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Mac OS 9.1 Info

This page contains all the info I have gathered on OS 9.1 and how it will affect the 6400
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OS 9.1 link: Here is a link to OS 9.1 on Apple site. I was unable to get the large one file download because they removed the link for some reason? But the smaller 56k friendly files came down fine. I am running it on my B&W G3 at the moment and its pretty much like OS 9.0.4 except it moves a lot of your folders around to get ready for OSX. It moves the Apple Extras, Utilities, Internet, and maybe a couple of others all into a folder named "Applications (Mac OS 9)" which by the way cannot be changed? This is to make the install OS OSX easier so you know where your old apps reside when the new OSX apps get installed. All of your aliases will still work because the files are only being moved in the same HD partition. Only when you move a file off a HD partition does an alias get broken. I'll have more as I use it.

TIL on OS 9.1 turning off VM on a TAM: Here is a link to an Apple TIL that says the install of OS 9.1 will turn off VM. All you have to do is turn it back on if you need it. You may even need to turn off VM in order to even install OS 9.1? Let me know if you own a TAM and install OS 9.1. Thanks.

Link to MacFixIt's OS 9.1 help page: Need I say more :) Click here.

OS 9.1 on the 6400: I'll be starting my OS 9.1 info page shortly. Here are a few letters from users of 6400's with G3 upgrades on how well the latest OS is working. Thanks.

[I don't know how to post for all to see that I upgraded to Mac OS 9.1 on my 6400/180 with a NewerTech G3 300mhz card. It works GREAT!!!!!!! No problems at ALL.!!
Mark]

[Has anyone else commented on running 9.1 on a 6400 with a Vimage 240? Mine ran fine on 9.0.2 using the 1.01b driver, but seems much slower on 9.1. I tried the newer drivers on your web site, but it made no difference. My impression is that the computer is much slower with 9.1 and I wonder if the G3 card is not working with 9.1. (I do have the double restart, though, and the extension appears to load.)
John]

[Tom:
Just wanted to drop you a note to advise of my pleasant surprise of using 9.1. Installed it today (upgraded from 9.04) and have not had a system freeze for 7 hours running.

After adding an Evergreen USB/IEEE 1394 PCI combo card to use with my new HP Deskjet 970 and Sony Spressa I-Link CD-RW, I was getting freezes about every 15 -20 minutes. Both are now working flawlessly without any freeze or system crashes.
Thanks for your time and continued support of an excellent site.
Al]

So we have one report on Newers G3 working great and one report that Vimages G3 may not be working? Also note Al's report of getting a freeze (pause?) every 15-20min before the OS 9.1 upgrade. I had this exact same problem that I thought was do to my USB mouse? Maybe it is now fixed? One can only hope :) The conclusion I came to was that the PCI chassis was causing my problem. Al is using a FW/USB combo card which has a PCI bridge chip in it like my chassis. Maybe these bridge chips are causing issues with USB cards? Well it looks like OS 9.1 has fixed it anyway. Please email me your OS 9.1 experience. Specially if you have a G3 upgrade. Thanks

1/26/2001 User letters on OS 9.1 and the 6400: I thought I would post a bunch of letters I have received on people using OS 9.1 on their 6400/6500's. Thanks guys!

[Since installing OS9.1 I cannot get my Epson Photo Stylus 700 to print. If I boot off my backup external hard drive with 9.04 it prints fine, but nothing with 9.1. Also for what it's worth Applescript scriptable items folder that came with 9.1 doesn't work either. I downgraded to the scriptable items folder from 9.04 and everything works fine. Don't they test these things out before they release them! Since your pushing the B&W G3 and others, does this mean the 6400 zone may soon cease to exist? Thanks for answering my email.
RICK]

[Hey Tom,
A couple of other side notes for 9.1 on the 6400/6500. I have come to find it more stable then 9.04. It does not play well with Macast. Though I'm starting to believe that Macast does not work well with the Sonnet 400Mhz/G3 Crescendo card. It freezes from time to time and sometimes requires a re-boot. My daughters iMac 350 runs Macast flawlessly. Also for what it's worth, iTunes is more stable then Macast with the Sonnet Crescendo. Though iTunes uses some major CPU cycles. My daughters Imac/350 runs the graphics much smoother and quicker then my 400mhz 6500. It's the RAVE 128 in her machine that makes the difference. Also, I have installed the Logitech 2 button optical mouse. When it works its great! But sometimes it freezes and I have to unplug the USB connection and plug it back in, then it starts working. Do you know of a fix? Thanks. Take Care
RICK]

[Hi Tom,
Got the CD on Monday and loaded it up on the 6400 that night and everything seems OK so far. I will be working with it a little more in the next few days but even my network booted right up. I have not found much difference between the CD and the download of OS 9.1 other than some of the extras. I still had to install Java 2.2.4 and Open GL 1.2.1.
I just did an install on the 6400 and a reinstall on the iMac with the CD, if I get time I might go in and do a "Clean Install" on both, but I wanted to see how things worked before going to all that trouble.
I thought maybe iTunes, iDVD and iBurn would be on the disc but they are not.
Talk to you soon,
Jim]

[As I saw on your web site, some people were having problems with OS 9.1 and Vimage. I installed 9.1 the day it came out and have no problems, crashes or noticable speed reductions, the only difference I saw was the "Window" option in the menu bar. iTunes is also working great. I have a 6400/180 with original Vimage G3 (240 I think).
Later,
Doug]

[Since I don't use my 6400 for money making work. I decided to give it a try. I'm now running OS 9.1 on my 6400 with 136MBs of RAM. So far so good. I haven't found any software that isn't working with it. In fact, my Apple TV tuner seems to work even better (even at the higher resolutions). The server is still working too. ;-) It uses about the same amount of RAM as 8.6 or 9.0.4 though. I can't say it is faster at everyday tasks, but I can't say it is any slower either. Seems to be a nothing upgrade so far, but surely the last, as OSX on this machine is a no no. :-)
Rodney]

Apples OS 9.1 technote: Here is a link to Apples OS 9.1 technote.

OS 9.1 fixes SCSI issue on 6400's?: I found this info on MacInTouch's web site.

[Date: Mon, 15 Jan 2001 19:58:31 -0600
From: Kurt Dikkers
Subject: OS 9.1

The 6400 has a built-in SCSI bug that a software patch is required for before external SCSI peripherals can be used. On my Performa 6400 I had to keep a partition with OS 8.5.1 for use with my SCSI peripherals since neither 8.6 or 9.0.x contained the patch and a stand-alone patch is not available. After installing 9.1 onto the 9.0.4 partition I tried to use the attached SCSI peripherals (scanner and CD writer) and they worked perfectly. Therefore, I conclude Apple remembered to include the Performa 6400 SCSI patch in the 9.1 code.
Kurt]

I know many people has SCSI issues with OS 9 but I did not know about OS 8.6? Also I did not know that patch was removed to fix these SCSI issues in those OS's? I did not have the SCSI problems whit either OS 8.6, OS 9.0, or OS 9.0.4. Most people fixed the issue in OS 9 by updating or downgrading their scanner drivers. Also there has always been a stand alone patch on Apples web site for the SCSI issue. Kurt says his issues are gone with OS 9.1 though so whether the patch was removed and not reinstalled or some other bug was present in those older OS's, the problem seems to be fixed with 9.1

7/7/2001 OS 9.1 and USBSerial extension not compatible: Sam sends word that his system kept getting a fatal error after installing OS 9.1 It turned out to be the USB Serial extension installed by his HandSpring Visor. He has tried different versions of this extension and the Apple USB extensions but it still fails. He told me that HandSpring has a newer drive posted and he is going to give it a try. Thanks for the info Sam.

[Hi,
I finally downloaded all the segments of ) OS 9.1 and installed it without any trouble.

When I restarted the system, I had a fatal error on startup. Rebooting without extensions was fine.

After much sleuthing, I narrowed the crash down to the extension: "USB Serial." This is a driver installed by my Handspring Visor. The catch is that I need that extension to run my HotSync. I'm still working on this. I'll let you know what I figure out.
- Sam]

9/14/2001 Loss of Function key use after OS 9.1 update: There was a post in my forums from a 6400 user that lost use of the Function keys after updating to OS 9.1. This can be caused by a new feature in the Keyboard control panel. Previously, only USB keyboards could have custom settings of the function keys to launch applications or so other operations. Now even ADB keyboards can use this feature. The problem of loosing the use of your function keys for other Apps can happen if the selection named "Enable Hot Function Keys" is enabled in the keyboard control panel. To disable this visit your keyboard control panel and then click on the function key settings button and the next window has selections for turning those features off.

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This page last updated 9/20/2001