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Has anyone gotten a firewire card working on a Beige G3 running 8.6?

reallyrandy

Well-known member
I've tried an Adaptec AFW-4300 and an IOGear GIC430F and neither work. I've tried Firewire enabler 2.33, 2.4, 2.5 and 2.8.3.
The System Profiler sees the card and Card Type, Model and Vendor ID are displayed but Card Model and ROM# are not.
The IOGear says it's compatible with OS 8.6 and a Blue and White G3
The Adaptec says it needs OS 9

I want to stay with 8.6 because it's the original OS, plus OS 9 is sluggish on this Mac.

If you've gotten it to work, please tell me the card model and the driver you're using.
 

Skate323k137

Well-known member
I have a sonnet combo USB/firewire card, but the box says OS9 minimum. I suppose when I get around to firing up my 7500 I can try 8.6 and see but I'm doubtful.
 

reallyrandy

Well-known member
The FireConnect 4300 says requirements are:
\
Macintosh
  • Mac OS 8.6 or later
  • Power Macintosh 8600/9600 or later
  • Available PCI slot
  • CD-ROM drive
Would the G3 266 be considered later than an 8600? I know it was released in November 97 with a PPC 750 and the 8600 was released earlier February 97 with a 604e. So you would think…
 

reallyrandy

Well-known member
I bought an Adaptec FireConnect 4300 on ebay, we'll see if that works when it arrives. If not, there are some LaCie FW 400s available.
 

chelseayr

Well-known member
just as a footnote I was curious and tried a quick web search which somehow not surprisingly led to a bunch of pdf's..but anyhow..just to rehash three plausible leads that I found in my 'lazy research'..

"siig 1394 pci adapter" @ pdf mentions ohci 1.1 & macos 8.6 or later and should be used with apple 2.3.3 driver minimum
belkin F5U501-MAC @ pdf mentions ohci 1.0 & macos 8.6 with apple 2.4 driver required and that 2.5 is not compatible

and on a sidenote to orangemicro, the 1394b pci pdf says it is still compatible with 8.6 but same pdf mentions at least 9.0 in the 'dv requirement' so mm maybe need someone else to cite actual 8.6 compatibility
(of course the card likely only operates in 1394a mode, probably only a bon if you have too much 1394b cables/peripherals)
 

NJRoadfan

Well-known member
My beige G3 MT came with a Firewire card that was a BTO option, so its possible to get one working on MacOS 8.0/8.1.
 

reallyrandy

Well-known member
I have tried 3 different cards, IOGear GIC 430F, Adaptec FireConnect AFW-4300, and Adaptec 4300A. The Adaptecs show up and and register in the System Profiler. I'm starting to think it's because I'm using 2 drives with FW800 connectors and a 800>400 cable. maybe if I bought a native FW 400 drive it might work. I want USB and Firewire so I can transfer from my modern Mac to the G3.

20220304_150029.jpg_sml.jpg_sml.jpg20220304_150042.jpg_sml.jpg_sml.jpg
 

Franklinstein

Well-known member
I had some trouble getting FW to work on beige Macs. Make sure you have the proper extensions. If there are utilities for your specific FW device, try running them or possibly other utilities to check if they can see it. You may have to restart after plugging something in. Sometimes on Classic Mac OS hard drives won't show up unless you restart or run a mounting utility.

Texas Instruments made most if not all of the early FireWire controllers that Apple used. If your card's using a TI chipset it should work.
 

volvo242gt

Well-known member
^This...

Another thing, I see that your hard drive enclosure has a USB port. Have you tried using a USB cable with it? Looks like it's the same style USB connector that most digital cameras and memory card readers use. It'll be slow transferring larger files, if the USB card you're using is 1.1, but might be a simpler way to go, if you're still having trouble with Firewire even with a FW400 drive. Also, was the drive formatted on a machine that had access to OS 9 drivers? If those aren't installed, the drive won't be seen on a Mac that's not running OS X.
 

reallyrandy

Well-known member
I finally got it working by using 2.8.3 Firewire drivers and a drive that has a power cable. I'm using the Adaptec AFW-4300A. The self-powered drives do not work on OS 8.6 but they do work on OS 9 (weird).
 
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