MAXpower G3 L2 in a TAM

[techknight]

Well, I just picked up a G3 L2 on ebay,

I stuck it in my TAM, downloaded the 2.0.5 driver from the newer technologies website which still has the drivers listed on the site. Problem is, after installing the driver, it locks up at the Mac OS 8.6 progress bar screen. 

Cant seem to figure out whats going on. 

is there a special driver for this card? 

 

[unity]

I would link for you, but if you Google it you should find it. Known issue.

 

[techknight]

I cant find it? More importantly, is there any way to fix it? 

 

[techknight]

I took the card out and it still froze. Hmm... So I uninstalled the driver and installed 1.3.9U. It didnt freeze anymore, but putting the card back in, it doesnt recognize it either. 

hmmm... I am at a loss. Any ideas? 

 

[techknight]

I guess not...

I tried OS 9.1 and same deal. Freezes with or without the card. doesnt matter. 

Well, I guess I will throw it in the trash and lesson learned as a bad investment. 

Oh well... 

 

[unity]

Do you have any USB extensions turned on?

 

[techknight]

the maxpower extension loads well before any USB stuff does? And I dont have A USB card installed in my TAM yet. the extensions might be there. 

 

[unity]

I would try booting with minimal extensions and see what happens. I cant find the article that solved this. Sonnet had a similar issue.

 

[Macdrone]

I know all the performa L2 Macs hate connectix software.  Ram doubler in particular.

 

[trag]

The freeze with the card uninstalled would seem to indicate against it, but on these G3 upgrades, if the machine freezes during extension loading, it is often a defective cache on the upgrade card.  The cache isn't active until the extension modifies the PPC750 register settings.   When the cache is activated and is also defective the machine freezes.

I had a NewerTech NuBus upgrade (goes in PDS slot of x100 series) with this symptom.   I pulled the heat sink off and the factory applied heat sink grease had a trailing line which crossed the pins of one of the cache chips.

The last time I checked, DigiKey still had compatible cache chips available, in the event that you want to risk some money trying to replace them.

 

[Macdrone]

http://www.cnet.com/news/newer-maxpowr-2-0-released-and-then-pulled-problem-with-g3-l2/

this article says 2.0 does not work with the L2 cards.  

 

[Byrd]

Try CPU Director or XLR8 Mach speed software - they might work with the card.  If continual crashing, disable the L2 cache or downclock the speed

 

[HAL2001]

There was a file called 2.05 and there was a file called  2.05J. I have the J-version but I no longer have a TAM so I can't check it. Could that file be of any use to you? Maybe it is an update?

 

[techknight]

I tried both 2.0.3 and 2.0.5 they both hard freeze without or with the card.

So to feel safer I pulled out my 6500 Tower does the same exact thing it will hard freeze right when the progress bar shows up with or without the card.

No I don't use any RAM doubler anything like that.

And no its not random the hard freeze happens every single time right when the driver extension tries to load.

 

[HAL2001]

Do you want to try 2.05J? If you DM me an e-mailaddress I will send it to you.

 

[techknight]

I did try 2.05J the very first time when I got the card. I couldnt read the text, but I think it installed correctly. It did the same thing though. freeze on load. 

Grasping at straws, I grabbed a 6300/6400 board. I dont know which it is, But, Tried it and same deal. freeze right at the Mac OS screen. 

Then I grabbed my 5200, and 5260 boards, and those have a different slot so I couldnt try them out. 

Gr... thats telling me bad drivers or OS issue.

I only have 8.6 and 9.1 my 9.0 disk is toast. wont read. (burned). 

 

[HAL2001]

It sure does make you wonder of it would work with any other version of MacOs. Maybe some flavour of 8 or 7 even...

 

[techknight]

Supposidly the G3/L2 works with 8 and above. But who knows? If I cant get it working in 8.6+ then this card is 110% useless to me. 

 

[HAL2001]

Too bad. G3 upgrades are becoming rare these days...