My Radius Rocket and JackHammer Card Don't Get Along!

[Huxley]

Hi guys,

So, I'm still playing with my Mac IIfx. After much goofing around, I've arrived at what seems to be a major impasse.

I currently have two drives in the IIfx - one is an IDE drive connected to the internal SCSI port (via an IDE-to-SCSI adapter), and the other is an old Apple-ROM'd SCSI drive, connected to the "regular" 50-pin port on my JackHammer card. The second drive is being powered by an old gutted SCSI case (so it's not drawing power from the IIfx's power supply).

On the JackHammer drive, I've got Mac OS 7.6, and most of my applications and utilities. On the drive connected to the motherboard, I've installed a clean, fresh OS 7.1.3, and RocketWare. So, here's the problem:

When I have the JackHammer card inserted (whether or not a drive is connected to it), and I try to boot from the mobo-drive (with RocketWare), I get the initial boot process, the Rocket "Whoosh", the system restarts, and after a moment (when the Rocket would normally take over), I get a black screen with a flickering "Sad Mac."

Here's the strange thing - if I remove the JackHammer board, the system (and the Rocket) boot perfectly, from the IDE drive connected to the motherboard.

Any ideas? Maybe I should be investing in one of those ATTO high-speed SCSI cards instead? Are my two coolest NuBus cards destined to clash?

Huxley

 

[Bolle]

teh jackhammer and the ATTO cards are the same speed afair. try to disable the jackhammer but leave it in the slot. (you can do this via the control panel or some funky key-combo at startup... just forgot what keys... )

 

[Huxley]

I'm still having no luck - I keep getting the "Sad Mac" when the Rocket tries to boot. I was unable to find any settings relating to which card should be the bus master, but I've tried changing the cache settings and the various options on the JackHammer, but with no success.

So, now I'm wondering if what I'm trying to do is even possible! Has anyone out there actually managed to get a Rocket to boot with a JackHammer card installed?

Thanks for the help - I can't shake the feeling that I'm this close to getting this working!

Huxley

 

[equill]

Bearing in mind that Radius' claim is that the Rocket cards run as a Quadra 950 within the host Mac, whichever model that may be, you may be suffering from the effect mentioned here, ie, that your video card is not Quadra-compatible.

It was my intention to put both of my Rocket cards into a Quadra 950 when the time comes, which may have been a serendipitous outcome of my first reason: that the Q 950 PSU is capable of supplying 300W, which is no bad thing to have in reserve in the light of the trouble that a single Rocket card can cause to the likes of the IIcx, or even to NuBus slot E (nearest to the PSU) in a IIci.

de

 

[Huxley]

Bearing in mind that Radius' claim is that the Rocket cards run as a Quadra 950 within the host Mac, whichever model that may be, you may be suffering from the effect mentioned here, ie, that your video card is not Quadra-compatible.
It was my intention to put both of my Rocket cards into a Quadra 950 when the time comes, which may have been a serendipitous outcome of my first reason: that the Q 950 PSU is capable of supplying 300W, which is no bad thing to have in reserve in the light of the trouble that a single Rocket card can cause to the likes of the IIcx, or even to NuBus slot E (nearest to the PSU) in a IIci.

de

I wonder - do you think the physical placement of the cards in the system could be related to the problems I'm having?

One positive note - I installed the JackHammer control panel onto the Rocket boot drive, and from there, disabled the JackHammer card... and the Rocket booted fine! I just really want to get them both working at the same time...

Huxley

 

[equill]

You have already gone part-way along the line that is usually necessary to troubleshoot the 68K Macs: sort out Extensions, and beat them into insensibility, or submission, with minimal peripherals and and add-ins while you do so. You'll notice that the linked page recommends that technique in this context, too, and points at the video system if conflicts continue when Extensions have been sorted. Is the video in a IIfx in a pseudo-NuBus slot (built-in) or a real one?

64-pin RAM being what it is (ie, uncommon, and mostly in 1 and 4MB cards), have you enough that the MLB can continue to doddle along when the Rocket has finished booting? There has to be enough for AppleTalk-over-NuBus to be maintained (for communication between Rocket and MLB) as well as basic life-mechanisms on the MLB, which would include video if the IIfx uses Vampire Video. (I don't have a IIfx, so this latter remark is just rambling aloud.)

de

 

[Huxley]

Well, I just had another idea - I'm going to dig out my trusty old Quadra 950 and try the setup in there - that might help pin down whether or not the Rocket and the JackHammer really are incompatible.

Here goes nothing...

Huxley

 

[equill]

I just looked up the IIfx VRAM, only to discover that there is none soldered-in and no slots, ie it has to use a video card. So here's a quick test for you. Snitch the card from the Q 950 and try it in the IIfx. A card that works in a 950 has to be Quadra-compatible, which accords exactly with St Radius' dictum for compatibility with a Rocket.

de

PS. A subsequent thought. Perhaps you are using the 950's built-in video? If so, to use tomlee59's expression, feel free to e-shred that suggestion.

 

[Huxley]

Well, the cards are installed in the 950, and she's booting happily... except that when the Rocket card tries to boot, it presents me with the following message:

"ROCKET detected an error while Loading. (#4102)

Rocket does not work on this Macintosh Model."

When I click "OK," the system boots without enabling the Rocket board.

Is this an instance where I would need RocketShare (as opposed to RocketWare), since the Rocket and the 950 have the same processor?

Huxley

 

[TylerEss]

Yup, you'll need RocketShare to run the Rocket in the 950. (IIRC, same thing for the IIfx... I don't think you can use the Rocket as an accelerator in the IIfx, but I don't have a source to back me up.)