Silicon Image SIL3112 Flashing: Easier Way Using flashrom

[Phipli]

Any insights into why a flashed SIIG 3112A card might cause a freeze on a PowerTower Pro (9500 based) before Open Firmware loads? The unflashed card did not, and flashed under OS 9 without issue.

Try different PCI slots for the SATA card and your video card. 9500s have two banks of three slots (top three, bottom three) and some cards don't like being in some slots, or in certain orders with other cards.

 

[absurd_engineering]

Try different PCI slots for the SATA card and your video card. 9500s have two banks of three slots (top three, bottom three) and some cards don't like being in some slots, or in certain orders with other cards.

Have done, different slots on both Bandits, with no change.

The odd thing to me is that the card worked fine pre-flash (usable in Debian PPC), and showed up in System Profiler and to the flashing utility — all until it was flashed, when it started to hang

 

[Phipli]

The odd thing to me is that the card worked fine pre-flash (usable in Debian PPC), and showed up in System Profiler and to the flashing utility — all until it was flashed, when it started to hang

None of these "worked fine" scenarios are actually loading a Mac driver for the card. You're sort of saying the card worked fine when my Mac wasn't using it.

Did you use the full ROM, or the reduced size one? Which version?

Did you solder in a new ROM?

 

[absurd_engineering]

None of these "worked fine" scenarios are actually loading a Mac driver for the card. You're sort of saying the card worked fine when my Mac wasn't using it.

Did you use the full ROM, or the reduced size one? Which version?

Did you solder in a new ROM?

I used the stock ROM (39SF010) and DosDude's latest ROM image from this thread.

And it's bailing before OF even loads.

 

[Phipli]

And it's bailing before OF even loads.

OpenFirmware runs the ROM before it drops you at the command prompt, so it still could be the ROM.

How good at soldering are you? Can you fit a new bigger EEPROM to the card?

 

[Phipli]

Also, can we see a photo of your card?

 

[absurd_engineering]

OpenFirmware runs the ROM before it drops you at the command prompt, so it still could be the ROM.

How good at soldering are you? Can you fit a new bigger EEPROM to the card?

Yep, I can. I'm also not invested in this particular card, I just had it lying around, but I just thought I'd see if Collin's tiny image would work.

 

[absurd_engineering]

Also, can we see a photo of your card?

Here are photos.

 

[absurd_engineering]

Success with the mini image on the previously discussed el cheapo 3112 card with the 12V ROM. Desoldered, flashed, resoldered, and I have a 256 GB SSD mounted in 9.1..! Huzzah.

Shows up as an ATA drive to the system, but the card does not show up as an ATA host in System Profiler. Whatever, as long as it works!

Also working in 10.4.

 

[Phipli]

Shows up as an ATA drive to the system, but the card does not show up as an ATA host in System Profiler. Whatever, as long as it works!

Should show up as a SCSI bus, not ATA?

 

[croissantking]

Well done!

 

[greystash]

I had a couple with AM28F010s, swapped them to AM29F040B (non LV) and they programmed fine with the Mac app and work great. Is there any reason to use a 512K ROM on these since they have room, versus the 128K ROM?

@treellama where did you source your AM29F040B from? Should I be looking for one that operates at 12v? In the datasheets I've looked at for AM29F040B these models run at 5v and I haven't been able to find anything on eBay that explicitly gives an operating voltage.

 

[dosdude1]

@treellama where did you source your AM29F040B from? Should I be looking for one that operates at 12v? In the datasheets I've looked at for AM29F040B these models run at 5v and I haven't been able to find anything on eBay that explicitly gives an operating voltage.

A 5V-rated chip is what you want, unless your card has an option to change VCC voltage for EEPROM to 3.3V, in which case you can use an "LV" EEPROM. You don't want an EEPROM that requires 12V for erasing and programming (such as the AM28F010), as it can only be programmed externally in an EEPROM programmer, and not on the card.

 

[greystash]

A 5V-rated chip is what you want, unless your card has an option to change VCC voltage for EEPROM to 3.3V, in which case you can use an "LV" EEPROM. You don't want an EEPROM that requires 12V for erasing and programming (such as the AM28F010), as it can only be programmed externally in an EEPROM programmer, and not on the card.

Thank you @dosdude1, much appreciated!

 

[-Micky]

With the help from #116 it was possible to rebuild the Adaptec 1210SA so that it work with my Power Macintosh G3 series revision c and MacOS 9.2.1.

Very good work!

Why is the Adaptec shown as an SCSI card?


Micky

 

[croissantking]

Why is the Adaptec shown as an SCSI card?

This is correct.

I guess OpenFirmware/MacOS do not know what an ATA card is (it’s not been defined) so the SATA card needs to masquerade as a SCSI card. It’s the same on the PC side afaik.

 

[-Micky]

Did the Adaptec 1210SA works with SSD hdd's? Because I have here a SanDisk SSD Plus with 240 gb and there are a lot of errors when I try to use this hdd. The hdd works under Windows Vista without errors. Instead I use a normally hdd, it's a Hitachi 7K500-320, with 320 gb. This works.


Micky

 

[croissantking]

Did the Adaptec 1210SA works with SSD hdd's? Because I have here a SanDisk SSD Plus with 240 gb and there are a lot of errors when I try to use this hdd. The hdd works under Windows Vista without errors. Instead I use a normally hdd, it's a Hitachi 7K500-320, with 320 gb. This works.


Micky

It absolutely should do, but in practice there could be issues. For example, a Samsung EVO 840 works just fine with my Adaptec, but an 850 doesn’t. The same happens on my vintage PC with Sil3112 onboard SATA. I read it’s because the newer SSD isn’t backwards compatible with SATA150.

 

[-Micky]

Thanks for the info!

A SanDisk SSD Plus 120 gb works perfect. I did not think that the newer SSDs were not backwards compatible.


Micky

 

[nikdoof]

Last night I modded my black card Chinese SIL3112, it had the AM28 128k ROM so desoldered, flashed with the compressed ROM, resoldered and it works perfectly for a boot drive for OS9, but not for OSX 10.4.

The card shows as a ATA device in OSX once booted.



But when attempting to boot OSX from a disk on the card, it spins on the boot screen for a while then shows the no entry sign.



Any idea? The disk works perfectly on my existing SATA to IDE adapter so I know it's not a duff install. It all shows up correctly in OpenFirmware as well.