SE/30 MacCon, PowerCache P34, IIsi Pivot, Ruminator II, and System 7.6.1 hang on startup.

[History_SE30_Dude]

I've been trying to use a few different versions of the Control Panel with the System hanging when it loads. I even did a fresh install of 7.1 and got the same result. Tomorrow I will try with the original ROM installed. Has anyone observed this behavior before?

[Byrd]

How is the status of your PSU?

[History_SE30_Dude]

On 4/5/2021 at 5:56 AM, Byrd said:

How is the status of your PSU?

It’s a new ATX conversion. Also, the motherboard has been re-caped. 

[joshc]

What voltages are you getting from the PSU conversion? You may need a new wiring harness as well, to go along with the new PSU. This has been a known factor in even a newly converted PSU not giving good voltages in these machines.

 

Have you tried with less stuff installed, e.g. MacCon on its own, Pivot on its own, etc.

[moldy]

I think @Bolle once mentioned that ROMinator and some of the accelerators are sometimes a cause of boot issues. Maybe this could be it?

[jessenator]

19 hours ago, moldy said:

Maybe this could be it?

Removing variables is definitely a good test methodology, to be sure. I'd remove the Pivot card. and start with just the adapter and accelerator with the SE/30 native ROM first, then add them back one by one to see where your conflicts are.

My own personal experience (with a GGLabs MacSIMM) is certain OS versions, adapter/accelerator combinations don't like non-native ROMs. I didn't have issues with system 7.1, but had nothing but with 7.5.x   As convenient as they are, I've personally given up on a 3rd party ROM for my build and am just using Mode32 and Force32.

[joshc]

20 hours ago, jessenator said:

As convenient as they are, I've personally given up on a 3rd party ROM for my build and am just using Mode32 and Force32.

 

Same here. The custom ROMs are overhyped.

[History_SE30_Dude]

For months it’s been running with everything but the accelerator with no issues. In 7.6.1 it reports the accelerator as the active processor in Tattletech and in Speed Test. However I can’t use any of the three control panels. I think I may have two issues one, 7.6.1 doesn’t need the extension and everything I’ve read so far only talks about working with 7.5.5 and/or the control panel is incompatible with the rom. I will know later today when I get home. I may also try moving it up in the boot sequence before totally taking it apart. 

@joshc the power supply wires and plug are new. When I put it in two months ago voltage were great with everything mentioned above minus the Powercache. None of the others looked burned either. 

[jessenator]

FWIW I've never been quite happy with 7.6.x on a 68k Mac. No idea why—I couldn't pinpoint a piece of objective data there to show you—but it never seemed to work or feel right per my feel-o-meter. I've had a far smoother experience on my pre-Quadra Macs with 7.5.x or even 7.1 pro (with some niceties added). On my Quadras, I prefer 7.1/5 or even 8, oddly. It runs really well on my 650 and I have no complaints.

[History_SE30_Dude]

Well, Rominator II absent no change, Pivot IIsi absent no change. All while running 7.1 it still froze when trying to load the extension during start up or if I tried loading it if I booted with it not in the system folder once I got to the finder.

 

Just finished putting it all back in and running benchmarks in 7.6.1 it is using the accelerator by default when installed with no control panel installed based on multiple test results showing nearly double the scores in CPU tests with it in the machine. 

 

The card is a Daystar Power Cache P34 with a QFP CPU running at 33mhz if that has any bearing.

 

Bole has mentioned that some 68040 upgrades have issue with the Rominator II.

 

Perhaps this is an issue with the 128k cache being activated by the control panel? However, in the demo program when activated in its options it seems to work fine.

[History_SE30_Dude]

After I posted this and playing Specter VR and a few other games and trying to run a ram disk that I use for website cache I was getting some bus errors from various INTs and programs. I’m going to check voltages later today when I’m back home but I’m starting to think the accelerator may be the culprit. 

[History_SE30_Dude]

 @joshc With everything installed the 5V rail at the floppy port is 4.91V which I think is well above the low which is iirc 4.6? The 12V rail is holding steady at 12.41V. I ran Specter VR in demo mode to put a load on video and CPU.

Edited April 7 by History_SE30_Dude

[History_SE30_Dude]

Did some more testing today. With the card not installed I disabled the cache in the control panel and then restated with the card installed. It then booted fine but the system would still freeze after running for a while or sometimes crash at warm boot with different bus errors. I tried removing the FPU and that caused no change. It is safe to say that this card is the culprit and I have contacted the seller. The onboard cache obviously has some issues and probably so does the CPU, unfortunately it is a QFP package so I can't do a simple swap to see if the fully confirm that the CPU is bad.