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:

• L2 G3 upgrade info for the 6400 -
• Current problems with my system -
• My 6400 Take Apart manual -
• Alternate OS's on a G3 accelerated 6400-
• ATI Rage 128 compatibility?-
• Voodoo3 compatibility?-
• Gaming on the 6400-

Readers Requests page updated: I just added some new emails from readers needing some assistance. Please respond to any you might have an answer to. Thanks. The latest are labled new.

Possible fix for Sonnet boot crashes?: Kanji snet me some info on a possible fix for Sonnets boot crashing? It is from an extension called ROAM which loads your ROM into RAM like the new iMacs and G3/4's. Let me know if you try it and it works. Thanks Kanji.

[Hi Tom.
Thanks for your hard work. It really helps me. Now about the boot freeze of Sonne Crescendo G3, few people reported they have the solution. They said that since they have installed the soft called ROAM, they never experienced the boot freeze. ROAM is the app which makes rom in ram. You can get it from here.

http://www.stg.com/employees/sbytnar/projects/rom_accelerator.html

I myself wanted to try it. However it says it won't work with OS8.1 so I have to give it up. Duh.
Kanji]

Sonnet and OS 9: Speaking of Sonnet, They just sent out a press release stating all of their current G3 product line is OS 9 compatible. This is great news. No more worrying for Sonnet users :) If you have the current 1.3.7 version of the Crecsendo driver your fine.

6360/64xx/54xx Update maybe still needed?: Adrian wrote to let me know that his 6400 would not boot after adding a UMAX scanner until Apples 6360/64xx/54xx Update was installed. This is an extension that fixed some SCSI issues on our computers and was supposed to be rolled into the latest OS's. UMAX drivers are known to be using outdated SCSI manager protocal and maybe this extension is still needed in some cases? I don't have an issue with my UMAX Astra 1200s using Vistascan 3.1. But if your having trouble then give it a try. It is located on Apples software upgrade sites. Thanks Adrian.

[Hi. Just to let you know that although Apple says the '6360/64xx/54xx Update' is not needed with System 7.6.1 and up, I was not able to get my Performa 6400/180 to startup correctly after I installed my new UMAX scanner. I have Mac OS 8.1 and only after I installed the '6360/64xx/54xx Update' my Performa 6400/180 stopped haging at startup while the scanner (SCSI UMAX Astra 610S) is connected to the machine.]

More 6400 cooling tips. I received some more letters from users with some interesting ideas on how to cool the 6400 down. Thanks for the input. Click here for more on this topic.

[Hey there, love your site man i visit it quite often.. Im a fellow 6400 user. anyway here is a EASY, FREE fix for the fan problem... it will make it stay the same speed at all times and your computer will run much cooler. Inside the powersuply.. follow the wire from the fan to the board (if you dont use the silly conenctor on the back for your monitor) disconnect the wire going to the blue relay and plug the fan in there.. its stedy 12 volts insted of the variable. =) been using it that way for about a year now.. runs cooler and dosnt do that HORRABLY ANNOYING speedup / slowdown crap.. (i was about to loose my mind, i LIVE on my mac). Also remove the little screen safty thing that is over the fan.. (keeps stuff from getting chopped up ect) that will make it even harder to hear...

Recently got the 300/512k sonnet G3 card.. having alot of random lockups...Carl]

This trick sounds interesting and is rather easy to do. There are 2 plugs right next to each other inside the power supply. one is for the fan and the other switches on the external power for the monitor power plug. Like he says, if your not using this extra plug then just remove the one for the relay and move over the fans plug. BUT maybe his system is crashing due to this with Sonnets card installed? If your still having problems Carl please write me back.

[Hi Tom!
Happy Birthday to your son!
By the way, I was telling you about the Twin Turbo fan that fits in a 5.25" bay; well, I managed to get one in my 6500. However, it doesn't really fit well and I wouldn't recommend this to anyone unless they have some experience working on things. First of all, this fan (it is a two fan thingie) fits in a PC via screws on the side of a PC's case. Our 5.25" slot doesn't provide anyway of screwing this fan in (or maybe it does but I'm too lazy to take my case apart). However, it will fit a little loose in the slot. In fact, all I did was slide the thing in. I did, however, stuffed some foam (like the packing material that comes in Sonnet's box for their L2 G3 upgrade) around the sides of the fan to prevent the fan from sucking air in from outside of the case (that would defeat the purpose of the fan). This also helps the fan fit better in the slot. Once in, it ran nicely and did help cool things down further. Below are some tests I did using Metronome as a temperature indicator.

Under normal use (surfing web, word processing, etc.)
Temp = 47 degree C with just the 6500's fan.
Temp = 43 degree C with 6500's fan + a PCI slot fan.
Temp = 39 degree C with 6500's fan + PCI slot fan + Twin Turbo

Extreme use (3 hours of UNREAL with V2)
Temp = 51 degree C with 6500's fan
Temp = 47 degree C with 6500's fan + PCI slot fan
Temp = 43 degree C with 6500's fan + PCI slot fan + Twin Turbo

Sorry I didn't test the Twin Turbo without the slot fan (didn't have time). Anyway, my conclusion is below:

The good : It works! And the fan is pretty quiet, especially considering it is a two fan design. Plus, the fan helps pull out heat from the top of the case, which is good for 6500/6400 owners with Sonnet L2 G3 upgrades since the Sonnet's heatsink is way up there in our Macs.

The bad : It doesn't fit perfectly. Also, if you already have a ZIP drive or other equipment in your 5.25" bay, you can't use it.

The ugly : It makes your 6500/6400 looks ugly. But to be honest, I actually LIKE the look that it gives my 6500 now! With bare metal showing, foam sticking out, and a grate to direct airflow out of the Twin Turbo, my 6500 looks really mean!

Some info :
PCI slot fan from www.3dfxcool.com at $13.00 + shipping & handling (it is called a slot cooler or a slotHO-fan)

Twin Turbo fan from www.3dcool.com at $25.00 + shipping & handling
That's all. : )
Regards,
Tiong]

This one is also interesting but I would only recommend it to the hobbiest who likes to tinker around. You might get a prettier fit if you cut out the original top bezel and add some screen or a wire mesh?

Clocking Sonnets G3?: Bill sends some interesting info on a possible way to clock a G3 chip. In his letter he has a link to a site which has a software driver that fools Sonnets driver for their PDS slot G3 upgrade to make it run at a faster speed. If its possible to do this for L2 G3's I would love to have one myself :) Thanks Bill

[I didn't see it mentioned on your site, here is an awsome hack to overclock sonnet g3 cards. @ http://web.ukonline.co.uk/sixkiller/sonnet.html

If someone could produce a set of ext. or a variable control panel to do this they could make quite a shareware product.
Bill]

My 6400 Take Apart manual has been updated: I just added instructions for the power supply, L2/G3 cards and more on the PRAM battery. I also posted on the first page a picture of our "Power User" setup with our 6400/G3 system. Click here to go check it out.

I'm Back!: Thanks for being so patient during the long delay in updates but I was visiting with family for my sons 3rd birthday. He got a lot of nice gifts, mostly Hotwheels cars which are his favorite :) We also did some shopping of our own. I purchased the AGFA ePhoto 780c digital camera last week and for the price its a good deal.

I have a lot of info to post from my readers so if you don't see your info and I said I would post it, it is going to make it soon. Trust me :)

AGFA ePhoto 780c digital camera: The price was $199 and here are the features

• resolutions 1024x768 with software interpolation, 640x480, 320x240
• 4M smartmedia card. although it advertised a 2M card was supposed to be included?
• 1.8" LCD screen and an optical viewfinder
• flash
• Mac compatible with Mac/PC serial cable
• video out cable

It has all the features of more expensive camers but no zoom :( The quality of the camera case is good. It doesn't seem like a cheap camera at all. The picture quality is more what I would expect from a $199 camera though but its software sizing up to 1024x768 does work nice. It works just like low end scanners by adding extra pixles to increase the resolution of the image more then the optics can do. The quality of the 1024x768 image to me doesn't look much better then at 640x480 on the screen but it does look better when printed. The main problem is it over compensates in dark areas and they get washed out and grainy. Day shots look good but night shots even with the flash get very grainy in the dark areas. I found turning the brightness down or upping the contrast a bit helps using the provided software. Click here to see a 640x480 photo of our house I took with the camera. For some reason Netscape Communicator 4.6 added some purple banding in the sky which was not present in PhotoShop? Netscape must not be able to rendor JPEG's as well as PhotoShop? So just keep in mind that those purple bandings are not there when viewed offline or printed.

The AGFA Photowise software installation went very smooth but it installs a bunch of MS libraries :( I don't care for so many of these but I tried removing them and it just keeps complaining so it needs almost all but the 3 OLE libraries. It has many features for working with the images like brighness and contrast, rotating, and image sizing. You can even control te camera from the Mac for changing settings or even taking a picture. It lets you create photo albums for storing your images or you can save them as JPEGs and use them in other apps. All in all, for $199 it was worth the Its money to me.

One last comment. I tried to buy a 32M smart media card but the camera could not use it. Or a 16M card for that matter. 8M cards worked fine. I emailed AGFA tech support and they comfirmed that an 8M card is the largest this camera can use.

OS 9 on the 6400?: I have heard that Apple will not be supporting the Geo modem in OS 9. This is unclear as to whether it will work or not? They won't test it at all so its up to us. Actually Apple dropped support since OS 8.5 as only OS 8.1 an older were tested by Apple and came bundled on those install CD's. Its possible that the standard modem functions will continue to work as with previous OS's but not the faxing or voice call features? Some people have much trouble with these features in the current OS so I wouldn't expect it to get better. If anyone has tried OS 9 with their Geo modem then please email me.

OS 9 with Vimages L2 G3's?: I have some good news for Vimage users. Donato tried a final version of OS 9 on his 6400 and the Vimage card ran fine. He did hhave trouble though when switching back to OS 8.6 so read his info below.

[Dear Tom,
A friend of mine let me try his copy of the final version of MacOS 9. I had an empty partition on my hard drive, and I installed the base system 9 on it. I added then the Vpower extension to abilitate the Vpower G3 320MhZ/1Mb cache I have in my performa 6400, and then I rebooted.

Everything was OK!
The Vimage card for the 6400 seems to work without problems with the new MacOS 9!
I thought both of you could be interested in this finding.

I found only a little problem, that I want both of you to be aware of.When I rebooted my mac from my main partition, the one that has on it MacOS 8.6+extra extensions (the one I use for everyday work), extensions started to load, the mac "rebooted" regularly once the Vpower extension was reached, but then, during the second boot, the Vpower extension appeared with a red cross over it.
Once the booting was over, I realized that the G3 card was ON, but that the 1 Mb cache was OFF. In other word, neither VPower info, nor Metronome or SpeedMeter were able to see the L2 cache on the G3 card, while the processor was always recognized as a 750 PPC (a G3).
I used then the control strip module "G3Strip(E)" to set the cache to 1024Kb and the cache ratio to 1:2; as soon as I do it, the mac "freezes" for a couple of seconds, and then it returns back at work. Now if I open Vpower Info or any other similar utility, the L2 cache IS recognized, as 1024 kb and at a speed of 160 MhZ.
This happens, from now on, everytime I boot (and not only if I switch booting between the "test" partition with MacOS 9 and the "working" partition with the complete MacOS 8). For whatever reason, in 8.6, the cache card seems to be disabled, and needs to be enabled "manually".
Booting in MacOS 9 doesn't show the same problem: the extension Vpower is not crossed out, and the L2 cache is recognized. Why this happens, I don't know. I will have to "manually" turn on the L2 cache for just a couple of weeks, the time necessary for me to BUY the MacOS 9 as soon as it ships (I will go ahead and purchase a copy of it now I know it works with my configuration), but I thought you, and expecially people at Vimage, would be interested in knowing about this issue.

Donato]

He later wrote me stating he had to remove all the old Vpower items and reinstall and now it works fine in both OS's. I guess someow his Vpower control panel got corrupted? This is good news though since Vimage may not provide tech support for new OS's from Apple anymore! Thanks Donato. After this he locked the control panel and the extension so they could not get corrupted again. This is done by doing a Get Info on the control panel or extension and then selecting LOCK at the bottom of the window. I just did this so I'm ready for OS 9 now :)

I have some link to MacFixIt's forums and Apples forums on other 6400 users that are either having success or not with OS 9 and Vimages G3. Some say the 240Mhz card works and the 320Mhz doesn't but Donato's is a 320Mhz card so maybe a fresh install of the Vpower drivers is whats needed?

OS 9 and Sonnets L2 G3's?: I received a letter from a 6400 user that tried a beta version of OS 9 with Sonnets G3 and it worked! The news just gets better and better. Thanks

[I'm Runnig on the new sonnet 300/512k works great. I'm running OS 9 and even though this isnt the final version its the best my mac has ever run. By far the most stable version of MacOS EVER!! =)]

Still no word on Newers or Power Logix's but if Vimages and Sonnets work then the others may also. Please email me any info you may have on this issue! Thanks

Sonnet drops prices on L2 G3's: On Monday Sonnet dropped its price of their 300/1M and 400/1M L2 G3 cards. The 300Mhz card dropped to $349.95 and the 400Mhz card dropped to $499.95. By the way did anyone notice that Sonnet now advertises 2 lines of L2 G3's? One for our 6400/6500's and one for the 4400/starmax's? I remember when they first came out that Sonnet made a change so THEIR same card would work on both with no trouble. I wonder if they had trouble and decided to make 2 product lines again? Anyone have more on this?

Newer no longer to sell 400Mhz L2 G3's?: Here is another thing that was brough to my attention. Newer does not list their 400Mhz L2 G3 any more. I can't find it on their web site or in catalogs? Did they stop making this one? Again any info on this is appreciated.

Newer's L2 G3's and the Geo modem: I got this from Fumiaki who's Geo modem is not recognized after he installed Newers L2 G3. Here is a reply he got from Newer. Thanks Fumiaki.

[We are currently looking into this issue and and sson as we find a resolution we will let you know. Please contact us each week until then so we dont miss you, thanks.]

I guess Newer is having the same issues as Sonnet did? Maybe the Geo modem really isn't G3 compatible? Why sell an upgrade that isn't compatible with the end system it was intended for? Some warning on their part would be nice! These companies could at least make it more clear that there may be a problem with your modem if you use these!

ATI Rage128 VR status: I just got this from ATI and it sounds promising!

[Tom:
Thank you for your inquiry and interest in ATI products. We do apologize for the delay in responding to you.
The XCLAIM VR 128 has started to ship, however it will take several days for products to be shipped to distributors and on to resellers and then to final customers once available.

Should you have any further questions, Please feel free to contact us.
Bob Thawer
ATI Sales Support]

Farallon pulls Ethernet driver: I saw this on MacFixIt and it now seems Farallon has found a bug and is working on a fix for there 10/100 ethernet driver. I'm glad but it sure took them awhile! Click here for more on this issue

[Farallon pulls 10/100 Ethernet driver 2.0; 2.1 update expected soon

. Farallon's recently released version 2.0 driver update for their Farallon 10/100 Ethernet PC Card has been pulled. Ronald Guest received the following message from Farallon:

"Yes 2.0 was pulled due to a problem that showed up. We are expecting to release 2.1 within the next week or so. At this time I would recommend using the original 1.3 until the new update is released.
When we checked, we found that their web site does currently list 1.3, but you can still get the 2.0 version on their ftp site (should you want to do so).]

DVD setup that does work in the 6400!: Cyril wrote to let me know that he tried a DVD SCSI drive with Wired's 4DVD card and it is working great. Thanks Cyril. Click here to read his info.

Request: Yann, who owns a 6400 with Sonnets G3 and has a Voodoo3 card, could you please email me. Thanks

Mac equipment for sale: I have updated my list again so go check it out.

Readers Requests: I have gotten several requests which I haven't had time to post yet. They should be posted on my next update. Sorry for the delay :(

The 6400 Zone's new Home Address: Well I haven't actually moved my web site but I did make a new home address thanks to all the replys I recieved on how to make a redirect page. My new home address is:

Its not much different from the previous home address but it is much nicer on older Macs with slower connections. AOL has been placing ads at the top of my home page for some time now and I have always hated it! One of my readers found away around it so the ads would not appear but typing the long address (or even remembering it) was a tough job. Now thanks to you out their who helped me, I have made a page with a similar and easy to remember address that when called on just redirects you to my real home page but with out the AOL ads :) This only takes but a few seconds longer on the first link but now visiting all of my other pages will be much more enjoyable without having to wait for those ads to appear. And as a benefit, I can have my sites name in the address :)

Don't worry though if you forget this address, the old address works just fine but with the ads showing :(

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 :)

I have been having a pause in all apps and the mouse when using Logitecs USB Wheel mouse on an ADS USB card. I haven't traced it down but one other person had a similar issue but with an ADB trackball which means it may not be a USB issue? Click here for more info.

When I first installed the cable modem I got some crashes when I shut down. I traced it to Farallons COMM II ethernet extension version 2.0. With version 1.1 the 6400 shuts down fine. I emailed Farallon and am waiting for a reply.

UPDATE on Farallons 2.0 extension for their 10/100 COMM II ethernet card not compatible with OS 8.6: Paul emailed saying he had the same problem but it may not have been the Farallon extension causing the problem. All I know is that when I reinstall the older 1.1 version the problem goes away. Thanks Paul.

[I had this same problem when I first installed 8.6. I e-mailed Farallon and got a response that said they had not seen this problem before. I managed to resolve the freezes and it was not due to the Farallon 2.0 extension. I think it was BeHierarchic (3.1.1) that was the offending control panel but I honestly can not remember what I had to do to fix it. I have been racking my brain all day trying to remember the fix. If I do remember I'll post ASAP
Paul]

8/20/1999 Farallons Comm II slot driver may work with OS 8.6 after all?: I just received this from Sheldon who said he found that removing ATI's extensions kept the crash at shutdown from happening with Farallons 2.0 driver. I'll have to try for my self. Thanks.

[Hello!
I was just reading through your site when I noticed that there was confirmation with the Comm slot 2 vers 2.0 driver and 8.6 problem a reader reported.

Well, I've got the Farallon Comm slot 2 card-8.6 and I noticed something that might be very helpful.

I just installed the Voodoo3 card and I trashed every single ATI extension. Cable modem no longer hangs at reboot, restart,3 -finger start. I can shut-down, restart without any problems.

6500/250
I purchased an Orion card that is still sitting on the shelf =(. Voodoo3 runs the same as a Voodoo2 for 3d in my system, same FPS with either card. The advantage is the 2d with the V3 card. Very nice indeed =).

No QT accel though.

The fix is complete for the ATI Orion card and the 603e CPU and should be posted soon according to Chris Bentley- ATI, Mike Breeden-xlr8. IMO. the Rage 128 and a Voodoo2 would be the perfect set-up for the 54-64-6500 systems. Although it will be a tough decision to pull out the Voodoo3 board =).We'll see how the Orion performs when the fix is posted. I will also keep an eye on the ATI vers 4.0 extensions to see if they are compatible with the Comm slot 2 card.
Thank-you for your time
Sheldon]

I hope his comments on the ATI rage128 drivers are true? many 6400/6500 users will be happy with that.

I use a Performa 6400/180 OS 8.6, Performa 6400/200 OS 8.6, PowerBook G3/233 OS 8.6, 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.