Installing a PowerLogix 2.0 Ghz in my G4 tonight

[sbelyo]

I scored a Powerlogix G4 2.0 ghz upgrade processor from ebay last week. I'm gonna install that along with Leopard tonight hopefully.

I put a sonnet sata card and an OWC SSD drive in it last week. I had Tiger booting in seconds but I couldn't get Leopard installer to see the sata drive so I couldn't install it.

I've been told that I can install Leopard to an internal IDE drive and then clone that drive to the SSD and it will boot.

We'll see what happens. If anyone has any tips I'd love to hear em

 

[zen.state]

First check and see what version of the firmware your SATA card has in the PCI section of System Profiler. For best results on any G4 tower you should have version 5.1.3.

The Firmtek site (they make the Sonnet SATA cards) has all the firmware versions available. You need this specific one if you do not already have 5.1.3 but most come with 5.3.x which is firmware designed more for early G5 towers.

Also read the main firmware page for other important info about the cache cleaner to help enable the driver without conflicts.

For reference your card would be identical to a Firmtek 1S2. The only difference is the Sonnet has a purple PCB and their name printed on it but they are identical otherwise.

 

[sbelyo]

I'll check to see what firmware I have tonight.

However I was unable to get the powerlogix cpu to boot. The person I bought it from showed his G4 quicksilver (this is what I have) with firmware version 4.2.5f1 booted with this processor. That's the firmware I have.

Now, the directions say that you must got to 4.2.8 and then to the powerlogix firmware using their CD. When I tried going to 4.2.8 it said that this update was not needed. Is there more than 1 4.2.8 download and did I have the wrong one?

I also do not have the original Powerlogix software CD but I see you can download it from OWC. The zip file contains two dmg files. I assume that I must make bootable cd's from these. I'm hopeful doing that will work and it will upgrade to the powerlogiz firmware without having to go to 4.2.8 unless someone has a solution to suggest?

 

[zen.state]

You don't need the 4.2.8 Apple Boot ROM on a Quicksilver. A G4 7447 (what your CPU would be) upgrade needs a firmware patch to run so you need to find it. I did a quick google and couldn't find it but I didn't have long to look. If you can't find it contact OWC and ask them how to acquire it. They bought Powerlogix 3-4 years ago but it's pretty much non-existent now other than support for the upgrades already sold.

You need:

-Powerlogix 7447 upgrade firmware for PowerMac G4's

-FirmTek firmware 5.1.3 for the SATA card if not that version already found at the links in my first post

 

[sbelyo]

I did need the firmware patch. It is on ocw's website, and they will send you the link if you ask or if you search for powerlogix firmware you'll find it.

It comes in a zip file, burn the big dmg file to a disc. My G4 would not boot to it holding down the firmware button and C on the keyboard.

Here's how I got it to boot. Get into open firmware, have the CD in the drive and type "boot cd:,\\:tbxi" obviously no double quotes needed in the command line

You'll see it boot into a green screen with black text. It's the powerlogix firware patcher. Install all patches (Option 4 I think). Let it finish then coose shutdown

Done...