: Derek writs that since updating to 9.0.4 his Quake II game will not work. He gets 2 CD's images mounted when the game is inserted. Audio and Data? Could this be related to the issue noted above. I asked him to try an older CD extension and see what happens. [First. Your website is great. I rely on it as THE authority of my computer. I really appreciate the obvious time and effort you expend keeping the site current and accurate. second: I installed 9.0.4 and I am having some strange problems. My system is a 200 mhz 6400 with internal zip, 88 mb ram and rage orion video card. Ever since the install quake II freezes when launched. Also when the quake II CD is in the CD Drive, two disk icons appear in finder: one for the audio tracks and one for the HFS quake files. I reinstalled the latest ATI Rage extensions thinking that the problems were due to 9.0.4 overwriting my retail Rage extensions with extensions designed for the the apple OEM rage components. This had no effect. I tried to reinstall Quake directly from the CD but the installer freezes during the install. I beleive my Quake problems are a symptom of a CD Rom driver problem with 9.0.4 and the 6400 drive.] Mixing OS components to get a more stable system!: Paul writes that he extracted the files from the OS 9.0.4 tome with Tome Viewer and then dragged them to his OS 8.6 system folder to make a OS 8.6/9.0.4 hybrid system. This is not something new as I suggested a similar approach when OS 7.6.1 was released. I swapped the System file with OS 7.6 to get rid of the issue that 7.6.1 created till OS 8 came out. Anyway this may or may not cause problems depending on how many files get updated in OS 9.0.4? The more that get updated the better so you don't have to much of a mix of old and new. Thanks Paul. [Just thought I'd drop you a note about the current blend of 8.6 & 9.04 that I have been having some real good luck with. I have not been tempted to move up to 9.XX because 8.6 has been real good to me so far. The only real problems that I have been having were with my cable modem (Roadrunner Time-Warner) My connections have been somewhat difficult and commonly involved trashing TCP/IP preference and restarting the system (6400 sonnet G3 300-1meg, 136 meg ram, COM II Farallon 100/10, ATI 3D). I download the 9.04 update and extracted various parts using Tomeviewer (including the new TCP /IP extensions) and installed all the applicable control panels and extensions into my 8.6 system. My MAC is really stable (except for an occasional finder crash that I may have solved by trashing the finder pref. and rebuilding the desktop) AND I have had NO problems getting on to the Roadrunner system. Cool!] I have OT 2.6 posted for download to fix just these issues with cable/DSL modems. Now OT 2.6.1 is also. OS 9 and Apples TV/Video player: Bill writes that he had issues with Apples TV/Video player that came with his 6500. The Sound source keeps reverting from the CD-TV-Video setting so no audio will play. He was able to get it working if he switched it before launching the video player. Thanks Bill. I guess 9.0.4 did not fix this since he has it installed :( [Tom, I'm running IE5 and OS9.04 in a 6500/250 (no G3 yet) and " that from the solid bar just past the gray link pane till the end of my page became all cramped to the left margin" is still true. The rest looks good though. BTW, you had previously noted that some people were having problems with OS9 and the Apple Video player. Well when I first upgraded to OS 9 and launched the Video player I got TV picture but no sound!. I tried to change the sound in on the control strip to CD-TV-Video, but it would only change to CD. I could not select CD-TV-Video. But If I accessed the control strip before launching the Video player, I could select CD-TV-Video. I launched the Video player next and it work perfectly. Only thing, after a reboot, I need to change the sound-in setting. It will not save. A small inconvience. Also, I downloaded Netscape 6, installed it. I get the initial splash screen, then it locks up. I guess that's why is a beta release. Best regards, Bill] Speaking about the sound system with the 6400 and OS 9.0.4. Did anybody notice how impressive the new Sound Control panel is! I didn't play with it very much so I can't say how well it works but it looks awsome! Apple did a lot of work on this one. It also lets you setup right and left volumes for the speakers and headphones. Nice touch :) Also I hope my home page is fixed so it no longer is cramped to the left. Keeping my fingers crossed again :) Major issues with OS 9.0.4!: Frank writes that after he updated to OS 9.0.4 from OS 9.0 that he now get illegal instruction errors and bus errors? This even happens with extensions off? I suggest he try a clean install of OS 9 and see what happens. I don't think it is a compatibility issue with the Sonnet as it will not be used with the extensions off. Also the Voodoo3 should not be a problem with the extensions off? [I had the good idea to install the update on my wife's Performa 6400/200 running the Sonnet 300/1M overclocked to 320. The machine was rock solid under OS9.0, even with the VooDoo3 and Faralon 10/100 T Ethernet and maxed out RAM. Mark's report is accurate. Installing the update will cause dual illegal instructions and bus errors, EVEN WHEN REBOOTING WITH EXTENSIONS OFF! Tonight I will reboot from a MacOS 9.0 CD, and see what I can track down. I would suggest holding off on this update until the cause is better understood. - Frank] Frank replied that he found a fix for him. He removed any USB and Firewire extension he found and it is now working. Interesting since the installer should not install any USB drivers on the 6400 because the native OS drivers are only for Macs with native USB ports. Not for PCI cards? I updated my USB drivers from 1.3.5 to 1.4.1 as OS 9.0.4 did not install any on my system? In my last Just Update I wrote that a 5500 user had similar issues but disabling the extensions at boot worked for him? This user later wrote that removing the 9.0.4 CD drivers fixed it. I guess there are more problems with OS 9.0.4 then I thought! Apples TA manual links broken again!: Well it looks like Apple moved all their Take Apart manuals again :( None of my links work even the links directly to the files? sigh! If anyone can find them again please let me know. Thanks. Sonnet releases Crescendo 1.4.3: I just noticed on Sonnets web site that they now have the Crescendo 1.4.3 installer posted! If you install it please let me know how it goes. Thanks. Tiong wrote me with some info on the new installer. Thanks Tiong. [BTW, Sonnet Crescendo 1.4.3 is out. Much improved installer with a more polished look as well! Also, it loads much later now as it has been renamed Sonnet Processor Upgrade. And there is no longer an automatic Desktop rebuild on the restart either (I had like that feature). No problems with it so far. Tiong] Christopher wrote to let me know that you should remove the older driver before installing the new one because Sonnet changed the name and it doesn't delete the older driver. Thanks Christopher. [Hello Mike/Tom, I ran the Sonnet 1.4.3 installer and ran into some curious problems. My 6400 with L2G3 300/1M would no longer recognize my Epson printer drivers, and Norton Filesaver gave me an error that I did not have a PowerPC processor. The solution: Remove any previous Sonnet extensions before running the installer. Curiously, the 1.4.3 installer did not remove my old 1.4.1 extension first. The old version, "Sonnet Cresendo", conflicted with the new version, now called "Sonnet Processor Upgrade." The installer did replace Metronome with the new version. No big deal, but I thought it might be of interest. On a side note, I had been running 9.0.4 since day one with this L2G3 card with no problems until now. Christopher] Mark found that he still needed to change the file type to "scri" to make it load first to fix a conflict with SpeedDoubler. It seems that if SD loads first the system will crash. Thanks Mark. [Hi Tom: I have a Crescendo 300/1 M upgrade 6400/200. Since changing the Sonnet Processor Upgrade 1.4.3 extension File Type to scri, I have had no further problems with startup hangs. I am not using the G3/G4 Profiler INIT. I believe that my previous startup hangs were due to Speed Doubler loading before Crescendo. My system has not been this stable since before I installed the upgrade. Every time I boot, I get a warm fuzzy feeling instead that anxious "will it or won't it" feeling.] PCI Timing extension update: I'm still getting letters from 6400/6500 users that adding Apples PCI Timing extension cures many issues these people had. G3 upgraded or not! This sounds like a must install for all of us :) I just installed it on my Vimage G3 upgraded 6400. Lets see how it goes. 6400/6500's Avid Cinema and QT 4.x?: I have recieved in the past some letters from Avid users that were able to get it working with QT 4.x on their 6400's. The info I have posted on my Avid Cinema help page though does not seem to be sufficient enough for me to help others. Could anyone that has Avid working with QT 4.x please write me so we can help others out. I would really appreciate it. Here are 2 example letters I recently got from Avid users unable to get it to work with QT 4. [Well Tom, I really needed a newer version of the Avid extension? The download was just the Application? I currently had tried "°Avid Cinema Extension U3" but this is version 1.1.4 1997 This one doesn't work on my 6400 w/ OS 8.6 ? Do you have an extension newer than this one? Thanks] [Tom Avid 1.1.5 results: ------------------- With the U3 extension, Avid 1.1.5 doesn't hang but can't render any video (only blank screen or color stripes). This happens either with QT 2.5 or QT 3. With QT 4, I haven't tried yet. Premiere LE 5.1 results: ------------------------ Premiere LE 5.1 bundled with the Orange Micro USB/FireWire renders well using QT 3. Again, I have still to try QT 4. FYI: A small clip of 8 seconds, 240x180, is rendered in 1'20" with Crescendo G3 and 6'50" without (5 times slower) Premiere LE 5.1 can capture also from the original Apple TV card bundled with the 6400 VEE. I'll try to see how it handles my SONY mini-DV. Conclusion: most probably, I'll shelve Avid Cinema as there is nothing it can do that Premiere LE can't.] Reply from Vu on using Premiere LE with QT 4: Vu, who wrote the letter above gave me some more info on using Premiere and the Apple video card with QT 4. Seems this works much better for him then the Avid software. Thanks Vu. [Good news. I tried Quick Time 4 and Premiere LE with success. Short summary: Premiere LE managed to capture well from the original Apple TV card. But it relies on an external driver to capture from a DV camcorder. And this driver is not available with QT 3. So this situation is only half good for me since I can't capture DV but only TV. I installed QT 4, that added 2 extensions "QT DV Enabler" and "QT DV Support". With these extensions, Premiere LE captures well, both from the Apple TV card and from the camcorder. DV Images are of stunning size and quality (720x576) but the 6400/G3 is not able to sustain the frame rate, and crawls at 6 fps instead of 25 fps. I reduced the capture size to 340x288 and obtained easily 12.5 fps, which is quich bearable. Maybe I should buy a faster hard disk, or a faster video card than the lousy original video of the 6400. planned try: I'll use QT 3 with the 2 extensions brought by QT 4 to see whether it works. The reason is that QT 4 cuts off the sound of Apple Movie Player 8.0 that came with the Apple TV card, so I still need to use QT 3. More to come... Vu] Netscape 6 preview and the 6400?: I received this letter today from a 6400 user that cannot get NS6 to run at all? I didnot try it on my 6400 but it ran fine on my B&W G3. I really didn't care for it so I won't be trying it again till the final version is out but if anyone has it running on their 6400 could you please email me. Thanks. More on cooling the 6400: Tim wrote me with some possible helpful tips on cooling your 6400 for the summer heat if you live in places like us (Arizona) and can't afford a $300+ airconditioning bill :) Some of these tips seem a little far fetched but they can't hurt to try. Thanks Tim. Just cleaning the dust out of your system as Tim mentions will really help a lot! [Hi Tom, Just thought I would send in some information that I have come across with my own system. You may have already covered some of this stuff already, but I thought it might be worth sending you just in case. First of all, I am running a Performa 6400/180 with a Sonnet L2 G3 accelerator card, and Mac OS 8.6. The last couple of summers I have noticed that my system would bog down and make some high pitched whining noises when the temperatures began increasing. At first I thought it was the fan in my Lacie external hard drive. So I took it apart and lubricated the fan spindle with some Remington gun oil (with Teflon in it). That worked great for the fan, but did not solve original problem. Next, I took out the motherboard from the tower and noticed quite a bit of dust that had accumulated in the unit. After a thorough cleaning of the inside of the tower, I made a pretty neat discovery. Underneath the motherboard is a metal perforated plate that the air is drawn in from outside the tower and used to cool off the motherboard & CPU. This screen was 100% clogged with dust particles. Just by blowing it off, from the inside out, I was able to clear out all the holes (didn't even need compressed air). When I put the unit back together, it not only fixed the whining noise, but cooled the system temp down dramatically. Then I was wondering how I could set up the layout of my system to minimize this dust from clogging the screen so quickly, and prevent me from having to take it apart and clean it too frequently. When someone moves the tower from its original place after a while, they will notice a thick layer of dust underneath it. I think that this heavy accumulation sucks clots of dust into the screen, instead of just particles, which clogs it very quickly and cuts of the air circulation. So I used a kitchen towel to lay under the tower. This has the effect of trapping much of the dust before it gets drawn into the tower. Then all one has to do is periodically shake the towel out. I have also noticed that moving the tower itself to a more open space, as opposed to a closed-in shelf or something, doesn't constrict the air flow to the system as much. Also, I have moved all peripheral devices away from the tower itself, to prevent them from warming the air that the system draws in. Finally, as the temperature warms up in the room (during those hot summer months), it is a problem to keep the system cool if all it is doing is drawing warm (or hot) air into the system. What I did was take a ceramic coffee mug, filled it with ice, and placed it next to side of the tower that the vent screen is closest to. They system then draws this cooler air in from the mug. I know it sounds kind of cheesy, but I think it works very well. Even better, a frozen ice pack would work. The towel absorbs any condensation from the mug too. The reason I think this works is because I use Virtual PC 3.0 with Windows 95 (an outstanding cross-platform application that is perfect for having the best of both computer worlds). On it I sometimes play a game called Bard's Tale. The other night, I noticed that after about an hour, the game would freeze periodically for about 5 seconds, while processing the commands. I determined that it wasn't the application, because when I would switch over to the Macintosh finder, the same thing would happen. Even after minimizing the extension, it would still have the same problem, meaning it was the CPU that was hanging up. If I shut the system down and let it cool for about half and hour then reboot, it would work just fine for another hour. Yet, after I used the cooler air set-up with the ice, I was able to fix the problem. Anyway, I hope this letter hasn't been too long. These are just some personal observations that I have made as a die-hard Mac user. They may or may not work for all, but maybe they will help stimulate some thoughts in other users, for cheap fixes to these problems. They are certainly cheaper than a CPU fan and those not too confident about messing with their motherboard. Let me know what you think. Tim]

L2 G3 Upgrades Apple Service Manuals My 6400 TA manual Sonnet Clocking Gaming News ATI Rage128 Voodoo3 OS 9 info OT 2.6 for old OS's iTools info Run Alternate OS's Spec Comparison Page Vimage compatibility user letters install review Sonnet Tech compatiblity user letters install review hack for stability Sonnet clocking Crescendo 1.4.2 installer Newer Tech compatibility user letters Power Logix Alternate OS's Avid Cinema Cable/DSL Modems CD-ROM's FireWire and USB cards Geo Modem Gaming News iTools MacOS 7.5.x - 9.0 info Magma PCI Chassis Voodoo2 Voodoo3 6400 Icons Crescendo 1.4.2 OT 2.6 and OT 2.6.1 SetVolume to 1 script Sonnet Clocker Sonnet Clocker II UK Telecom software Vimage drivers, latest From Apple- Mac OS Forums Performa 6400 Forums From Accelerate Your Mac- 3DFX Forums