firewire PCI card no longer works

[bengi3]

suddenly a POwerMac 7600 with G4 Sonnet Crescendo and a bige G3 desktop stopped recognizing external FW hard drives. I do not recall if I ever connected an external FW HD after upgrading to Mac OS 9.2.2 (it requires a specifc strategy as the installer does not allow to instal 9.2.2 on these machines.

By the way can it be that Os 9.2.2 chenged something?

A b & w G3 can read those HDs.

Ben

 

[phreakout]

Check and make sure the proper system extensions have been installed in the System Folder. Mac OS 9.x.x has a generic installer extension that will cover most firewire cards and devices. Also, if the card is brand new and supports OS 9, some cards will have the drivers copied to an install CD; make sure you load that before plugging in the firewire card. Sometimes doing a clean new custom install of a System Folder will fix the problem. Once the new System Folder is in place, simply move all your old extensions, prefs and non-stock control panels into the new one and restart.

73s de Phreakout. :rambo:

 

[bengi3]

thanks, but these two cards used to work when I put te two Mac in the basement two years ago... same computers, same configurations etc...

Today I did a clean install of OS 9, no way... while the USB works. System profiler does recognizes the cards, it is quite strage.

Ben

 

[bengi3]

Ireinstalled OS 9 on both macs, up to 9.1: now the G3 sees the card while the heavily upgraded 7600 still doesen't.

Any hints? The FW cards are Keyspan, is it possible that the 7600 requires specific extensions, while the G3 can see the card with Apple FW extensions?

Ben

 

[phreakout]

Fyi, I had one major issue on my Power Mac 7500 (a small step down from your 7600). For some strange reason, the PCI port on the far left (farthest away from the CPU card slot) had to be soldered recently. Apparently, the slot wasn't soldered on solidly and it caused the Mac to not recognize the PCI card plugged into that slot. So, you may want to double check thoroughly that it is secure. Other than that, maybe your fire-wire card is fried? A possibility, but hard to say.

Well, if System Profiler recognizes the card on the beige G3, that means you may have to install the Keyspan's system extension file(s) into the Extension Folder and restart. The same way also apply to the 7600 as well.

73s de Phreakout. :rambo:

 

[bengi3]

thanks for the suggestion, indeed I have 2 kayspan FW: both workon the G3 beige with Apple extensions, none works on the 7600. I tried all PCI slots. Yesterday I plugged them on the G3 B&W, OS X 10.3: system profiler sees them but no HDs are mounted, pretty weird.

BTW, after removing the two SCSI HDs now the 7600/G4 with the Acard IDE PCI is rocksolid!

 

[phreakout]

I'm wondering if the firewire card is bad. Can you also check to see if that card uses the "Oxford 911" chipset? I've heard that that particular chipset is more reliable for Macs than any other chipset. Lastly, check your cables, power supply and external firewire hard drive are in good shape. Even something as simple as that can be overlooked.

73s de Phreakout. :rambo:

 

[bengi3]

I recall the cards being OHCI, actually I have two Keyspan cards, both works on the G3 beige with Apple extensions but none of them works on the 7600, I tried all slots!

Ben