Another 6400 site devoted to helping you take apart your system: Rav sent me a letter to inform me of his new site called 640Open that has some nice info on taking your 6400 apart. He also has some very good instructions on hooking up a DSL modem. Thanks Rav.

USB Device Extension disables the floppy drive on the 6400!: Rav's site mentions that Apples USB Device Extension, which is installed by there USB card support software, conflicts with the floppy drive on the 6400! This could be the answer we have been looking for. I have not tried it yet but my system does have a USB card installed. I will try removing this extension to see if the floppy drive works again. Of course that means your USB card won't work at the same time :( Thanks for the info Rav. If you are having problems with your floppy drive and removing the USB Device Extension fixes it, please email me the info. Thanks.

OSX install on older Macs from Accelerate Your Mac: I found this page on Accelerate Your Macs web site. It is from a reader that went through a lot of trouble to mix and match instructions from several other sites to make the OSX PB work on his Umax S900. I don't know if it will help us but if anyone wishes to try. Please let me know the results :) Thanks.

OSX and Sonnets L2 G3 upgrades: Walter informed me that Sonnet has a big OSX picture on their L2 G3 product page. It mentions that they are working on making OSX run on L2 G3 upgraded Macs like the 6400! Thanks Walter. This is some good news. In the past they had commented that PDS and L2 G3 upgraded Macs would most likely not run OSX but now they have a big ad saying they are working on it. Oh the possibilities! I sent them the info from the Accelerate link above to help them out :) Click here to read more info I have collected .on Sonnets OSX support

VPC version with OSX?: I read this on Accelerate Your Mac's web site the other night. It was from one of Mikes readers and it stated that Connectix is working on an OSX version for VirtualPC 4. Maybe they can call it VirtualOSX :) This may be really good news for us if Sonnet cannot make the real thing work on our 6400's.

I hope I did not read this wrong and that they are making VPC Windows to run under OSX? I like my version better :)

Readers Requests page going away: I have thought it over and decided to remove my Readers Requests page and link directly to my 6400 Forums site. I feel it will be easier for you and me this way. Now you can post your questions much faster then waiting up to 2 weeks by emailing me and the Forums are searchable. I will make the change on my next update so if you have any outstanding issues on my Readers Requests page and you wish to keep it posted, please rewrite it to my Forums site. Thanks

Update on Sound skips and stutters with G3 upgrades and ATi cards: I had mentioned last week that the problem of sounds skipping in games and other apps may be more related to timing issues on the PCI bus of older Macs like the 6400 but Michael claims it may be just an ATI issue. His system had all the sound issues as have been previously reported on my site with an ATi Orion card but says they disappeared when he switched to a Voodoo3 card. Hence the problem may be ATi fault?

I don't disagree that ATi has some bad drivers when related to older Macs, but none of ATi's cards have trouble with newer Macs related to audio skipping in games. These timing issues don't exist on newer Macs with ATi cards or Voodoo3 cards with G3's or G4's installed. I do believe there is a PCI bus timing issue and ATi's drivers just are not optimized for it. Their older cards like the RagePRO and RageII have no problems. Its only the Rage128 series so far. Hopefully the Radeon will not have this problem!

MacNN review of the T35 PCI expansion case: Here is a link to MacNN's review of the T35 PCI expansion case. I had mentioned this case awhile back as an alternative to the Magma chassis I purchased. The T35 is much cheaper and more stylish I think :)

G3 (beige) and 6500 56K modems in a 6400: Steve sent me some info stating that the 2 mentioned modems will work in a 6400 just fine. He is using this configuration himself! I had posted this info before on my Geo modem page but never heard from a reader that really used it. Thanks Steve. The main issue is finding these modems? Steve is an Apple Authorized repair technician and said he would see if he can get them for anyone interested! Thanks Steve. They are expensive though since they won't be a replacement but a straight out purchase so expect to pay around $125. That's steep for a 56k modem but its the only internal modem you can get :( For those wanting this modem, it works with Apples Telecom 3.1.3 software available on Apples software download site.

Getting a UMAX 2200 scanner to work on the 6400: Rod was having trouble with his UMAX 2200 scanner connected either by USB or SCSI. He found a fix which was a newer scanner driver then UMAX has posted on their site? Thanks Rod.

[Dear Tom, Last night I finally got to the bottom of my Umax 2200 vs. Mac6400 problem. This is the weirdest thing!!

I received your latest letter yesterday suggesting that the scanner might be faulty. I felt that it probably is OK because the Umax rep had told me that my scanner and my 6400 would never work properly together. But your stick-to-it-tivity in the matter led me to continue searching for answers.

So yesterday on my dinner break at work I got on the internet and did further searches for things relating to Umax, Mac, drivers, and scanners. I found the answer!

Now remember, I have repeatedly scoured the Umax site looking for clues. I have read EVERY one of the 128 items in their knowledge base. I have looked at their download section - - nothing! If you will recall, they stated that 3.5.4 was their latest driver. I had downloaded and tried 3.5.4, 3.5.1 and 3.5.2.

So here's what I found. My google search took me to the CNET download site. There I found a free download of Umax Astra driver 3.7.5!!! (direct download link here) The description of this driver is as follows: "This driver software is for use with Umax Vista and Astra scanners. Version 3.7 fixed bugs and addresses issues concerning Mac OS 8.6. It also improved support for USB scanner connections. This version adds support for Mac OS 9.1, fixes more bugs, and features other unspecified enhancements. This latest version does not apply to all Umax scanners. Older or SCSI-based scanners may not be able to run the latest version."

This driver was added to the CNET website on February 6, 2001. It says there have been 32,377 downloads to date. I loaded the driver and it has worked flawlessly with my USB card since I put it in.

I am delighted but what's going on here?? How could this driver exist on the CNET site and not be mentioned on the Umax site or by the Umax rep when I talked to him??

Ultimately, though, my problem has been fixed. Thank you so much, Tom, for being such a help to me. I hope that my experiences and all of our head scratching will add to the body of knowledge for the 6400 Zone.
Sincerely,
Rod]

Adding a jack to run an external subwoofer instead of using the internal speaker: Rod sent me some instructions on how to install another audio out jack that lets you run an external subwoofer being driven buy the 6400's stock audio amplifier. Thanks Rod.

With this jack you can either have full sound being played to a set of external speakers without needing to run a cable from the front headphone jack or you can plug highend speakers to the regular audio out jack in the back and then run a subwoofer speaker from this new jack. I think Apple should've done this in the first place :)

Please try not to reply to posts on my new Equipment for Sale page: I posted instructions on the top of this page trying to keep people from leaving replies and actually email the sellers directly. I wanted it done this way so that you get a faster response and not having the item you wanted sold out from under you! Many of the sellers may not ever return to my site to see if anyone is replying? I don't expect them to. That is why I force an email address be left with every post (if you click on the sellers name, you can email them). I only wanted replies to be left for people that have already sold there equipment but never told anyone or if your having trouble reaching a particular person through email. This way I can deal with it by trying to email that person myself or removing the post if it all sold.

As I stated above, the main reason to email directly and not leave a reply is to make sure you get through to the seller as fast as possible! Don't trust the seller to return here to find your reply posting.

One more thing. Please, sellers, post your correct email address so people can email you without any trouble. I have already had one seller post a bad email address :(

Quicken98 and OS 9.1 cause screen drawing issues?: John was having trouble with the backgrounds of windows not having their correct coloring. He found that Quicken98 was causing this issue under OS 9.1.

[<http://www.macfixit.com/ultimate/Forum33/HTML/000353.html>
Tom, I have found the problem to why my applications show up with gray backgrounds at MacFixIt. Quicken 98 running under OS 9.1 causes applications launched after Quicken 98 is launched to have these gray backgrounds. I haven't figured out a cure yet. I'm hesitant to upgrade to Quicken 2001 until I know how things go with OS X.

BTW - I'm using the stock ATI video card with the ATI Driver Update 1.6.8. I have a 19" Hitachi 751 running at 1024x768 @ 85Hz. I'm still running Office 98. I installed Office 2001 on another drive but haven't played with it enough to formally migrate over to it.

We'll see if someone comes up with a Quicken 98 - OS 9.1 cure. In the meantime thanks for taking time out to answer my email.
John]

iTunes 1.1 allows Apples Disk Burn app to work on 3rd party CDR/CDRW drives: Scott sends word that he tried the hacks that are posted on the net to get Disk Burn to work with non-Apple CDR/CDRW drives using the items installed with the new iTunes 1.1. Thanks Scott.

[Hey Tom,
Just a quick note to let you know that I successfully installed iTunes 1.1 along with the Disc Burner hack mentioned on XLR8YOURMAC.COM and MacFixIt on my friends 6400. He has a Que (Mitsumi 4802-TE) USB burner, which is one of the ones supported by iTunes 1.1. It is much easier to use than Toast and the Disc Burner app will be especially handy I think.
Scott]

Here is a link he sent to a site that has full instructions on how to install everything

http://homepage.mac.com/ddewey1/discburn/

Here is a web link Scott just sent that has a patch to the iTunes installer so it will work under OS 8.5 and 8.6! Thanks Scott

http://homepage.mac.com/wormintheapple/Downloads.html

iMovie 2 may work on slower Systems better then iMovie 1?: Ralph, who was having much trouble with iMovie 1.0.2, just send word that iMovie 2.0.1 seems to have fixed his problems! Thanks Ralph. Click here for more info I have on iMovie.

[Hi Tom, I got a chance to play more with iMovie 2.0.1 today. I was able to sync the Brittney flash video clip with the MP3 music file I had sent you. I'm no expert on using iMovie yet, but using the help menu I was able to do a fade open transition, sync the audio with the video and fade to black. I than converted it to a small QT movie file. No freezes so far. I even forgot to up the iMovie memory before using it. So maybe version 2 fixes the iMovie 1 freeze issue I had (I gave up on version 1 and trashed it, anyone want a CD of it for $10?).

Since I had a small success with it, I got a bit more ambitious and copied the Blair Witch like analog video footage I had taken in the fall and created QT movie files using the analog ATI TV recording feature and converted them to DV files using QTpro4 for use in iMovie. I also loaded all the latest special effects plugins, sound clips and background picture clips and set them up so I can do all the editing of the my Blair witch movie. So maybe tomorrow I will take the tutorial and try a real movie edit.

Some things I figured out using the my fast 7200rpm 40gig ATA 100 drive on the stock PM6500 bus with a L2 cache G3 Sonnet 400Mhz upgrade and with the ATI XClaim 128 VR PCI video card (MacOS9.0.4, 96Megs Ram, VM on).

Using the ATI TV window to input my video, the best capture I can get is achieved using the following settings (this gets usable real time capture and viewing in QuickTime 4): Best Analog Capture: window size 708x240, 22.5fps, High quality, VM on, for playback the ATI graphics acceleration must be off, no compression needs to be used at this stage. If the window size is increased or the recording quality set to Best, the QT4 playback will be frame droppy and choppy, unless you compress it first.

Note: I turned VM off and capture works in the ATI TV player but trying to play the files back in QT will freeze the system. VM must be on to avoid freezes and while using QT, the ATI graphics acceleration must be off to get smooth playback. I also left the iJam USB MMC station unplugged to be sure it did not interfere with the sound.

Things I noticed: iMovie 2 does not care if the ATI acceleration is on or off. I also upped the QT player memory to 9,096k and the ATI TV player memory to 10,101k as a stability measure.

So you can pass this on if you like. I'll let you know if I get any freezes while doing a real 1gig movie edit with music, transitions and all.

R.]

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