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How different are a G4 DA and a Quicksilver?

jruschme

jruschme

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 20, 2011
265
30
Brick, NJ
Okay, so I think I just killed my Quicksilver.

Specifically, I forced the installation of Firmware 4.2.8 for the DA to my Quicksilver 733, originally with Firmware 4.2.1. I was hoping that doing this would let the system see the L3 cache on my Sonnet CPU card. According to Apple, a firmware upgrade is not needed for the QS and is actively blocked by the installer.

The firmware seemed to install with no issues and everything was fine until the end of the first boot into 10.4.11. The desktop came up fine, but no USB devices would work, even if they were plugged into the system's PCI USB card. Subsequent attempts at booting will not complete unless I first reset the NVRAM.

Anybody have a thought as to what might be going on (besides gross stupidity). Just how different are a DA and a QS, anyway?

Thanks...
 
Last edited:
Intell

Intell

macrumors P6
Jan 24, 2010
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They're fairly close, but different enough to not be the same. 733Mhz Quicksilver cards don't even have a chip for L3 cache.
 
jruschme

jruschme

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 20, 2011
265
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Brick, NJ
No, but the Sonnet 800 CPU I was using does have L3, though it was not being recognized by the QS. I assumed the low-end QS was using older firmware from before L3 was available.
 
Intell

Intell

macrumors P6
Jan 24, 2010
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To get the Sonnet working, you must use the Sonnet firmware. You can download it from their site.
 
eyoungren

eyoungren

macrumors Penryn
Aug 31, 2011
28,793
26,881
Intell said:
To get the Sonnet working, you must use the Sonnet firmware. You can download it from their site.
Click to expand...
^^^This. My Quicksilver originally came with a 1.2GHz Sonnet single CPU and it saw the L3 cache fine.

I never had to install any firmware, but I just assumed that the person who had this Mac before me did when they upgraded.
 
jruschme

jruschme

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 20, 2011
265
30
Brick, NJ
I had installed the Sonnet firmware and it never saw the L3 cache. As I understand it, the firmware is more about processor detection with newer CPUs. There was an L3 enabler also, but they stopped supporting it after something like 10.4.5.

Based on what I've read, there are two or three different firmware versions for the QS. The models which shipped with no L3 cache seem to have an older firmware (4.2.1f2) which does not see the L3. According to at least one source, the dual 800 models came with 4.2.4f2 and the 2002 models came with 4.3.3f2.

Back when I was running the Sonnet in a Sawtooth (with 4.2.8), it saw the L3 just fine. Too bad I got rid of that one a while back.

Anybody know of a way to dump the firmware from another G4? The only thing I can think of would be to run something like the Sonnet upgrader and grab the firmware file before the reboot.
 
Last edited:
Intell

Intell

macrumors P6
Jan 24, 2010
18,955
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You can put an OEM L3 Quicksilver G4 in to a non-OEM L3 Quicksilver and it'll work without a problem. Are you sure your Sonnet has an L3 cache? Not all of them have one.
 
C

Cox Orange

macrumors 68000
Jan 1, 2010
1,814
241
jruschme said:
I had installed the Sonnet firmware and it never saw the L3 cache. As I understand it, the firmware is more about processor detection with newer CPUs. There was an L3 enabler also, but they stopped supporting it after something like 10.4.5.

Based on what I've read, there are two or three different firmware versions for the QS. The models which shipped with no L3 cache seem to have an older firmware (4.2.1f2) which does not see the L3. According to at least one source, the dual 800 models came with 4.2.4f2 and the 2002 models came with 4.3.3f2.

Back when I was running the Sonnet in a Sawtooth (with 4.2.8), it saw the L3 just fine. Too bad I got rid of that one a while back.

Anybody know of a way to dump the firmware from another G4? The only thing I can think of would be to run something like the Sonnet upgrader and grab the firmware file before the reboot.
Click to expand...
I know, that doesn't help you, but according to apple, they differentiate between two QS models/firmwares.
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1395 (scroll down).
Also, from the 128GB HDD limit, we know that in the 2002 QS model there were two different Mainboards used/sold at an overlapping time (http://www.macos9lives.com/mac os 9 lives_003.htm). So, if you are searching for the old QS firmware for your model, I would take the one that from a 733MHz model (if you can find someone to tell you, how that would work) and not try installing a higher firmware of another QS model.

I also remember people saying, that after they had installed the Sonnet MDX Upgrade in their MDDs, the Apple firmware was gone (deleted by installation of the Sonnet firmware), because there was not enough room in the ROM chip for both. This was in a swiss forum...

Sorry, I know, this wasn't much help.
Did you write to the Sonnet Support? Depending on who answers your email, you will get a good answer. First of all, why your QS didn't see the L3 cache and which Sonnet cards (exact modelnumber etc.) really had a L3 cache. There are some people that were at Sonnet in the early years and have a good knowledge of the matter. There is one guy who's name is Neil, who was very good (yes, I know, there could be a thousand of Neils at Sonnet :rolleyes: but I had questions in a timespan of 3 years, without a ticket, that could maybe asort you to a certain service craft and I only got answers from two different people, so chances are high they do not have an army of Support people for these older machines (or maybe it was just the guys responsible for Europe :) )
 
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