This article comprises the Read Me document for the Power Mac G4.

Important Information About Your Power Mac G4

This document contains important late-breaking information about your Power Mac G4 computer. You may want to print this document and keep it with your other printed documentation. For additional information, see Mac Help and the print and online documentation that came with your computer. Apple also provides substantial information online. If you have access to the World Wide Web, you can check the latest information about the Power Mac G4 in the support area at the following Uniform Resource Locator (URL): http://www.apple.com/support .

The following topics are covered in this document:

Using your Power Mac G4

Putting your computer to sleep

Copying and pasting alert sounds

Adjusting and testing external speakers

Playing and recording from audio CDs

Using striped volumes

Using a startup disk formatted with third-party formatting software

Performance problems using Ethernet

Connecting your computer directly to an Ethernet switch

Third-party software issues

Connecting RAID volumes formatted with SoftRaid software

Moving Bookmarks and Favorites files before reinstalling Internet Explorer and Netscape Communicator

Hardware compatibility issues

Connecting a monitor that uses a DB-15 connector

Important information about displays

Installing additional ATA hard drives

Formatting external USB (Universal Serial Bus) hard disk drives

Connecting and disconnecting USB devices while the computer is asleep

Using password protection for Zip disks

Using a digital video camera

Using third-party SCSI PCI cards

Using your Power Mac G4

Putting your computer to sleep
Your Power Mac G4 supports new intelligent power management during computer sleep. When your computer sleeps, it will attempt to reduce power usage to the lowest level possible. The lowest power level is achieved by powering off many of the components in the computer, including the PCI bus. Older PCI cards do not support this style of power management, so the PCI bus and the system cooling fan are left powered on during sleep. When you install newer PCI cards which support this new style of power management, or if there are no PCI cards installed, the system cooling fan is turned off during sleep.

Note: If your computer is in sleep with the system cooling fan off, opening the enclosure will cause the computer to wake as a reminder that the computer is not shutdown.

Copying and pasting alert sounds
Long alert sounds require large amounts of memory. If you have difficulty copying and pasting long alert sounds into the Sound control panel, you may need to adjust memory requirements for the control panel. To do this, open the Control Panels folder within the System Folder. Select the Sound control panel, then choose Get Info from the File menu. Increase the preferred memory size until you are able to copy and paste the alert sound. The amount of memory needed depends on the sound quality of the sound input device you are using.

Adjusting and testing external speakers
Use the Output section of the Sound control panel to adjust the overall volume of your computer. The Speaker Setup section of the Sound control panel allows you to adjust the relative volume of speakers connected to your computer. In this section, you can also select which speakers you want to use and change the relative volume for each speaker by using the slider underneath the speaker.

You can also test the speakers connected to your computer by clicking Start Test in the Speaker Setup section. The computer plays a white noise test tone on each speaker, allowing you to adjust the relative volume of that speaker. The white noise test tone contains sound for all frequencies and sounds like static. You may want to reduce the overall sound volume for your computer using the Output section of the Sound control panel before testing your speakers, as the test tone can be quite loud on some speakers.

Playing and recording from audio CDs
Audio CD playback is now done digitally for increased fidelity and use with digital audio peripheral devices. When you play audio CDs, you no longer have to select Internal CD in the Input section of the Sound control panel or the Sound section of the Control Strip. To record from an audio CD, you may need to select Internal CD in the Input section of the Sound control panel or the Sound section of the Control Strip.

Using striped volumes
You cannot start up your Power Mac G4 from a striped volume. Only standard and mirrored volumes can be used as startup volumes.

Using a startup disk formatted with third-party formatting software
You can use third-party software, such as Anubis or FWB, to format and partition a hard disk in your computer. However, if you install a System Folder on one of these partitions and select it as your startup disk in the Startup Disk control panel, the computer will not use the Startup Disk volume selected.

Performance problems using Ethernet
Your computer performs best when the Ethernet port is set to auto-negotiate. If you experience performance problems on your Ethernet network, check with your network administrator.

IMPORTANT : The duplex mode of an Ethernet link to a switch is not detected if the port is not auto-negotiating. In this case, your computer will detect the appropriate speed but will default to half-duplex. If the port at the other end of the link is configured for full-duplex, a large number of late events can occur on the link. Set the switch's port to auto-negotiate where possible. If this is not possible, then set the switch's port to half-duplex. For more information, see the documentation that came with the Ethernet switch.

Connecting your computer directly to an Ethernet switch
If you connect your Power Mac G4 computer directly to an Ethernet switch, disable spanning tree on that port. Otherwise your computer could duplicate the AppleTalk address of another computer on the same network and both network connections would become unreliable.

Third-Party Software Issues

Connecting RAID volumes formatted with SoftRaid software
Hard drives formatted as RAID volumes using SoftRaid software earlier than v2.2, will be incorrectly reported as uninitialized or damaged by the system software on your Power Mac G4. Do not erase or initialize your RAID volumes if this occurs. Your RAID volumes will be correctly recognized by the system software when you update the drivers on your RAID volumes to SoftRaid v2.2 or later.

Moving Bookmarks and Favorites files before reinstalling Internet Explorer and Netscape Communicator
If you inadvertently delete the Internet Explorer or Netscape Communicator applications, you can reinstall the applications using the software install CD that came with your computer. Before you reinstall Internet Explorer or Netscape Communicator, you must move the file that contains your Internet sites list to a different location, such as the desktop. In Internet Explorer, this file is Favorites.html; in Netscape Communicator, the file is Bookmarks.html. When you reinstall Internet Explorer or Netscape Communicator, the program overwrites these files and any locations or bookmarks that you added or that were preinstalled will be lost.

Hardware Compatibility Issues

Connecting a monitor that uses a DB-15 connector
If you want to use an older monitor that has a DB-15 connector, you need to use a Mac-to-VGA adapter to connect the monitor to the VGA monitor port on the computer. For instructions on doing this, see the documentation that came with your computer.

Some Mac-to-VGA adapters do not allow the monitor to correctly identify itself to the computer. Therefore, incorrect screen resolutions and timings may be shown as Recommended settings in the Monitors control panel and the Monitor Resolution settings in the Control Strip.

To view the correct screen resolutions and timings, do the following:

1. Open the Apple menu, select Control Panels, then choose Monitors.

2. In the Resolution section on the right, click the Show pop-up menu and choose All.

If you have an older AppleVision or Apple Studio Display monitor that has an ADB-type cable along with the monitor cable, you will be unable to attach the ADB cable to your Power Mac G4. Connecting the ADB cable to older Macintosh computers would allow automatic software adjustment of the screen image. In order to adjust the screen image on your model of Power Mac, you need to use the external controls on the monitor. For more information see the documentation that came with the monitor.

Installing additional ATA hard drives
If you install an Ultra ATA hard drive in your computer, you must use an 80-pin Ultra ATA cable to connect the ATA drive to your computer. Use only 80-pin Ultra ATA cables; do not use 40-pin ATA cables used with earlier models of Power Macintosh computers. For more information about installing internal storage devices in your computer, see the documentation that came with your computer.

[ Editor's Note: The original paragraph above is incorrect. It should state, " If you install an Ultra ATA hard drive in your computer, you must use a 40-pin Ultra ATA cable to connect the drive to your computer. Use only 40-pin Ultra ATA cables; do not use the 40-pin ATA cables used with earlier models of Power Macintosh computers. For more information..."]

Formatting external USB (Universal Serial Bus) hard disk drives
Many USB hard disk drives are DOS-formatted at the factory. You can use DOS-formatted USB hard drives with your computer, but you will get much better performance if the USB hard drive is formatted as Mac OS Extended or Mac OS Standard. To reformat the hard drive to Mac OS Extended or Mac OS Standard format, use the formatting utility that came with the USB hard drive. If you do not have a formatting utility, you can change the drive to Mac OS format by following the steps below.

WARNING: Erasing the hard drive will destroy any data stored on the drive.

1. If you haven't already done so, connect the external USB hard drive to your computer and turn it on.
For more information, see the topic Connecting USB devices to your computer in Mac Help and the documentation that came with the device.

2. Open the Apple menu, select Control Panels, then choose File Exchange.
The File Exchange control panel opens.

3. If necessary, click the PC Exchange tab.

4. Click the checkbox next to Mount at startup. (The checkbox should be blank.)
This turns off PC Exchange.

5. Click the close box to close the control panel.

6. Click the USB drive's icon on the Desktop, then from the Special menu choose Erase Disk.
A window appears.

7. From the Format pop-up menu, select Mac OS Extended or Mac OS Standard format, then click Erase.

Using password protection for Zip disks
The installed USB Mass Storage Support driver does not support Zip drive password protection. When a password-protected disk is inserted, the disk is ejected and a dialog box appears saying that this feature is not supported. Contact the Zip drive manufacturer to obtain software that supports this feature.

Using a digital video camera
Some DV cameras have a problem establishing a DV link. If your computer does not recognize your DV camera, try turning the camera off and on to establish the DV Link.

Using third-party SCSI PCI cards
Many older third-party SCSI PCI cards installed in your computer may not work or you may experience problems with SCSI devices that are connected to this card's port your computer. Some wide SCSI cards will only support 8 devices and not 15, which is the SCSI specification. Contact the card's manufacturer or see the manufacturer's Web site for the latest information on compatibility and possible firmware updates.