Flash Update 11/30/2001: I won't be having an update this week and I may not be able to make an update after this weekend? I have COX@Home and @Home is filing for bankruptcy and they want to shut down on Nov. 30th! So if this happens and COX doesn't get me transferred over I might not be able to find away to make updates :( So bare with me and please use my forums for all questions until further notice. Thanks.

Sonnet drops prices: Sonnet announced on 11/9 that they dropped their prices on a wide range of products including the L2 G3 upgrades. Click here for more info.

Largest IDE HD's are not being recognized to full capacity: I just found this info on MacFixIt's web site. It seems that Maxtor has produced a 160G IDE HD but only 128G or so are usable on older IDE buses. You need at least an ATA/133 card to use the entire drive capacity.

[Maxtor 160GB drive does not format to full size

Two readers confirm that the recently released Maxtor 160GB drive will only format to about 128GB. One reader explains:


"This is due to a limitation of the ATA/IDE interface. Apparently this isn't a machine-specific problem, but rather an any ATA machine problem, and Maxtor (according to a press release on their site) is working on new ATA interface designs which will allow the use of drives larger than 128 GB (or 136.9 GB in base 10 numbers). This new technology though isn't due out until next year sometime."


Update: The Alchemy ATA 133 PCI card (available now for the Mac) supports drives larger than 137 GB (128GB). The Alchemy web page states: "ATA 133 is the only standard that supports drives larger than 137 GB (128 GB in real terms). If you install a very large drive on a ATA 66 or ATA 100 bus, it will only be partially recognized." The MDJ adds: "If you already own a Miglia Alchemy ATA100 card, you're in luck: the Alchemy Firmware Update 2.0 boosts the firmware on the ATA100 card to ATA133, adding nifty new features at no additional cost."]

Sound issues using different video cards: Francois did some extensive testing with different video cards regarding sound stuttering and sent me his findings. Thanks Francois!

[Hello,

For your very good 6400's knowledge base: I had tested for a long time four different cards into my 6400:

Matrox Millenium II : no sound issues with a Vimage 240 MHz G3 Card, but with the Sonnet 400 MHz-1Mo slight stuttering sound as Fabounio especially while scrolling finder's window

Formac Proformance III+ (a good European card): bad sound issues, especially when you scroll down a menu (finder and others applications).

ATI Rage 128 (taken from a Blue & white G3): Very bad sound issues (scrolling windows, games...)

For all of these above, the problem disappear when I turn off the 2D acceleration but obviously, no more fast display. Exactly same problems with Mac OS 8.6 and 9.1.

And finally, miraculously!: ATI Radeon Mac edition: entire problems have disappeared! And if you break down sound setting to 22 kHz in the control panel, no problems even with active USB Card ,and in the same time, on the internet!

A very good surprise!. I think that you must recommend this card for each of us, happy 6400's users!

With this graphic Card and Sonnet 400/1Mo, my Mac does run alike my office's G3 White and Blue 400 MHz

Good Night from France,
Francois]

Well it seems that many video cards will cause sound stuttering in different situations! But the good part at least is that the best of them all does not have this problem (ATI Radeon).

Possible solution to Peters trouble with his Sonnet 400Mhz card and OS 9.2.1: This may not be software related at all according to Jules. It could be that Peter has overdriven his power supply with so many add ons and the G3 was just the last add on that caved in the power supply? Read Jules letter for more info. Thanks Jules.

[Peter stated:

"I recently purchased a Sonnet G3/L2 400/1 MB card and cannot seem to get it to work in my Performa 6400/180. I recently updated to Mac OS 9.2.1 and the system freezes every time the extension (Crescendo 1.4.6) attempts to load. I've tried changing the extension load order and using just base 9.2.1 extensions except for Conflict Catcher 8.1. I also tried installing 9.1 on another partition, but the same freeze occurs....My computer is a Performa 6400/180 with 104 MB of RAM, Sonnet L2 G3 400/1MB, internal IDE Maxtor 40 GB HD, ATI Radeon Mac Edition 32 MB PCI, external SCSI Epson Zip drive, Farallon Fast EtherTX (10/100) Comm Slot II card, Sonnet Tango USB/Firewire Dual Port Card, Kensington Orbit serial port mouse, HP DeskJet 970 Cxi printer and external Firewire Sony Spressa CDRW drive."

Two questions. What is the rpm of his Maxtor? What is the speed of his internal CD-ROM?

I ran into similar problem and it turned out to be a lack of power. I had upgraded to a 7200 rpm HD and a 24X CD-ROM before applying the Sonnet L2 G3 400/1MB card. This configuration exceeded the power requirements of my power supply. Downgrading to a 5400 rpm HD stabilized the system. Also downgrading the CD-ROM can help too as well as downgrading the ethernet card to a 10baseT. The 10/100 card sucks more power out of the board. The faster drives suck more power out of the power supply thus putting a strain on the power requirements of the board. The PCI slots are unaffected by this because of their separate power configuration. These slots get a fixed allotment of power. No more no less. The only potential problem with the PCI slots is if you install a PCI card that requires more power than the allotted amount. PCI combo cards tend to be the culprit of being power hungry depending on the manufacturer. The 6400's maximum power requirement is 220 Watts. I have yet to see a 6400 that comes with a 220 Watt power supply. 96 Watts is the biggest I've seen. The minimum power requirement is 82 Watts.]

Here is a letter I received from a reader who has a similar setup but his system is working. Notice though that Peter has a highend video card and a combo firewire/USB card and this reader does not.

[Peter's computer is very similar to mine (I have a 6400/180 with 136 MB of RAM, Sonnet L2 G3 400/1 MB card, Realtek 10/100 PCI ethernet card, ADS USB PCI card and internal IDE Seagate 40 GB HD) and I have no problems with 9.1 or 9.2.1 when I use Crescendo 1.4.5 or 1.4.6 extension.
If the problem do not arise from a clash with his ATI Radeon or with the Sonnet Tango USB/FireWire card (which I don't believe), I'm afraid that his Sonnet L2G3 is defective.
Greetings.
P.S.: Is it possible that Conflict Catcher 8.1 can be the culprit?]

Peter could be riding that fine line between computer bliss and hardware failure do to having so many add ons. Peter if you are reading this, try removing the video card or the Tango card and see if that helps?

iPod: Well what can I say? This thing is awesome! I love it but the price is a bit steep for me at $399 :( I am pretty sure by next year it will be cheaper or have a much larger HD and possibly more features? I bet that many of you, as well as myself, are curious to find out if it will work on a 6400/6500 with a firewire card. I don't have that info yet but if anyone that has an iPod and a firewire enabled 6400/6500 could test for us and email me the info, I am sure we all would appreciate that :) Thanks.

I found this info on MacInTouch that says Sonnet is aware that the iPod works on their Tango card which makes it a good possibility that it will work on the 6400/6500!

[Subject: iPod + Harmoni iMac upgrade

Hi,
I'm tempted to add an iPod and a Sonnet Harmoni early iMac Firewire up-grade to my Santa's list.
FYI: when queried on iPod compatibility Sonnet replied

"The Harmoni is still in active engineering development therefore most questions about it can't be answered because the card doesn't exist yet... As we get nearer to the ship date (mid-December at this point), we might know more... at least one person got the iPod to work with our Tango card and since the FireWire portion of the Harmoni upgrade is based on that, I'd expect there will be no problems." ]

6400 Mother Board overclocking info from Thierry: Thierry sent me a lot of good info on his mother board clocking experiments. Thanks Thierry! It is rather large so click here to read the entire letter.

The 6400 Zone Forums Audio/Video Stuttering L2 G3 Upgrades My 6400 TA manual Sonnet Clocking ATI_Radeon ATI Rage128 Voodoo3 Voodoo 4/5 OS 9 info OS 9.1 info OS 9.2.x info OSX info iMovie info iTunes Run Alternate OS's

Spec Comparison Page L2 G3 reported temps Vimage compatibility user letters install review Vimage drivers, latest Sonnet Tech compatiblity user letters install review hack for stability Sonnet clocking Mac OSX support Crescendo 1.4.2-1.4.5 Newer Tech compatibility user letters Newer MaxpowerG3 drivers Power Logix

6400 Clocking Info 6400 TA manual Alternate OS's Archives: 6400 Zone ATI Rage128 ATI_Radeon Audio help Audio/Video Stuttering Avid Cinema Backup Battery (UPS) Cable/DSL Modems CD/DVD Drives Cooling The 6400 Digital video help Firewire and USB cards FrankenMacs Geo Modem Gaming News Help Links IDE Adaptor cards iMovie info iTools iTunes MacOS 7.5.x - 9.2.x info Mac Equipment for Sale Magazines / Online Sales Magma PCI Chassis Misc Mac Info Readers Reviews Software Links TV/Video System USB and Firewire cards Voodoo 2 Voodoo 3 Voodoo 4/5

6400 Icons ColorStyleWriter4000 OS 9 Disk Tools 8.5 with CD extension Geomodem Shutdown MicroConversion video card Newer MaxpowerG3 drivers OT 2.6 and OT 2.6.1 SetVolume to 1 script Sonnet Clocker Sonnet Clocker II SonnetCrescendo 1.4.2-1.4.5 UK Telecom software Vimage drivers, latest Voodoo2 beta drivers Voodoo3 beta 12 drivers

The 6400 Zone- 6400 Zone Forums Apple- Discussion Forums Legacy Hardware Accelerate Your Mac- Mac Forums MacSpeed Zone- 6400 Forums TechSurvivors.com- Help Forums

Click here for info on contacting The 6400 Zone