Flashing a SATA card for dummies?

[Tom2112]

OK, I've read several threads about flashing PCI SATA cards - here on 68kmla and other forums - for use in G4's (and others)... I always leave the thread confused. So I got frustrated and decided to throw money at the "problem" and bought one of those $50 pre-flashed Sil3114 cards on eBay. Of course, it didn't work in either my G4 Sawtooth or my G4 Quicksilver - apparently there's a know issue with those models. <sigh>

So I was poking around and trying to figure out which card to buy and try flashing it myself... and I picked up a Sil3112 (not the best card, but they can be found cheap).

Now, I'm no dummy - though I've done my share of dumb things - but I digress... I've flashed the firmware on many devices. It's not hard. The hardest part is finding the right firmware file to write to the device and the right tool to do the flashing. Once you have both of those things, it's usually as easy as riding a bicycle.

Can anyone tell me:

1. Will the Sil3112 work in a Sawtooth or Quicksilver?
2. If it will work, where can I find the firmware and flash util?
3. If no to both, then can you tell me which card will work (one that is obtainable) and how to flash it so I can boot a Quicksilver from it?

Worst case scenario - I can probably flash the Sil3114 back to PC and use both cards in retro PC builds I've got laying around with only IDE... So I'm not really out anything. But I do really want to get a SATA card working in my Quicksilver.

Thanks in advance,
Tom

 

[trag]

@Tom2112 Caveat: I haven't flashed a 3112 card myself. Well, that's not exactly true; about ten or twelve years ago I made the attempt, but failed. However, soon after, some smart folks here figured out what was going on. The original thread got very lengthy and I don't feel like hunting it down. Hopefully someone else will follow along and do so.

The TL: DR for the thread was (IIRC) :

1) The Sonnet firmware for the TSATA PCI card will work on a generic 3112 card, if one of the three supported Flash chips is on the card.

2) The Sonnet Flasher won't flash a blank chip. So you'll need to program the firmware onto the chip, before putting the chip on the card.

3) Typically, the generic cards come with a 5V Flash chip. The three supported flash chips are 3.3V.

4) There is a resistor on the cards to switch what voltage the Flash chip gets.

5) If your generic card doesn't come with the Flash in a socket, you'll need to desolder the original chip.

6) And you'll need to obtain one of the three supported chips and get it onto the board, possibly along with the resistor switch to make it work.

If I got any of the details wrong, I'm sure someone will be along in a while to correct me.


Ah, I got curious enough to hunt down the original thread. Here it is:

https://68kmla.org/bb/index.php?threads/sil3112-flashing-sata.21640/

It gets interesting on the second page.

And the three supported chips are:

• Pm39LV040
• MX29LV040
• Am29LV040B

 

[Daniël]

Other than the firmware being by FirmTek/SeriTek and not Sonnet, the above is accurate. I've done this modification before to a USB/FW/SATA PCI combo card that uses the SiI3112 chipset for SATA, which works great on my PM6400, including System 7.

 

[max1zzz]

In regards to compatibility, flashed sil3112 cards work 100% fine in Sawtooths, 99% of the time they will work fine in QuickSilvers too (The don't work in my '01 QS, but I used to sell these and have had pleanty of reports of them working fine in both '01 and '02 QS's

 

[Tom2112]

A HUGE thanks to you guys for the clear and concise info. I can't count the number of confusing convoluted threads I've read on this topic.

Well, here's the 3112 card I have. Somewhere along the way, I found a thread in another forum with seemingly simple directions AND the firmware and flasher links actually worked (miracle!). So I grabbed them and flashed my Sil3112. Of course, it doesn't work in my Quicksilver. I haven't tried it in my Sawtooth yet, but I'm not going to hold my breath, considering all the physical mods this card seems to require (resistor move & chip replacement). You can see from below that my chip is not one of the supported ones.

 

[Tom2112]

So... are there any cards that can simply be flashed - no hardware mods needed?

 

[Daniël]

So... are there any cards that can simply be flashed - no hardware mods needed?

Other than the original SeriTek cards (and derivatives), probably very few. Almost all of these cheap cards will come with 010 EEPROMs, as they are simply cheaper than 040 EEPROMs, while the PC BIOS will fit just fine on a 010. There is the Wiebetech firmware that will fit on a 010, but this will only work under OS X 10.2 or so and up, so no Classic Mac OS support.

If you want to modify your card, you'd have to change the EEPROM and do the resistor mod. Looking at your card, it's probably the R23 0 ohm resistor besides the voltage regulator that would have to be moved one spot left, to R24. You'd technically not need to reuse the resistor, as it is 0 ohm. A solder bridge between the pads of R24 after the removal of R23 would work just as well.

 

[Tom2112]

Thanks Daniel!

 

[trag]

Several years ago, some of the cheap 3112 cards actually had the Flash chip in a socket, and came with the 3.3V AMD chip that works with the TSATA firmware. We'll probably never get that lucky again.

 

[mg.man]

So... this may be a dumb question, and the answer may just be "NO", but came across this card and wondered if there was any hope of getting this Mac'ified...


VIA, not SI silicon, but it'd be cool to have both IDE and SATA...

 

[max1zzz]

So... this may be a dumb question, and the answer may just be "NO", but came across this card and wondered if there was any hope of getting this Mac'ified...
View attachment 40601

VIA, not SI silicon, but it'd be cool to have both IDE and SATA...

Yes, if you can find the elusive Mathey Msata-13UMAC card to dump the firmware from first (As far as I know that one single card was the only mac card ever to use the VIA silicon) I have been looking for a while and have never seen one for sale....

 

[mg.man]

Ooo... so there's hope (albeit slim!!). I'll add this (Msata-13UMAC) to my 'hunt" list...

 

[zefrenchtoon]

Also, you can take a look at this post:

SIL3112 Mass Storage Drivers!

SIL3112 Mass Storage Drivers!

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