Heather Anne Hurd asked my advice on a modem for her CD-ROM
eMac, which ships from Apple
without a modem. I told her I wasn't at all familiar with USB modems
and suggested she ask on our iMac
list. After doing so, she writes:
Thanks for the reply and the tip. After trying several ways to get
my brand new eMac to recognize a serial modem via a serial-to-USB
adapter, I gave up and bought a Zoom V90 56K USB modem. I installed
it, and viola, here I am online on my eMac at this very moment! The
eMac is a really nice Mac - and my most current Mac. I also
have a slew of 68k and early Power Macs (the next most recent being
my G3-upgraded PowerBook 1400c
[wonderful PB!]).
This eMac is like a deluxe original form-factor iMac. The 17" flat
CRT display is really great, and the whole computer is a class act.
You may recall I wrote in an article for
LEM back in 2000 that I wanted a ruby iMac. Well, my new eMac may
be white, but it's everything I wanted in that iMac and then some.
Great computer!
I'm posting this because I don't have all the answers. I
didn't realize that Apple doesn't sell the eMac modem separately
for installation in the CD-ROM model. I'm not at all familiar with
USB modems, since the 'Books we use for dial-up access have
internal modems.
That said, we run about 30
mailing lists covering everything from pre-Mac technology
(Apple II, Lisa) through the latest 'Books, Power Macs, iMacs, and
eMacs. These lists are populated by those who are learning about
Macs and those who have become experts in them. They are a
fantastic resource.
Yes, unfortunately, none of my Macs are new enough to be true-blue
AirPort equipped. They are all using third-party 802.11b equipment,
so I have never gotten to play with any of Apple's AirPort-branded
software. (I did have a first generation base station, but it died,
and I replaced it with a combo 4-port switch/wireless AP/router. The
Lucent WaveLAN Silver card that runs the first-gen base stations is
still in use, however, in my PowerBook 1400cs.)
I hadn't thought about software base station. Another option is
power line networking. I saw an ad today for Fry's Electronics
selling both a USB adapter, and an ethernet bridge for $60 each -
with $60 mail-in rebates. I doubt the USB model works with the Mac,
but I may pick up a couple of the ethernet bridge models to see how
well they work.
I have no experience with power line networking, but it seems
a much more sensible idea than piggybacking networking on the
phone lines in your home, since power lines tend to reach a lot
more places than phone lines.
If anyone has powerline networking up and running with Macs, I'd
love to hear about it.
Radeon 7000 with beige G3 and OS X
Steve Tedder reports from the field:
My [Radeon] 7000 arrived today and is working smoothly.
Works well with Quartz Extreme enabled so far. Using 400 MHz G4. Best
regards....
Thanks for the positive feedback. Those interested in trying
Quartz Extreme (QE) on a PCI Power Mac (whether beige, blue &
white, or graphite) should try out PCI
Extreme!, a free utility that enables QE on most PCI
Radeon cards later than the Rage 128 Pro.
Because QE can saturate the PCI bus and slow other tasks, PCI
Extreme also include a utility to remove the hack if you don't
like the results.
More on the AGP "Extra Tooth"
Adding to the ongoing discussion of the "extra tooth" on some AGP
video cards, Alykhan Halani writes:
I believe I may be able to shed some light on the AGP card's
"extra tooth". Newer AGP cards (AGP 2.0 and higher) can use a
retention mechanism to prevent them from becoming loose and slipping
out of the AGP slot. The "extra tooth" (the one shaped like a hook)
is actually a retention tab which sits outside the AGP slot and is
locked onto by a peg in the retention mechanism. As far as I know, it
has nothing to do with power.
Video cards with the "extra tooth" work fine in AGP slots without
the retention mechanism, as long as the card and the AGP slot are
the same version of AGP. Using an AGP 4x card in an AGP 2x slot
can cause damage, because they use different voltages (1.5V for 4x,
3.3V for 2x). Some cards and slots are compatible with more
than one version of AGP (these are usually labeled AGP 2x/4x). I'm
not sure exactly how this applies to Macs (I'm more of a PC guy, but
only because I haven't had many opportunities to work with Macs), but
I assume it's the same, since AGP is a "cross-platform" standard.
Q: Can I use the AGP card retention mechanism with any AGP
card?
A: The AGP retention mechanism is designed for use with AGP cards
that meet the AGP 2.0 specification. These cards have a special notch
at the back that interlocks with a small plastic stud on the
retention mechanism. Cards that do not meet the AGP 2.0 specification
should not be used with the retention mechanism, because the small
plastic stud may interfere with correct installation and retention of
the card.
I also wanted to let you know that, even though I'm a PC guy, I
really enjoy your site. In fact, Low End
Mac is one of the two sites that I visit regularly (the other one
is Tom's Hardware).
Once a geek, always a geek, I guess. I cut my teeth on the
Apple II+, where I learned how to program in BASIC and create
disk-based databases. From there I moved into Commodores at home,
followed by a Zenith Z-151 that I eventually tricked out with an 8
MHz upgrade, hard drive, combo card (clock/calendar, EEMS memory,
extra ports), enhanced EGA video card, and even a 3.5" floppy,
which we pretty radical back in the late 1980s.
About 1990 I got a job at the local ComputerLand, where I was the
DOS geek - the other used Macs. You can guess what happened next.
I ended up with a Mac Plus, sold the Zenith, and the rest is Low
End Mac history. I haven't had much to do with PCs since the 386
era. I did keep up on the PC side fairly well until BYTE magazine
(1976-1998) was purchased by CMP Media and killed as a print
magazine.
So I pretty much missed the evolution of AGP. Thanks for sharing
this information. I'll have to update the profiles of the various
AGP Power Mac G4 models to reflect this information.
I read with interest tonight on Low End Mac your experiences
upgrading your beige G3. Thanks for telling us about them!
I've had Jaguar running on my beige G3 for some time without any
problems. I have 356 MB of RAM and, other than being a little
sluggish, I have no complaints.
Until I decided to add a Western Digital 80 GB 7200 RPM drive. I
believe this is an ATA/100 drive, so my first question is can it
replace my original Quantum Fireball ATA/66 drive? I haven't been
able to get the darn thing to boot up, and after reading about your
problems with Carbon
Copy Cloner, which I used, that might be the reason.
Before I go to all the trouble of installing Jaguar from scratch,
can this ATA/100 drive replace my original ATA/66 drive as a bootable
drive?
Yes, it should work without a hitch. The only significant
difference between ATA/66 and ATA/100 is throughput. Since few
drives are fast enough to need more than 66 MBps throughput,
you'll probably see no difference at all if you're using an ATA/66
controller in your beige G3.
If you're still using the 16.67 MBps onboard IDE bus, the 80 GB
drive should still work, but it's going to be remarkably hobbled
by the bus. Most of today's drives have real world throughput
somewhere between 33 MBps and 66 MBps. I'd suggest the Acard
Ahard, available from OWC
(and probably other sources as well) for under $60, since it makes
your Mac see the ATA/100 drive as a SCSI drive and thereby
eliminates the need to create an 8 MB bootable partition for
Mac OS X.
Although I haven't tried it, I've recently heard that the latest
version of Carbon Copy Cloner includes improved support for older
Macs, which may solve the problem. I'll have to try it on our
beige G3 soon.
There's also a new commercial program, Clone'X,
that may work as well. You can download a demo of the $49 program
from the website.
The Beige G3 will support 768 MB
RAM (i.e. 3 x 256 MB DIMMs). However, the memory controller on the
motherboard only supports DIMMs using chip densities of 128 Mbits or
less.
How can I tell the chip density of my DIMM, I hear you ask, Easy
- count the chips.
If your 256 MB DIMM has 8 chips (i.e. single sided) the chips are
256 Mbit units. The memory controller on the motherboard will read
the first 128 Mbits of the chips and stop, therefore the DIMM will be
identified as a 128 MB DIMM.
If your 256 MB DIMM has 16 chips (i.e. double sided), then the
chips are 128 Mbit chips, and the DIMM will be recognised as a 256 MB
DIMM.
In theory at least, the onboard controller could access 1.5 GB of
RAM (i.e. using 3 x 512 MB DIMMs using 32 x 128 Mb chips per DIMM).
However, these DIMMs would be so large that they could not physically
fit inside the closed machine.
Hope this clears up the questions over beige G3 memory.
Thanks for the kind words about Low
End Mac. I'm very pleased with the way we've grown and evolved
over the years, now serving up about a million page views per
month to Mac users, Windows users supporting Macs, and potential
switchers.
I've seen this kind of thing reported before, as in 64
MB SIMMs on 68K Macs by Chris Lawson. Whether a particular
model worked with 64 MB SIMMs depended on the computer's memory
controller and the configuration of memory on the SIMM more than
on the total capacity of the SIMM. The same seems to be happening
here.
I wonder if anyone makes the kind of 512 MB DIMMs you theorize
might allows the beige G3 to reach 1.5 MB total RAM. If so, the
minitower version might have enough room.
Time to update the beige G3 profiles with this new
information.
Wired USB-to-Ethernet Adapters
Larry Effler wonders:
Thanks for all the information I've gleaned from your writings
over the years. Your efforts are greatly appreciated. I have a
question I haven't seen addressed on LEM:
Do you (or any of your readers) know of a wired USB/ethernet
adaptor that works with Macs (OS 9 or X, I'm not picky)?
I know it sounds like an odd question because all Macs with USB
also have built-in ethernet. But I have a 600
MHz iBook that took a lightning strike. Everything was on a surge
protector except the network. Now the ethernet port is dead. A
new motherboard will cost hundreds. I see these little plug-in
dongles that do this for Windows computers for about $30. For thirty
bucks I can live with a slower connection.
P.S. Let this be a warning to everyone. Anything that connects
your computer to the outside world is a path for lightning!
Thanks for the warning. I have no experience at all with
USB-to-Etherenet adapters, so I'm going to ask the readers for
feedback on this one.
Still More on AGP Slots
Another email from Ed Hurtley, this time on the issue of AGP cards
and slots:
Here are some explanations of the various AGP card/slot
differences. My lovely ASCII art is showing the connector on an AGP
card, not the slot. The view is as if you were looking at the
'component' side of the card, with the exterior bracket on the left,
and the AGP connector on the bottom.
First, there are three main keying specifications from the main
AGP spec:
3.3V: The 'old' specification, good up to AGP 2x. It's slot is
keyed as
1.5V: The 'new' specification, which is for AGP 4x and above. I
have yet to see any 1.5V-only cards, which would have keying as
|_________|-|____|
Universal: A card that is keyed for both 1.5 and 3.3V. Most AGP 4x
or above cards use this keying. It has both gaps.
|____|-|___|-|____|
which can be seen in this
picture . (A Universal slot has no breaks in it; it's
one long slot.)
The extras: There are a few extra 'tabs' that can be seen on
various cards. The first is AGP Pro. AGP Pro is a subset of the AGP
4x specification. (So all AGP Pro cards are AGP 4x or above.) AGP Pro
is just extra power. It adds two small areas on either end of the
main card slot. As
|_|-|____|-|___|-|____|-|_|
(An AGP Pro is one long slot in the middle with the two extra
power slots on the ends, as seen in
this picture.
The second is the 'retention' tab. It is usually seen as an 'L'
shaped extension on the 'back' of the slot (see the 'Universal'
example above.) This retention tab fits into the rear slot of an AGP
Pro slot or into a special retention clip on a non-Pro slot.
|____|-|___|-|____|-L
Then we have Apple's extra tab. It is the tab that provides power
for the ADC. It is on the 'front' of the card, in front of where the
AGP Pro tab would be (why they didn't just use AGP Pro, I have no
idea, it can provide up to an extra 100 Watts.) This is the only
picture I could find of an
Apple AGP card. On this picture, you can also see the
retention tab 'L' on the end.
|_|---|____|-|___|-|____|-L
Note: I found a good picture comparing all
AGP slots after typing the above. It, of course, doesn't
include Apple's slot.
I'm getting quite an education on AGP today. Thanks to your
information, a lot of us will be much better informed.
Finding Older Apple Manuals
Paul Petrozzi writes:
I have been quite a fan of Low End Mac for about two years, but
I've never had the need to write until now.
My question is: Do you have any way of obtaining a Manual/User
Guide for a Quadra 840av? I
recently purchased one of these machines here in Sydney, Australia,
and I cannot locate a manual.
Apple, in their infinite wisdom, only keep manuals for the Power
Mac 8100 onwards on their website. I have searched eBay
without luck. The market in Australia is quite small, so I haven't
had much luck locating one here through contacts, etc. I would assume
(hope) that in your circle of Mac buddies someone would have a manual
that they wouldn't mind photocopying and sending over. I would be
happy to pay costs as required.
I've googled the Web and been unable to find what you're
looking for in downloadable format. I've found several sites with
service manuals and a few with a limited selection of user guides,
but none for the 840av.
You can learn a lot about this classic from our profile, the links
we provide, and a wealth of useful article in Apple's
K-Base Archive, but sometimes having your own copy of the
owner's manual really is best.
I'll post this in the Mailbag and suggest you join Quadlist
and ask if anyone there can help out. If you do find an online
source, let me know. I have an 840av with no manual, too.
I read on LEM web site an article about booting a PowerBook from a
CompactFlash card with great interest. Although it specifically
states that on a PowerBook 500 series it shouldn't work (it says:
"PowerBook 520/540/550 does not appear to work"). I went ahead and
tried it on my PPC upgraded 540c
with success. Here's how I did it:
turn off PC exchange, reboot
on prompt I reformatted as Mac OS
turned PC exchange back on, reboot (now if I choose
Special/Erase disk it offers me either PC DOS or Mac OS format,
unlike before)
copy System folder to CF, choose it as Startup device,
reboot
voilà!
Of course, the CF can be used as virtual memory, too.
Configuration used:
PowerBook 540c PPC upgraded to 167 MHz 603e
40 MB RAM
340 MB hard drive
Rev. C PC card cage
128 MB CompactFlash card
PCMCIA CF adapter
Mac OS 8.1
It would be great if someone updated the information to reflect
the true possibility of the Blackbird.
No, the article never stated that the PB 500 series couldn't
be booted from Compact Flash, only that at that point nobody had
provided evidence that it could work. We've since received other
field reports indicating that this is possible.
We don't usually go back and rewrite articles, but I have posted
an update indicating that the Blackbird series can be booted from
CF - and we'll compile all the information into a new Mac Daniel
article that specifically addresses the details of this setup,
since it's more complex than the other 'Books.
Letters sent may be published at our discretion. Email addresses will
not be published unless requested. If you prefer that your message
not be published, mark it "not for publication." Letters may be
edited for length, context, and to match house
style.
Dan Knight has been publishing Low
End Mac since April 1997. Mailbag columns come from email responses to his Mac Musings, Mac Daniel, Online Tech Journal, and other columns on the site.
Mac of the Day: Umax SuperMac C500, Nov. 1996 - The smallest, least costly Mac clone had two PCI slots.
List of the Day: Mac Video Group covers digital video hardware and software for Mac users.
October 11 in LEM history: 99: Kihei revisited - 00: Bring back beige - AT&T proposes extortion - 01: Mimio for the Mac - 02: Of docks and roadblocks - Reasons not to switch - PowerBook G3 repair - 04: Virtual PC 7 puts Windows on your Mac - Modem Magic - 05: Why we oppose any iPod tax - Trash shortcuts - 06: 30 days of old school computing - Firefox and Safari chipping away at Microsoft
Best Mac Pro Deals, Low End Mac Deals, 10.10.
Used 2.66 GHz 4-core, $1,799; new, $1,949 after rebate; 2.8 4-core, $2,099 shipped; 8-core, $2,599 shipped; 3.0 $3,399 shipped; 3.2, $4,099 shipped.
Best PowerBook G3 Deals, Low End Mac Deals, 10.10.
Used 14" WallStreet G3/266 MHz, $90; Lombard G3/400 MHz, $150; Pismo G3/400 MHz, $300; 500 MHz, $350.
Best Time Capsule and AirPort Deals, Low End Mac Deals, 10.10.
Refurb 500 GB Time Capsule, $249; new, $294; refurb 1 TB, $419; new, $462; AirPort Extreme Card, $39; Base Station, $159; Express, $60.
Modding Your Old Mac to Make It More Useful, Phil Herlihy, The Usefulness Equation, 10.09.
If your old Mac is too slow, too noisy, too plain looking, or has too little room for expansion, you might want to mod it.
Best iMac G4 Deals, Low End Mac Deals, 10.09.
Used 15" 700 MHz CD-RW, $269; 800 Combo, $300; 1 GHz, $390; 17" 1.25 GHz SuperDrive, $400; 20", $529.
Best 15" MacBook Pro Deals, Low End Mac Deals, 10.09.
Used 1.83 GHz Core Duo, $995; 2.16, $1,125; new, 2.2, $1,400 after rebate; refurb 2.4, $1,699; 2.5, $1,999; 2.6, $2,299; rebates on new.
Best Mac OS X 10.4 'Tiger' Deals, Low End Mac Deals, 10.09.
DVD upgrade from 10.3, $75; upgrade bundle with 10.3, $118; full version, $129; family pack, $200; 10-user Server, $350; unlimited, $400.
Migrating My Law Office from Windows to Macintosh, Andrew J Fishkin, Best Tools for the Job, 10.08.
By switching to Leopard Server, everyone in the office will be able to move to a Mac - but which ones will best meet their needs?
Low End Mac Needs Help Moving to Joomla, Dan Knight, Mac Musings, 10.08.
We've settled on Joomla as the content management system that should work very well for Low End Mac, but we're running stuck with templates.
Our advertising is handled by BackBeat Media. For detailed
price quotes and advertising information, please
contactat BackBeat Media (646-546-5194). This number
is for advertising only.
