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G4 Powermac 466mhz 'Digital Audio' M7627LL/A

I downloaded it ok under OSX and saved it to disc, booted into OS9 and it can't open the file as the application that created it can't be found or words to that effect.

File name is G4_FW_Update_4.2.8.smi.bin

Under OSX, rather than save it straight to disc, do I need to open or unzip it first ?
 
thetcutkid said:
I downloaded it ok under OSX and saved it to disc, booted into OS9 and it can't open the file as the application that created it can't be found or words to that effect.

File name is G4_FW_Update_4.2.8.smi.bin

Under OSX, rather than save it straight to disc, do I need to open or unzip it first ?
Click to expand...

That's a Stuffit archive file type. If OS 9 can't open it, you may not have Stuffit installed (good idea to get it, because lots of old Mac software comes that way). In the meantime, yes, just open it under OS X and save it somewhere you'll be able to find easily under OS 9.
 
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OK, I think I've sorted it.

OSX tried to open it so I said no to the license thingy, which left a .sim file, booted into OS9, found that file and ran it as per instructions and got the confirmation message firmware successfully updated.

Thanks for your help on that guys.
 
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I've just spent the last hour taking all the music side of things for a bit of a test drive, making sure everything is doing what it should etc. and I have to say I'm delighted, really pleased and relieved that I'm back to where I was.

One thing I've noticed in my music software (and its a super tiny niggle) is that where I have more than a screen full of information and I have to scroll up or down to see the additional instruments, audio regions or whatever, whereas before the screen scrolled smoothly, it now seems to do it in sort of two chunks if that makes sense, there's kind of a ripple that runs down the screen as it moves to the next section.

Like I say, its a very small niggle and if that's what I'm left with after losing my original machine then it's a small price to pay but I thought I'd mention it just in case there was an easy or obvious fix.

Thanks again for your time.
 
thetcutkid said:
One thing I've noticed in my music software (and its a super tiny niggle) is that where I have more than a screen full of information and I have to scroll up or down to see the additional instruments, audio regions or whatever, whereas before the screen scrolled smoothly, it now seems to do it in sort of two chunks if that makes sense, there's kind of a ripple that runs down the screen as it moves to the next section.
Click to expand...

Did you swap over the graphics cards?
 
Dronecatcher said:
All I can think of is your new machine, although it has a faster CPU, it's system bus and RAM speed are slightly less - this might be enough to effect performance of the framebuffer, which gives you a less fluid screen movement.
Click to expand...

There's also the difference between a 4x AGP slot in the DA, versus the 2x slot in the Sawtooth. It really shouldn't matter, given that the card works in the Sawtooth, so it's clearly backward-compatible, but you never know.

OP, it just depends on how much it means to you to investigate the problem. What I would do is see if the same display glitch manifests with your DA's graphics card while booted into OS X. I'd also try both of the card's outputs, if that's possible for you. Then I'd swap the Sawtooth's Rage 128 back in, and try to duplicate the problem in both OS 9 and OS X, and with both outputs. With these steps you should be able to isolate the problem to one or the other of the cards, and/or one or the other of a given card's outputs.

If the Rage card doesn't manifest the problem, then you could just leave it in there - it will make a performance difference in OS X, but probably not noticeable under OS 9.

Then again, it's possible that simply pulling and reseating the graphics card could improve things. Sometimes that's all it takes.
 
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OK cool, they're things I can definitely try out thank you...tbh at the moment I'm just enjoying having a system back lol

My other first job is to get a fresh backup of everything, I'm just in the process of deleting some ancient music projects that I haven't listened to in years and then I'll back the entire system up.
 
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OP, something else you might try. I'm guessing that the card from your DA is a GeForce2 MX? If so, then see this article about driver updates. Don't bother clicking the link in that article, though, it's long since dead. You'll find the downloads available through the Wayback Machine at this link. I'd download the two GeForce updates from the middle of the list, as well as the NVidia driver update at the bottom.
[doublepost=1547655043][/doublepost]
thetcutkid said:
My other first job is to get a fresh backup of everything, I'm just in the process of deleting some ancient music projects that I haven't listened to in years and then I'll back the entire system up.
Click to expand...

Yes, DEFINITELY back things up before you monkey around with the system any more. Take it from someone who's made that mistake, and paid for it o_O
 
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Raging Dufus said:
You're right. I was thinking of the faster DA models, but I see now the 466 did come with a Rage standard.
Click to expand...

The 128 Pro is a decent card... but it would have been much better if they made a version with more than 16MB VRAM. I was running CRT's at 1600x1200 back when most people still used 1024x768 or 800x600. The biggest hurdle I always had was that my resolution needs couldn't be met with smooth operation on Macs because the available video cards in the late 90s and early 00s rarely had more than 32MB.

In 2005 I bought the first gen mac mini and found it could barley run my 1680x1050 LCD I had at the time. Those mini's have a Radeon 9200 32MB. It ran and looked fine, but there would be little hiccups where things took longer to draw than normal. Some video would also not play properly in fullscreen.
 
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I do have the original card from the DA (somewhere) but I upgraded it to an ATi Radeon 8500 Mac Edition years back, which is the card I moved across into the replacement Sawtooth yesterday.

Actually, on the subject of graphics cards and screens, I did want to ask a quick question about screens if that's ok.

Due to the mac being out of action for a while, I've been using the PC a lot more and this is connected to a 26" Panasonic Viera TV. Now I have a usable mac again, a day spent looking at a 19" monitor is quite a shock to the system, or rather my eyes, so I'm interested to know what I could use with my replacement machine.

The Radeon card I've got has a VGA and (if I've got my sockets right) a DVI-I socket - are there any Apple cinema displays above 20" that support DVI-I or am I just as well looking for a cheap LCD flatscreen TV that has a PC VGA input ?
 
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If you're going to be running 9 then VRAM won't be a concern. OSX is a much bigger video memory hog. I would run 1600x1200 on 9 with 16MB VRAM back then no problem, but once I switched to X it was harder to do smoothly. Macs in the mid 90s came with .5 or 1MB VRAM for onboard video. No joke. That's how different the video memory demands are between classic and X. That's in the System 7 and OS8/9 days.
 
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thetcutkid said:
The Radeon card I've got has a VGA and (if I've got my sockets right) a DVI-I socket - are there any Apple cinema displays above 20" that support DVI-I or am I just as well looking for a cheap LCD flatscreen TV that has a PC VGA input ?
Click to expand...
If you want to use the acrylic Cinema (and Studio) displays with a DVI-graphics card you are going to need the A1006 DVI/ADC converter.

Generally these go for about $30 or so on eBay. A few years ago you couldn't find one for less than $100-150.

apple-dvi-adc-adapter-model-a1006-emc_1_23c8246a39cb36aba0c85967dca1150e.jpg
 
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eyoungren said:
If you want to use the acrylic Cinema (and Studio) displays with a DVI-monitor you are going to need the A1006 DVI/ADC converter...
Click to expand...

Blimey just had a look on eBay in the UK and they're not cheap are they - someone's selling one 'for parts' for GBP50 :eek:
[doublepost=1547663798][/doublepost]So something like this...

https://everymac.com/monitors/apple/studio_cinema/specs/apple_cinema_display_23.html

...wouldn't need the adapter as it's DVI compatible, is that right ?
 
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thetcutkid said:
So something like this...

https://everymac.com/monitors/apple/studio_cinema/specs/apple_cinema_display_23.html

...wouldn't need the adapter as it's DVI compatible, is that right ?
Click to expand...
That's correct. Apple dropped the proprietary ADC connector when they introduced the aluminum displays. Those are DVI.

Watch where you buy though. Just like the A1006 the power bricks for the aluminum displays are not cheap. Make sure the brick is included in your buy or you will pay dearly for it later.
 
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eyoungren said:
That's correct. Apple dropped the proprietary ADC connector when they introduced the aluminum displays. Those are DVI.

Watch where you buy though. Just like the A1006 the power bricks for the aluminum displays are not cheap. Make sure the brick is included in your buy or you will pay dearly for it later.
Click to expand...

Yep - I was about to go for a 30" Al display, but after reading more about that critical power-adapter and the prices I just cancelled to even think about it ...
 
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eyoungren said:
That's correct. Apple dropped the proprietary ADC connector when they introduced the aluminum displays. Those are DVI.

Watch where you buy though. Just like the A1006 the power bricks for the aluminum displays are not cheap. Make sure the brick is included in your buy or you will pay dearly for it later.
Click to expand...

eyoungren, just before I start bidding ;), could I just confirm whether my 500mhz AGP Sawtooth, equipped with an ATi Radeon 8500 Mac Edition graphics card (64mb vram), will run the 23" or 30" cinema displays M9178LL/A and M9179LL/A sufficiently ?

The reason I ask is that some of the specs I'm reading seem to refer to G5 powermacs and G4 powerbooks as compatible but G4 powermacs don't seem to be mentioned ?
 
thetcutkid said:
eyoungren, just before I start bidding ;), could I just confirm whether my 500mhz AGP Sawtooth, equipped with an ATi Radeon 8500 Mac Edition graphics card (64mb vram), will run the 23" or 30" cinema displays M9178LL/A and M9179LL/A sufficiently ?

The reason I ask is that some of the specs I'm reading seem to refer to G5 powermacs and G4 powerbooks as compatible but G4 powermacs don't seem to be mentioned ?
Click to expand...

I don't see why it would NOT run one of these displays. I cannot of course confirm the why to you.

However, at my old job my former coworker was using one of these aluminum displays connected to a Rage 128 inside a 450mhz G4.
 
Many thanks for the super quick reply, hope you didn't mind me quoting your post from a few days ago :)

Doing some research this afternoon, my gut feeling is that I should be ok, particularly with the upgraded card I have in there - and if you say you had a colleague running one on a G4 with a lower spec'd card, that makes me feel a bit more confident.
 
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eyoungren said:
I don't see why it would NOT run one of these displays. I cannot of course confirm the why to you.

However, at my old job my former coworker was using one of these aluminum displays connected to a Rage 128 inside a 450mhz G4.
Click to expand...
You need a dual link DVI port for the 30inch if you want maximum resolution. Not sure the 8500 has that.
 
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