PM 8600 and 9600: No CPU upgrades working

[CelGen]

I picked up an XLR8 MACh Speed G3 (supposedly a 400mhz 1mb cache upgrade but it could be anything as the ZIF processor could of been swapped) processor upgrade and a Sonnet Crescendo G3 400/512 processor upgrade (it has a black and circular heatsink instead of the square and purple one) for free.

I have tried both upgrade modules in both my older Powermac 8600/300 and newer 9600/300 and in both systems the processors will warm up (and an LED on the XLR8 will blink) but the system will not chime and refuse to boot.

Yes, I stripped the systems down to nothing but the cpu, a video card and ram just to make sure it was not a hardware issue.

It would be nice if I could at least got the 9600 running a better processor (I was going to get it a G4/1000 last year but of course, they discontinued them a few days before my first steady paycheck :disapprove: ) but I'm stumped. I have honestly never seen a mac so blatently refuse to work.

Any ideas on what to try next?

 

[trag]

Have you downloaded the user's manual from xlr8.com and checked to make sure that the jumper/switch settings are reasonable? That is, that they are not set to speeds so fast one would not expect it to work?

Do any other CPU cards work properly in these machines?

 

[CelGen]

No, I have not downloaded the manual as I didn't know if XLR8 still existed (oh dear, the dreaded google search fault).

All I have to test with that I know work are the two 300mhz processor modules that came in my 9600 and 8600 originally. With them the systems work fine and I can even swap them between systems no problem.

 

[Byrd]

Sonnet upgrade cards usually require no configuration, so apart from cleaning the contacts with an eraser I'd suggest it's faulty.

The XLR8 will need to have the correct CPU multiplier and bus speed selected, you will need to check exactly what CPU you have and configure it properly, otherwise it won't work.

JB

 

[CelGen]

Okay, so I got the XLR8 to work (and it took a bit of digging as of course, there is a Ben 10 character with the same name...) and now I'm running a G3 at a blazingly fast 400mhz (oddly enough, it runs at that speed when set for 366mhz and setting it to 400mhz causes a chime but no boot).

Next issue is the MACh Speed software for the processor.

Oh look. In order for me to use the cache on my processor, I must supply a serial!

Oh look! I don't own a serial!

Great....

Edit: I installed the utility and it dropped my speed back down to 366 in respect to my dip switch settings. Looks like either that's as fast as the processor will go or something in the system won't allow it to go any faster.

 

[Byrd]

CPU Director for OS 9 does a better job than XLR8s, and no serial required!

You also need to couple the multiplier with a bus speed the 8600/9600 likes; most don't like to be pushed much above 55Mhz, I'd say 50Mhz is a safe bet (ie. look for a DIP switch setting like 50Mhz bus x 8X multiplier.

JB

 

[CelGen]

Turns out that I have a 333mhz processor, not a 400mhz processor installed.

I tried installing a 400mhz processor I pulled from a B&W G3 and it didn't work at all. (I assume the bus speeds are wildly different)

I see that CPU Director is made by Powerlogix and is designed for their products. Are you sure it would work with mine?

Also, is CPU director available as a stuffit file or something? the download on their is a zipped up dmg file which I can't even mount under OS9.

 

[Bunsen]

I tried installing a 400mhz processor I pulled from a B&W G3 and it didn't work at all. (I assume the bus speeds are wildly different)

B&W bus speed = 100MHz, 8600/9600 = 50MHz. But if you're mounting that in a ZIF adapter, the jumpers/switch on the adapter should be setting the speed, IIRC.

CPU Director is made by Powerlogix and is designed for their products. Are you sure it would work with mine?

Yes, it will, at least to activate the cache.

Also, is CPU director available as a stuffit file or something? the download on their is a zipped up dmg file which I can't even mount under OS9.

Do you have access to another Mac running OS X? You might need to unzip it there and transfer it across.

 

[CelGen]

Yeah, I mounted it on my G5 and moved it back over to the 9600.

It's working now. Not much faster than before but at least I'm running a G3 now.

 

[Bunsen]

Well, it won't run faster (apart from now having cache working of course) unless you change the jumper settings.