Sonnet Crescendo G4 800 Troubles.. looking for tips

[domii]

Hi, so I picked up a Sonnet Crescendo G4 PCI off eBay a while back, as I was looking for one for a while. However I have not had any success getting either of my oldworld Power Computing Mac clones to boot with it.

I get a chime, and video initializes, but then nothing - doesn't boot. (on the PowerTower Pro)

On my Powercenter Pro I did get it to start booting a few times, but it freezes partly through loading the extensions in OS 9. Otherwise it behaves the same.

I am using a Sonnet Tempo SATA, and also tried with a flashed SIL3112, just incase, even though they are similar. but don't think that has anything to do with it. Same with using various video cards, or onboard, combinations etc.

The heatsink does get hot, so I did apply new thermal paste and changed the fan as it was not in good shape.

I have tried a few of the Sonnet drivers (2.3.1 and the beta ones), as in pop the old G3 card in and install, then shutdown and put the G4 card in. Restart.

My Newer Technology G3 400 boots with the sonnet drivers ok.

Any tips on were to start? The caps look ok, could it be an issue with the cpu, or the cache chips, I don't have too much experience with the Sonnet upgrade cards.

 

[domii]

So I am circling back to the installer, as it seems with getting the boot chime and the video initializes, it could be the nvram patch isn't applied. As apparently it won't boot without it unlike the G3 cards.
The enabler extension is there but couldn't find anything else in the system folder.

So the Crescendo manual talks about the nonvolatile ram patch, which I am assuming is a Pram patch, and gets applied by the installer. I might try and disassemble the installer to look at the patcher. The Crescendo CE installer is a VISE package. Guessing the vise packager app is out there somewhere and should do the trick.

Is there a good app for exploring what is loaded in Pram?

There is also a mention of a "Sonnet G4 PRAM Restore Disk", but I cannot find such a thing anywhere..?

 

[domii]

So attempting to extract the Sonnet crescendo package..

Found "Installer Vise" on Macintoshgaren, they have versions 6.01 and 8.5. Try to open -> it didn't see the Crescendo installer (tried 2.03, 2.31), so I created a sample package then used resEdit to compare file types. Change file type to "VIS1" and then it saw it. When I open it in Vise 8.5 it says its an old package version and needs to update it... but then bombs out with an error during the conversion. When I used Vise 6.01 it gives an error that the package type is too new. Bah!

So I am guessing its one of the 7.xx versions needed, like 7.2. Looking for that but no luck so far.

 

[richardallan]

Have you looked at Sonnet support? There's legacy info there. They say all their products have lifetime support...

 

[domii]

Just distracted on some other projects, but I did find all the various installer versions going back to 1.46 to 2.31, including 3.31 and various 2.31 revisions. It may be a hardware issue with the card. I will investigate it more closely, check the caps etc. Possibly replace them anyways. But it could be an issue with cache modules or the cpu. It was used and the stock fan had issues, so possibly the cpu overheated. But it does chime on boot and the video comes on, otherwise just sits there.

I don't have much experience with the cache chips, so I have some reading to do.

I did have some small mods planned, including swapping out the cpu with a new 7455A 1GHz, and changing the clock oscillator from 50 to 60MHz. It is going in a Power Computing machine that was running a 60MHz bus on the stock 604 cpu card.

I am a bit rusty so it will take some time. I did some gpu replacements (BGA reballing etc) 10 years ago, fixing up a few dozen Macbook Pro's (2010-11 etc). And have a hot air station, as well as a little T862 IR BGA rework unit.

 

[domii]

So it ended up being the cpu.

I swapped the cpu with another brand new PowerPC 7455 800mhz, that came preballed. So that saved me, as I don't have a template or new balls (lol - sorry sounds so weird writing that). I did preheat it and tried to be quick, uh, but it was a tense process. The IR station really heats it fast, and I probably used excess temp. So I think I am lucky I did not cook the pcb. Also, I am kicking myself for not using the faster cpu now. Another day - but think I want to do a few practice/scratch boards and get the hang of things as this is much more involved than just reflowing 2008 macbook gpu's..

Anyways, so now at least I have a working G4 800Mhz in my Powercenter Pro!

I do have another project also, I have a Sonnet Encore/ZIF G4 700 MHz that I would like to use in a a Formac ProG3 ZIF carrier card. But I am missing the 8pin power connector. Now this was made to work in a beige G3, so that 8pin connector would have been attached to a adapter that plugs inline to the power supply connector. I can't seem to find and wiring diagrams/power pinouts. So I don't know now. I doubt this would work from a standard 8pin connector of a ATX power supply? Would probably blow the thing up.

 

[LightBulbFun]

Awesome work repairing the CPU!

I am curious since you used a 7455 in place of the original 7451 does your L3 cache still work?

IE is it still reported in Sonnet Metronome in OS 9?

 

[domii]

Awesome work repairing the CPU!

I am curious since you used a 7455 in place of the original 7451 does your L3 cache still work?

IE is it still reported in Sonnet Metronome in OS 9?

Oops, sorry - that was a typo, I replaced the original 7451 800Mhz with another 7451 (from ebay), I was planning on using the 7455 1GHz, but chickened out as I just wanted to get the board going.

I was planning on some shenanigans at some point of playing with the multipliers and/or swapping out the clock crystal (from 50 to 55/58/60MHz) to see if I could push cpu to 1.2GHz. I suppose I could just try overclocking the 800 and see how far I can push it.