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Powerbook G3 PDQ - Known good mSATA / Adapter combo?

R

randomdamage

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 15, 2010
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Hi,
I have a PowerBook G3 Wallstreet II (PDQ). I've been playing with alternatives to using an internal IDE hard disk. I picked up an inexpensive JM20330 based adapter and tried it with a Lite-On LMT-64M6M mSATA SSD. However, if the CDROM drive module was installed it was REALLY SLOW. Far slower than the internal hard disk. An OS X install took an eternity. If I started up WITHOUT the CDROM drive module installed, it worked just fine and was very fast, at the expense of not having access to the CDROM.

Next, I tried an Ablecon IIDE-MSAT adapter, which uses the Marvell 88SA8052 chipset and the same Lite-On SSD. With this adapter installed, the CDROM module was completely unrecognized by the PowerBook. It is like that ATA interface didn't even exist in System Profiler. The PowerBook ran just fine with or without the CDROM module installed, though the CDROM was completely unrecognized. I briefly tried an Intel mSATA SSD with the Ablecon adapter, but it showed the same symptoms of a completely unrecognized CDROM module.

So... I'm trying to find a combo that works and allows me to use the CDROM module (I do need to read and boot from physical CDs now and then). I have tried CompactFlash cards in PCMCIA readers as well as in an IDE adapter. Even with a fast 800x UDMA card, these options were noticeably slower than the hard drive.

Anyone have any specific combos of adapters and SSDs they've used with this particular PowerBook with good success (and retained full functionality of the internal CDROM module)?

Thanks!
 
I have zero experience with the Wallstreet series (and more's the pity), but this sounds like a problem with jumper settings. Seems your HDD and CDROM share a common IDE bus, if the presence of one is affecting the operation of the other; and if that's true, one will have to be set to "master" and the other to "slave", or possibly "cable select". Getting this setting right will allow both to operate properly on the same bus.

Here's an image I found of the Ablecon adapter you mentioned; note the green circle I've placed near the bottom left of the image:

71A-k5YpjFL._AC_SL1500_.jpg


What I've circled there is the area where jumper settings are made, and note the little black thing that's on one set of pins - that's a jumper. I can't tell which jumper setting is the one you need, but the product documentation should be helpful in determining that. In any event, you've got three choices, so try all three (jumper on the left, jumper on the right, or no jumper) and see if that makes any difference for you.

If not, I've got nothing. But there are some Wallstreet aficionados here who may provide more help than me. Good luck!
 
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Thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunately, the CDROM and hard drive actually ARE on separate ATA interfaces and are both normally configured as "unit 0" (a.k.a master, I believe). Very puzzling why the CDROM would be affected by the SSD/mSATA adapter on the other interface.

Also, on the Ablecon adapter the circled pins actually plug into the hard disk connector so are not easily jumpered independent of how they are set by the interface.
 
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randomdamage said:
Unfortunately, the CDROM and hard drive actually ARE on separate ATA interfaces and are both normally configured as "unit 0" (a.k.a master, I believe). Very puzzling why the CDROM would be affected by the SSD/mSATA adapter on the other interface.
Click to expand...

Well, it makes more sense that it would be that way, I just have no experience with Wallstreets. Every other PowerBook I've seen has them on separate buses as well. Given that fact, I'm at a loss as to your particular problem.

randomdamage said:
Also, on the Ablecon adapter the circled pins actually plug into the hard disk connector so are not easily jumpered independent of how they are set by the interface.
Click to expand...

That's weird, it's just plain old 44-pin IDE... those pins on the end shouldn't plug into the connector. To make sure I wasn't misremembering, I took a look at some of my own 2.5" IDE drives, and some of my PowerBook connectors, and in no case did those pins insert into the connector. Your adapter is simply taking the place of a 2.5" 44-pin IDE laptop drive, so the connection between it and your Wallstreet's IDE connector should work the same.
 
Well, in this case the PowerBook connector is indeed mating to the master/slave jumper pin block on the hard drive / mSATA adapter board.
 

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randomdamage said:
Well, in this case the PowerBook connector is indeed mating to the master/slave jumper pin block on the hard drive / mSATA adapter board.
Click to expand...

Huh. Thanks for sharing the photos, that's surprising to see, at least for me. I guess on the Wallstreet (maybe the other G3 PowerBooks too?) the jumper settings are configured by default in the HDD connector.

By way of comparison, here's what I was talking about:

IMG_20210510_214922766.jpg

IMG_20210510_215827899.jpg

The first one is from my PowerBook 1400, the second from a Titanium PowerBook G4. Your Wallstreet falls in between those two chronologically, so I would have expected it to conform to what I thought was a standard. Clearly, either it's not a standard, or for whatever reason Apple just decided to do their own thing in the PowerBook G3 line. You learn something new every day I guess 🤷‍♂️

Anyway, I hope you get some help with your problem here. That's a strange situation for sure.
 
I looks like the internal jumpering is causing the problems. You might try with a 44 pin CF adapter, which per specs is set to master or has a jumper somewhere on the board away from the pins and try that. Either that or you can try trimming the jumper pins from your JM20330 adapter so they don't go into the PDQ socket and short the connections on the board to master/slave as appropriate.

A quick search shows that the PDQs have issues with mSATA drives so yours is not an isolated experience.
 
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I tried the Acousto JM20330 adapter from Amazon, as well as NFHK from eBay also using JM20330, and they suffered from the same issue: random freezes in OS 9, kernel panics in OS X.

The Abelconn adapter seems like the most promising candidate, but then threads like this demonstrate that there isn't consensus. Maybe I just have to buy another regular HDD instead.

Here's a thread of more people having the issue:

Powerbook G3 PDQ/Wallstreet SSD

I've been trying to max out my newly acquired PDQ. Most importantly, I wanted to get an SSD installed. I bought an Ableconn mSATA to IDE adapter, along with a SanDisk 16GB mSATA SSD. However, my Mac OS 9.2.2 boot disk doesn't seem to be able to recognize it in disk utility. Just to be sure, I...
68kmla.org 68kmla.org

EDIT: More research shows the choice seems to come down to the JM20330 or the Marvell 88SA8052, the latter which the Ableconn uses. The latter is considered to be more compatible in general, specifically with the WallStreet, and this thread was the only instance I could find in which one mentions issues with it. The Ableconn appears to be the only extant example of a Marvell 88SA8052 adapter for sale. The JM20330 is what every Chinese eBay and Amazon listing appears to use, and is much cheaper, but I've read nothing but trouble about the JM20330 in regards to compatibility.

The CDROM drive appears to be about 10x as slow with a JM20330 based adapter than with a mechanical HDD. The Ableconn suffers from complete incompatibility with the CDROM drive, as OP mentioned. However, the Ableconn does NOT suffer from random freezes and kernel panics like the JM20330 based adapters. It appears one could make the initial OS installation with either a JM20330 based adapter, or a USB adapter to use QEMU, then use the Ableconn long term to avoid instability, and load whatever software you need CDs for, etc. into the WallStreet via a network share.
 
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micahgartman said:
Holy necrothread :eek:

I tried several adapters and none worked. I'm 99.9% positive it's due to the jumper pins being blocked by the hard drive cable.
Click to expand...
micahgartman,

You shouldn't need the jumper. I'm not using any on my IDE to mSATA SSD adapter replacements, nor did the original HDD come with a jumper.

By "not worked" what do you mean - did the drive show up at all? Did it work, but freeze/kernel panic randomly? Does a regular HDD work?
 
micahgartman said:
A regular HDD works fine. The SSDs/adapters aren't recognized by the system. They work perfectly fine in other PowerBooks.
Click to expand...
Which ones did you try? One of the really cheap JM20330 ones I bought wasn't recognized at all. As others have said this is generally attributed to the primitive IDE controller of the WallStreet.
 
micahgartman said:
I don't recall all of them. They were all purchased via Amazon ~3 years ago.
Click to expand...
Look at the chip on them and see if it says "JM20330". If it does, that's probably why they don't work. I recommend going with the Ableconn mentioned earlier in this thread instead. The Ableconn appears to be the only extant adapter NOT using the JM20330 (it uses the superior Marvell 88SA8052)
 
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