Okay folks, idiot question number 200. I have a 9500/G4 that has gone all weird on me after swapping a couple of video cards around. So, is the CUDA switch the red switch on the MB labeled S1? What should the configuration of the system be,,,power on/off, power cord connected/disconnected, etc?
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9500 CUDA switch
- Thread starter mac2geezer
- Start date
In the 9500 the CUDA switch, a miniature momentary-action switch with (most often) a red button, is near the daughter-card's slot towards the back of the Mac. In round terms, CUDA (capacitive unit discharge ASIC) is for Old World, and PMU (power management unit) is for New World Macs with the exception of the PCI Graphics G4. CUDA switches are often close to a daughter-card slot, not least because hardware upgrades and changes necessitate, in best practice, that you use the CUDA switch as the last act before you close the Mac and power up, and processor upgrades are chief amongst such hardware changes.
CUDA ad PMU switches are different beasts, and they are used differently, albeit for similar ends. Both are used to clear PRAM, or NVRAM, either because a Mac will not start up or has forgotten what its state is, or to signal to the board that the installed hardware has changed. In worst cases, they both may need to be used after a complete resetting of the MLB. In essence, the CUDA's process continues for as long as the switch is held in, and the PMU's process is begun with a single press-and-release of the identical-looking switch. Twenty to sixty seconds is useful for CUDA activation. Many CUDA switches are in obscure positions, but accessible they are, even if that means that a handlamp and a non-conducting stiff thin rod have to be used to reach them.
Be also aware that the same acronym (CUDA), for Compute Unified Device Architecture, is in use by Nvidia. Confusion is sure to follow, although the two uses (Old World hardware and New World software) will not be likely to occur in the same context.
de
CUDA ad PMU switches are different beasts, and they are used differently, albeit for similar ends. Both are used to clear PRAM, or NVRAM, either because a Mac will not start up or has forgotten what its state is, or to signal to the board that the installed hardware has changed. In worst cases, they both may need to be used after a complete resetting of the MLB. In essence, the CUDA's process continues for as long as the switch is held in, and the PMU's process is begun with a single press-and-release of the identical-looking switch. Twenty to sixty seconds is useful for CUDA activation. Many CUDA switches are in obscure positions, but accessible they are, even if that means that a handlamp and a non-conducting stiff thin rod have to be used to reach them.
Be also aware that the same acronym (CUDA), for Compute Unified Device Architecture, is in use by Nvidia. Confusion is sure to follow, although the two uses (Old World hardware and New World software) will not be likely to occur in the same context.
de
Thanks Equill. It was the CUDA that I pressed, while powered down, but apparently did not hold the switch long enough. Will go try again. The problem(s) the 9500 started displaying after video board swaps are (1) most of the time the CD drive is not recognized on the bus, or if recognized it won't mount a disk, and (2) ASP hangs the system when asked to scan the devices. This all on a machine that was working fine prior to the video card swaps, even though I have returned the configuration to the original.
Something as seemingly unrelated to what you were doing (video vs optical drive), or as strongly related as ASP and a hardware catalogue, is a good time to suspect a confused persona in the 9500. If you haven't already, do a complete MLB reset:
1) mains and battery power completely removed for 10min or more, with the wanted hardware all in place and checked for cable security, seating and so on;
2) reinstall the battery 10-30sec before using the CUDA switch;
3) reattach the mains power, and then start up.
de
1) mains and battery power completely removed for 10min or more, with the wanted hardware all in place and checked for cable security, seating and so on;
2) reinstall the battery 10-30sec before using the CUDA switch;
3) reattach the mains power, and then start up.
de
Well, I did all that and now the machine will not even boot, it chimes, no disk activity beyond an initial short burst, blank screen. I've removed and reseated the processor card, reseated the PCI cards, dismantled the machine to check that Ram is all seated. There's another MLB here that I'll try tomorrow; sick of the damn thing tonight. That computer has always been a little flakey ever since I got it. If I thought the G4 card would work in a Kansas MB it would go in the 8600/300.
I'm not sure why you might think that a G4 daughtercard will not work in conjunction with a Kansas MLB if it truly is a Kansas. I put a Kansas MLB from a 9600 into an 8600/300MHz case (with the black space-filling flapdoodle removed from the 8600), but with an XLR8 ZIF G4/400MHz daughter-card. I left the A/V holes open for quite a while before I found a coverplate. I have a Sonnet (fixed) G4/800MHz in a 9600 (formerly 604ev/350MHz). Goes like the clappers. Your G4 card is of the correct form factor for the slot? As long as you have the correct software support for the G4 in place before you swap the daughtercards, and remember to do your CUDA hocus-pocus, you should have little trouble. Then install OS 9.2.2, or even as far as OS X 10.5 (I hear tell), and live happily ever after.
de
de
Well, according to Neal at Sonnet Customer Support, the PPCG4-800-1-801 card is not machine specific so it may well work just fine moved from a Tsunami MB to a Kansas MB. I have two 8600's, one is definitely a Kansas MB, the other a Tsunami MB (currently with a G3-270 card) so if the 9500 is really beyond life support I'll try the G4 card in one of them. The 8600/300 has a 604ev processor so it would be kind of nice to keep it in the classic configuration; besides, there's a spare 604ev/300 card sitting around here to be put to use someday.
Anyway, off to try different Ram configs/different MB in the 9500.
Anyway, off to try different Ram configs/different MB in the 9500.
Fortified with ample coffee I went out to do further battle with the recalcitrant 9500 this am. Thinking it may have cured it's own ills overnight I tried to boot; no luck. Removed the Ram stick in B6 thinking it may have gone bad and tried to boot; no luck. Dug out the extra MLB, installed all the Ram, checked Pram battery voltage, etc and tried to boot; no luck. Then pulled all 12 Ram sticks and tested them in pairs in the 8600/G3 and all tested good. At this point I figured the G4 card had gone bad but reinstalled the Ram, installed the SCSI and video cards and tried one more time and,voila! it booted. To be sure there were a couple of issues but a little fooling around took care of that. Launched ASP and tried to scan the devices; complete lock up. Unplugged the power to the CD drive, rebooted, launched ASP, scanned the devices with no problem. Then plugged CD drive power back in, scanned devices in ASP with no problem. Shut down the 9500 while muttering darkly about gremlins and magic, gathered the better half and the dogs and went for a hike in the hills.
Quite frankly, I don't know what was going on but hopefully it's back to normal.
Quite frankly, I don't know what was going on but hopefully it's back to normal.
Just as a side note (but seemingly unrelated to this exact issue)- 2 things...
1) anything that tends to wipe open firmware settings, from a dying PRAM battery to rebooting under a sever hardware change on occasion will cause the sonnet 800/1ghz g4 cards to boot in an unstable mode (aka without that patch the installer injects into the system settings - the name of what's patched is failing me at the moment, but it helps the pci macs not totally spaz out on the g4 cards) to fix this if you're stuck in an endless crash cycle that only extensions disabled lets you bypass is reinstallation of the drivers (reinjects the patch the the system hardware for the next boot), or tricking the system into loading the sonnet extension ASAP at boot time. I prefer to keep a copy of the installer handy on my system for just these circumstances
2) sonnet 800/1ghz + kansas = major instability... you'll notice that on all official listings for system compatibility of these cards, the 300/350mhz 8600/9600 is omitted.. apparently back in the day, sonnet never finalized a patch to fix the problems that occur in these systems... after going through 3 brand new boards, in my 3 perfectly working 9600/350's, and tons of time with sonnet on the phone.. the conclusion is that no one from the original engineering team for these cards is still around and yeah.. there's a good chance it might be buggy on the kansas boards... I found that all 3 boards were rock solid on my 7300's and 7500's that I had sitting around (but of course, being short 3 pci slots for my planned setup was not fun.) finding a non-kansas 9600 board was troubling, and alas- the 9500 you sent works PERFECT... had to run the inital patch, but the system i setup and had been running (although missing half my hardware) on the 7500, worked right out of the box!
so basically - my word of caution is.. sonnet 800/1ghz are amazing cards, BUT keep the installer handy for times when a pram reset is needed, and stick with the more common "crummy" pci powermac boards or you'll have a major headache...
1) anything that tends to wipe open firmware settings, from a dying PRAM battery to rebooting under a sever hardware change on occasion will cause the sonnet 800/1ghz g4 cards to boot in an unstable mode (aka without that patch the installer injects into the system settings - the name of what's patched is failing me at the moment, but it helps the pci macs not totally spaz out on the g4 cards) to fix this if you're stuck in an endless crash cycle that only extensions disabled lets you bypass is reinstallation of the drivers (reinjects the patch the the system hardware for the next boot), or tricking the system into loading the sonnet extension ASAP at boot time. I prefer to keep a copy of the installer handy on my system for just these circumstances
2) sonnet 800/1ghz + kansas = major instability... you'll notice that on all official listings for system compatibility of these cards, the 300/350mhz 8600/9600 is omitted.. apparently back in the day, sonnet never finalized a patch to fix the problems that occur in these systems... after going through 3 brand new boards, in my 3 perfectly working 9600/350's, and tons of time with sonnet on the phone.. the conclusion is that no one from the original engineering team for these cards is still around and yeah.. there's a good chance it might be buggy on the kansas boards... I found that all 3 boards were rock solid on my 7300's and 7500's that I had sitting around (but of course, being short 3 pci slots for my planned setup was not fun.) finding a non-kansas 9600 board was troubling, and alas- the 9500 you sent works PERFECT... had to run the inital patch, but the system i setup and had been running (although missing half my hardware) on the 7500, worked right out of the box!
so basically - my word of caution is.. sonnet 800/1ghz are amazing cards, BUT keep the installer handy for times when a pram reset is needed, and stick with the more common "crummy" pci powermac boards or you'll have a major headache...
Defor
Really glad to hear that 9500 is solid; I had some problems with it after mistakenly booting it into 9.2.2. After some effort I was able to get 9.1 installed and it was solid after that.
I got this 9500 with the Sonnet G4 installed and the extension already loaded and have no copy of the extension and installer. Would be very happy if you could furnish a copy of same. Would probably clear up some of the strange ills that crop up from time to time.
Really glad to hear that 9500 is solid; I had some problems with it after mistakenly booting it into 9.2.2. After some effort I was able to get 9.1 installed and it was solid after that.
I got this 9500 with the Sonnet G4 installed and the extension already loaded and have no copy of the extension and installer. Would be very happy if you could furnish a copy of same. Would probably clear up some of the strange ills that crop up from time to time.
as a side note I'm having a wierd situation I haven't been able to clear up yet...
while it's stable... Stuffit expander 4.5, 5.1, 5.5 all hard crash during an expand phase.. but only in 7.6.1 with the card installed... in 8.x and later it's stable.
I'm still looking into the problem, but it may be a conflict with the actual sonnet extension.. until then i end up dual-booting to expand files.. lol
I know i'm "asking too much" of it running 7.6.1, but that was the reason I got the card- it claimed full compatibility with 7.6.1...
If I absolutely HAVE to, I might end up running somehtign later, but the point of the setup was to attempt extreme system 7 speeds...
still no other issues...
here's the link to the v3.1 installer for the card:
http://www.sonnettech.com/support/downloads/software/ce_install_v31.sit
The nvram patch seems to be required to kickstart the card, and the official documentation tells you to run the installer (which is the only way to get the patch installed) while the stock 604/601 cpu is installed, and then on next boot, use the 800/1ghz card, and the patch will already be in the nvram...
the flaw in this is that if you have a weak pram or have to reset pram, it seems to toss the nvram patch out the window...
Last night I removed R31 resistor in hopes of better compatibility, but no benefits in 7.6.1 yet, although as the extension exists mainly to enable L2 override, I might should now be able to boot without it (as long as NVRAM patch is installed) and have the card's L2 show up automatically
while it's stable... Stuffit expander 4.5, 5.1, 5.5 all hard crash during an expand phase.. but only in 7.6.1 with the card installed... in 8.x and later it's stable.
I'm still looking into the problem, but it may be a conflict with the actual sonnet extension.. until then i end up dual-booting to expand files.. lol
I know i'm "asking too much" of it running 7.6.1, but that was the reason I got the card- it claimed full compatibility with 7.6.1...
If I absolutely HAVE to, I might end up running somehtign later, but the point of the setup was to attempt extreme system 7 speeds...
still no other issues...
here's the link to the v3.1 installer for the card:
http://www.sonnettech.com/support/downloads/software/ce_install_v31.sit
The nvram patch seems to be required to kickstart the card, and the official documentation tells you to run the installer (which is the only way to get the patch installed) while the stock 604/601 cpu is installed, and then on next boot, use the 800/1ghz card, and the patch will already be in the nvram...
the flaw in this is that if you have a weak pram or have to reset pram, it seems to toss the nvram patch out the window...
Last night I removed R31 resistor in hopes of better compatibility, but no benefits in 7.6.1 yet, although as the extension exists mainly to enable L2 override, I might should now be able to boot without it (as long as NVRAM patch is installed) and have the card's L2 show up automatically
Thanks for the link. Unfortunately I don't have the original 604 card for the 9500..hummm, unless the 604e from the 7300 will work. Will have to open up the 7300 and see. Otherwise I'll just try the patch with the G4 card installed in the 9500.
oh! you don't NEED it- they just use it as their "failsafe" against dumb customers....
just boot in extensions off then run the installer
you can reboot normally when done...
I've been doing some research and while sonnet qualifies the card as 7.5 compatibile.. I have a feeling 7.x support wasn't a big concern and as such was somewhat neglected.. which might explain my expander problems... we'll see... more testing needed!
just boot in extensions off then run the installer
you can reboot normally when done...
I've been doing some research and while sonnet qualifies the card as 7.5 compatibile.. I have a feeling 7.x support wasn't a big concern and as such was somewhat neglected.. which might explain my expander problems... we'll see... more testing needed!
turns out the issue was apparently related to the fact that this drive was partitioned while i was on the 9600s that were having issues... apparently regardless of drive ERASES, the issue wouldn't disappear, but repartitioning it worked fine... wacky, and it's all stable now!
