CPU upgrade issue

[Ih8reno]

Hi all,

I recently added in a PowerLogix single 1.6ghz G4 cpu upgrade in my g4 gigabit. I partitioned a drive (300gb ide only seen as 128gb) which into 3 separate partitions, (os9, 10,4 and 10.5).

Install of 10.4 and 5 went off without a hitch. However after my 9.2.2 install the Mac won’t boot into it. It simply sits on a grey window.

I have done all the firmware updates from PowerLogix.

Any ideas?

 

[ervus]

Nice upgrade! I don't know much about OS9, but I remember the Powerlogix/Newer Technology patch had an option to 'setup NVram to boot OS9' or something to that effect.

Also, you can get a kernel extension on the garden that will let you use the whole 300GB drive. You have to boot from the first 128GB (or a different drive), but once the extension loads you can use the whole 300.

 

[Ih8reno]

Nice upgrade! I don't know much about OS9, but I remember the Powerlogix/Newer Technology patch had an option to 'setup NVram to boot OS9' or something to that effect.

Also, you can get a kernel extension on the garden that will let you use the whole 300GB drive. You have to boot from the first 128GB (or a different drive), but once the extension loads you can use the whole 300.

Hi yes, tried that but nothing doing unfortunately.

 

[ervus]

These guys have OS9 working on a Mac Mini, so they might know the trick:

http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php?topic=3878.0

 

[eyoungren]

Hi yes, tried that but nothing doing unfortunately.

Is this what you tried? https://macintoshgarden.org/apps/speedtools-ata-hi-cap-driver

I bought this when the company was actually still in business. It does work. I'm using it on my G3 server so it can see the full capacity of a 150GB HD.

 

[Ih8reno]

No I meant the nvram boot option. Think it’s not booting because of the size of the drive? It’s a 300gb ide but partitioned from the 128gb it sees.

 

[LightBulbFun]

it sounds like the CPUs PVR value is not properly being masked to boot OS 9

the OS 9 "bootloader" checks the CPU type and if its not of a type it recognises it halts

the highest end CPU it recognises is the 7455, but the CPU upgrade you have is most likely 7447A based which OS 9 does not recognise

now one of the options in PowerLogix's firmware patcher is to enable this PVR masking option for OS 9, one thing to watch out for is there's one for OS X and another for OS 9 you can have both at the same time im pretty sure, just make sure that you do actually apply the OS 9 one!

(NB I dont THINK the OS X one is really needed unless you have a 7448)

if your positive that you have applied the patch etc and its still not booting then I can walk you through manually masking the CPUs PVR value to try and boot OS 9

however the other option is to uninstall the powerlogix patch and use sonnets firmware patch, Sonnets firmware patch masks the PVR value in the firmware itself rather then doing it through NVRAM

Sonnet Support

(I however personally prefer the PowerLogix Firmware patch as it does the bare minium to get the CPU POSTing then lets you play with the rest, and not obscure anything from you if you dont want it to, but this very much power user things, the sonnet firmware patcher is better for the casual user plug and play type person )

hope this is helps!

 

[Ih8reno]

it sounds like the CPUs PVR value is not properly being masked to boot OS 9

the OS 9 "bootloader" checks the CPU type and if its not of a type it recognises it halts

the highest end CPU it recognises is the 7455, but the CPU upgrade you have is most likely 7447A based which OS 9 does not recognise

now one of the options in PowerLogix's firmware patcher is to enable this PVR masking option for OS 9, one thing to watch out for is there's one for OS X and another for OS 9 you can have both at the same time im pretty sure, just make sure that you do actually apply the OS 9 one!

(NB I dont THINK the OS X one is really needed unless you have a 7448)

if your positive that you have applied the patch etc and its still not booting then I can walk you through manually masking the CPUs PVR value to try and boot OS 9

however the other option is to uninstall the powerlogix patch and use sonnets firmware patch, Sonnets firmware patch masks the PVR value in the firmware itself rather then doing it through NVRAM

Sonnet Support

(I however personally prefer the PowerLogix Firmware patch as it does the bare minium to get the CPU POSTing then lets you play with the rest, and not obscure anything from you if you dont want it to, but this very much power user things, the sonnet firmware patcher is better for the casual user plug and play type person )

hope this is helps!

Sorry for the late reply. Tried the firmware you sent me and no dice. I think I’m going to leave it as is for now and revisit this machine in the future.

 

[LightBulbFun]

Sorry for the late reply. Tried the firmware you sent me and no dice. I think I’m going to leave it as is for now and revisit this machine in the future.

when you say grey window, do you mean it never even makes it to the happy mac

or does it actually boot up some of the way before freezing at a grey screen?

if its the later then you may need to delete the multiprocessor extension in the extensions folder as it does not play ball with 7447/7448 CPU upgrade cards

(I think sonnet does have a patched one somewhere but if its a single CPU machine then id just nuke it)

 

[Ih8reno]

when you say grey window, do you mean it never even makes it to the happy mac

or does it actually boot up some of the way before freezing at a grey screen?

if its the later then you may need to delete the multiprocessor extension in the extensions folder as it does not play ball with 7447/7448 CPU upgrade cards

(I think sonnet does have a patched one somewhere but if its a single CPU machine then id just nuke it)

Tried a working drive with os9 from my dual 1ghz Quicksilver to test. Boots to grey screen with that OS 9.2.

Same results. Oddly enough OS 9 works fine in classic mode on my 10.4 partition .

 

[LightBulbFun]

Tried a working drive with os9 from my dual 1ghz Quicksilver to test. Boots to grey screen with that OS 9.2.

Same results. Oddly enough OS 9 works fine in classic mode on my 10.4 partition .

when you tried the sonnet patch you uninstalled the powerlogix patch right?

if all else fails boot into Open Firmware and run

dev /cpus ls

to find out if your CPU is listed as PowerPC,G4 or PowerPC,60?

then run

unselect-dev

then run

dev /cpus/PowerPC,G4 80010303 encode-int " cpu-version" property

or

dev /cpus/PowerPC,60? 80010303 encode-int " cpu-version" property

depending on what your CPU is called in the OF device tree

then type boot and hit enter to boot and hope the system boots into OS 9! (the above manually sets the cpu-version property of the CPU to one OS 9 is happy with)

 

[Ih8reno]

Yes I can try reinstalling and deleting again.

In system profiler it shows up at 60?

I’ll give it a shot later today once my work from home hours are done

 

[LightBulbFun]

Yes I can try reinstalling and deleting again.

In system profiler it shows up at 60?

I’ll give it a shot later today once my work from home hours are done

then you want this one

dev /cpus/PowerPC,60? 80010303 encode-int " cpu-version" property

as a side note does it still show up as 60? in system profiler even with the sonnet patch installed?

IIRC the sonnet patch "fixes" things so it shows up as a G4, so the fact it shows up as a 60? tells me the PowerLogix patch is still installed and the sonnet patch has not been installed

I see this a Gigabit ethernet G4, are you running the latest 4.2.8 boot rom? this is important and most patchers wont work without it, you can find the update here https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1126

 

[Ih8reno]

then you want this one

dev /cpus/PowerPC,60? 80010303 encode-int " cpu-version" property

as a side note does it still show up as 60? in system profiler even with the sonnet patch installed?

IIRC the sonnet patch "fixes" things so it shows up as a G4, so the fact it shows up as a 60? tells me the PowerLogix patch is still installed and the sonnet patch has not been installed

I see this a Gigabit ethernet G4, are you running the latest 4.2.8 boot rom? this is important and most patchers wont work without it, you can find the update here https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1126

Reinstalled and removed the powerlogix patch and now the Mac turns on to fans and nothing else. The fans spin, no hdd spins nothing. Firmware borked... even tried with the original cpu nada. Not the result I was hoping for to say the least

Edit

I reinstalled the upgrade and now the DVD drive is responsive and the hdd also. No power through USB as my mouse and keyboard don’t light up. I tried swapping out all the ram, pressing the button on the board and swapped out the gpu.

 

[LightBulbFun]

Hmmm thats not good, have you tried https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/so-you-think-you-bricked-it.2161970/

(although I think thats mainly for bad NVRAM settings so im not sure how much good it will be if the boot rom is physically corrupted)

AFAIK it should always still boot with the stock CPU

as I mentioned before, going by your CPUs name in sys profiler/OF it sounds like the PowerLogix patch was already installed and the sonnet one was never installed

so its a bit weird that the power logix patcher let you install itself on an already patch system....

(id like to say it would detect the system is already patched, but I have not played with the firmware patcher that in depth before)

 

[Ih8reno]

Tried it, no dice. Even tried it with the programmers button and nothing. I think I have a big paperweight now in the collection.

 

[Ih8reno]

After many many hours of testing I think it may be possible somehow the original cpu bord is the culprit. Not sure how but with it in the computer only spins fans. With the upgrade it’s almost back to life except USB’s don’t power and no pictures. I’m guessing I’ll need an original board but during these times it may be a bit!

 

[LightBulbFun]

After many many hours of testing I think it may be possible somehow the original cpu bord is the culprit. Not sure how but with it in the computer only spins fans. With the upgrade it’s almost back to life except USB’s don’t power and no pictures. I’m guessing I’ll need an original board but during these times it may be a bit!

ah yeah if you removed the powerlogix patch, ie have no form of CPU support patch installed

then yeah the PowerLogix CPU wont work, you need a working stock CPU, howevers there's plenty of Apple OEM G4 daughter cards floating around on ebay etc

and im sure plenty of forum members here have spares floating around too, pretty much anything from a 350Mhz Sawtooth to a 533Mhz DA will work OOB (DA cards will run slower then their rated speed but that does not matter here)

so I dont think it would be too difficult to acquire one even during the current situation

 

[Ih8reno]

ah yeah if you removed the powerlogix patch, ie have no form of CPU support patch installed

then yeah the PowerLogix CPU wont work, you need a working stock CPU, howevers there's plenty of Apple OEM G4 daughter cards floating around on ebay etc

and im sure plenty of forum members here have spares floating around too, pretty much anything from a 350Mhz Sawtooth to a 533Mhz DA will work OOB (DA cards will run slower then their rated speed but that does not matter here)

so I dont think it would be too difficult to acquire one even during the current situation

Today got a delivery of a dual 450 board from eBay. Connected it and it works. I don’t know how but it seems I killed my daughterboard. I’m very hesitant to try the upgrade again!

 

[ervus]

That is good news, thanks for reporting back! The dual CPUs are pretty nice in OSX and usually perform better than the contemporary singles. The 1.6GHz CPU would still be quicker if you can get it working.

Could could check for bent pins on the connectors. They are easily damaged, but sometimes you can straighten them with tweezers.