Guide to flashing PC SIL3112 SATA cards for Mac

[domii]

I just ordered a 2 port card from eBay that claims OS 9 capability. I paid closer to $70 with shipping. I have a feeling it is not going to work for me.

If it was this one, I ordered one earlier in the year and it works just fine on my PowerTower mac clone (9500 based) and in my MDD. MacOS 7.6/8/9 and tested it in 10.3/10.4. They all boot from it. I just have to remember to keep the primary boot partition under 8gb on the oldworld mac.

I also have the purple Sonnet Tempo SATA card and often alternate between the two in my systems.
Also find the SATA cards less finicky than using my Sonnet Tempo ATA 133 card with the sata adapters. All the SSD's have tried work just fine.. only problem I've had is so far finding a sata CD/DVD that works in MacOS 9.

So for CD's I usually end up using the Sonnet IDE/ATA card with a Apple IDE CD/DVD combo drive, but then I have to pull my ATI video card and use an old Twin Turbo graphics card as the bus on that machine doesn't want to play with the SATA, IDE and an ATI (7500 or 9200). I also had issues with using the internal SCSI bus and those cards, so I had given up on using SCSI for the CD/DVD.

 

[for this]

ok, so the card wouldn't flash at all in my B&W but i put it in slot 5 in my QS 2002 with leopard and the card flashed saying successful with seritek 5.1.3 firmware.

now i put the card into my B&W and will run the fscapp for tiger and see if that helps with anything

*EDIT*
so far, i get the flashing folder with the classic icon first for about 10 seconds then i get the osx logo and it just hangs there, no gear, just the logo. been sitting here for 5 min at least

*EDIT 2*
put the card into my QS in slot 5 and i get the same thing trying to boot off of the card. just the apple logo and nothing else. will revert back to the wiebe3112 firmware to see what that does

Well, the QS KP'ed. will flash the wiebe firmware in the B&W

Sounds like you flashed the Firmtek firmware using WiebeTech flasher, which is the only method I've used.

The only PPC Mac with PCI slots I have is a FW400 MDD. So I can say only for this model that the only slot that works (for me) for flashing it is slot #5 (boot into Leopard's Safe Mode + root user). Tried other slots and failed, many times.

I also got a few false confirmation that it was successfully flashed. The only way to prove it is to restart and check.

 

[for this]

So, to make my beige G3 somehow "complete", i wanted to have real SATA too and ordered one of these cheapo-cards from China for 10 Euros.

It's not 3112 but 3114 based. But that has not been much of a problem. Had to use the latest available version of Updflash, which is 3.36 as the one from this thread does not support 3114. Also the winbond EEPROM on the card was not in the list of supported chips. But flashing worked fine with choosing the first 1MB-part from the list.

I used the WiebeTECH-firmware which does not support OS9. But that's ok for me. Also the two additional ports on top of the card not working. Card boots fine with the ones on the rear end.

But, what really is bit of a disappointment, is the performance in a few glorious moments i got to see around 50MB/s read/write, which schould be the absolut minimum for a card like that. But since then it fell back below 30 and didn't give better results ever since. I use it with a 7.200rpm HD as the card turned out to be very picky on SSDs. But testing SSD made no difference performancewise.

So what do others get from these card's? I have another one in a G4 tower, which at least reaches steady around 50 read/write. But the one in the G3 is stuck below 30, which at least IMHO is a bit poorly for SATA.

The guy who wrote FirmTek's firmware said (on macos9lives forum) that Firmtek decided to omit the 3114 because of the low performance (speed).

 

[for this]

I just ordered a 2 port card from eBay that claims OS 9 capability. I paid closer to $70 with shipping. I have a feeling it is not going to work for me.

The original 3112 cards work for almost all PPC Macs with PCI slots except Quick Silver and Digital Audio models. What is needed for it to expand the compatibility to include the QS and DA is replacing a voltage regulator on the card.

But I saw at least two buyers reported the cards from the HK seller came not working on any Mac because the regulator the seller used was a wrong one.

 

[flyproductions]

If it was this one, I ordered one earlier in the year and it works just fine on my PowerTower mac clone (9500 based) and in my MDD. MacOS 7.6/8/9 and tested it in 10.3/10.4.

This looks like the 2-port-version of my card or the one i have in the Sawtooth and for that should be 3112. But, if it works on classic OSes, it has to have the Seritek-firmware on it. And - to run that - most likely a special (bigger and special brand) EEPROM soldered to it.

Do you have the firmware as a file or would you mind to make a dump and post it? Would be very interested, if it can fit on a 128k chip.

 

[flyproductions]

only problem I've had is so far finding a sata CD/DVD that works in MacOS 9.

As far as i know, SATA Opticals do not work in Classic. I have a Blu Ray in my Cube, which works perfectly fine in OS X, but is not recognized in OS 9.

 

[ww2_1943]

If it was this one, I ordered one earlier in the year and it works just fine on my PowerTower mac clone (9500 based) and in my MDD. MacOS 7.6/8/9 and tested it in 10.3/10.4. They all boot from it. I just have to remember to keep the primary boot partition under 8gb on the oldworld mac.

That's the one! I feel better about this purchase now. I plan on using it in my platinum G3 mini tower.

 

[domii]

This looks like the 2-port-version of my card or the one i have in the Sawtooth and for that should be 3112. But, if it works on classic OSes, it has to have the Seritek-firmware on it. And - to run that - most likely a special (bigger and special brand) EEPROM soldered to it.

Do you have the firmware es a file or would you mind to make a dump and post it? Would be very interested, if it can fit on a 128k chip.

What is best tool to make a rom dump for that?

 

[flyproductions]

The guy who wrote FirmTek's firmware said (on macos9lives forum) that Firmtek decided to omit the 3114 because of the low performance (speed).

Hmm...just swapped that thing to the Sawtooth...where it nicely throws out nearly 60MB/s with the same benchmark, Intech's Speed Tools.

So problems seem to be more machine- or disk related. Sadly i cannot test this disk with the G3 as it has only Leopard on it which the G3 cannot run.

 

[flyproductions]

What is best tool to make a rom dump for that?

Should work with UpdFlash. In PC of course.

Edit: Ahh, just seen it might only be able to write. So flashrom could work. Even on the Mac from Terminal.

 

[flyproductions]

The guy who wrote FirmTek's firmware said (on macos9lives forum) that Firmtek decided to omit the 3114 because of the low performance (speed).

So i just reswapped the card to the G3 and all of a sudden i had the faster speed there too again. Not quite as fast as in the Sawtooth and not that consistent. But close to 50 read/write again. But the differenc might most likely owed to the sawtooth's processor having triple the speed of the G3's and the far better disk which is in there.

Also i took a closer look to the cards themselfs and had the impression that the 3112 based two port card is of better overall component and soldering quality. But what does one expect...for the fortune of 10 Euros spent?

Anyway, the 3114 seems to work flawless in the G4 while the 3112 does in the G3. So i think i just keep it that way.

 

[flyproductions]

But, what really is bit of a disappointment, is the performance in a few glorious moments i got to see around 50MB/s read/write, which schould be the absolut minimum for a card like that. But since then it fell back below 30 and didn't give better results ever since.

I now was able to find the clear culprit for the unexpectedly low performance:
It is some TP-Link USB WIFI-dongle!

As soon as this thing is plugged into the USB-card next to the SATA, disk performance drops about 15 MB/s.

 

[domii]

I'll backup that rom tonight.

But thought I would share for some entertainment - just listed today. No returns!

​

 

[domii]

I couldn't figure out how to backup the rom with udpflash, the readme only gives switches for doing the flashing. So I used flashrom (flashrom --programmer satasii -r backup.rom).

 

[eyoungren]

I'll backup that rom tonight.

But thought I would share for some entertainment - just listed today. No returns!


View attachment 2073762

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That's just ridiculous!

As nice as they are, they're only two ports. The first card I flashed in this thread was 4 ports and cost me $10. AND, it worked in my Quicksilver.

 

[flyproductions]

I couldn't figure out how to backup the rom with udpflash, the readme only gives switches for doing the flashing. So I used flashrom (flashrom --programmer satasii -r backup.rom).

Thanks alot for your effort!

But, ah yes, thats what i was afraid of! Your card must have soldered a bigger EEPROM to it, as the ROM ist over 500k in Size. Most likely is the unaltered Seritek-ROM. So no pirating for me as i only have 128k to spend. 😫

 

[DearthnVader]

Thanks alot for your effort!

But, ah yes, thats what i was afraid of! Your card must have soldered a bigger EEPROM to it, as the ROM ist over 500k in Size. Most likely is the unaltered Seritek-ROM. So no pirating for me as i only have 128k to spend. 😫

What card is this now? The 3112 card?

The firmware can be extracted from the /Volumes/SeriTek1V2E2_513/SeriTek1V2E2Flasher.app/Contents/Resources/ROMFILE.7174

It's less than 128k.

 

[flyproductions]

What card is this now? The 3112 card?

This is the card. It looks basically the same as the 3112, i have. Just has two more outputs and the 3114-chip on it.

The firmware can be extracted from the /Volumes/SeriTek1V2E2_513/SeriTek1V2E2Flasher.app/Contents/Resources/ROMFILE.7174

It's less than 128k.

Ah, just downloaded. Thanks! Does this work for OS9 and doesn't have this "hardware-check", mentioned everywhere?

If it doesn't work with 3114s, i can also try the 3112.

 

[DearthnVader]

This is the card. It looks basically the same as the 3112, i have. Just has two more outputs and the 3114-chip on it.

Ah, just downloaded. Thanks! Does this work for OS9 and doesn't have this "hardware-check", mentioned everywhere?

If it doesn't work with 3114s, i can also try the 3112.

I don't know anything about the 3114 chips, and I don't really know what the hardware check does, it it looks at the EEPROM ID and goes to abort if it's not one of the whitelisted ID's, but if that is the case it can be removed from the FCODE.

There is a compressed OS X .kext in the ROM, if that does the check and won't load if it's not a whitelisted EEPROM then that makes it near impossible to remove, as we don't really have the source code and IDA Pro is such a pain to use that it's just easier to solder on a supported EEPROM.

The flashers are OS X only, but I was able to fool them into flashing the Firmtek firmware onto my PC 3112 card. Also you can use the Wiebetech flasher to flash the ROMFILE.

 

[for this]

What card is this now? The 3112 card?

The firmware can be extracted from the /Volumes/SeriTek1V2E2_513/SeriTek1V2E2Flasher.app/Contents/Resources/ROMFILE.7174

It's less than 128k.

For a 3112 card, the correct Firmtek/SeriTek firmware is the one for the 1S2 card.

The flashers are OS X only, but I was able to fool them into flashing the Firmtek firmware onto my PC 3112 card. Also you can use the Wiebetech flasher to flash the ROMFILE.

Did you modify the Firmtek's flasher in some way? Because they are actually updaters that only flash to a card that already has Firmtek's firmware.

When I used it to flash a card that had other's firmware or had a fresh blank EEPROM chip. I got the error saying "there is no card for this utility to update".

If the Firmtek's flashers can be modified to flash a fresh PC card, that will be good news for users who don't have a PC. Because the list of viable chips will be broadened. Currently the only chip that can be used to flash a flesh PC card using a Mac is PMC branded since it is supported by both the Firmtek's firmware and the WiebeTech's flasher.

 

[flyproductions]

I don't know anything about the 3114 chips

Cannot be that much of a difference. Works fine with the WiebeSATA for the 3112 so far. Only the two connectors on top don't seem to work. But i don't need them anyway.

and I don't really know what the hardware check does, it it looks at the EEPROM ID and goes to abort if it's not one of the whitelisted ID's, but if that is the case it can be removed from the FCODE.

There is a compressed OS X .kext in the ROM, if that does the check and won't load if it's not a whitelisted EEPROM then that makes it near impossible to remove, as we don't really have the source code and IDA Pro is such a pain to use that it's just easier to solder on a supported EEPROM.

I don't know. I think, i'll just try. And, if it doesn't work, reflash to Wiebe.

The flashers are OS X only, but I was able to fool them into flashing the Firmtek firmware onto my PC 3112 card. Also you can use the Wiebetech flasher to flash the ROMFILE.

Flashing should not be the problem. One of the UpdFlash-versions in PC should work, as they did for the Wiebe firmware.

 

[ervus]

I've also been trying to figure out how to flash a SATA card to be bootable, so I'd be interested in some details on the procedure. The card I have is a 64-bit PCI SiL3124 (or SiI3124?) with 4 internal ports. I think the Seritek1V4 uses the same chip, so this might be the correct ROM to use? The card is pretty similar to this one:

barefeats.com/firm1V4.html

Would the ROM for external ports be the same as for internal ports, or does the "hot swap" make it different?

 

[flyproductions]

For a 3112 card, the correct Firmtek/SeriTek firmware is the one for the 1S2 card.

Yes, most likely! The ROM extracted from the 1V2E flasher didn't work at all. In OS 9 the card showed up with some very generic info. Just vendor and device ID. In OS X it wasn't even listed in the PCI-card section of System Info.

But sadly the ROM in the 1S2 flasher is 139k of size. So cannot be flashed to the cheap cards without hardware modification.

If the Firmtek's flashers can be modified to flash a fresh PC card, that will be good news for users who don't have a PC. Because the list of viable chips will be broadened. Currently the only chip that can be used to flash a flesh PC card using a Mac is PMC branded since it is supported by both the Firmtek's firmware and the WiebeTech's flasher.

I think, in most cases getting a PC to get the job done might be the easiest and most hasslefree way. A part able to match this minimal requirement should be available for the same amount like the cards if not for free/from the bin while patching these Mac-flashers may cost hours or days of work and testing if it can be done at all.

 

[domii]

Funny thing is this is a good reminder for me to follow up on my firmtek card order. The macos9lives thread mentioned they are still shipping, so I ordered one from their webstore, but also in the thread, one needs to call and follow up on the orders as they seem to sit in limbo until then. They probably don't check their web orders often.

The ide to sata adapter supports atapi devices so I have hope to get a cd/dvd working on the sata card..

 

[flyproductions]

The ide to sata adapter supports atapi devices so I have hope to get a cd/dvd working on the sata card..

IDE to SATA should always work for opticals. This is, what gets Blu-Ray to the Cube.