Looking at the FCODE ROM for the 1v4 and the 1ve4 they seem to use and unknown Intel chip( Vendor ID 8086 Device ID 3200 ).
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Guide to flashing PC SIL3112 SATA cards for Mac
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1V4 is very different from a 3124 card. No 32-pin EEPROM chip is seen on the board. And the chipset is significantly smaller than the 3124 chip, suggesting that the chipset 1V4 uses is not 3124.
Cut to the story, the Firmtek's firmware for 3124 based cards is the one for 2SE4, OS X bootable only.
I think it only supports some EEPSOM chips, the same way as 1S2 does.
I've planned to do this for years but now someone has done it (he may not be the first but his is the first report I've seen online): http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/topic,5679.msg42431.html#msg42431
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Yes, he sure wasn't the first! 😉
It was in 2012 when i soldered a bigger chip to this Delock-card...
...and flashed it to a Firmtek 2SE2.
Motivation was the same as this guys: To get bootable SATA II in my G5 Quad, which has been my daily driver for many years.
And yes, the card could boot. But alltogether the performance was very disappointing. Transferrates were barely 30% better than with the Mac's SATA I and boottime less than 10 seconds faster...
...while there were other cards which could not boot, but offered much better read/write-performance, while beeing supported by Mac OS out of the box without any flashing not to think of soldering.
So i ended up with this Silverstone card...
...with a Marvell Chip on it which was nearly twice as fast as the Mac's own SATA, so over 50% faster than the fake Firmtek, costing 20 Euros less and beeing plug and play. Only thing: It does not boot. But how often do you?
So all the SIL3132-flashing might be just not worth it. And i still don't know why System Info calls it SCSI.
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I meant converting a 3124 card to 2SE4. In that thread, he converted two cards: a 3124 to 2SE4 and 3132 to 2SE2.
Yeah, Silicon Image chips seem to have problems. Even the guy who wrote the firmware for them seems to agree.
There was this thread, http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php?topic=1924.0
Seems to be those 4 port Firmtek cards are using a (VITESSE VSC-7174 / INTEL 31244 SATA) chip. Otherwise those Addonics cards seem to have a near identical layout but with the Sil3124 chip.
So question is, on the datasheet it is a 17mm PBGA Package, is it pin compatible with the Sil chip?
Can we just remove the chip from a donor card (such as Dell Powervault 745 Raid card) and swap it with the sil chip on one of those addonics cards.. and then somehow flash it with the Seritek/Firmtek rom.
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Not all Firmtek's 4-port cards use VSC-7174 chipset.
Firmtek 2SE4 (and Addonics ADS3GX4R5-E as in that thread) use SiI3124 chipset. So there is no surprise why the two cards look identical.
I think you confuse the 2SE4 card with the 1eVE4. The Addonics card can't be converted to 1eVE4.
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In situations like that I would think if be possible to use some of those Disk on Module (IDE, SATA, USB) if those are compatible of course to install a bootloader (probably yaboot if you want to use OSX or older Linux distros, and GRUB to modern distros) and boot to this SATA controller.
The boot times considering jumping from one disk to another wouldn't be fastest that only one, but the system overall running on a faster disk should be more that pleasurable.
Hello all,
My eBay PCI to SATA card came in- https://www.ebay.com/itm/265859965269
The shipping was very fast considering it came from HK.
I am not able to boot off of this card in my Power Macintosh G3 mini tower 266mhz. I believe this is the early revision G3.
A little background on this computer and SSDs. I have not been able to get any SSD to work on the IDE bus. With a StarTech or Kingfish adapter the computer turn on, chimes, and video output doesn't work. I added a Rage 128 with native VGA support and that still doesn't help. I tried a CF to IDE and at one point I could boot from it if I had a OS 9 CD inserted in the drive. It would then boot to the CF card (not the CD). Then I tried to install OS X and I was never able to get it to boot from the CF card again. Even after reformatting and installing OS 9 only. The computer does boot using the original HHD on the IDE bus. Though even after erasing that drive a couple of times, things seemed to get wonky. I was never able to successfully install OS X on it. OS X 10.1 was on the HDD when I got the computer and it booted fine into OS X or 9.
Currently, I have a SCSI2SD connected to the internal SCSI bus which the computer boots from fine. However, it is slow compared to the IDE bus. That limitation is probably because of the SCSI2SD.
Back to the SATA card-
The Molex to SATA power cable it came with is garbage. See the pics. I am getting power to the SSD using the power supply from a USB to SATA/IDE adapter.
The SATA SSD I connected is a 120GB Lexar drive. I had Linux on it and decided to connect it anyway and figured I could just erase and reformat it from OS 9 running off of the internal SCSI bus. The drive was not recognized at all.
Next, I connected the Lexar drive to my Pismo through USB and erased and formatted the drive in HFS Extended (no journaling). I made three partitions and kept the first one under 8GB (I am not sure if that limitation still exists when you use a PCI card). I decided to install OS 10.1 which came installed on the G3 when I originally rescued it. The original owner even gave me the disc he installed it from years ago.
After 10.1 was installed, I connected the Lexar drive to the PCI card and booted into OS 9 from the SCSI bus. The desktop rebuilt and the three partitions showed up. I went to start up disk and 10.1 came up as an option. I chose that and restarted. Nothing, no video output. I tried booting again and the same thing happened.
I connected the drive to the Pismo, erased the first partition and restored an OS 9 image that I often use to it. When I connect it to the PCI card, the drives mount and the first partition is bootable according to the start up menu. When I tried to boot from the SSD I get an error message (see pic). I get the same message even when I tried to boot without extensions.
The only thing I haven't tried is to disconnect the SCSI2SD and see if that makes a difference.
Any ideas?
My eBay PCI to SATA card came in- https://www.ebay.com/itm/265859965269
The shipping was very fast considering it came from HK.
I am not able to boot off of this card in my Power Macintosh G3 mini tower 266mhz. I believe this is the early revision G3.
A little background on this computer and SSDs. I have not been able to get any SSD to work on the IDE bus. With a StarTech or Kingfish adapter the computer turn on, chimes, and video output doesn't work. I added a Rage 128 with native VGA support and that still doesn't help. I tried a CF to IDE and at one point I could boot from it if I had a OS 9 CD inserted in the drive. It would then boot to the CF card (not the CD). Then I tried to install OS X and I was never able to get it to boot from the CF card again. Even after reformatting and installing OS 9 only. The computer does boot using the original HHD on the IDE bus. Though even after erasing that drive a couple of times, things seemed to get wonky. I was never able to successfully install OS X on it. OS X 10.1 was on the HDD when I got the computer and it booted fine into OS X or 9.
Currently, I have a SCSI2SD connected to the internal SCSI bus which the computer boots from fine. However, it is slow compared to the IDE bus. That limitation is probably because of the SCSI2SD.
Back to the SATA card-
The Molex to SATA power cable it came with is garbage. See the pics. I am getting power to the SSD using the power supply from a USB to SATA/IDE adapter.
The SATA SSD I connected is a 120GB Lexar drive. I had Linux on it and decided to connect it anyway and figured I could just erase and reformat it from OS 9 running off of the internal SCSI bus. The drive was not recognized at all.
Next, I connected the Lexar drive to my Pismo through USB and erased and formatted the drive in HFS Extended (no journaling). I made three partitions and kept the first one under 8GB (I am not sure if that limitation still exists when you use a PCI card). I decided to install OS 10.1 which came installed on the G3 when I originally rescued it. The original owner even gave me the disc he installed it from years ago.
After 10.1 was installed, I connected the Lexar drive to the PCI card and booted into OS 9 from the SCSI bus. The desktop rebuilt and the three partitions showed up. I went to start up disk and 10.1 came up as an option. I chose that and restarted. Nothing, no video output. I tried booting again and the same thing happened.
I connected the drive to the Pismo, erased the first partition and restored an OS 9 image that I often use to it. When I connect it to the PCI card, the drives mount and the first partition is bootable according to the start up menu. When I tried to boot from the SSD I get an error message (see pic). I get the same message even when I tried to boot without extensions.
The only thing I haven't tried is to disconnect the SCSI2SD and see if that makes a difference.
Any ideas?
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We don't really want to be tech support to a bad product, but as I have said, I bought one of these cards from that seller on Ebay and the card had issues.
The fix for me was to change the voltage IC one the card, and that made in incompatible with the G4 Quicksilvers in my collection, but it now works just fine in my Beige, MDD G4, and PM G5.
I did contact the seller and they offered me to send the card to someone in the US they said could fix the issues I was having with the card, so you may want to go the route. I just happened to have a spare IC from a dead 3112 card, so I resolved the issue myself.
This computer has been so finicky with SSDs that I honestly don’t know if the card is the issue or my computer.
I did some more basic troubleshooting. In addition to the SATA card, I had a Sonnet USB/FireWire card and Rage 128 VGA card from a B&W G3. I removed the other two cards and low and behold the computer booted from the SATA card. However, the IDE CD-ROM drive is not recognized when booted off of the card.
I do get this before it boots on the SATA card. I have seen this happen with other drives on this computer.
I have not been able to get the USB card to work. I have another card that I tried as well and that won't work either.
When I did have OS X working on here, the USB and FireWire was recognized and worked. I left the card in thinking I could eventually get OS X working again.
Long story short, the VGA card is the issue. Without the USB card, it will boot to the point that the background wallpaper shows up and then stops there.
I decided to give OS X another shot. First I tried booting off of the 10.2 install CD and I got a kernel panic
Then I tried a 10.1 CD and which boots but the SATA card is not recognized.
If I am looking at this correctly, would you all agree this is an issue with the computer vs the SATA card?
I may try the card in my StarMax later. It is the only other old world rom computer I have running at the moment. On another note, I have the same model Sonnet USB/FireWire installed in that computer and it works fine.
I do get this before it boots on the SATA card. I have seen this happen with other drives on this computer.
I have not been able to get the USB card to work. I have another card that I tried as well and that won't work either.
When I did have OS X working on here, the USB and FireWire was recognized and worked. I left the card in thinking I could eventually get OS X working again.
Long story short, the VGA card is the issue. Without the USB card, it will boot to the point that the background wallpaper shows up and then stops there.
I decided to give OS X another shot. First I tried booting off of the 10.2 install CD and I got a kernel panic
Then I tried a 10.1 CD and which boots but the SATA card is not recognized.
If I am looking at this correctly, would you all agree this is an issue with the computer vs the SATA card?
I may try the card in my StarMax later. It is the only other old world rom computer I have running at the moment. On another note, I have the same model Sonnet USB/FireWire installed in that computer and it works fine.
Does it also panic when the SATA card is not installed? What about the other PCI cards?
10.2 is the max the G3 will handle. I know that 10.1 works, it just doesn't want to work with this drive. Maybe I need to install it from another machine and then connect it to the G3.I seem to recall that from playing with my own Seritek flashed card, that they simply dont play nice with 10.2.x
try Mac OS X 10.4.x or such and see if you get better results there
The thing is… if the card doesn’t play nice with 10.2 but does with 10.4, its installer may see the drive. In any case you’ve got nothing to lose but time.
Which I have little of lol. But I still do this anyway!The thing is… if the card doesn’t play nice with 10.2 but does with 10.4, its installer may see the drive. In any case you’ve got nothing to lose but time.
I'll see if I can get to it later today. I am still at work for another 3 hours, then I have to go food shopping and finish a grad school assignment (I swore I was done after the last degree 😩)
In the meantime, I'll look up how to use XPostFacto
I just read through the instructions. The first thing that stuck out was the drive needs to be formatted and partitioned in OS 9, not OS X. I formatted and partitioned the SATA drive in 10.4 on my Pismo. I then used 10.4 to restore a OS 9 image to the first partition. I wonder if reformatting the drive in OS 9 might solve some issues I am having. I doubt it though. Still, I have to do that regardless to use XPostFacto.The thing is… if the card doesn’t play nice with 10.2 but does with 10.4, its installer may see the drive. In any case you’ve got nothing to lose but time.
I need a working CD-ROM drive. Right now it isn't recognized when I am booted into 9.2 on the SATA drive. However, it is recognized when I am booted in 9.2 on a SCSI2SD connected to the internal SCSI bus. I have to boot to the SCSI2SD and do this from there. The SATA drive partitions did show up when I was booted to the SCSI2SD yesterday, so that shouldn't be an issue.
Worse comes to worse, I will continue to use the SCSI2SD and recognize there is a speed limitation. Which I don't think will be an issue in the long run.
I want to love this computer. It should be the ultimate bridge machine, but nothing wants to work the way I expect it to! From what I have read, I think it is because this is a Revision A machine. I also concede something might be wrong with the logic board. This computer was literally a mouse nest when I got it. I took it apart and cleaned every square inch including the logic board. it looks almost new, though looks can be deceiving!
as long as you make sure OS 9 drivers are installed, it does not matter what OS you use to format the drive in
so formatting it Tiger is just fine as long as you make sure that OS 9 drivers are installed, you can double check this by doing a diskutil list in terminal where you should see a good number (5 to 10) partitions listed under the drive in question
I just spent over 2 hours with this computer. I reformatted the drive using the Apple Drive Setup utility. I made three partitions. The first one for OS 9, the second for 10.3 and one for storage.
I restored the OS 9 Lives image to the first partition. I installed XPostFacto on OS X partition and installed 10.3. I successfully booted into it. I restarted and it booted into 10.3 again.
Then I changed the startup disk to the OS 9 partition on the SATA drive and restarted. After a while, the computer finally booted but into OS 9 on the SCSI2SD. The SATA partitions weren't recognized. I restarted and then I could see the SATA partitions.
I decided to reinstall the VGA video card and boot back into 10.3. No video signal. I switched the monitor cable back to the adapter on the native video output. Video came up immediately and I could see 10.3 was stuck on the boot screen. I force restarted.
I tried to get back into 10.3 and I can't. I booted back into os 9 and used XPostFacto to boot into 10.3. but it just kernel panicked. This keeps happening.
I have the opportunity to send my board to a friend who can recap it. I don't think that is the issue though. For my own sanity, I think I am going to pull the logic board and send it to him. That way I can take a break from this computer.
I restored the OS 9 Lives image to the first partition. I installed XPostFacto on OS X partition and installed 10.3. I successfully booted into it. I restarted and it booted into 10.3 again.
Then I changed the startup disk to the OS 9 partition on the SATA drive and restarted. After a while, the computer finally booted but into OS 9 on the SCSI2SD. The SATA partitions weren't recognized. I restarted and then I could see the SATA partitions.
I decided to reinstall the VGA video card and boot back into 10.3. No video signal. I switched the monitor cable back to the adapter on the native video output. Video came up immediately and I could see 10.3 was stuck on the boot screen. I force restarted.
I tried to get back into 10.3 and I can't. I booted back into os 9 and used XPostFacto to boot into 10.3. but it just kernel panicked. This keeps happening.
I have the opportunity to send my board to a friend who can recap it. I don't think that is the issue though. For my own sanity, I think I am going to pull the logic board and send it to him. That way I can take a break from this computer.
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