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USB/Firewire cards (or chipsets) that work in the TAM
- Thread starter EvilCapitalist
- Start date
Franklinstein
Well-known member
How many people have tried these multi-function USB/FW/Ethernet/ATA/whatever cards and found problems? It seems like many, and I myself have had issues. The question is: what version of Mac OS are you running?
I have a RATOC USB/FW card (with a TI PCIBus bridge, TI FW chips, Opti USB chip) in my beige G3. Originally I wanted to run OS 8.6 because there were a few programs that get kind of weird under OS 9 and also, everyone runs OS 9; I wanted something different, since basically every modern Mac that I have runs a version of 9.
Anyway I installed the RATOC card and it wouldn't function properly, regardless of which version of USB or FW support software I installed. Eventually I installed OS 9.1 and it started working, mostly: FW devices often only appear over a restart, so they need to be present at boot or they don't show up on the desktop. It still shows up as 'pci bridge' in System Profiler.
Something to try with the other questionable cards: install OS 9.1, install the latest FW/USB adapter support software, and have all devices attached at boot time. If they still don't work, they probably never will.
I have a RATOC USB/FW card (with a TI PCIBus bridge, TI FW chips, Opti USB chip) in my beige G3. Originally I wanted to run OS 8.6 because there were a few programs that get kind of weird under OS 9 and also, everyone runs OS 9; I wanted something different, since basically every modern Mac that I have runs a version of 9.
Anyway I installed the RATOC card and it wouldn't function properly, regardless of which version of USB or FW support software I installed. Eventually I installed OS 9.1 and it started working, mostly: FW devices often only appear over a restart, so they need to be present at boot or they don't show up on the desktop. It still shows up as 'pci bridge' in System Profiler.
Something to try with the other questionable cards: install OS 9.1, install the latest FW/USB adapter support software, and have all devices attached at boot time. If they still don't work, they probably never will.
Dear all,
So as a follow-up on EvilCapitalists suggestion that some of the cards might require additional power to be fully functional (i.e. both Firewire and USB working), I had a go with a Belkin F5U508 PCI rev 3.0 on a PM 5500, drawing power to the molex connector on the card from the hard drive molex connector using a Y-splitter,
However, no luck though, the card does get recognised, with two devices recognised as USB cards, and with the Firewire side working perfectly, however the result is the same as without additional power, i.e. USB devices getting power but not recognised.
Funny enough, when trying this card on a B&W G3, both USB and Firewire sides work absolutely fine, with the card being recognised as two USB cards as well and a generic device which corresponds the the Firewire side of the card.
I also had a go at the Sonnet and OrangeLink PCI bridge NVRAM patches even though the card doesn't show up as a PCI bridge, however no luck there either.
So it's not that this card doesn't work with macs to begin with, the Gazelle architecture seems to be having trouble with multifunction cards altogether.
I have tried it with USB extensions 1.5.5, and on the B&W where the card worked flawlessly USB extensions were, 1.5.6, so I would try it with 1.5.6 on the PM 5500 but I wouldn't hold my breath.
Cheers,
So as a follow-up on EvilCapitalists suggestion that some of the cards might require additional power to be fully functional (i.e. both Firewire and USB working), I had a go with a Belkin F5U508 PCI rev 3.0 on a PM 5500, drawing power to the molex connector on the card from the hard drive molex connector using a Y-splitter,
However, no luck though, the card does get recognised, with two devices recognised as USB cards, and with the Firewire side working perfectly, however the result is the same as without additional power, i.e. USB devices getting power but not recognised.
Funny enough, when trying this card on a B&W G3, both USB and Firewire sides work absolutely fine, with the card being recognised as two USB cards as well and a generic device which corresponds the the Firewire side of the card.
I also had a go at the Sonnet and OrangeLink PCI bridge NVRAM patches even though the card doesn't show up as a PCI bridge, however no luck there either.
So it's not that this card doesn't work with macs to begin with, the Gazelle architecture seems to be having trouble with multifunction cards altogether.
I have tried it with USB extensions 1.5.5, and on the B&W where the card worked flawlessly USB extensions were, 1.5.6, so I would try it with 1.5.6 on the PM 5500 but I wouldn't hold my breath.
Cheers,
I have tried with USB 1.5.6 with the Belkin F5U508 PCI rev 3.0 in a PM 5500 but to no avail, even with extra power to the card. And even with the "USB mass storage" extensions from previous builds which seems to be absent from 1.5.6 at least as it is distributed with OS 9.2.2; I had to inject these to get the OrangeLink FW/USB combo to work (after the PCI bridge patch).
On a different note, has anyone had issues with the OrangeLink FW/USB combo card (the one pictured earler in this post) and the Crescendo L2/G3 (400 Mhz, 1M cache in my case) ? When enabled with the PCI bridge patch, the system becomes unstable as soon as OpenGL gets initialised; it can be a minute, 10 minutes, 20 minutes but random crashes will invariably occur. Anyone else experiencing this? I have read from the 6400 zone that there can be audio stuttering with the G3 and the tango but couldn't find anything about 3D issues.
On a different note, has anyone had issues with the OrangeLink FW/USB combo card (the one pictured earler in this post) and the Crescendo L2/G3 (400 Mhz, 1M cache in my case) ? When enabled with the PCI bridge patch, the system becomes unstable as soon as OpenGL gets initialised; it can be a minute, 10 minutes, 20 minutes but random crashes will invariably occur. Anyone else experiencing this? I have read from the 6400 zone that there can be audio stuttering with the G3 and the tango but couldn't find anything about 3D issues.
cheesestraws
Well-known member
Mildly necroing this thread for people who arrive here through Google (as this is a thread that turns up):
OF "patches" for the Sonnet Tango 2.0r2 and "that card with very shiny connectors" (I got mine from Kalea Informatique, I think StarTech also sold them under the name ST-200) are here. Only demonstrated working on the TAM so far.
68kmla.org
OF "patches" for the Sonnet Tango 2.0r2 and "that card with very shiny connectors" (I got mine from Kalea Informatique, I think StarTech also sold them under the name ST-200) are here. Only demonstrated working on the TAM so far.
The Great Gazelle PCI Hack Thread, Part 2
Hanlon's razor applies here. In the absence of any evidence to the contrary, cock-up is more likely than conspiracy. Hanlon's razor is a wonderful principle, thanks for the lesson. The linked article's timeline explains why it didn't make its way into my 1970s Philosophy courses. Given Apple's...
68kmla.org
New patch at #232 should allow any Mac supported PCI card that has a pci-bridge to work correctly in a 6500 or TAM with Open Firmware 2.0.3.Mildly necroing this thread for people who arrive here through Google (as this is a thread that turns up):
OF "patches" for the Sonnet Tango 2.0r2 and "that card with very shiny connectors" (I got mine from Kalea Informatique, I think StarTech also sold them under the name ST-200) are here. Only demonstrated working on the TAM so far.
The Great Gazelle PCI Hack Thread, Part 2
Hanlon's razor applies here. In the absence of any evidence to the contrary, cock-up is more likely than conspiracy. Hanlon's razor is a wonderful principle, thanks for the lesson. The linked article's timeline explains why it didn't make its way into my 1970s Philosophy courses. Given Apple's...
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