PCI Bridge in a Beige G3 Tower

[Iamanamma]

Apple System Profiler tells me I have a "PCI card" in slot A1 of the beige G3tower I am currently working on. It doesn't tell me much more than that.  It does give me a vendor code of 3388, which comes back to a "Hint Corp" whom I cannot seem to find on the web.  I can tell you it is Firewire/USB card with two external ports for each, and 1 internal port for each.  The problem is, my employer bought several of these G3's in various configurations off eBay.  They did not necessarily come with all the software for the add-ons.  I am having trouble finding enough info about "PCI bridge" card to hunt down the driver.  The G3 has a Realtek ethernet NIC installed in slot B1, and I found the driver for it.  Slot C1 has a IMS Twin Turbo Display Card installed, but either I need a driver download for it too, or the card is dead.

My primary problem is figuring where to get the driver for the Firewire/USB card.  The secondary problem is the IMS display card.  So far I have found Windows drivers only.  I will keep looking for the IMS driver, can anyone help with the Firewire/USB card problem?

 

[CC_333]

I'm not certain of this, but I *think* that if the chipsets are supported, Mac OS's built in drivers should be sufficient to get the card working, if you're using Mac OS 9.2.2. Any version of Mac OS X should be able to handle it as well, but again, I'm not certain.

c

 

[Iamanamma]

Well, I am using 8.6.  The good news is, I installed all of the Apple USB extensions and the USB ports work.  I need to find some Firewire extensions for OS 8.6, and I may not have a problem any more.  I still can't find any support for the display card.

 

[Iamanamma]

Does anyone know where I might find the drivers for the Twin Turbo card?  I am also in dire need of the OS 8.6 compatible Firewire Drivers.  Every link I have found using Google has been a dead end.  

 

[Bunsen]

Are they not available on Apple's older software download page?

For the Twin Turbo, try macdrivermuseum.  I'd be surprised if they don't have them.  It was a very common card, and the standard card included from Apple with some systems.

 

[trag]

Apple bundled the Twin Turbo with modified ROM in some 9600 systems. The IMS/ixMicro driver does not work with the Apple version of the card. I think the Apple extension wss called "9600 Graphics". I don't know that this is causing problems but it is something to be aware of.

BTW, PCI - PCI bridges are transparent to the system. There are no drivers for them. Hint is one manufacturer of bridges. Actually, the PCI handling firmware needs to be aware of how to deal with PPBs and Apple screwed the pooch on nested bridges (more than one level of bridge).

 

[Iamanamma]

BTW, PCI - PCI bridges are transparent to the system. There are no drivers for them. Hint is one manufacturer of bridges. Actually, the PCI handling firmware needs to be aware of how to deal with PPBs and Apple screwed the pooch on nested bridges (more than one level of bridge).

I looked through the extensions folder and I have a whole slew of Apple extensions for USB, so I am sure that is why the USB ports work.  However, there are no Firewire Extensions in there at all.  I may just let them go for now because I don't have any firewire devices right now that I need to hook up to that G3 anyway.

I would still like to figure out if I can get that Twin Turbo card to work because I have so many more VGA monitors than I do Apple monitors, and I don't have the little plug in adapters for all of them.

Maybe I should re-install the OS?  I've already looked to see if I could do a custom install, but there doesn't appear to be an option for adding video capabilities.

 

[Bunsen]

I suspect that if you reinstall 8.6 you will find both Firewire and the Twin Turbo working.  There may be a check box you have to tick somewhere, so it would be worth doing the Custom Install method just to make sure.

I don't recall offhand whether Firewire was a separate install, like it was with 8.1, but if it is, you should be able to find it on Apple's older software download page.

Any particular reason you want to stick with 8.6 rather than 9.x?

 

[Powertrip]

Try this if you can: Have one monitor on the onboard graphics, and another on the PCI graphics card.  I ran into many graphics related troubleshooting headaches working on a few G3s and 8600/9600 towers last year.  In the end, it took zapping PRAM, a fresh battery, and 68kmla positive mojo.  If you look through my posts you will find the threads about them.

 

[Iamanamma]

Any particular reason you want to stick with 8.6 rather than 9.x?

Yes, we have a program that we have to use to make layouts that our metal fabricating machinery can understand.  It doesn't translate circles and curves properly in OS 9.  The company who makes the machines we have would love to "upgrade" our machinery to use their current software and controllers (meaning a switch to a Windows based controller, and re-training all of our operators), but at $60K (quoted about 15 years ago) per machine, it's easier and cheaper just to keep fixing up old G3s and G4s.

 

[Iamanamma]

Success!  Finally!  I did a clean install of OS 8.6, but that didn't help, in fact, the USB stopped working.  I picked all of the USB extensions out of the "Previous System Folder" and the USB started working again.  Still no Firewire and No Twin Turbo.  So, I did an "Add Software" install off of the OS 8.5 system installer.  I chose the custom options and found the Firewire software, as well as the "9600 Graphics Accelerator" extension.  Now it appears that the FireWire is working as it should, and the Display Card is DEFINITELY working because I now have a small VGA flat screen hooked up to the G3, sans adapter, and it works beautifully.  Thanks for all of the help!

 

[trag]

Are you saying that a version of the Twin Turbo card with a VGA - style connector, rather than an Apple two row 15 pin connector, is working with the 9600 Graphics extension? Interesting, as it should not happen. I wonder if that's a PC version of the card and Apple's extension works with it...

Is there a sticker on the EPROM chip at the end of the card? If so, what does the label say.

 

[Iamanamma]

The Twin Turbo Card has both an Apple Style connector and a VGA style connector, and I couldn't get it to work at all until I installed that extension.  It is an add-on, installed into one of the three PCI expansion slots on the beige G3 tower.  I will look at the chip.  It always came up as "display card" in Apple System Profiler, it just wouldn't show me anything on the displays.

 

[trag]

Thank you. You've got my curiosity going. I've found my memory to be faulty on a number of things but I think I remember that the retail TT card has both ports but the Apple card has only the two row Apple display connector. The 9600 Graphics extension should only work with the Apple version, BUT I've never tested it with a PC version, AND if one swaps a copy of the Apple TT ROM into the socket on the ixMicro version of the card, it behaves like the Apple version. So you could have a couple of different things there. I supplied some programmed chips to members of the SuperMacs email list abour fifteen years ago, so you might even have a card for which I supplied the EEPROM.

 

[Iamanamma]

I'm back.  Month end got in my way.  Anyway, the white sticker on the card says this: MN8L8092781.  I had to get out a magnifying glass to read it, my eyes are not very fond of microscopic print...

 

[trag]

Thank you. Unfortunately, that's not very descriptive. I was really hoping they had used a label with a card name or words. I'll compare it to my TT cards if I can ever find them. I seem to be missing box 67 (pci video cards)...