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The Road Warrior Mailbag - January 8, 2007

CardBus problems with Pismo
Pismo Upgrade - DayStar 550 MHz G4 - will it play back H.264?
Pismo Overclocking
Widescreen debate

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CardBus problems with Pismo

From Vinod Srinivasan

Hi Charles,

First of all, I'd like to express my gratitude for all the informative articles you've put out on all things Apple. I've been a regular reader of Macopinion (and more recently, Applelinks) for the last year or so but have never needed to leave 'lurk' mode.

Well I recently made a purchase that I might end up regretting. I have a 400 MHz Pismo, with 768MB RAM, running 10.3.9. I thought I'd add USB 2.0 functionality to it, and bought an Adaptec DuoConnect Cardbus adapter from buy.com (links at bottom), where they advertise it as being PC- and Mac-compatible, and it has 2 USB 2.0 ports as well as 2 Firewire ports, so it seemed like a good deal. But when I insert the adapter into the slot, the grey veil comes down, presumably some kind of kernel panic that tells me to reboot my machine. I tried starting up with the adapter installed, but no luck, it goes past the chime and then hangs, asks me to reboot.

The manufacturer website says it is PC-supported and has drivers for Windows alone, while buy.com says it supports Macs. I figured the discrepancy was probably because (my assumption) Macs have PCMCIA card drivers built-in.

Is there any way I can make this card usable on my Pismo?

Thanks,
Vinod Srinivasan

http://www.adaptec.com/en-US/support/USB/combo/AUA-1422/

Buy.com page

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Hi Vinod;

Thanks for reading!

The Mac OS (both OS X and Classic) does have PCMCIA drivers built-in, but particular PC CardBus cards may also require proprietary drivers as well.

I think that is the problem here. Adaptec says:

Supported Operating Systems
Microsoft Windows 2000
Microsoft Windows XP

Nary a mention of the Mac OS on their support page.

Buy.com may have gotten their wires crossed, although they do say: Mac OS 9.2 or later Power Macintosh Beige G3 rev. B or later Available PCI slot
CD-ROM drive

Since these are PC CardBus cards, the PCI requirement seems to be a non-sequitur, and calls the whole Mac support claim into question, since Adaptec themselves to not claim Mac support.

Without Adaptec supplying OS X drivers for their card, I'm not optimistic about it being supported by the Pismo. A determined hacker might be able to cobble some sort of workaround together, but that's a long shot.

Alternatives that do support the Mac can be found at these links:

http://www.coolgear.com/images/usb+firewire+pcmcia-adapter-card.jpg

http://www.keyspan.com/products/usb/u2cb2/homepage.spml

http://www.usbwholesale.com/cardbus%20usb2%20adapter.htm

http://www.usbgear.com/USBG-U2F-PCMCIA.html

http://www.mac-pro.com/s.nl/it.A/id.1364/.f

http://www.ratocsystems.com/english/products/subpages/cbu2.html

http://www.meritline.com/ads-usb2-pcmcia-card-cardbus-adapter-usbx2001.html

Charles

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Re: Cardbus problems with Pismo

From Vinod Srinivasan

Hello Charles,

Thanks a lot for the response. Your mail confirmed my worst fears, though

I tried returning the product to buy.com but their return procedure is so cumbersome (with a dysfunctional website that refuses to accept my return request) that I've decided to just keep the adapter. At least it will add Firewire to my four-year old Celeron machine.

Thanks a lot for the other links. You are just amazing. Have a happy new year....

Vinod

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Pismo Upgrade - DayStar 550 MHz G4 - will it play back H.264?

From Kurt;

Charles,

First off - I love reading your work. I've learned a lot from your writings, and have been well educated and entertained over the years - bravo!

Now, about the DayStar 550 MHz G4 upgrade in your Pismo. I'm seriously considering getting one of these for my beloved Pismo. It's a GREAT machine, and it does almost everything I need, except...

I need to play back H.264 Quicktime video files. I have QT Pro, so Full Screen would be best if it is possible with this upgrade.

Currently I get a hideous amount of dropped frame if I even try this in a small window.

I'm hoping I can resolve this with the Daystar upgrade; I realize that RAGE Mobility 128 GPU with 8MB of VRAM may be an issue. However, I'm using a G4 Gigabit Ethernet with Dual 500 MHz G4 processors and a RAGE Mobility 128 with 8MB of VRAM and it plays 'em back fine.

As this is the only additional feature I need that the Pismo currently cannot provide, I'd really appreciate your input on this upgrade. I'd MUCH rather hang onto my beautiful Pismo instead of going to a Titanium (I still want a machine that can boot into OS 9).

Many thanks in advance for your information, and for your hard work and your writing.

Warm Regards,

Kurt

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Hi Kurt;

Thank you for the kind comments.

As for video playback, the 550 MHz G4 upgrade would indubitably help, but it can't work miracles, and as you surmise, the bottleneck in this context with the Pismo is the RAGE Mobility 128 GPU and it's paltry 8MB of VRAM.

The Dual processor Power Mac is in a different league (wouldn't it have a full RAGE 128 and not the Mobility version?).

If video playback is a priority for you, much as I love Pismos, I think the fastest TiBook you can find would be a better solution for your particular needs.

Charles

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Pismo Overclocking

From Tim Warweg

Hi Mr. Moore,

I found many articles <ou wrote in The Road Warrior and MacOpinion colums concerning the PowerBook G3 Pismo and it's upgrade possiblilities. I have a trusty Pimo with a 550 MHz G4 upgrade (PPC 7410 LE Processor) and found old articles how to increase the bus speed from 100 to 133MHz in the first generation TiBooks 550, now:
http://www.voelker.com/service/void_powerbookg4bus/powerbookg4bus.php

And of the Powerbook G3 Wallstreet from 66 to 83MHz by resetting the jumpers on the daughter card:
http://www.bekkoame.ne.jp/~t-imai/pbg3e1.html

Do you know if it's possible to increase the bus clock to 133 MHz in my Pismo, too? Because I couldn't find anything about it.

Perhaps you can help me?

thank you in advance.

Sincerely,

Tim.

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Hi Tim;

I couldn't find anything about it either. It my be possible, but I don't recommend it.

Frankly, I take a dim view of overclocking in general. My son tried overclocking a Lombard PowerBook some years ago. It got even hotter than usual and crashed a lot. He soon restored it to stock specs.

You might find the comments in this thread interesting.
http://macslash.org/article.pl?sid=03/09/01/1711214

Really, used/refurb. G3 iBooks are cheap these days, and an 800 MHz or 900 MHz unit will give you more performance than you could get out of an overclocked Pismo.

Aside from processor upgrades, any you already have you Pismo at the upper limit there, the best way to get a faster Mac is to get..... a faster Mac.

Charles

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Re: overclocking

From Tim Warweg

Hello Charles,

Thank you very much for the fast reply, I didn't expect to hear from you so soon!

I studied the threads you gave me the link to and found them very helpful and I'm well aware of the risks of overclocking a portable.

Firstly they were fun to read!!

I liked this one: "If you machine runs at all, you'll have wierd crashes due to CPU errors. Your graphics card will get too hot and you'll see odd artifacts, your components will probably fail sooner than they should, and you'll burn 'little mr. overclocker'."

The idea was to give it a try since the trusty Pismo was the most reliable computer so far but I simply need more computing power, now.

I'm at the point now to invest in a MacBook when I'm ready to buy another piece of hardware and not in older PowerBooks/iBooks, again.

I think I have to face the same problem, soon!?

Thanks again!

Best regards,
Tim.

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Hi Tim;

I agree that the MacBook provides the most performance punch for your dollar (or Euro ) of any notebook. Does Apple Germany have any refurbished machines available?

Charles

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Widescreen debate

From Sebastian Kempgen

Hello,

Here is another reason I think a compact, lightweight portable with a classic aspect ratio and a resolution of 1024 x 768 is wonderful: presentations.

These days, the main use for my G3/500 iBook is showing presentations I have prepared on my desktop machine (using a much larger display) to classes. All projectors at our university support this resolution automatically, and the iBook is the easiest machine to set up, even easier than a PowerBook: just hook up the VGA cable of the projector (using the adapter supplied with the iBook), and it automatically mirrors the contents of its screen at the same resolution. No keys to push for toggling resolutions or settings, no stretched or scaled displays.

Best regards,
Sebastian Kempgen
http://www.maccampus.de

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Hi Sebastien;

An excellent point that I had not previously ben aware of.

Thanks for the comment.

Charles

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