"10% off 3dfx Merchandise + Free Gifts w/Purchase!
You think playing with Voodoo is cool? Try wearing it. For those of you who love Voodoo, 3dfx's new Merchandise Store is the shop for you.
How about that new leather jacket you've been wanting? Cool Voodoo T-shirt? Duffel Bag? CD holder? Whether you're looking for cool apparel or specialty items, we've got you covered.
Visit the 3dfx merchandise store at http://www.3dfxsales.com now through March 31, 2000 to receive:
-A 10% discount on purchases of $100.00 or more
-Two gifts with purchase: Voodoo poster and mouse pad
*Gifts with purchase are available while supplies last. "

The other Net News/TIL Updates/Software updates section has many new links courtesy of Barney Buoy including a story on an iMac hack, a TIL on G4/AGP DVD audio sync tips and more.

Ram Prices Rising: I spoke with sponsors OWC and Transintl and both noted RAM prices (at least their suppliers) have risen in the last few days. Transintl said prices are rising again today. Not sure how common this is and prices may vary depending on stock that may have been bought at a lower price. {A reader later wrote to say ChipMerchant had G3/G4 SDRAM at $132/128MB yesterday, and $134 today.)

A reader replied to my initial comments on the Pismo by saying his 400MHz model had a quiet drive:

"I set up a Pismo 400 Monday. It doesn't have a HD whine.

No trouble at startup and it has the nifty graphic setup application. However, it never asked about the time zone...

I also have a Wallstreet 250 ... The Pismo 400 is definitely much faster at running applications. All MS apps after quite definitely faster on the Pismo. My wife, who is not at all a technie, claims to notice a huge difference between them. Also, the Pismo is distinctly faster than my Rev. 1 B&W G3/350.

DVD playing is fair. I tried to play DVD through the S-Video port and that was hopeless. haven't had time to investigate that though.
Ronald Guest
Pepsan & Associates, Inc."

The 400's have a smaller hard drive, but perhaps the noisy 10GB drive in this model is not normal. I welcome other 10GB (Pismo 500) owner comments on their drives.

George Cole sent a note on a sub-$150 internal SCSI CDR:

"Dan & Mike,
My first special from OWC!

Panasonic 7502B 4x/8x CDR drive internal our part number CDR7502B Regular price: $159.00
Specials Price: $147.56

Can order on the phone only.
shop.macsales.com/MacSales/search/search.taf?_function=find&main=panasonic

Include toast v4.0.1.1 OEM for $29.00!
George Cole
Other World Computing, Inc.
(815) 338-8685 x122
800-275-4576 "

I assume these are CDRs, not CDRWs.

IDE ORB in G4 Tip: Edmond Lai wrote that he was finally able to get the Orb drive to boot as a slave drive (to the DVD RAM drive) in his new G4 system:

"Mike,
I just wanted to let you know that I managed to boot from the IDE Orb with it set up as the slave device and the DVD-RAM set up as the master. The fix was a simple one, I just had to re-initialize the Orb cartridge using the latest Drive Setup. Apparently, the drivers on the cartridge prior to the re-initialization was not compatible with OS 9. Everything works wonderfully now.
Edmond Lai "

Pismo Hard Drive Noise: The Pismo PB G3/500 arrived today for a review. Beautiful machine with apparently no bad pixels in the display (not yet anyway, sometimes they appear after weeks or months of use). [Update: there's at least one stuck red pixel in the left side of the display] One thing I noticed right away was the high pitched noise from the hard drive. I'm not really picky over HD noise, but this drive had a noticeable high pitch whine that may be objectionable to some. Perhaps this varies by the brand of the drive (Apple often OEMs several brands) or this particular drive is just noisy. One interesting note is the drive is actually has 10.6GB formatted capacity (11.6GB unformatted).

On first boot immediately after the desktop appeared, the screen flashed, then went black and a few seconds later the cursor locked up (screen still black). A restart ran fine. I also noticed the trash contained a system resource file and an Airport setup icon. MacOS Setup Assistant did not automatically run at startup as I've seen on most new Macs apparently due to the error at first boot.

I'll also be adding an OWC 128MB SODIMM (and disabling VM) to see what effect that has on performance (as responsiveness in the Finder didn't seem much better than my Wallstreet G3/250, which runs OS 8.6 and has 192MB of RAM/VM off). I disabled the OS 9 multi-user control panel and extension which seems to help a bit (esp. on older Macs with OS9). I also normally disable the options to remember recently used applications and Quicktime Autoplay (which can help prevent spread of the autostart worm virus as well). More Pismo reports later, including comments from another Wallstreet owner (Steve Weisel) on the new model (he's selling his Wallstreet to get a new Pismo 400).

The Game News page has an update with a key-binding tip for zooming in Quake2 (may work in Quake3) and a tip on using Game Launcher to free up RAM.

Danimal wrote with an updated link to the Griffin iMate driver 2.0b1 noted earlier today in the software updates section.

I've added two more reader reports (most recent first) to the B&W G3 rev 1 drive comments below.

Intech Promises Cure for B&W Rev 1 HD Data Corruption: I'd commented last year that Intech's HD drivers solved the WD Expert corruption issues I saw in a rev 1 B&W G3. Their VP or Engineering replied to the post in yesterday's news by saying their drivers should be able to address any master/slave corruption using their adjustable driver modes:

"Mike
Thanks for the mention about the DMA issues on today's news page [ yesterday's news-Mike], and the release of our 2.7 HD update.

I'd like to supply a little more info on the Blue & White Rev 1 IDE issue. We don't know of a single customer who has not been able to successfully add ANY brand of drive, (including master & slave configurations) to these computers on the Ultra 33 bus. In rare cases, however, one of the drives needs to have Ultra DMA disabled completely in favor of Multiword DMA. Since you can still achieve 15 MB/sec with Multiword mode 2, this does not seem like a terrible tradeoff to most customers, who just need the additional capacity and don't want to fork out the extra money for a new PCI controller card. And as you know, configuring DMA with Hard Disk SpeedTools is easily accomplished with simple pop-up menus.
Best Regards
Christopher P. Karr
V.P. Engineering
Intech Software Corporation
http://www.intechusa.com/"

I've updated the B&W G3 IDE slave drive and IBM Deskstar data corruption articles and the FAQ with these comments. comments

More B&W G3 Rev 1 Drive Reports: Here's the latest reader comments on the issue.

"About the IBM Deskstar 22gig drive.
I've had mine for about five months so far (guess) on my Rev 1 Blue G3 450. I've been using the intech speed disk drivers on it and I don't get the corruption problems. I haven't had any data corruption problems at all with the intech drivers, they seem pretty slick as far as third party divers go. Recently I bought the Maxtor 27 gig drive at with the staples deal. All works fine except that the IBM drive must be set as the master drive or else it won't recognize any drives on the IDE channel. Both drives get about 17 MB a sec throughput with the speed tools tester utility, before I installed the drivers I was getting 22MB a sec throughput but I did see the data corruption issue.
-Joe Pease "

"Mike,
I'm another user who put a Maxtor Diamond-Max Plus 20Gb drive in my Rev.1 B&W G3/350, following the wonderful directions at your web site. I had to get a custom cable to get it working, but I've had it going for six months now with absolutely no problems.
-Neil Faiman"

"Hello, Mike.
I have been using a Maxtor 20 gig 7200 RPM drive as a slave (stock 12 gig Fireball as master) in my Rev 1 G3 for months with zero problems. I first tried the 8.5.1 update .smi test and have since been using the disk for digital audio, and I have had zero problems. I'm waiting for the 40 gig Maxtor, and when I get it, I'll put the 20 gig as master and the 40 as slave. I'll let you know how that goes...
Thanks again,
Andy "

Note this owner also had problems with an IBM Deskstar in a rev 1:

"Mike,
I bought an IBM 7200rpm 22GB Deskstar in June 1999 and fought corruption problems for more than six months with it in my 400mhz Rev. 1 B&W.

Originally, I attempted to run it as a slave, but it turned out to have these data corruption issues. Then, I attempted to just run it as a master, but it had problems there too. I tried every workaround known short of installing a third-party ATA/33 card (which was recommended by 1-800-SOS-APPL) with no success. Even using the driver from Drive Setup 1.6.2 didn't stop the data corruption problems (I have corrupt Photoshop files to prove it).

Eventually, I received confirmation from Apple that these particular drives had problems and that Apple hardware had been changed (Rev. 2) [ See the B&W G3 rev 2 page here for details-Mike] to accommodate the problem. I replaced it with a 17-gig ATA/33 Maxtor drive and it's been happy ever since. That same 22gb IBM drive is now very happy running as a slave in my 450mhz G4 with absolutely zero corruption problems...

Regardless of which brand of drive you purchase, I highly recommend getting an ATA/33 drive as opposed to ATA/66 if you have a Rev. 1 Blue and White G3.
Later,
Dennis"

Beige G3/IBM HD Report: There were several reports in the news last year from Beige G3 owners that had warm start problems with some IBM IDE drives. As noted in the FAQ, switching drivers seems to have helped in some cases but there was also a rumor that some drives may have had a firmware version that was the reason for problems in the Mac.

"Mike,
For what it's worth, I was never able to get an IBM drive to run reliably in my Beige Rev. 1 G3 Desktop. I tried several 10G drives last year (both 5400 and 7200RPM) and each one would corrupt files while copying them. Also mounting disk images was touch and go. This was with the IBM drives connected to one of the onboard IDE controllers.

I finally gave up on the IBM's and went with a Western Digital Caviar 13G (5400RPM)which has performed flawlessly.

Since then I have added a ProMax ATA/33 card am running a Maxtor 40 (7200 RPM) and a Maxtor 17G (5400RPM) on it. I have 3 drives in my machine and am very happy with my setup. The WD drive is on one of the onboard IDE controllers.
Regards,
Robert "

Acer 10X DVD Drive Report: A reader sent an update to his previous post here some time back:

"Mike,
I've solved ALL my of the problems with the ACER DVD-ROM drive:

1) CD booting:
Definitely possible by using command-option-shift-backspace key combination. BUT HD needs to be "manually" mounted with Apple drive setup.
reminder: Holding C key method crashed my machine.

2) Multimode (HFS + audio) CD mounting.
Using Apple CD/DVD driver 1.3.2 under OS 8.6: Disk unreadable
Using Apple CD/DVD driver 1.3.2 under OS 9.0: OK!
(TWO disks actually appear: HFS session and audio session... How bizarre!)
[I see this on the iMac DV as well with some CDs and it's the default method for CDs like this in OS9 I'm told.-Mike]

Conclusion: the ACER DVP 1040A is ok for:

- every kind of CD
- VGS
- Apple DVD player 1.2 (with rage 128's mpeg2 daughtercard)
- Apple DVD player 2.0 patched
- SoundJam audio CD playing/MP3 encoding

Best regards.
MC "

He later wrote that his mac is a B&W G3 rev 1.

Screenshot Comparing Voodoo5 AA vs GeForce: A post in the 3dfx forum here noted there is a french page that has comparison screenshots of the Voodoo5's anti-aliasing vs. a GeForce.

Palm Serial Port Monitor/PB G3 Issues & Workaround: A reader commented on the Pismo observations posted a few days back:

"Mike,
The problem of not waking from sleep may be with the Palm Serial Port Monitor that runs in the background. I have a Wallstreet 300mz PB System 8.6. Installed a WaveLAN card. Everything worked perfectly until I installed the Palm Desktop software for my Palm IIIx, then everything worked until I switched the Palm HotSync connection to use the InfraRed port. Now if I put the PB to sleep it won't finish waking up.

Tracked the problem to the Palm Serial Port Monitor background application. Seems if the Palm software is set to connect to the Printer/Modem port all is well. If set to use the IR Port the sleep problem occurs.

I'm using a work around by moving the Serial Port Monitor out of the System Startup folder and just starting it up when I want to perform a HotSync with my Palm, then using Quit CSM from MaBaSoft http://www.k-inet.com/MaBaSoft/euro.html to quit the Serial Port Monitor background Application before putting the PB to Sleep. Thought I would share this with you as with Palm's recent price drops there are a lot of them being purchased.
Gary Ratay "

Midiman 2x2 Sales: Although there were lower priced USB/Midi adapters noted in yesterday's news ($69.95 list), a reader notes that the $129.95 Midimax 2x2 is available for much less at some outlets:

"Mike,
I just wanted to chime in about the price for the MIDIMan USB MIDIsport. Zzounds.com has them for $89.99 and for those who have a Guitar Center nearby, they are currently on sale fo $65.00 until the end of March.

zzounds.com/love.music?p=b.MDM,MM00&z=683097715415
Scott "

The Owner's CPU Upgrade Reviews was updated this morning with new reader reports including iMac/iMaxPowr 466 and Sonnet L2G3/500Mhz.

TIL Updates/Other Net News/Software Updates:

Apple TILS
• Power Mac G4 (AGP Graphics): Helping Correct DVD Audio Sync
• AirPort Version 1.1: Base Station Forced Reload
• AirPort Version 1.0: Base Station Forced Reload
• AirPort Base Station: Character Limit for User Name and Password
• Software Updates Control Panel: Just Beeps, No Updates
• Belkin Components: Support and Upgrades

  Net News

• Hack: iPort & Mezzanine Board on a Rev-A-iMac
• QuickTime's lack of MPEG-2 support hurts Mac DVD playback (Maccentral)
• Apple store has iSUB (USB subwoofer) for order
• Novell Brings NetWare 5 File and Print Services to Mac (Yahoo)

  Software Updates:

• Norton Anti-Virus March Defs
• Virex March Defs update
• File Buddy 5
• Web Objects 4.5
• Viacom Softrouter & Internet Gateway updates
• Griffin iMate driver 2.0b1 [corrected, direct download link]. The updated driver for the iMate universal USB to ADB adapter adds support for more ADB devices, adds hot pluggability, includes a new control panel, and fixes some previous problems.
• VSE Be Found 1.6, VSE My Privacy 1.1, and VSE Update Finder 2.1

For a blast from the past, see what was on the main news page one year ago today and two years ago.

The recent features page also lists articles posted (most recent first) as does the sidebar links here. The site topics pages (systems, cpu upgrades, etc. - see top and sidebar links on this page) also are places to check as well as the FAQ.

Tuesday's News Summary

• Parsec 3D Space Game Demo Released
• Newer Tech Partners with Tri-M
• More B&W G3 rev 1 IDE Drive Reports
• $65 USB/Midi 2x2 Adapter
• Reader reports low-cost DSL from Cox Cable in Texas
• Cinema Display review updated with another owner's comments
• Apple 15" Digital Displays - no Composite/S-Video Inputs
• Sonnet L2G3/500 Solves Video Card Issues
• Midisport 2x2 USB/Midi
• B&W G3 Rev 1 & IBM Deskstar 22GB Data Corruption report
• Norton Crashguard/Metrowerks Conflict
• Owner's CPU Upgrade Reviews was updated w/new reports including iMac/iMaxPowr 466 & Sonnet L2G3/500Mhz.
• Other Net News/Software Updates

Monday's News Summary

• Cinema Display review updated for DVD player issue and workaround
• Adaptec Reminder on SCSI Cable Lengths
• Rage128 Pro Fan Feedback
• Reader Review: Apple Cinema Display
• No Fan on Rage128 Pro in Latest G4
• Feedback on Maxtor 7200 RPM Drive Temps
• Tips on DVD Audio 'Pop' Noise
• iMac DV Serial Port Midi Success
• Diskwarrior 2.0 DiskShield Feedback
• 2930 OEM File Copy Issues Solved
• More on Clubmac Firewire/IDE Case Price Matching
• OS 9.0.2 on 6400 w/G3 Upgrade
• Pismo PB G3/500 Observations
• TrueX 42X IDE Drive Feedback
• Voodoo 4/5 Silicon Status
• Reader ratings databases updated
• Other Net News/Software Updates

Weekend's News Summary

• Don Crabb passed away.
• Maxtor/Beige G3 Drive Temp. Comments
• MacOS 9.02 Fixes iMac DVD Audio Sync, Improves Networking
• DVD Audio Pops Not Just On Pismo
• More 2930/External Drive File Copy Problems
• New G4s w/2930 Have v4.2 ROM
• Pismo DVD Audio 'Crackle'
• Adaptec 2930 ROM Update and G4 Sleep Mode
• OEM 2930/Plus 40 Copy Problems
• More on Cheap White Box PC 39160s
• Plus40 in Beige G3 Performance
• Western Digital IDE Drive Jumper Settings
• More Rev 1 B&W G3 IDE Drive Reports
• UT Expansion Pack Unzip Tip
• Other Net News/TILs/Software Updates

For links to older news pages see the Archives page.

The recent features page has a lists reviews/articles you may have missed.

For a guide to finding answers to questions - see my Site Guide page.

Considering a CPU Upgrade? Search the CPU Upgrade Owner's Survey results and search for owner reports by Mac model and/or card brand. The current database has more than 3,300+ reports and growing.