I just put a Sonnet G3-450 into mine. In my usual careless fashion, I plopped it in and attempted to use it on a very cluttered system 9.1. I didn't have any problems booting the machine, but I've had extension conflicts with the Sonnets extension, and the machine hangs in the finder right after startup. (Startup disk icon and menu bar clock appear, but nothing else. Starting up with Extensions Off (shift key) yields the following info... Apple system profiler says it's a G3 500. Metronome says it's a 450 with a 45MHz bus, 32K of L1 Cache, and no Secondary Cache (yes, I removed the old L2 cache card), and Norton says it's a G3 195!? After a certain amount of use, the mouse pointer gets jumpy.
I should point out that I also added 4x128MB Ram to the 96 that came with the machine, and it is currently interleaved. I also put in a Sonnets ATA66 card, and an Orange Micro USB/Firewire card, both of which I took from an Apple G3 DT. I only put them in after I had the thing up and running, albiet poorly. I then did a clean install of 9.1 onto a 4.5 gig SCSI disk on the original internal scsi bus, and loaded only the sonnets extensions. Having done that, Apple Sys. Profiler, Norton, and Metronome all agreed that it was in fact a G3-450. My logitech cordless mouse is working fine on the stock apple drivers, although I can't program the right button or mouse wheel. I'll spend the weekend reloading other extensions for the scanner, modem, camera, etc. etc. The main remaining problem I have is with video. I have a ViewSonic 17" P775 running off the original Twin Turbo. On my other G3 it worked fine with the apple drivers, but on the PTP the resolution behavior is erratic. I first tried it with only the apple monitor extension, and the resolution was only 640x480 with no other resolutions available, and the color was horrible. I added the TT extensions, turned off the apple one (with Extensions Manager), and was able to fix the color by unchecking "Sync on Green". Now is the weird part. Sometimes a reboot will bring back a full range of resolution options, and sometimes I'm stuck with 640x480. Sometimes "Sync on Green" is checked, and sometimes it isn't. I haven't been able to discern any pattern. I don't know that this issue is related to the G3 upgrade card; I suspect it isn't. So... I think the card is fine, but I'd appreciate getting any advice from the list about 1) This odd video behavior, and 2) Any known extension conflicts with the Sonnets extension in 9.x Oh, and another thing... I was going to cram all the drive bays with my odd assortment of SCSI & ATA drives, but the length of the power supply cords is such that I can't get enough of them to the lower 3.5" drive bays or the RAID rack. It was something of a puzzle to get the 2 CDs and 2 HDs plugged in. So, I have 2 unused power plugs inside, but they don't get to the available spaces in the machine. Anyone else ever encounter this? I was about ready to take a hammer to it. To answer Pam's question... I chose the G3 450, because the system bus is 45MHz, and my current understanding is that the multiplier maxes out at 10x, so it seemed like anything more would be kind of a waste. It was $100 less than the G4 card ($150 at OWC), and I have no intention of running OSX on this machine, so for me, it seemed like the best bang for the buck. Your situation may be different, but I can't see dropping multiple $$ hundreds for an 800MHz G4. I'm probably going to get a new G4 soon anyway. Tom >From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (pamark) >Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Reply-to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >HI, > >What does everyone think the best upgrade card for a Power Tower Pro is. >I have been looking at Sonnet G3 500, but hear some have problems. Would >like more opinions..... > >Thanks, >pam -- Power Computing is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... 123Inkjets.com <http://lowendmac.com/ad/123inkjets.html> Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> Power Computing list info: <http://lowendmac.com/power/list.html> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> List archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/powercomputing%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Mac? Free email & more at Applelinks! http://www.applelinks.com
