bootable sata, the eternal struggle

[trag]

Don't know if it's true in your case, but in my experience, PLCC32 sockets often don't work if the chip is pressed to the bottom of the socket.  Try inserting the chip until it is securing held by the pins, but not all the way at the bottom of the socket.  IIRC, get the top of the chip flush with the top of the socket, but not pressed down to the bottom of the socket.

I have this issue with my PLCC32 - DIP adapters.

 

[Bolle]

Same problem with my PLCC DIP adapters here as well. The socket on those adapters wears out pretty quickly. As trag said you can try to not push the chip down all the way inside the socket. This usually works well for me.

 

[luckybob]

meh, i already ordered a nice replacement with a zif socket.

I will try again tonight.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Might tinning contacts on IC, Socket or both fix the problem? Me likes bodges, the fuglier the better.  []

 

[luckybob]

I'll play with it later.  I'm in the middle of 12-hour work days so I just cannot summon the energy right now to do anything.  maybe monday. 

 

[luckybob]

OK, I finally got the socket from china.  Paid a bit extra for one that shouldn't fail after a few insert/remove cycles.  



Anyway, I dropped in the chip, and it worked perfectly.  Well the programmer anyway.  It does not boot in my beige G3.  It does show up in the profiler:

Please excuse the crap cellphone image of the screen

  

In my beige g3, it comes up as shown.  usb and sata doesn't work.  I don't have firewire so I couldn't test that.  It did better than my blue G3.  That machine only had "pci bridge" in the profiler.  I also tried my G4 but that system has decided not to work anymore.

Is it possible the bios chip?  I found some other posts here with a different file, tried that and got the same results.

Its a real shame, I really wanted this card to work.    

 

[Bolle]

What exact type of chip did you end up using for flashing?

The Sonnet firmware checks for the chip type and refuses to work with chips that Sonnet/Firmtek did not put onto their cards.

It's also possible that the PCI-PCI bridge on yours breaks things.

I had one of those cards with an Intel bridge and another one with a PLX bridge. One of them was having issues with OSX so the bridge does make a difference.

Also your card looks to be newer having a BGA bridge while all my cards have PQFP type bridges.

I read those Hint HB1 BGA bridges were terribly unreliable (Voodoo graphics cards had them back in the day and there were a load of dead cards due a problem with the HB1 bridge)

Edit: USB and Firewire should work without a working ROM on the SATA part.

 

[luckybob]

What exact type of chip did you end up using for flashing?

The Sonnet firmware checks for the chip type and refuses to work with chips that Sonnet/Firmtek did not put onto their cards.

It's also possible that the PCI-PCI bridge on yours breaks things.

I had one of those cards with an Intel bridge and another one with a PLX bridge. One of them was having issues with OSX so the bridge does make a difference.

Also your card looks to be newer having a BGA bridge while all my cards have PQFP type bridges.

I read those Hint HB1 BGA bridges were terribly unreliable (Voodoo graphics cards had them back in the day and there were a load of dead cards due a problem with the HB1 bridge)

Edit: USB and Firewire should work without a working ROM on the SATA part.

exactly my thought.  for the record, i bought the same brand, same model, except i got a 040 instead of 010.

Im going to pull out my xp setup and see if it works in windows.  at the very least, make sure the card works.

damn shame.  I'll keep my ears to the ground on this for the time being.

 

[Bolle]

SST chips are not supported by the firmware if I remember right. You need a Pm39LV040 or a MX29LV040, those do work for sure. As said the firmware is checking the chip ID and refuses to work on any chip that Sonnet did not use on their cards.

 

[luckybob]

 God frack it.

So the 010 SST is ok but an identical 040 isn't.  OI VEY.

And those chips aren't available on reputable sites like mouser.  Gotta order them off ebay from china.  And wait 3 weeks to get the fakes...  [sarcasm] YAY [/sarcasm]

I'll keep looking for those two exact chips for now.  Thanks.  

---

I also realize the usb/firewire should still work.  So I'm going to frack around with this card for a bit, maybe something will come to me.  Hopefully I can find out a workaround.  It might be the fault of the usb chip, it might not be supported.  

 

[Cory5412]

Good luck finding the ROM chip!

Just anecdotally, back in the day I popped a USB card into one of my Macs running OS 9 and I couldn't get it to work without a whole OS reinstall, so it may be worth trying that out if you have some time. I don't know what magic it installs that you can't just run the package installer for yourself.

 

[luckybob]

Also, because I can't boot from sata, I've been using a boot cd, so that might be the issue with usb not working initially.  Anyway, there are some chips on ebay.  I might as well try.  I'm already pretty deep into this project, what's another $10 and 3 weeks?

 

[luckybob]

Got the chips from ebay, a couple days ago, truth be told.  MX29LV040CQ1  New in package, but pre-programmed with some telecom firmware.

No dice.

That said, while parperusing ebay, I did find another card based on all VIA chips.  It was CHEAP.  In fact the website for the card still works:  http://ppa-usa.com/computer-products/sata/pci-combo-card-sata-usb-and-firewire.html

That particular card doesn't work either, as expected.  I did it to test the bridge chip.  It comes up in the profiler as "pci multifunction card", where my initial card actually looks like the bridge chip is working.  The profiler lists usb/firewire/raid.  I dropped the original firmware back into the original card, popper her into my Win7 machine...  works fine.  Had a bit of driver hiccup (manual install) with the sata part, but it was probably a win7 thing.

Kinda out of ideas here.