" BlueChip Pismo Product Notices (10/22/03)
Firmware update: corrects a problem of incorrect reporting of CPU speed when the IBM 750 FX is installed in the Pismo.
The IBM FX CPU uses five bits to set the bus ratio. Previous G3s use only four bits. The Pismo firmware therefore looks at only the first four bits, which means the computer thinks it is running at a slower speed than it actually is. Apple System Profiler will show 550 MHz operation instead of the actual 900 MHz operation. This also affects iChat AV, as it has a minimum requirement of 600 MHz to operate properly with the iSight.

This firmware patch corrects this problem so the actual 900 MHz clock speed is reported properly. It will also report the proper 512K L2 cache size of the IBM FX CPU. This firmware update is not required for the Pismo G4 500.

If your Pismo G3 900 shipped after 10/17/03, your card already has the firmware patch applied. This can be confirmed by running Apple System Profiler and verifying 900 MHz clock speed. "

See the linked Powerlogix page for download and installation info.

"The QuickTime Render Plug-in addresses a compatibility issue between Final Cut Pro 4 and QuickTime 6.4 that occurs when rendering non-DV clips in DV sequences. It is strongly recommended for all Final Cut Pro 4 users."

A G5 owner that had problems with FCP4 previously said the update seems to have helped.
(original news item follows)

In a reply to the earlier news item (below) on Quicktime 6.4 problems seen by some Final Cut Pro 4 users under 10.2.x, a reader sent a note regarding Panther/10.3 (GM build I assume, I have not personally verified this however as I don't currently own FCP 4.)

"In conjunction with today's news item about FCP4/QT6.4 compatibility problems, I wonder if people are aware that if they upgrade to Panther, they are stuck with QT6.4 and cannot use the downgrade because that's for Jaguar installations.

I have already run into this problem and Apple has provided no workaround other than to say don't upgrade to Panther. :(
Ed
(I asked Ed for more details)

I have the problem that if I have mixed media on the timeline (stills, Title3D, LiveTitles, and DV) I will have unstable behaviour in FCP4.0.2. Mainly this means the spinning beach ball which never resolves itself. This occurs when I hit render or when I'm moving clips around or adjusting their length in the timeline. I have to Force Quit the program and restart FCP in order to continue editing. When and where the freeze occurs appears totally random...for example, sometimes if I hit render and it freezes at say 53%, I will force quit, restart and attempt to re-render and the freeze may occur at a different point or not at all during the re-render.

To work around this, I continually hit Save every time I do something.
At first I thought it was specifically Panther and FCP that was the problem so I clean installed 10.2.8 on another drive and updated it to the latest QT6.4 then clean installed FCP4 and updated to 4.0.2. Same problem during editing on that system.

in addition, I should add that I made sure Permissions were fixed, I've deleted/cleaned the FCP4 prefs and I still had the random freezing.

I've also tested my 2.5 GB of RAM on the DP G5 using Apple Test disk and I'm not getting freezes in any other program, just FCP.
Hopefully, Apple resolves this soon. "

One reader replied he had not seen a QT 6.4/10.3 problem but I'm not sure he was using Final Cut Pro 4. If any readers are running the GM/final build of 10.3 (w/QT 6.4) with Final Cut Pro 4 (and/or other Apple Pro apps) - let me know if you've seen any problems.

"G5 with Bochs Carbon 2.0.2 (X86 PC Emulator)
I had Bochs Carbon 2.0.2 (NOT the WinTel one; I got this off SourceForge) running on my iBook G3-600 for some time. I even managed to install Windows NT 4.0 under it! It was dog-slow, though.

However, I now have a G5 dual 2.0GHz... and Bochs runs on it. I don't have the ancient Norton Sysinfo tool that Tim S. uses, unfortunately,
(he's referring to recent reader report on performance with the v2.0.2 emulator from a G5 1.6GHz owner running a panther beta which showed a very very low Norton SI score.-Mike)
but just by "feel" it seems to be equal to a Pentium in the 200-400Mhz range. Responsive enough for NT.

There are issues with the PC mouse pointer tracking the Mac one, and stuff like that, but it's no longer the "utter dog" it was on my iBook. :)

I'd really like to see the Bochs folks over at SourceForge get a lot of support from people who are PC hardware gurus, since Virtual PC won't work on a G5 until some future version.
Dan B. "

I'll add his comments to the previous page of Open Source Bochs/OpenOSX's WinTel X86 Emulator.

iBook 12in G4/800 - $1,099.00
• 800MHz PowerPC G4
• 256K L2 cache @ 800MHz
• 12-inch TFT Display, 1024x768 resolution
• 256MB DDR266 SDRAM
• 30GB Ultra ATA drive
• Combo Drive
• ATI Mobility Radeon 9200 (32MB DDR VRAM)
  
  iBook 14in 933MHz $1,299.00
• 933MHz PowerPC G4
• 256K L2 cache @ 933MHz
• 14-inch TFT Display 1024x768 resolution
• 256MB DDR266 SDRAM
• 40GB Ultra ATA drive
• Combo Drive
• ATI Mobility Radeon 9200 (32MB DDR VRAM)
  
  14in 1GHz $1,499.00
• 1GHz PowerPC G4
• 256K L2 cache @ 1GHz
• 14-inch TFT Display 1024x768 resolution
• 256MB DDR266 SDRAM
• 60GB Ultra ATA drive
• Combo Drive
• ATI Mobility Radeon 9200 (32MB DDR VRAM)

For more info, see the Apple iBook product page.

Apple also has a press release today titled Apple Lowers Prices for eMac Line, noting the superdrive equipped model (G4/1GHz, 256MB, 80GB HD) is now $1099. The 1GHz, 128MB, 40GB, Combo Drive model is $799.

" Channel D announces the immediate availability of the Mac OS X native version of its audio signal analyzer and signal generator suite, Mac the Scope / Waavebox (http://www.channld.com/prdinf.html). Mac the Scope 4X 4.1 comprises a versatile signal generator, vector FFT analyzer, sonogram, time domain RTA and more. The new version includes support for CoreAudio, the new audio interface technology introduced in Mac OS X.
The software runs on any 500 MHz or faster Macintosh with Mac OS X 10.1 or later. The software also is compatible with Apple's upcoming Mac OS X Panther, OS X 10.3.
Pricing ranges from $49 to $449 depending on the configuration, which is customizable. Users who purchased the product within the last 12 months are entitled to a free upgrade. For a limited time, other users can receive up to $70 off upgrades from earlier versions. A full-featured, time-limited demo is available for download. "

"The QuickTime Render Plug-in addresses a compatibility issue between Final Cut Pro 4 and QuickTime 6.4 that occurs when rendering non-DV clips in DV sequences. It is strongly recommended for all Final Cut Pro 4 users."

A G5 owner that had problems with FCP4 previously said the update seems to have helped.
(original news item follows)

(I don't own FCP 4, but posting this as a FYI. See later posted news item above for similar reports with 10.3 GM build I assume.)

" Hi Mike, me again
Were you aware of the Quicktime 6.4. issues for FCP users?
(I don't own FCP4, but had heard the MPEG2 ($20) playback plugin for QT needed updating for 6.4. I also saw permissions corrections needed when applying the QT 6.4 (and iTunes 4.1) updates. I assume everyone had run the previous Pro apps/support updates. You installed the Support update, then re-run software updates to get all the updates to pro apps like FCP4, Combustion, Compressor, Cinema Tools, etc. that was noted in the Aug. 13th news page here. Being pro apps users I'm sure they did.)

It's all laid out in a LAFCPUG mail I received.
Once again, good info for some of your readers:
Regards Stu"

(info included in Stu's email follows)
5. APPLE RELEASES QUICKTIME 6.4. FOR FCP USERS, NOT A GOOD IDEA
In a trend that began with the OSX 10.2.8 updater, Apple released QuickTime 6.4 and within hours posts from FCP users flooded the online forums with reports of erratic behavior and uh, that ol' spinning beach ball of death. Many people also reported the updater wrecked havoc with LiveType, Compressor and Offline RT.
To be fair many people reported all was well. Reports were so numerous however that dismissing them as user error was impossible. Something was wrong.

As of this writing Apple has released no official comment on what might be wrong but they did release QuickTime 6.3 RE-installer for those of you who installed 6.4. I conclude this is Apples way of saying oops.
6.4 has some wonderful additions and you can read about them here. http://www.apple.com/quicktime/products/qt/
So..if you've installed QT 6.4 and all is well then don't worry about a thing, - except perhaps getting work. If you are thinking of installing QT 6.4, DON'T! Not until the all clear, which I imagine will be soon.

For those of you who HAVE installed and are pulling your hair out as you read this, then use the 6.3 RE -installer and go back to 6.3. For those of you dying to install QT 6.4 because you like this sort of thing, and Spike TV too, then UN install FCP, http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93150 install QT 6.4 FIRST, then install FCP 4, then the FCP 4.0.2 updater, burn some incense, wave your hands wildly over your Mac, restart and hope for the best.

NOTE: If you use any version of Mac OS X 10.2 and require QuickTime Java support for Java 1.3 or Java 1.4.1, do not upgrade to QuickTime 6.4.
FURTHER NOTE: An updated version of the MPEG-2 Playback Component is required for use with QuickTime 6.4 on Mac OS X. If you purchased the MPEG-2 Playback Component from the Apple Store online or received it with Final Cut Pro 4 or DVD Studio Pro 2, you are eligible to receive an updated version for free.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93407
Here is the link to the QT 6.3 RE-installer.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=120255
Here is the Link for the 6.4 installer
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/standalone/ "

" Dear xlr8yourmac:
I hadn't tried using my iSight with iChat since I got the M-Audio Revolution 7.1 card a couple weeks ago. I tried to start up iChat tonight to IM with my brother, and not only did iChat not have any kind of audio reading when iSight was selected as the audio in device, the Sound System Preference didn't read any audio (in the levels meter) when the iSight was selected as the audio input device! I tried running Video Viewer (a third party app), and no audio there either. I thought maybe the mic blew in the iSight.
But then I had a hunch the Revolution was screwing with things. (he had installed the latest 1.2.7 driver update.) It's been crashing my G5 very frequently (still have to find out what the deal is with this - contrary reports from M-Audio) (Note - even though their Revolution 7.1 driver v1.2.7 update in September mentioned G5 compatibility, as does their page at http://m-audio.com/news/php/g5compatibility.php - see Marco's previous comments that he had called M-Audio and was told that his Revolution 7.1 audio card (bought from a dealer on Sept. 7th) would need a $49 (plus shipping) mod for full compatibility. (See his report on the PCI card compatibility section of the G5 info page here). I wrote M-Audio tech support about this several days ago - but no reply back yet.-Mike)
so I decided to remove it to see if I got audio back in iChat. (I had actually disabled the card - I selected built-in audio in the Sound Sys. Pref., but still no luck) Sure enough - audio input through the built-in mic on the iSight came back to normal after the card was removed. Have you had any other reports of this? I'm running 10.2.8 on my dual 2 GHz. G5. This is two strikes for me with this Revolution card... Please let me know what you discover on this issue.
Thanks, Marco "

I wish M-Audio would explain why some are seeing G5 problems with this card and reportedly are being told the card needs a rework for full G5 compatibility when they have a page on their website that the card is already G5 compatible. (i.e. Is there some change in the latest production cards? if so is there a serial number check that can be done on cards purchased from dealers to see if the card has the mod?)
I don't own a Revolution 7.1 PCI Audio card but if any other readers do and have a tip or suggestion for Marco, let me know.

"Hi Mike
I installed the Matrox PR Release 4 Driver Update yesterday, (included in the package is a firmware update).

After resetting my FCP 4.0.2 prefs, I did some editing, and it seemed very solid.

The previous beta version had some issues, we had one or two kernel panic crashes, very ugly, but couldn't say what actually caused it. Otherwise it used to playback out of sync sometimes, then we'd adjust some setting and it was all OK again, but didn't seem any logic to it. However our workflow was not interrupted.

Now with what looks like the final Beta release, I tried to make FCP crash yesterday, but it was rock solid and so far has not exhibited any of the previous random defects. I will report back after a bit more hard out editing. Looking good!

Oh, we have a G4 Quicksilver Dual 800 1GB RAM twin Acard AHARD RAID (2 x IBM 60GB each) total 240GB running OS-X 10.2.6 Final Cut Pro 4.0.2. Quicktime 6.3 and DVD Studio Pro 2.0.1
Regards Stu"

I've added Stu's comments to the previous page of Matrox RTMac OS X Driver feedback.

A reader replied to this post:

" Hi Mike
about : Anyone working on an RC5 Client for OS 9?

- There is a bug that is preventing the client to run on MacOS 9. everybody tried to solve it, but it's quite complicated the bug apears to be in memory management. the client just crashes after a few hours (YMMV). that's why there is no rc5-72 client for MacOS 9.

here are 2 links to the bugzilla database : the first one is the request to port to MacOS 9. the second is the show-stopper bug that freezes machines.

http://n0cgi.distributed.net/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=2974
http://n0cgi.distributed.net/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=2402
-Daniel"

• Giga Designs G4 1.25GHz (at 1.467GHz) in (digital audio) G4/AGP (rated 10)
• Giga Designs G4 1GHz (at 1.2GHz) in (sawtooth) G4/AGP (rated 10)
  (My reviews of G4 and G3 upgrades w/apps/game tests, install info, etc. are linked here. OC/CPU module articles are on the Systems page.)

(Warning - Overclocking may not be reliable and could lead to hardware failure or corrupted data.) You can find the full reports by searching the database selecting the indicated Mac model and upgrade card brand/type. If you've upgraded the CPU on your Mac, please post an entry in the database. Search the database for entries from most every upgradable Mac model *before* you buy. (Searchable by mac model/upgrade brand). For detailed reviews with performance tests and install tips, see the CPU Upgrades page.)

CDRW Drives:
• Firewire Sony CRX 225A (52x24x52x) used w/Powerbook G4 (OS X)
  (using modified burn support plugin)
  
  DVD+R/RW + DVD-R/RW Drives:
• IDE Pioneer DVR-106/A06 in Dual G4 DDR (OS X)
  (problems noted)
  (Illustrated CD drive install guide here covers G4 towers up to the Digital Audio Model, Beige G3 MT, B&W G3 and 8600/9600 Macs)
• Firewire (IDE drive in FW case) LG 4040B used w/iBook 2001 (OS X)
  (using modified burn support plugin - see FAQ for patchburn util or an already modified LG plugin file)
• Firewire NEC ND-1300A used w/iMac slot-loading (OS X)
  (using modified burn support file)
  
  Hard Drives:
• IDE Hitachi 120GB in 7300 using IDE PCI Card (OS 7.5.5)
• IDE Maxtor DiamondMax Plus9 80GB in Beige G3 using IDE PCI card (OS 9)
• Firewire ClubMac 100GB (no drive mechansim brand mentioned) used w/G4 Dual (OS X 10.3)

You can find full owner reports (latest shown first) by searching the database by drive/brand/interface/mac models (the latest reports are shown first in searches). For guides to installing CD/CDRW/DVD drives or Hard drives in many mac models, see the IDE Articles page. The Firewire articles page also has guides on case kits, installing drives, etc.
If you've added a IDE, SCSI, Firewire or USB hard drive, CDRW, tape drive, etc. make sure you add a report to the database. (If you post an updated entry - make sure you use the same name, etc. as you did before so I can find your past entry. Thanks.)
(Incomplete entries are deleted. Do not post questions in the database, it's for drive reports not questions on what drive to buy - for that try searching the database for reports from owners of your mac model on the drive type/brand/interface, etc. you're interested in.)

• 1 year ago today
• 2 years ago today
• 3 years ago today