6100 dead G4 upgrade card.

I have a Power Mac 6100/60, with a dead Newer Technology MAXpowr G4 400mhz upgrade card, it's running system 9 (I forget which version).
It worked perfectly until one day (some time in the naughties, I don't remember exactly when) it just abruptly stopper working. I tired reseating it a few times, it didn't work. I was broke at the time and taking it to an electronics repair shop, was an expense I couldn't afford. So I went back to using it as a 60mhz 601 machine, which felt dog slow.

I can’t reinstall the software, as sadly, I no longer have the disc - it got lost along the way.
Is there a limit on which Mac OS versions work and which don’t?
Anything else I might have missed?

dust bunny said:

I have a Power Mac 6100/60, with a dead Newer Technology MAXpowr G4 400mhz upgrade card, it's running system 9 (I forget which version).
It worked perfectly until one day (some time in the naughties, I don't remember exactly when) it just abruptly stopper working. I tired reseating it a few times, it didn't work. I was broke at the time and taking it to an electronics repair shop, was an expense I couldn't afford. So I went back to using it as a 60mhz 601 machine, which felt dog slow.

I can’t reinstall the software, as sadly, I no longer have the disc - it got lost along the way.
Is there a limit on which Mac OS versions work and which don’t?
Anything else I might have missed?

Click to expand...

I don't have experience with the Newer card in the 6100, but the Sonnet card in mine is very OS picky... I forget which versions work and which don't, but it might be worth trying a couple of different versions.

The Newer drivers will be on Macintosh Garden..... try here?


It is possible that the card failed. The 6100 is known for getting hot. But don't throw it, it might be fixable. 400MHz G4 is pretty impressive. If you ever get it working again, I recommend fitting an additional low profile fan in the bottom of the case on the left hand side. There are additional vents down there and if you can get a fan to point in the right direction with a horizontal inlet... urgh :s... it might be a good answer to stopping the same thing happening again.

I've actually been tempted to underclock the G3 in my 6100, but given I haven't used it since the heating was fixed in this house, it wasn't a problem. Thermals are rarely an issue in a 5 degree Centigrade ambient.

Thanks, hopefully I'll give these a try some point this week.

I have had daft ideas about getting a 7448 swapped onto the card. Would make it a very powerful 6100, but probably wouldn't actually work.

So, I've given it a go.
No dice, today it wouldn't boot.
It got a bit further thae the quicktime logo, but not far enough to disply the next logo.
Reinstalling system 9 was my first thought, but having spent too much time retrieveing my nice pristine System 9 box, it only contained leaflets and a plastic CD sleave.
After a really good hunt elsewhere, I've drawn a blank.

dust bunny said:

So, I've given it a go.
No dice, today it wouldn't boot.
It got a bit further thae the quicktime logo, but not far enough to disply the next logo.
Reinstalling system 9 was my first thought, but having spent too much time retrieveing my nice pristine System 9 box, it only contained leaflets and a plastic CD sleave.
After a really good hunt elsewhere, I've drawn a blank.

Click to expand...

You mean it booted past the upgrade's driver extension?

If it boots, disable backside cache at startup and see what happens

Update...
First try, plug it in and switch it on, see if it's some how magically feeling better today, you never know.
It didn’t magically feel better today. Got part way into the start up, it bonged, screen went grey, I get the happy Mac face, then it restarted. Another bong, again grey screen, again the happy Mac face.
Logo’s present…
Light bulb with a question mark. (Apple Guide?)
What looks like a rocket taking off, with a red X that is full size corner to corner of this logo (is this the Newer Technology one, disabled)
Italic purple ‘O’, with a small red dot to make it look like a ‘Q’
Quick time logo (no black line around this logo)

This is exactly what it was doing earlier in the week.


Second try, extensions off.
Held down Space bar, started, it bonged, screen went grey, I get the happy Mac face, opened into extensions manager. Tried to scroll across the screen, but the curser is barely moving. Appears I have a dead-ish mouse.
Spare mouse took some finding.
Disabled all the extensions for printers, internet/web, Epsom (my old scanner - long gone).
Hit continue...
Light bulb with a question mark. (Apple Guide?)
Italic purple ‘O’, with a small red dot to make it look like a ‘Q’
Quick time logo (no black line around this logo)
After a while I get a Dialogue box…
(Bomb logo) Sorry a system error occurred.
“QuickTimetm PowerPlug”
Virtual memoryI/O error
To temporarily turn off extensions , restart and hold down the shift key.
[RESTART]

dust bunny said:

Logo’s present…

Click to expand...

Phipli said:

You mean it booted past the upgrade's driver extension?

Click to expand...

Which logo - did it make it past the driver for the card. This is an important question relating to what you need to do next.

Yes, I believe so.

---

Stuff I already tried, but hadn't yet posted...

Third try, did the previous stuff fix it?
No, it didn't.

Forth try, extensions off (with shift key pressed this time.
Held down Shit key , started, it bonged, screen went grey, I get the happy Mac face, “QuickTimetm PowerPlug”
rechecked the extensions, found another for a printer, and another Epsom, disabled both.

Fifth try
Light bulb with a question mark. (Apple Guide?)
Italic purple ‘O’, with a small red dot to make it look like a ‘Q’
Quick time logo (no black line around this logo)
After a while I get an empty Dialogue box.

dust bunny said:

Yes, I believe so.

---

Stuff I already tried, but hadn't yet posted...

Third try, did the previous stuff fix it?
No, it didn't.

Forth try, extensions off (with shift key pressed this time.
Held down Shit key , started, it bonged, screen went grey, I get the happy Mac face, “QuickTimetm PowerPlug”
rechecked the extensions, found another for a printer, and another Epsom, disabled both.

Fifth try
Light bulb with a question mark. (Apple Guide?)
Italic purple ‘O’, with a small red dot to make it look like a ‘Q’
Quick time logo (no black line around this logo)
After a while I get an empty Dialogue box.

Click to expand...

So to confirm...
a) It fully boots with shift held (It really should).
b) It gets past the driver extension
c) You have removed the Cache SIMM from the logic board.
d) It always crashes at the same point?

If this represents what you're seeing, First I'd try with a fresh OS install using the "minimum install for this computer" plus the driver. Try a couple of driver versions.

dust bunny said:

Held down Shit key , started, it bonged, screen went grey, I get the happy Mac face, “QuickTimetm PowerPlug”

Click to expand...

Why did Quicktime load if you held shift? Are you sure your keyboard works?

OK, as a sanity check, I tried a thorough Google search for the Newertech Manpower startup logo.
I found an image on reddit, here
https://www.reddit.com/r/VintageApple/comments/lk08mw (WEBP file)

I’m not seeing that Newertech logo.

Phipli said:

Why did Quicktime load if you held shift? Are you sure your keyboard works?

Click to expand...

Not 100% sure it works, but I don't have a spare keyboard.

dust bunny said:

Not 100% sure it works, but I don't have a spare keyboard.

Click to expand...

If you're holding shift down, you shouldn't see any icons load across the bottom of the screen and it should say "Extensions Disabled" on the bit in the middle. Could you photograph or film what you're getting when you don't hold shift down pretty please?

dust bunny said:

Not 100% sure it works, but I don't have a spare keyboard.

Click to expand...

Unplug the keyboard and just use the mouse. You don't need the keyboard at this point and it might be causing issues. The mouse being slow can be caused by something else on the bus being crazy.

Otherwise, it might be the ADB port on the computer.

Phipli said:

So to confirm...
a) It fully boots with shift held (It really should).
b) It gets past the driver extension
c) You have removed the Cache SIMM from the logic board.
d) It always crashes at the same point?

Click to expand...

Please answer things like this, if you don't its impossible to help you because I can't check things off the "what might be wrong" list and I can't make any progress.

So to confirm...
a) It fully boots with shift held.
b) I now do not believe it gets past the Newertechnology/Maxpowr driver extension.
c) I do not have a Cache SIMM installed.
d) It definitely always crashes at the same point.

dust bunny said:

So to confirm...
a) It fully boots with shift held.
b) I now do not believe it gets past the Newertechnology/Maxpowr driver extension.
c) I do not have a Cache SIMM installed.
d) It definitely always crashes at the same point.

Click to expand...

Cheers. Much appreciated.

Can you share a photo of the screen when it has crashed?

Will take a few minutes.

dust bunny said:

Will take a few minutes.

Click to expand...

No problem no rush.

I have my phone logged into 68kmla so I can upload photos straight from my phone. Can be handy.

Here we go