PM G3 MT PCI card wonkiness

[MJ313]

I have a PM G3 Beige MT running OS 9.2.2. Up until now it's been stable running with:

1. Flashed SiI3112 SATA card

2. USB card

3. Farallon FastEtherTX 10/100 card

Well, I couldn't leave well enough alone and recently tried swapping a Rage128 card in place of the USB card and now I get a Finder Type 11 error (Illegal Instruction) when booting the Mac. I've tried swapping in another ethernet card (Realtek something or other), and still no dice. Any combination of Rage128 & Ethernet PCI cards results in that Finder Type 11 error. Swapping cards into different PCI slots makes no difference.

Without any ethernet card installed and with the Rage128 installed, the machine boots just fine.

Has anyone experienced 9.2.2, Rage128 and ethernet PCI card incompatibilities in one of these Macs? Any fix recommended? I mean I can limp along with the onboard ethernet but if there was some way to get all the cards to work, that would be ideal.

Thanks!
 

 

[jessenator]

With the almost exact same setup (9.2.1) I never got a finder error, but I did have issues with the Farallon fastether card: it would never work reliably with the Rage128 installed. Come to think of it though, I haven't tried the FastEther on its own. Once I get the drive situation with mine resolved, I'll check it both ways.

 

[MJ313]

Thanks, it would be interesting to see if you run into issues as well. I've tried booting with Extensions off, reset the PMU & CUDA, doesn't matter, still get the Illegal Instruction error right off the bat.

 

[jessenator]

I couldn't get it to error :/  I guess that's good? I've tried a combination of my Farallon 10/100, my Belkin USB, ATi Rage 128 and couldn't replicate the error. Either on 9.2.1 or 9.2.2. Nothing

My ROM version is $77D.45F2

 

[ppcoutlaw]

I have a couple of bmt G3s. One is a rev c server 333mhz board in a 233 case. I last had it stoked with a gigabit eth card, an atto SCSI controller, and a usb-FireWire card. I did run a 16mb vid card in it , in place of the USB card, but never encountered any problems with it not playing nice with the other cards.

There could be an issue in which card is placed where in your PCI slots.

Also, you may wish to check the revision of your motherboard. Rev A boards, or the roms, were known to have some issues. I cant remember which.

 

[MJ313]

I couldn't get it to error :/  I guess that's good?

That's great and thanks for testing, I appreciate it! Gives me hope! I'll dig into it more today as I've got some time.

Also, you may wish to check the revision of your motherboard. Rev A boards, or the roms, were known to have some issues. I cant remember which.

This is a good point. I am not sure which Rev it is so I'll verify that. I was aware of the B&W Rev 1&2 issues but hadn't considered a similar issue here.

 

[MJ313]

My ROM version is $77D.45F2

I've got the exact some ROM version. I've got the 0864-A board, which I am guessing is the Rev1.  I did just have good luck with the same combo you tried - FastEtherTX, Rage128 and Belkin USB, so that leads me to believe the SiI SATA card in my system is part of this mess.

Any *two* of these together + a Belkin USB card works just fine:

1. Flashed SiI3112 SATA card

2. Rage128

3. Farallon FastEtherTX 10/100 card

However, all three together, regardless of PCI slot, results in the Illegal Instruction error. While trying the original System install of OS 8.5.1 for the machine, it still bombs, but with a Bus Error.

Dunno, guess I hit the magic combo of Fail. :/