• Updated 2023-07-12: Hello, Guest! Welcome back, and be sure to check out this follow-up post about our outage a week or so ago.

Fizzbinn’s Finds

Fizzbinn

Well-known member
So I’m thinking I got nice bonus with a rev 2 beige G3 motherboard I picked off eBay. Can anyone confirm if this Orange Micro FireWire/USB PCI card is the one that will work in my Performa 6360?

BECD6E8D-C1C1-45E7-9DA3-F9CA54B965D8.jpeg

BDFE6781-6B90-4CD8-993A-A2BD99338906.jpeg

 

jeremywork

Well-known member
That's the one needed for the 5500/6500/TAM! The 6360 will actually be happy with any Mac compatible PCI combo card. It's the older architecture, like the 5400 and 6400, which doesn't have the same bug in its PCI implementation. Nothing wrong with using this one in a 6360, but it's better saved for a 5500, 6500, or TAM, which can't use the common ones.

 

Fizzbinn

Well-known member
Huh, I thought I read somewhere that 6400 and 6500 based systems didn’t like dual function PCI cards that use an internal PCI bridge chip? I have a generic FW/USB2.0 that works in my beige G3 (with USB operating at 1.1) that I’ll give a try too.

I do have a 6500/225 motherboard that I use in the 6360, so I can check both cards in both motherboards. 
 

I like the 6360 compact form factor but it does limit you to 1 PCI slot, with a 6500 motherboard and this card the only upgrade left would be G3 L2 slot processor. I don’t suppose I should hold my breath that I’ll be as lucky getting one of those!

 

MJ313

Well-known member
I do have a 6500/225 motherboard that I use in the 6360, so I can check both cards in both motherboards. 


I've got a 6400 board stuffed into a 6200, but what I found is that the 1 slot riser from a 6360 collides with the 6400's stock heat sink. I was wondering if you run into a similar issue with your 6500 board? Maybe the 6500 has a shorter heat sink? 

 

EvilCapitalist

Well-known member
The card you have should work just fine in your 6360, and it also should work in a 5500/6500/TAM with OrangeLink's patch.

6400s should play nicely with most any Firewire / USB 1.1 combo cards, where you run into trouble is combo cards that are USB 2.0.  The 6500 architecture (Gazelle) is the one that doesn't play nicely with cards that use PCI bridges. 

 

Byrd

Well-known member
I never got that OrangeLink combo card to work in my TAM, with the patch.  Bit sad as I'd always wanted to get an FW iPod up and running on the machine.

 

Fizzbinn

Well-known member
I've got a 6400 board stuffed into a 6200, but what I found is that the 1 slot riser from a 6360 collides with the 6400's stock heat sink. I was wondering if you run into a similar issue with your 6500 board? Maybe the 6500 has a shorter heat sink? 
The heat sink on my 6500/225 board is pretty low profile, here’s what it looks like with a two port USB PCI card:

C7595EB6-8FFF-4B4D-B5F6-4BF4B51F07F7.jpeg

 

Fizzbinn

Well-known member
I never got that OrangeLink combo card to work in my TAM, with the patch.  Bit sad as I'd always wanted to get an FW iPod up and running on the machine.
:-/  I guess I’m going to find out if my luck holds!

 

trag

Well-known member
I keep wanting to populate the RAM pads on the 6500 board and see if the memory can be boosted above 128...

It uses a weird package for the RAM chips, though.

 

Fizzbinn

Well-known member
I keep wanting to populate the RAM pads on the 6500 board and see if the memory can be boosted above 128...

It uses a weird package for the RAM chips, though.
Which pads? The ones next to the cache slot look like they have a “ROM” silkscreen label. There are some on the bottom too though. 

8B725FBD-71BD-4CC0-8471-B241EE91B4D3.jpeg

DE2631D5-4C2C-4EC2-A375-D761B34A6DF0.jpeg

 
Last edited by a moderator:

MJ313

Well-known member
The heat sink on my 6500/225 board is pretty low profile, here’s what it looks like with a two port USB PCI card:


Thanks for the picture! That's really interesting. I am going to try and find a suitable replacement for mine now... concern was that the 6400/200 that I have needed that particular taller heatsink for some reason, but yours looks nice/short and most importantly, adequate!

 

Fizzbinn

Well-known member
Thanks for the picture! That's really interesting. I am going to try and find a suitable replacement for mine now... concern was that the 6400/200 that I have needed that particular taller heatsink for some reason, but yours looks nice/short and most importantly, adequate!
Is there a difference in 603 generation that would affect relative heat generated between a 6400/200 and 6500/225?  I think I read somewhere the the 6500 series got up to 300Mhz because is used a newer 603ev chip that was a die shrink that would generate less heat. i.e. Would a 6400/200 603e generate more heat than a 6500/225 and not be cool with a smaller heat sink?  I googled and found a picture of a 6500/275 motherboard and it has a fan, not sure if it would clear the single PCI slot riser from the 6360.

 

trag

Well-known member
Which pads? The ones next to the cache slot look like they have a “ROM” silkscreen label. There are some on the bottom too though.


Yep, the ones on the bottom.    On the 6400 the analogous pads provide 8 of on-board memory.   8 MB is not a substantial increase, but if populating those pads works, then one could also try adding larger amounts of memory through that bank's signal lines.

Perhaps, install a 128MB DIMM (2 banks of 64MB) in one of the DIMM slots and then run (a) wire(s) from the RAS line(s) for the pads, to the unused bank on the DIMM. 

Note this would also require making sure the two banks' RAS lines on the DIMM are isolated from each other and only one bank's RAS lines are connected to RAS signals provided by the DIMM slot.

 
Last edited by a moderator:

Fizzbinn

Well-known member
Please post back your results!  I'll try mine again some time, it was a few years since last tested, but I got nowhere.
So I got to testing my ”new” Orange Micro FireWire/USB PCI card compared to an ADS FireWire/USB 2.0 PCI card in my Performa 6360 chassis (Mac OS 8.6 hard drive) with two motherboards:

1) Original Performa 6360/160 - Both cards worked fine (as @jeremywork predicted)

2) Power Macintosh 6500/225 - Both cards showed up as PCI Bridge devices but neither USB or FireWire worked. However, the Orange Micro card DID work after running the Orange Micro “PCI Bridge Patch v1.0 for the Power Macintosh 6500, 5500 and Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh” available here:

https://www.macintoshrepository.org/6859-orange-micro-orangelink-pci-firewire-usb-combo-card-software

Before Patch:

F37E30EF-4EBB-4010-AA8D-EF6D78D058B0.jpeg

After Patch:

2CEB27BA-FC8A-4C42-92A3-EA11AA5C41EF.jpeg
(A bit odd that the Comm Slot II Apple Ethernet card didn’t show up in System Profiler after the patch but it’s just cosmetic, AppleTalk and TCP/IP continued to work fine over Ethernet.)

So nothing really new here I suppose, just confirming what most of the folks here already know. :)  

 
Last edited by a moderator:

Fizzbinn

Well-known member
Update on my Performa 6360 with a 6500 motherboard. I had been running it with a pair of 64MB FPM 5v DIMMs from my 7300. I got a pair of 64MB EDO 5v DIMMs off eBay and according to Newer Tech Gauge Pro there’s a ~10% memory performance improvement.

FPM:

BE4A4703-5BF4-4092-B767-C5012BC0D81A.jpeg

EDO:
2A2B656E-A9A9-4253-99FD-7826A9B616BE.jpeg
 

It’s kinda academic, in my general playing around I don’t really notice much difference but thought I’d share nonetheless. 

 

Fizzbinn

Well-known member
I picked up a Power Macintosh 9600/200MP off Craigslist last month and have been meaning ask: 

Anyone know if having an external SCSI terminator directly on a Power Macintosh 9600’s external DB-25 SCSI port is a normal thing? 
 

C9C68D87-195E-4612-8A3A-8D5588B122D6.jpeg

All the Internal SCSI devices are on the Fast SCSI bus, but thats similar to my 7300 and it doesn’t have a terminator like this and works fine. Maybe something particular to the 9600? ...or the previous owner could have done this for no legit reason I suppose.

 

Fizzbinn

Well-known member
I found a decent Color Classic, the seller said it wouldn't boot but the case looked in great shape where mine has a crack on one corner of the bezel. ...it apparently wasn't mean to be as here's how it arrived:

IMG_0419.jpgIMG_0418.jpg

The CRT neck is snapped too. I did get a significant part of the cost back from the seller but decided to keep it for the parts. Motherboard worked, no sound, needs a recap. 80MB IBM OEM hard drive was also good (the 80MB Quantum ones always seem to be dead).  Still sad, I should probably start giving sellers explicit packing instructions, even if it cost me more. One layer of bubble wrap in a card board box just doesn't cut it.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Top