8600 - Nitro hijinx

[CJ_Miller]

Since I decided this week to set up an Appletalk network in my studio/bedroom, it occurred to me that I really should set up my 8600 a bit better. It is a decent transitional box, since it has both RS422 serial and 10baseT, so theory has it I could connect any of my other macs on either side and get things done.

I already threw a Sonnet 500MHz G3 in it years ago, which is great. I still have the original 604e here somewhere, I wish I could remember where as it was surprisingly fast as I recall. I had a Radeon 7000 and a 73GB drive from a Sun server which I thought would go well in there... They do, but it took me much longer to get running than I guessed it would, due to me misplacing many things. I copied my 9.1 system from my slow-ish 4GB drive to the new 10k server drive, and used OS 9 Helper to update it to 9.2.1. I finally got around to it for full Radeon driver support. Funny thing is that the new video card makes it take a lot longer to start the boot process, but once the extensions start loading it is much faster than it was before. The faster disk access and video RAM make quite a difference. Also I am happy to be rid of that DB15 adaptor, since I haven't owned an Apple CRT since 1999. This 19" Dell has seen better days, it is dark and the focus is starting to go. With the built-in video it was practically unusable, I felt like I was going blind. It is not so bad now. Best thing it could get next would be a 9600 logic board.

Tonight I will try using it for Localtalk with my SE, and try digitizing a VHS tape on it with JES Movie RAID (http://www.xs4all.nl/~jeschot/home.html)

 

[CJ_Miller]

Oh, another thing was an Adaptec USB card, 3100lp. Showed up in System Profiler, I installed drivers, and still can't seem to get it to work.

 

[ccmac]

If it is a USB 2.0 card, it probably wont work. You need a true 1.1 card.

Apparantly, 2.0 cards work fine in BW G3 or later models. They also work in Beige G3s but only if it has a $77D.45F1 rom. Anything older requires a USB 1.1 card.

I have got a feeling this has to do with the PCI specification the card supports. Most usb 2.0 cards require slots that support at least PCI spec 2.1. Older macs only have slots that support PCI 2.0 spec which is what most usb 1.1 cards require.

 

[CJ_Miller]

Most usb 2.0 cards require slots that support at least PCI spec 2.1. Older macs only have slots that support PCI 2.0 spec which is what most usb 1.1 cards require.

Years of tinkering around, and this is first time I have to think about the PCI spec itself. Now I just need to wonder how to figure out which cards are 1.1 spec... Thanks for the tip.

 

[coius]

I beg to differ. I used a USB 2.0 Card under a G3-powered PowerMac 9500 under OS X and the USB card worked just fine. From what I can tell, USB 2.0 Cards will work in original pentium systems which uses the old PCI slot/specs and they will work in that (like say pentium 100Mhz running Windows 2k Pro with 64MB/128MB RAM). I believed it is mostly driver issues rather than PCI Specs. I have even used the cards in a PowerMac 7500/G3 with a Radeon 7000 PCI and a USB 2.0 Card, and that was what? the first PCI power mac?

Worked fine under OS X, but didn't work under OS 9

 

[CJ_Miller]

I beg to differ. I used a USB 2.0 Card under a G3-powered PowerMac 9500 under OS X and the USB card worked just fine. From what I can tell, USB 2.0 Cards will work in original pentium systems which uses the old PCI slot/specs and they will work in that (like say pentium 100Mhz running Windows 2k Pro with 64MB/128MB RAM). I believed it is mostly driver issues rather than PCI Specs. I have even used the cards in a PowerMac 7500/G3 with a Radeon 7000 PCI and a USB 2.0 Card, and that was what? the first PCI power mac?

CC was talking about the PCI 1.1 spec, not USB 1.1. This pertains to which cards can run in which machines.

 

[CJ_Miller]

My nightmare continues.

The Radeon 7000 was supposed to make my Mac more usable. It worked last weekend, now it doesn't do anything. Computer boots fine but the displays never turn on now. I have tried several different monitors with different cables. Why would it work and then just stop? I am too annoyed... I was fixing up my 8600 as an in-between box for fixing my SE. Too many problems here.

I decided to try zapping the PRAM, but command-option-p-r has never worked on this box. Maybe because of the Datadesk keyboard instead of Apple. So I pulled the battery and am letting it sit for some time while I develop new strategies.

Is this ATI card supposed to display at boot? What if I need to see boot errors, or use option to select a startup disk? Even when it worked the display turned on only a second before the desktop was ready to appear. This is my first experience using a 3rd party display in an old-world Mac, so far it hasn't been very good.

 

[CJ_Miller]

My bad, I somehow started booting from my 9.1 partition again, which didn't have the ATI drivers. Switching back to 9.2.1 resulted in the same functionality I had last week.

I have been noticing though that 9.2.1 is not stable on my 8600. It was prone to freeze during regular desktop Finder use. What I did was back up my 9.1 extensions, and copied the ATI drivers from the 9.2.1 partition - along with Apple's updated OpenGL drivers, which I have hear they need. Works great, the card is working in 9.1 and there is no freezing. I have not tested the 3D acceleration yet.

Still, it would be perfect if the card loaded from boot, it sucks that I need to keep that 15-pin adaptor handy in case I need to boot from CD or something.

Meanwhile I will look for the original CPU which might be in the basement here. Thinking of trying a 9600 board instead but only if I can install a larger PSU first.