Dead Sonnet upgrade

[CelGen]

I have a Sonnet Encore G4/1000 that I'm trying to get working in a blue and white G3.

When I got it there were two broken pins. I was able to replace them however when installed in the machine and the power button pressed I don't get a chime. I seem to recall I previously ran the firmware updater on the OS 9 CD if that caused an incompatibility or something. I also seem to recall the Encore modules for the quicksilver, sawtooth and the MDD have a thing for randomly dropping dead. Would that apply here too?

 

[techknight]

that board looks like it has its own on-board VRM circuitry for the processor. Might wanna check those transistors for shorts, etc. because if the VRM drops out, the CPU wont get its core voltage, and it wont run. It probably has its own dedicated IC that provides the switching frequency and regulation.

Start there, When in doubt, test voltages! Easy way for that is remove heatsink and feel if CPUs are getting warm at all.

 

[MacJunky]

I seem to recall I previously ran the firmware updater on the OS 9 CD if that caused an incompatibility or something.

I seem to recall that actually being a thing.

 

[CelGen]

Start there, When in doubt, test voltages! Easy way for that is remove heatsink and feel if CPUs are getting warm at all.

VRM's read one bank of 5.1v and another bank of 6.2v. The heatsink gets pretty warm so the CPU is getting power in one form or another. PSU rails are a healthy 11.95 and 4.98v

 

[techknight]

Well that rules out an electronic failure.

 

[Macdrone]

did you remove battery? press cuda switch and try again? Just like the beige G3 they don't like change. Also how about the jumper block on the motherboard? Its set to the stock CPU speed, it must be bumped up and bus matched correctly with hard drive jumpers to work (like the beige G3's) If not it wont boot.

I think they changed that in the G4's with Zif but I forget exactly when It changed.

Hopefully I gave you some decent info that helps you in the correct direction.

BTW my first New bought by me Mac was a B&W G3 350 overclocked to 400 to void the warranty .

 

[Unknown_K]

http://www.everymac.com/upgrade_cards/sonnettech/encore_g4/encore_g4_1.0.html

This site says there are 2 versions of that CPU, one for Beige G3's only and one for beige and B&W G3. Since the card runs at 66 FSB the original version might not boot on a 100 FSB machine. Stick it in a Beige G3 and see if it boots.

 

[CelGen]

I don't own a beige G3 anymore. Junked it to get the blue and white. :/

Machine has a fresh battery, both buttons on the board have been pressed more than once and for jumpers the only ones I know of on the board are under the warranty sticker and don't seem to serve any purpose.

 

[CelGen]

Amazingly I found the installation guide that came with the upgrade hidden away in my bookshelf. It does state that models EG4-1000-1M without a -U at the end are not compatible with the blue and white.

My model is the EG4-1000-1-B02 so I think this will work.

It also states that during the installation you remove the warranty sticker, remove Apple's white jumper block and install Sonnet's black jumper block. They don't go into any specifics though on what the new jumper arrangement is. Any ideas so I can be positive my adapter isn't compatible?

 

[Unknown_K]

You said the models without the -U are incompatible with the B&W G3 and your model doesn't have the -U so you cannot use it?

 

[waynestewart]

I recall that with higher speed Sonnet G4 upgrades you had to lower the bus speed to 66mhz or the upgrade didn't work. Hence the replacement jumper block.

 

[CelGen]

You said the models without the -U are incompatible with the B&W G3 and your model doesn't have the -U so you cannot use it?

My model has no M in it so I have no clue if the statement in the manual still applies or not.

We can very quickly come to a full conclusion once I figure out the correct jumper sequence. If it doesn't work, well then we know for sure.

I'm reading off this page and right now I'm jumpered 00011101100 which is 4.5x, 100mhz, which makes sense as I had a 450mhz CPU in before. I can drop the bus down to 66mhz if I want but the multiplier tables change and I'm unsure how Sonnet managed to achieve the 1ghz speed on either bus speed unless it had an onboard multiplier?? :?:

If that's the case, It totally screams that there might be a resistor that determined what bus the upgrade was designed for. From the installation photos the beige and blue and white adapters look identical.

 

[Macdrone]

They don't achieve 1000 on the G3, the early G4 uses the same zif and achieves the 1000 MHz as a G3 with the 100 MHz bus speed. Again the blue and white is closer to a beige G3 and had a few motherboard revisions to fix issues and such. The hop to the G4 had all the fixes basically.

If you do a google search on blue and white G3 jumper settings and get some hard drive jumpers (how most put G3 and G4 stock CPUs in to overclock) then you can check jumper settings. There should be a chart with all three machines together. Beige, B&W, and the G4.

I used to have it but do not now.

Good luck.

 

[waynestewart]

Why not try the lower bus speed and worry about the processor speed later. Processors don't have trouble with under clocking.

I just looked through my Sonnet stuff. I see that Sonnet supplied their own firmware updater for the B&W

 

[CelGen]

If you do a google search on blue and white G3 jumper settings and get some hard drive jumpers (how most put G3 and G4 stock CPUs in to overclock) then you can check jumper settings. There should be a chart with all three machines together. Beige, B&W, and the G4.

Look at my post again. I already gave a link to the jumper settings.

I could screw with those settings for the rest of my weekend but I don't have the time to go through every combination of bus speeds and multipliers. I've already run through both the 66 and 100mhz bus speeds and while both get me chimes with the original CPU, neiter do anything with the Sonnet.

If someone could look at their jumper settings or throw a ballpark guess I might at least be able to work from that, otherwise I have nothing.

I just looked through my Sonnet stuff. I see that Sonnet supplied their own firmware updater for the B&W

You're right. I don't see it mentioned in my own paperwork but this document mentions a sonnet specific update. I'll try and reflash to that if I can find it.

 

[lameboyadvance]

Why not just try the lowest setting possible (3x @ 66mhz?), just to see if it boots at all.

You can worry about the perfect settings later.

 

[CelGen]

GOT IT!

You need to reflash to Sonnet's firmware (NOT Apple's firmware), then drop the machine down to a 66mhz bus. From there it's just fiddling with the multiplier until its happy.

 

[Macdrone]

Yes sorry missed that it was late. Even the G4's like the quicksilver had to have the sonnet firmware to use accelerators. In fact I had just done that last year with a 1200 MHz sonnet upgrade in my quicksilver.

Just FYI search function here is your friend. Lots of links and all these common issues have been hashed out.

Yes your old CPU will work with the sonnet firmware, in fact the sonnet upgrades say keep your old CPU for possible sonnet CPU failure. (Troubleshooting and such)