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Guide to flashing PC SIL3112 SATA cards for Mac

harrymatic said:
You'll be fine running 2 cards in an MDD, they have no compatibility problems.

As for the EEPROM, all of these sellers are selling essentially the same card. Every card I have ever come across uses a 128K ROM chip - this almost certainly does as well. In the exceptionally rare event that it's using a 64K EEPROM though, I can put together a smaller ROM image for you.

As the seller has explicitly mentioned that the card uses a SIL3112 controller, that card will work fine.
Click to expand...

Thanks once again for the info.
I ordered the card and I'll be waiting 4 weeks for it to arrive :eek:
Gonna test it out with the 1 card first before I order a second one :)
 
No update yet unfortunately.

I received the card just on Friday but I've packed away my PC that I planned on using to flash the firmware with because we are just about to move. Don't want the wife see me doing stuff I'm not supposed to be doing during this time :)

I might try and get it done on my PC at work ...
 
Got it flashed! and it is recognized by PowerMac! But something is a bit off tho ...

I've plugged in two sata drives to the card and have been transferring files from a network drive to each of them without any problems. No issues either with transfer of files from internal IDE hard drive to the Sata drive.

However, when I transfer files between the two internal sata drives, as soon as I reach somewhere between 1.5-2.0gb of data everything freezes and I have to do a hard reset in order to get back in. I can't tell whether it is a timing issue or a data issue. Seems to be related to the fact that both sata ports are in use though. I've verified this with combinations of the 4 drives I've got.

WD 1 TB
Samsung 1.5 TB
Seagate 3 TB
Seagate 60 Gb

Has anyone else had this problem?

Something else I've noticed is that for the short period of time that the transfer does work between the drives, the transfer rate is much slower (12-15mb) versus network transfer (~50mb). Is it because the PCI bus is just saturated and can't go any faster? Or is there something wrong?
 
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That's peculiar, I run two SATA drives off one card in my G4 MDD and I've never noticed the problems you're describing. I'll have a go at doing some large data transfers between drives later today and see if I get the same issues.

Which version of OS X are you using?
 
I'm on 10.5.8
Much appreciated!

Are there any differences in the 4 PCI slots? I have not yet tested the card on a different slot so I'll give that a go tonight.

Maybe its got something to do with the card I bought?
 
Just had a go, I was able to transfer a 2GB folder of data between drives without problems. It took about 45s.

I doubt the card is at fault, unless there are different revisions of the SIL3112 controller. I have a feeling it could be your drives, as by the sound of it they are pretty recent (mine are from around 2005 - 2007) and as such may not be 100% compatible with SATA 1.
 
That sounds like about 45mb/s which sounds reasonable.

My 60gb Seagate drive is a bit older, but I don't have another one if those to test to see if transfers between them are problematic.

Hopefully someone else has tried this out with newer drives. I picked up the power mac and the sata card to run as a file server and it may be that I might have to try the Mac pros to get around this sata issue.
 
j3tang said:
That sounds like about 45mb/s which sounds reasonable.

My 60gb Seagate drive is a bit older, but I don't have another one if those to test to see if transfers between them are problematic.

Hopefully someone else has tried this out with newer drives. I picked up the power mac and the sata card to run as a file server and it may be that I might have to try the Mac pros to get around this sata issue.
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Did you set your WD drive to SATA-II (Jumper Pin 7+8, if I recall right, but better look that up).

I heard of someone in another forum, he told me he did the same as in this guide here and had massive problems (drives disappearing, transfer speeds breaking down to 3MB/s, beachballing) in a Sawtooth, but was excellent in a PowerMac G5 1,8GHz.

Since the ROM is from a Sonnet 3112, I'd like to share this:
I have a Toshiba 3TB SATA-III, that always got a bad file system (header damaged) and would stop copying when 1,5-2TB were reached). I then plugged it to my unflashed "PC"-card with Sil3124 card (only a driver install needed, no boot capability), there I had the same problem. BUT!!! Then I reformatted it, when it was hanging on this card (did before on the Sonnet) and since then, it works great. A year so far, but you can't boot into OS 9 or lower then 10.4, when drive is attached to this card, afterwords the dirve will be seen as having a broken file system and eventually you can't even get your data back (10.5 did a better job in rescuing there, if you just let it sit for a while, the drive gets mounted, though and one can read, but not write. But that did only happen with the Sonnet card or after booting in OS9 or 10.2.)

If you want to check your drive for deeper failures, you can download volitan smart utility. It has a free trial. If the card doesn't pass the SMART-data, use a connector from SATA to IDE and connect it to an IDE port (you have a MDD, that supports big drives, right?). Also 10.5 seems to be more stable with the app, when SATA-drives are connected. When it nags, just prompt the ok button until you see the results.
 
Gave your suggestion a try, it was actually jumpers 5+6 that slows the WD sata drive down to 1.5gbps.

I tried it on my WD together with my Seagate (found Seagate instructions to do it) both slowed down and tried transferring files between them.

The computer froze around the same amount of time as before, but since the drives slowed down, there was only about 100mb of data transfer before it it stalled.


I reread through this thread and there have been mention of people using 1tb and 2tb drives as well, so I'm not the only one with recent drives.
 
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You could try using the cards in different PCI slots. It would also be worth trying just a single card on its own just to see if this is a result of some PCI conflict.
 
Right, I did plan to do that, but completely forgot about it. Will give that a try tonight.

On a different note, would this flashed sata card work in a G5? I might be able to pull it out of my machine and get someone at work to see whether they have the same problem.
 
I've actually only got 1 sata card in there. The second card i was going to order once i knew everything worked. So.... No luck with any of the 4 PCI slots .... this is a bit disappointing that the mdd seems so finicky :(

Also, I've seen some talk about flashing from the mdd using terminal. Since I've had to pack away my PC, it would make life simpler flashing directly from the mdd.

I'm tempted to try the flashtool from weibetech for OS X to flash this card. Would it just not proceed because it isn't a weibetech card? Or would it mess up the card?
 
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I've been checking Console and see:

kernel Wiebe3112Port Command=35 handle time out for port #1
kernel Wiebe3112Port Command=25 handle time out for port #0
kernel Wiebe3112Port handleDeviceInterrupt Non DMA Status: 21 for Primary
kernel disk1s2 underrun

Does any of this mean anything to you?
 
I've got the same exact problem on my QuickSilver. It kernel panics at about 1.8GB when transferring something from a USB 2.0 port on the PCI USB card. Plus, it doesn't boot if there's any other PCI card in another slot (except some times). :(
 
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cardbus?

Does anyone know if this would work in a PCMCIA/cardbus card (with the SIL 3112 chipset, obviously)? I have an old TiBook (no battery, dud screen, broken case) which works fine as a calendar/contacts server, and I would like to be able to use it as a backup server for time machine.

Barney.
 
barneyntd said:
Does anyone know if this would work in a PCMCIA/cardbus card (with the SIL 3112 chipset, obviously)? I have an old TiBook (no battery, dud screen, broken case) which works fine as a calendar/contacts server, and I would like to be able to use it as a backup server for time machine.

Barney.
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It may work, but you'd have to first flash the PowerPC ROM to the card.
 
barneyntd said:
Does anyone know if this would work in a PCMCIA/cardbus card (with the SIL 3112 chipset, obviously)? I have an old TiBook (no battery, dud screen, broken case) which works fine as a calendar/contacts server, and I would like to be able to use it as a backup server for time machine.

Barney.
Click to expand...

It probably would not work for booting but it might do for adding extra storage in lieu of using the USB or Firewire port.

I have been trying with a CF card and the PCMCIA adapter I just received in my Pismo and while you can partition and restore bootable volumes to your heart's content, Open Firmware is not having any of it. I suspect that the Cardbus slot in Apple's more recent PPC notebooks has no OF support but relies on drivers from the OS.

I have a TiBook I can try with both the CF card and a Firewire external drive on a FW Cardbus card. Will report back.

[EDIT] Tried on both my Pismo and my TiBook. Neither the CF nor the FW drive was bootable from the PC Card slot. The FW Card even locked my TiBook up for some reason. The same FW drive was bootable when connected directly to the native FW port, so the bootable volume was fine in itself.

I did have some success with an Apiotek eSATA expresscard booting Leopard on my MBP from an external drive but it would appear PPC notebooks are harder work.
 
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Thanks weckart! I don't actually need it to boot off the card, as the disk inside is fine. What I'd really like to know is what are the chances of a cheap pcmcia card such as this flashing correctly with harrymatic's flasher & firmware, so I can hook up a couple of big external drives. I'm really just trying to save myself the cost of a NAS box!

Or will it work unflashed off the drivers?
 
Very unlikely. The only ROM we have is for a PCI card and the flashing software also expects to find something on the PCI bus. Even if you found a suitable ROM you would still have to track down flashing software that could handle cardbus cards. Since most flashers are DOS based and PC notebooks in my experience require OS drivers to activate cardbus slots, I think it is a non-starter.

Your best bet is to track down Mac compatible SATA cardbus cards. This one came out using the SIL3512 chipset. You might want to hunt one of those down somewhere. Alternatively, you can take your chances with a generic card and the OSX driver if you can find that (the link seems dead).
 
The SIL website has drivers for the 3124 & 3132 (except they say 10.6, so maybe they're intel only?), but not the others. The cost of a box & power supply to put the drives in isn't great, either. I think I'm going to have to shell out for a cheap NAS box.

Thanks for your help, anyway.
 
The best bang for buck, if you are based in the UK, is the HP Microserver N54L (or a used N40L/N36L). Thanks to hackintosh developments these can run Mavericks now and Yosemite looks likely too.

I have had an N36L running Snow Leopard Server for a couple of years already. You can shove six 3.5" drives in those without much effort. Way better than any NAS. The one NAS drive I have, a Buffalo Linkstation, with Mac support, is way slower and clunkier by comparison and every Apple update seemed to break something.
 
barneyntd said:
The SIL website has drivers for the 3124 & 3132 (except they say 10.6, so maybe they're intel only?), but not the others. The cost of a box & power supply to put the drives in isn't great, either. I think I'm going to have to shell out for a cheap NAS box.

Thanks for your help, anyway.
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I used these drivers under 10.4 and 10.5 PPC for my 4xSIL3124 non-MAC-SATA-PCI-X card (in a Sawtooth). http://www.drivers-download.com/en/downloadlist.php?id=72

There is no flashing, only installing drivers, but also no booting.

For NAS, I'd like to second the N54L, though people say it is loud and you should replace the case and PSU fan (or the PSU itself). But it is the easiest and cheap way to go. (gives you more freedom than some real NASes).
I don't know about the hackintosh usability that weckart mentions. All I've read is, that it is very time consuming to get Mac OS to work. But you can use the NAS with its own MAC compatible file system.

If you want to do an own-build, you can build a more powerful NAS with an Intel Celeron G1820 (or 1840) and a socket 1150 mainboard. There is a list of parts (inlcuding a case) that is recommended, somewhere, if you have problems deciding yourself.
The price will range between 130-190,-EUR (without drives, depending on how much additonal stuff like an ODD you put in and what case you choose).

The advantage of the G1840-own-build-server is that it is more powerful (reuse for other things, capable Office-PC that can even handle Bluray videos), it is quieter, power consumption is the same (both 45W).
Some online cloud backup services, like crashplan, which seems to be favoured in the US (heh, you know, we europeans don't like to have our stuff in the cloud ;) :D ) do only work with Intel-CPUs. The N54L has an AMD Thurion II.

If you are located in Europe and don't want to do an own-build or use the N54L, a Lenovo EMC (former Iomega) Storcenter could be an alternative (they are incredibly more expensive in the US, even at the same or more price of a good Synology box). Beware some Iomega Boxes have older Hardware (older intel CPU Generations or no Intel CPU, if that is a concern).
Choose depending on planned number of drives and CPU: http://skinflint.co.uk/?cat=hdxnas&asd=on&asuch=lenovo emc storcenter&sort=p (mind with some, I would not just look at the skinflint specs, because Intel Atom can be different flavours of it. So look on another side, to be sure about the CPU.)

Here is a review/test comparing Intel Atoms, the new Intel Celeron G1820 and the latest AMD consumer-server CPU. http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/athlon-5350-sempron-3850.html (I guess the AMD Thurionin the N54L will be even weaker at the same power consumption; so it is less efficient. But that doesn't matter, if one doesn't need more power anyway. But, during big backups, if the CPU is always at 100% and the other at say 30%, you may save energy, though.

As a NAS OS I'd like to introduce Openmediavault.org (also, if you later would like to run a Linux desktop OS on it search for Linux elementary "luna". It is aming at being as closest to OS X in terms of where you find certain functions, GUI wise etc. I just wanted to share that, because I find this interesting.)
 
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