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Guide to flashing PC SIL3112 SATA cards for Mac
- Thread starter harrymatic
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*Edit* this is using the wiebetech firmware, which is only compatible with OS X, no OS 9. Deffinately works with tiger, unsure about leopard and the versions before tiger.
Can confirm that flashing this firmware onto a 4 port card with the Sil3114 chip, However you will only be able to boot from the two ports on the rear of the card.
The model of the card is a generic SATA3114-AO1.
I wasnt able to boot from the two ports on top, however they may still work from within OS X for storage (Dont have the gear to try it out just yet)
I didnt have any luck trying to flash the card with the tool linked on the first page, so i ended up using Flashrom.
Here is the link: https://www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/files/repositories/1.2/pkg-html/flashrom.html
The firmware and the flashrom program is linked below.
I also couldnt be bothered messing around with floppies, so i just created a FreeDOS bootable usb drive with rufus, and then just copied over the firmware.bin file from the first post and also the flashrom utility (make sure these are on the root of the usb disk.
Installed the card into a free pci slot into a pc, and then type "flashrom --programmer satasii -r backup.bin"
This will backup the current bios on the sata card.
And then type in "flashrom --programmer satasii -w firmware.bin"
With any luck, the flash should be successful!
Turn off the pc and remove the card.
Install the card into the powermac (using a MDD, still need to try it out on other powermacs)
connect your sata disk, and boot into your OS X install DVD, open up disk utility, and with some luck it should display your sata disk! go ahead and install OS X as normal.
Please note that this has only been tested on a G4 MDD 1.25DP with Tiger.
I have also noticed that when you boot the mac up, it will go to a flashing "?" icon, but it still boots, the apple logo will appear after a few seconds. Insure if this is due to my drive initialising or something.
Can confirm that flashing this firmware onto a 4 port card with the Sil3114 chip, However you will only be able to boot from the two ports on the rear of the card.
The model of the card is a generic SATA3114-AO1.
I wasnt able to boot from the two ports on top, however they may still work from within OS X for storage (Dont have the gear to try it out just yet)
I didnt have any luck trying to flash the card with the tool linked on the first page, so i ended up using Flashrom.
Here is the link: https://www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/files/repositories/1.2/pkg-html/flashrom.html
The firmware and the flashrom program is linked below.
I also couldnt be bothered messing around with floppies, so i just created a FreeDOS bootable usb drive with rufus, and then just copied over the firmware.bin file from the first post and also the flashrom utility (make sure these are on the root of the usb disk.
Installed the card into a free pci slot into a pc, and then type "flashrom --programmer satasii -r backup.bin"
This will backup the current bios on the sata card.
And then type in "flashrom --programmer satasii -w firmware.bin"
With any luck, the flash should be successful!
Turn off the pc and remove the card.
Install the card into the powermac (using a MDD, still need to try it out on other powermacs)
connect your sata disk, and boot into your OS X install DVD, open up disk utility, and with some luck it should display your sata disk! go ahead and install OS X as normal.
Please note that this has only been tested on a G4 MDD 1.25DP with Tiger.
I have also noticed that when you boot the mac up, it will go to a flashing "?" icon, but it still boots, the apple logo will appear after a few seconds. Insure if this is due to my drive initialising or something.
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That's due to the fact that you changed startup disks and the new one on the SATA card hasn't been selected yet. So, the system is searching for the old one, doesn't find it, then searches the bus and finds a bootable drive off the SATA card. The result is the momentary ? flashing.
Once you're in OS X, go into System Preferences and select your SATA boot drive (under Startup Disk) as the startup. The ? will disappear the next time you boot.
You'll have to do this again if you reset PRAM.
It may be a quirk because the firmware is not designed to work with a 3114 chip. But this is good news.
BTW, when I have an SIL3512 card (flashed with WiebeSATA3512 firmware) installed in my OS 9 bootable MDD. The same issue will occur when I boot OS 9 from an IDE-connected HDD. The "?" will flash for a while before proceeding normally. And when I want to switch back to boot OS X, the OS 9 doesn't see any HDD connected to the SIL3512, I've to restart with the option key pressed to select it.
Looks like selecting the disk to boot from in system preferences has fixed it! Thanks!
I’m expecting some quirks, but I’m glad I managed to get it to work at all, as the cards with the 3112 chip seem to be quite harder to find, just means we have another option for these old powermacs!
I’m expecting some quirks, but I’m glad I managed to get it to work at all, as the cards with the 3112 chip seem to be quite harder to find, just means we have another option for these old powermacs!
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Good news. While there is still a seller in Germany for the two port 3112 cards, the Hong Kong sellers seem only to have the 4 port 3114 cards now. Might be interesting to see if compatibility still stretches back to MacOS 7.6 as with the 3112.
Yes, I wasn’t able to find any at all here in Australia, and I really didn’t want to try to track down a used example, so I thought I’d give it a shot with the 4 port 3114 card, as they are about $16 aud shipped.
Nope I didn’t, just literally installed it into a pc and flashed it!
Just to check, is this the modded Wiebetech firmware (OSX only) or the original SeriTek firmware (OSX and MacOS)?
Not sure, but it’s the OP’s one from the original first post. I’ll have a look in system profiler when I get home.
Yep looks like it was the modded Wiebetech firmware, ill give the SeriTek firmware a go on the spare 4 port sata card i brought when i get some time, probably on the weekend.
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You will probably need to replace the BIOS chip to one of the three compatible chips as even with flashrom, the firmware will refuse to proceed with flashing unless it detects compatible hardware.
interesting to see the Wieb 3112 firmware will work with the 3114 cards 
I know there IS a 3114 Mac Firmware out there as I have seen PC cards flashed with such for sale on ebay, so if you can track that FW down it should enable all 4 ports (tho IIRC its another weib firmware so only compatible with OS X)
I know there IS a 3114 Mac Firmware out there as I have seen PC cards flashed with such for sale on ebay, so if you can track that FW down it should enable all 4 ports
(tho IIRC its another weib firmware so only compatible with OS X)The flashing process will go fine if the chip is big enough to house the SeriTek firmware which is too big for the BIOS chip normally used in these cards. The problem will appear though if the BIOS chip is not from one of the brands the firmware supports, it will refuse to work.
This:interesting to see the Wieb 3112 firmware will work with the 3114 cards
I know there IS a 3114 Mac Firmware out there as I have seen PC cards flashed with such for sale on ebay, so if you can track that FW down it should enable all 4 ports
https://www.siig.com/download/search/?keyword=SC-SA4M12 update contains firmware for sil3114(4 ports) but I do not know how to extract that. Actually this updater include a FIRMWARE file but needs more work until flashing.
If flashrom can see it flashrom can save it. Might be a simple copy and paste but I doubt it as it would have been done by now, surely.
I think the problem here looking at the stuff is the ROM looks to be 128KB in size?
which is bigger then most EEPROMs on PC SATA cards, its why the Wieb firmware is so popular as it can be flashed onto a normal 64KB EEPROM PC SATA card
(shades of GPU flashing much?
)Had a play with the spare sata card, found a copy of the "seritek" firmware for the SIL3114, too big to fit on the eeprom, looking at the card i have, it has a SST 39SF010A, which is a 1 Megabit chip (about 125KB) the seritek firmware is about 130KB, so it will not fit on the chip.
Looking at some options, you could either try to find or modify the firmware to fit on the chip, or just replace the eeprom chip. But on the cheap 4 port SIL3114 the eeprom chip is soldered directly to the board, i guess it would be best to try to find a 4 port card with either a socketed eeprom chip, or a card with a 2 Megabit chip.
But for now, the Wiebetech firmware seems to work fine, tested it on my FW800 1.42DP G4 today. Works great!
Looking at some options, you could either try to find or modify the firmware to fit on the chip, or just replace the eeprom chip. But on the cheap 4 port SIL3114 the eeprom chip is soldered directly to the board, i guess it would be best to try to find a 4 port card with either a socketed eeprom chip, or a card with a 2 Megabit chip.
But for now, the Wiebetech firmware seems to work fine, tested it on my FW800 1.42DP G4 today. Works great!
Sounds similar to the 3112 cards I have replaced a chip on. A heat gun removes the old chip and is the best for securing the replacement. The question is what BIOS chips do we need?
interesting to see the Wieb 3112 firmware will work with the 3114 cards
I know there IS a 3114 Mac Firmware out there as I have seen PC cards flashed with such for sale on ebay, so if you can track that FW down it should enable all 4 ports
I purchased one of those ebay cards recently, its a sil3114 with 4 ports, and its currently in my sawtooth G4. All 4 ports are bootable. I bought it because I have tried to flash 2 different 3112 cards that flashed successfully (according to the flasher in the OP) but still did not work in a mac.
Any chance you would be able to tell us which eeprom chip it has? If it’s a 1 Megabit chip, could you also copy the eeprom for the rest of us to use? Haha