Macking 31

Got me a G3
I know, after last month's less-than-stellar commentary, how could I go ahead and get one of these? Well, instead of just relying on hearsay from the Mac sites, I finally had a little direct, personal experience. The glitches and gotchas of last month turned out to be either true but not applicable to my situation, or easy to fix.
The CD-ROM problem is real and noticeable. If you do work with a CD in the drive at all times, the pauses while the OS checks the CD to see if it needs to use it can be very annoying. But contrary to reports, it is not noisy at all. I work in a very quiet room and the noise, at least from my desktop model (not the tower) is a low whirring sound that is quieter than the fan in my tape drive. Occasionally it makes more noise, and that may be just vibration of the spin-up being transferred to the case.
I got the unit with the 233-MHz processor and 4-gig drive. I expected it to be slow, because IDE is supposed to be slow. But my applications launch much faster than before, and all operations that are processor and cache-dependent, like viewing pages in Netscape, are immediate.
My GV 56 Kflex modem downloads pages much faster than on the 7100.
I removed the 2-gig drive from my 7100 and installed it in one of the two unused bays. Simple operation; just plug it in to the SCSI slot on the motherboard and into the power supply. Start the Mac and... oops, it is trying to start from the older OS8 on the SCSI drive. So I restart from the included CD-ROM and go to Startup Disk control panel and tell it to use the IDE drive, restart and it goes just fine. Both volumes are on my desktop and I had to do nothing more to the internal drive. No configuration, no DIP switches or terminators to set, nothing. Just plug it in.
My RAM requirements are not horrendous, so I ordered mine with two more 32-meg SDIMMs (96 total) because two 32s are cheaper than one 64.
Some of you may remember that my 7100 had 3 monitors. Through a little horse trading with clients, I was able to remove the Radius FPD and the Apple 15 and replace them with a second Apple 17" multisync. Looks good on the desk, and with twin 17s set at 1024x768, millions of colors, I am a happy clam. Total cost for the box, with an Xclaim 3D video card and the RAM, was under $2500 and I don't think I will miss the difference between the 233 MHz and 266 MHz processor. But then, it's been running just 2 hours and I am already spoiled.
Just to see how robust the system is, I copied over my 3rd-party system extensions and panels from the 7100 all at once and not a one failed.
On this 4-gig IDE drive, the smallest possible file (one sector) is 60K. I thought it would have been higher. When HFS+ is released I will gain back a lot of wasted space. People say that IDE is slower than SCSI-1. After a couple of weeks of getting used to how it feels, I am going to copy everything over to the IDE and do some timed tests and perception tests to see if there is enough of a difference to be noticeable. But those of you who need the fastest possible I/O, you should still plan on installing a SCSI-3 card and drive.
This does not mean YOU won't have trouble. As they say in Netspeak, YMMV (your mileage may vary). I suggest you visit the PowerMac Resource Page and MacFixIt to peruse reports from people who have had problems before you commit your money. And don't buy from Apple directly unless you like paying more money or can use their 30-day return policy. The mail-order houses are cheaper.
As of deadline time I have been running it for 4 days now and have not had a single freeze requiring a forced restart. The only strange behavior comes from the Global 56Kflex modem and PPP: When I disconnect, the status claims that PPP has terminated and is idle, but the modem remains on line and I have to manually switch it off. I sent an email off to GV tech support to ask them why this is happening. Their response was that Apple changed things on them at the last minute and software updates will be necessary; look for them on the GV web page.

Battery Life
A recently released Apple TechNote details the approximate life of the internal alkaline battery and the steps you can take to prolong its life.
If you use your Mac less than 40 hours a week, two years is the estimated lifetime. Eighty hours or more will extend its life to 3.5 years.
If you have your Mac plugged into a power strip and switch it off with that, cutting off all AC power, your battery will die sooner than if you simply switch it off at the Mac (hardware switch like the LC series and the 6100) or do a soft shutdown that powers it off (most other models from the Mac II onward).
If you are going to leave it off or in storage for several months, Apple recommends opening it up and removing the internal battery entirely.
A dead or dying battery can cause AppleTalk to turn itself on, assuming you have it off for use with an inkjet printer; cause the date to default to 1956 or 1904; prevent the Mac from starting at all, or making your monitor display a black screen even though the Mac is starting up.
Batteries are $10 at Radio Shack or Norvac Electronics, among other places. The Computer Store will replace and install your battery while you wait (unless they are super-busy) for $20. I charge $60 +$10 for the battery, but I round out the hour with a Norton check of your HD and remove extraneous files that may be just wasting space.

Epson Speed Problem
I am amazed it took until now to find this information out, but installing an AppleTalk card on an Epson printer seriously degrades (10 min/page) performance. Quoting a letter to MacInTouch:
"In total desperation I yanked the EPSON AppleTalk out of it and hooked it up via serial cable and BOOM it's spitting out pages in record time. I must be a moron to have thought that AppleTalk would be as fast as serial. I emailed Epson and they say 'The built-in serial interface has a maximum throughput of 1.8 mbps where the LocalTalk board has 230 kbps and the ethernet board has 1.3 mbps. Thus, your results are expected.' How can they possibly sell a product that makes your printer perform 8 times worse and never mention it?"
No kidding. I would expect the box to sport a large red label stating, "WARNING: Use of the AppleTalk Card will Turn This Printer Into A Dog." Quoth Monty Python, "Sales would plummet!" But Epson has already encouraged sales of those cards to plummet by advising all their distributors not to sell the AppleTalk card at all. We should actually be praising Epson for including special external-clocking hardware to their serial port which enables PowerMacs to transmit data at the 1.8 mbps rate. Without that chip, the printer would not be any faster than it is with the AppleTalk card installed due to internal limitations on the Mac.
Fortunately, there is an alternative. For just $9 more than the cost of the AppleTalk card you can buy Port Juggler, a black box you plug into the printer port which supports 4 serial devices. It can even turn AppleTalk off when you switch to the Epson from a standard laser printer (although now Juggler recommends leaving AppleTalk on to the printer port and using Juggler in the modem port for everything else).
If you need only one extra serial port, Port Doubler is cheaper, but if you want to use a serial-port drawing tablet, or a digital camera link, you will need the larger unit. Buy Port Juggler from most major mail-order houses. Port Juggler used to be a problem product that alienated many users with its consistent flaws. The current version, which I have installed at 3 client sites so far, works perfectly. The only restriction I have noticed is that you cannot print to the Epson through the Port Juggler while the modem is online.

Beware of FastBack
At the risk of passing along unverified news, here is a posting from the PMUG BBS "Electric Sheep" regarding Norton Fastback version 3.2.1. If you are using this program, don't panic, but do check with Symantec and MacFixIt, to whom I also forwarded this info.
"For those who use Fastback, v3.2.1, from The Norton Utilities For Macintosh, and who may not follow Info-Mac Digest, here is the beginning of an item which may be important to you:
'This is a warning to all who are still using Symantec's Norton Utilities for the Macintosh version 3.2. You are strongly advised not to use its backup utility, Fastback, under any circumstances! About once for every gigabyte of backed up data, Fastback makes some sort of error in output to the backup medium which neither it nor its companion, Norton Expand, can use for a successful, error-free restoring of all files.'
"To read the full text, download Info-Mac Digest v15 #268 from the CompSysMacDigest folder inside the Comp Groups folder in the Internet Newsgroups conference.
"I hope this isn't a repeat of old news. I haven't seen anything about this before, either on the Sheep or on the web. Actually, I'm surprised this story hasn't been picked up by web sites like MacFixit. I'm sure lots of people besides myself are trusting our irreplaceable data this popular program.
Respectfully,
Dave Decker"

Dead PowerBook Lamp
PB owners, take note of JKL Components in Pacoima, Calif. If your backlight ever fails, this is where you can get a replacement lamp. Apple does not replace lamps, just complete screen assemblies. Get a new lamp and any 3rd party repair shop (like Mac Shop NW) can put it in for you. (Thanks, EvangeList.)

Mac/Windows Tutorials
A useful Web page for people who have to work in Windows as well as Mac, either with a card or VirtualPC, is MacWindows Tutorials. All kinds of useful tips, tricks and travesties.

Clean OS8 on a Zip
Maybe you have tried to do a clean system install on a Zip cartridge (or SyQuest or other cartridge device) and had it fail. I have too. I don't know why you shouldn't be able to install one there, just as you could if it were an external hard drive, but there is another way.
If you have already customized your OS8 install (and hopefully backed THAT up on a Zip for emergencies) but want a plain vanilla copy to archive, just insert your CD, do a Clean Install, click Customize and install nothing but the OS8 system software right onto your hard drive.
The current system folder will be renamed Previous System Folder but it will not be harmed or changed in any way, just deactivated. Copy your fresh system folder onto the Zip, eject it, then put it into the Trash. Remove the word "Previous" from the System Folder and then open it once to reactivate it. You will see the special icon of an active system folder return. Leave the folder open and restart your Mac. You will be running just as before, with the clean install still in the Trash and the copy of it on your Zip. Now you can Empty Trash and free up the space.

PowerCC Fades Away
The PowerWatch web page lives on, in spite of the end of Power Computing itself. The company will not make the transition to a Wintel company. Apple is taking on support for the orphaned machines, and for some, the service will be better than for Apple customers, but for most, warranty work will simply not be worth the trouble. Software support calls will go to Apple, but hardware problems passed on to DecisionOne. The 800 number for you to call? Power Computing's normal tech support line. The tech will give you a case number and ask you to call DecisionOne's 800 number, where you will have to wait on hold for upwards of an hour! The end result of a successful diagnosis of hardware problems: Pack it up and ship it to California for repair. No Oregon repair sites are under contract to DecisionOne.
For this I must apologize to all people who bought PowerCC Macs on my recommendation. Even though they had the best price/performance ratio along the whole model line, I am afraid you got stuck with a real problem when it comes to getting warranty work.
I can only hope that some local repair outlets take it upon themselves to stock the parts necessary to keep you up and running so you won't have to deal with DecisionOne. The only positive side to the whole fiasco is that the machines were made with standard Wintel-market hardware so when things get more organized you may be able to repair them almost anywhere. My agonized recommendation now is sell out quick and get a G3 or a 7300.
Owners of Motorola and UMAX and other cloneware should check right now to find out what hoops they will have to jump through when they need to get things fixed. And everyone, take heed: No matter how tight your budget is, buy some kind of backup device. Zips are going for under $145, and an APS Technologies (http://www.apstech.com) 2-gig external with SR-2000 enclosure (what I use) is $299.
Meanwhile Jeff Keller, the Webmaster for the PowerWatch is focusing on a new project, Digital Camera Page. Look for lots of hints and tips for DC users of all stripes. The PowerPage will focus on info for all Mac users, not just PowerCC.

No Microsoft products were used in the production of this column.

email mp at moonmac dot com. (I took out the mailto link because that's how the spammers find me.)