" Mike,
I installed Ryan's G3 upgrade card cache enabler for OSX Beta over the weekend and everything works very well! As expected, there was a noticable speedup with the cache enabled. The Dock is MUCH smoother, now.

I have also run Ryan's sound fix. [link added to the FAQ OS X beta section last week-Mike] General sound is good, but no sound in the Music Player App.

Machine specs:

9500 w/ Newer Tech G3 250(this is one of the First G3 cards Newer ever made [the CPU Upgrades page has my review of it from Nov. 1997-Mike])
288 MB RAM
ATI Xclaim VR 128
Entrega 2 Port USB
Evergreen Firewire Card
Thanks,
Hank "

" Woohoo!!
Works like a charm on my 7500 with 300MHz Powerlogix G3 eith 96 MB ram. The dock now magnifies as smoothly as my 300MHz minitower at work.

THANK YOU RYAN!!

P.S. your awacs audio trick also gave me back my audio. Thanks again
Mike Thomson
Sydney, Australia "

" Mike,
I have an 8600/300 that was upgraded using an xlr8 Carrier card and one of the OWC 400/200 1 Meg ZIF modules.

Both of Ryan's kernel extensions (Sound, and Cache enabler) work fine on my mac. I have been running for almost two days now without any issues. In fact I think it improved stability.

Previously I had an issue where my network connection would become incredibly slow (LAN to cable modem) after several hours of use. Now this issue is gone. Of course it could have been a cable provider issue, however I like to think that my 8600 is much happier now that it has its cache.

The speed difference is amazing!

Thanks for a great site!
Carlos "

" Just wanted to say that I've tried Ryan Rempel's cache enabler and it's working just fine (it definitely is a noticeable difference).
My processor specs are as follows RailGun G3/266 oc'd to 297Mhz/118Mhz cache (5:2). I think it's either a generic Mactell or XLR8 card, but it has the small heatsink on the processor, and none on the cache.

One thing I was wondering is if Ryan plans on implementing an onboard motherboard cache disabler like are present in the current crop of cache enabler utilities. The memory bandwidth on my 9500 drops around 10MB/sec with the motherboard cache enabled (out of 55MB total/sec), so it's definitely quite a speed hit.
Otherwise, it's fantastic.
Thanks again Ryan.
David "

" Mike, it took like maybe 5min to install even with restarts and is working fine on my UMAX J700. I can see it load at startup and OSX is snappier even more noticeable in classic. I do wish there was a utility that one could use in OSX or Classic like Gauge Pro( I tried it won't load in classic)
Will S. "

" I'm writing this e-mail under OS X, using an 8500/120 with a Powerlogix 350/175 512k card, overclocked to 400. 128 Meg RAM. Motherboard cache removed.

It works. The interface is now crisp and usable. Prior to the L2 enabler, OS X was IMHO too slow to use.

One thing to remember is that the enabler works by determining the state of the L2 cache under OS 9. It takes a "snapshot" of the cache status, and then replicates that under OS X. Which means that you have to take that "snapshot" while the backside cache is enabled under OS 9.

This is potentially an issue because in order for Classic to run under OS X, you have to remove all the extensions/control panels which enable the backside cache under OS 9. I removed my Powerlogix G3/G4 enabler, and was running OS 9 without backside cache, for Classic compatibility. I took my first "snapshot" with the cache off, and when I tried it under OS X, I crashed. After I rebooted to enable the backside cache under OS 9, and then took the snapshot, it worked
Greg Abbott
Minneapolis, MN "

" Mike,
I just want to let you and your readers know that I have been successfully using Ryan Rempel's G3 Cache Enabler for almost a day now with out any problems. Although I don't have any quantitative numbers, it certainly feels like its enabled. Menus pop down much crisper and the Dock seems much more fluid, especially its magnification animation. If I get a chance I'll try some finder copies with it disabled/enabled to get some real numbers.

I have the following setup:
- 7300 PowerMac (originally 180Mhz model)
- XLR8 Mach Carrier w/ OWC Mercury 366Mhz G3
- Motherboard cache removed

Thanks,
Joel Reed. "

" Hey Mike,
Thought you'd like to hear that the OS X Cache Enabler that Ryan fixed up is working fine with my old PowerLogix 300/300 1MB card in my 9500 running the OS X Public Beta.
Anonymous Speed Freak "

" Mike,
I have use Ryan Rempel's packages for both sound and cache on a 7200 with a replacement 7500 motherboard, 366 OWC in xlr8 zif card. Single infernal hard drive (old Seagate Hawk 2 meg with 1.5 OSX partition and .5 meg OS9 partition.
tres cool!!!
Phil Noguchi "

" Mike,
The cache enabler works WONDERS on my PowerMac 8600 w/ XLR8 CarrierZIF + OWC 350Mhz G3 running at 400/160. OS X performance essentially doubled (at least in graphical refreshes...I haven't done any other testing yet).
-Eric Rybski "

" Hi Mike,
The Cache Enabler from Ryan Rempel works fine for me. PowerMac 7500/Vimage G3 300/512 w. 64 meg ram and OS X Pb.

OS X Pb is much zippier now especially when surfing or writing stuff. Aqua is only marginally faster though.

One funny thing, Apple System Profiler still says I have a 195 mhz G3 (it did that before I enabled the cache too). So basically I don't really know if my G3 runs at 300 or if OS X Pb forces it to run slower.
Johan "

" Mike-
System: B&W G3 (rev 1)
OS: OSX PB
RAM: 192mb
Chip: IBM Copper 450 overclocked to 500 (L2 250mhz)

Installation of the enabler was simple and straight forward. Performance increase was dramatic! I have not found a way to "confirm" that the L2 is indeed enabled, but there's no question that it is from a performance standpoint alone. This machine now smokes my PowerBook (Pismo) 400 at running the Public Beta.

OT: OSX impressions-
I'm digging OSX more and more. It runs great on this Mac now (say rate it a 9.5?), and pretty darn good on the PowerBook (say 8). However, on a 233 iMac not the best (3 or 4 at best)...hopefully things run a little faster at the low ends with the final release.
Later-
Mark Love "

I assume his ZIF upgrade needed a cache enabler in OS 9 also (many ZIF's for G3 macs don't as noted on the CPU Reviews here, but some do like PL and some specific lots of OEM ZIFs sold now)

Read Ryan's page for instructions and disclaimers. [Update: for the latest software from Ryan and more info on OS X installs on unsupported Macs, see OWC's OS X Legacy Macs page.]

" As a note for your readers, we've got some really good memory prices going right now....

G4 128mb SDRam CL2 2-2-2 for $99

G4 256mb SDRam CL2 2-2-2 for $215

iBook/PowerBook FireWire-Pismo 128MB CL2 2-2-2 for $118.50

iBook/PowerBook FireWire-Pismo 256MB CL2 2-2-2 for $225.00"

These items are now in their sidebar ad and xlr8yourmac specials page.
(Note: Since the news pages are archived, always check the site specials page for the latest prices and availability. Sale prices and stock changes over time.)

" Mike
I finally tracked down the reason my screen kept going gray after switching color depth when the Voodoo 5 drivers were installed (to use with my Voodoo 3 2000 PCI in my G4 450 MP).

I disabled GoMac 2.03 and am now able to switch color depth without the gray screen syndrome : )
Funny though how the Voodoo 3 b12 drivers worked just fine with GoMac!

I've asked what Voodoo5 driver version he was using.

" Hi Mike,
just some additional infos about the eMacVoodooVersion file
The eMacVoodooVersion file is an ASCII textfile, you can open it with every texteditor (e.g. SimpleText). Inside you'll find the latest version number and two archive names (the .hqx archiv is always the better choice).

The URL to the eMacVoodooVersion file seems to be always the same:

http://www.3dfxgamers.com/drivers/voodoo5/mac/eMacVoodooVersion

Download this file, open it with a texteditor and you should see something like this:

<VERSION=1.1.0a>
<DRIVERNAME=MacVoodoo.sea>
<HQXNAME=MacVoodoo1.1.0a.sea.hqx>

The archive is always in the same directory as the eMacVoodooVersion file on the server: In this case the complete download link for the current driver is: www.3dfxgamers.com/drivers/voodoo5/mac/MacVoodoo1.1.0a.sea.hqx
Friedly greetings from Cologne, Rene."

The direct download link was also noted in Friday's news.

" Hi Mike,
Just wanted to make sure you were aware of this one. I use AOL (ugh, I know ... but I have to for work) and am an active Mac Beta tester. I was just notified that they are currently reviewing their plans to produce an OSX version of the next release. According to the news item in their Beta tester section:

"Oct 12 - Mac OS X Survey
We are conducting a survey to try to find out how many testers are testing Apple's public beta release of Mac OS X! Please open the Mac OS X Survey link to the right and let us know if you are using the public beta or if you plan to get Mac OS X when the final version is released."

They ask whether you are currently using OSX beta as your primary system or merely from time-to-time and whether you plan to upgrade as soon as it is released."

Software Updates:

• Download SmoothType 2.2.1
• REALbasic 3.0a10
• Sherlock Menu 3.5
• MacVCD
• MacTelnet 3.0a19
• Microsoft Entourage 2001 scripts
• LDAP Plugin For Eudora
• AutoPurge 2.5
• Services for Macintosh - UAM 5.05
• Internet Gateway 6.7
  
  OS X Related:
• PortReflector 1.1
• Make Disks Visible Mac OS X Public Beta Tools CD (Free ADC Membership)

Apple TILs:
• Screen Savers: Using With Liquid Crystal Displays
• Mac OS: Computer Pauses for Several Seconds When Waking From Sleep
• Troubleshooting Handbook: Problems During Installation
• Troubleshooting Handbook: Reinstalling Your Computer's Software