Constant crashes on PM7600 Sonnet g4 800 |
April, 28, 2003 11:28 PM |
tamlig |
System Stats: PM7600 w/ Sonnet G4 800 mHz. ATI 16MB Orion Video with current ATI OSX Drivers. 2 internal SCSI Drives. Sonnet FireWire/usb Tango Card with a 20 GB Firewire drive and a Iomega Zip 650 CDRW (USB) attached. Problem: I get constant crashes, at least 6 a day, when I use OSX. However, I'm virtually crash free with OS9. I get these crashes doing almost anything, but especially when using Thoth newsreader or trying to burn a cdr. I have the sleep and screen saver disabled with no better results. Any ideas? |
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RE: Constant crashes on PM7600 Sonnet g4 800 |
May, 25, 2003 4:41 AM |
paul_findley |
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Considering all you've tried, maybe it is time to let Sonnet's warranty take care of you with a new unit. Mine is rock solid after eliminating flaky ram. Hopefully, you went to 2k refresh 64MB modules (OWC). Although marcush is doing OK with 4k refresh 128MB, some of us have had problems. My system (7500) won't tolerate more than 2 of those sticks with a G4/800. The next two are 64MB 2k, for a total of 384MB, non-interleaved (interleave was OK with G3). |
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RE: Constant crashes on PM7600 Sonnet g4 800 |
May, 18, 2003 6:59 PM |
tamlig |
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O.K. I tried new memory, but still have the same problem. I also tried disconnecting the external scsi bus....still crashes. I notice this problem when I play iTunes mp3's for mor than 15 minutes. I just don't get it. Help Please! |
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RE: Constant crashes on PM7600 Sonnet g4 800 |
May, 06, 2003 7:26 PM |
jeglin |
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Check the clock ratio using L2CacheConfig. After running for months with no problem, I changed over to a Sonnet ATA drive and did a clean install. Incredibly unstable, which drove me nuts for days. Turns out the clock ratio was at 1.0 (800MHz!). The card is rated for 4:1 only. I am running it at 2:1 with stability now, so I'm getting a bit more speed out than before I guess. Check the clock ratio. |
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RE: Constant crashes on PM7600 Sonnet g4 800 |
May, 01, 2003 6:57 PM |
marcush |
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Bootx is a utility ported over from the PPC Linux project that provides the boot code for Macs to run Linux and MacOSX. Joevt's Bootx modification allows his machine to boot OSX at the full resolution that his monitor and Radeon 7000 support. You are not having boot problems from your description. You either have a problem with your Sonnet card's caches or a memory problem. OSX is very sensitive to RAM that is not up to spec. What may have worked with a G3 will reveal it's faults with a G4. The memory bandwidth throughput of a G4 is much higher than that of a G3. This could be the problem. The RAM may not be fast enough. If you have older RAM, particularly anything below 64MB it is likely to be 70ns RAM. If 70ns RAM is mixed with newer 60ns RAM these problems are magnified. The problem could be with your caches also, as mjoecups358 hints at. The problem with L2Cache config is that it only enables the L2 Cache on an L3Cache equipped upgrade like yours. You would also need to install Powerlogix Cache Control X to enable your L3 Cache. Some people were doing this last year but I have not seen anything in the forum about that for close to 9 months I think. The Sonnet X Tuneup 1.2.6 software should be all that you need for reliable performance. That's what I'm using in on my Power Tower Pro with a Sonnet G4/800 and 1GB RAM. All of my RAM is 60ns 128MB sticks. I have an original Radeon Mac Edition card for video and a Ratoc Firewire/USB2.0 combo card installed also. I also have a Rage Orion card that I've used ocassionally to drive a second monitor. Your setup should work pretty well. I'd look at eliminating the RAM as the source of your problem. It seems the most likely culprit to me. I went through the same problem you had for about a month last year but in the end it turned out that some of my RAM was incompatible. |
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RE: Constant crashes on PM7600 Sonnet g4 800 |
May, 01, 2003 4:10 AM |
tempest |
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Look at the thread titled "Radeon 7000 boot into 1600x1200 resolution" |
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RE: Constant crashes on PM7600 Sonnet g4 800 |
April, 30, 2003 11:37 PM |
tamlig |
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I'm using sonnet's L3 cache extensions, but what is joevt's bootx? I have no idea which power logix extensions to try, anyone know which one? Maybe that's better than sonnet's? I've also tried deinterleaving RAM and eliminating some modules. |
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RE: Constant crashes on PM7600 Sonnet g4 800 |
April, 30, 2003 2:10 AM |
marcush |
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What is your RAM configuration. A G4 combined with OSX can reveal problems with your RAM that did not manifest with a G3 processor. I had a similar problem last year with an XLR8 G4/450. I replaced it with a Sonnet G4/800 and it has been stable ever since. |
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RE: Constant crashes on PM7600 Sonnet g4 800 |
April, 29, 2003 6:48 PM |
mjoecups358 |
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I had problems with my cache enabler which made my system way flakey. Using Ryan's L2cache config made my computer stable again. I also has a sonnet 800 which I had to return because it was so flakey (9 and 10). Marty |
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RE: Constant crashes on PM7600 Sonnet g4 800 |
April, 29, 2003 2:17 AM |
tempest |
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If you haven't installed Sonnet's extensions, go to their website and download v1.2.6 or a more recent version. When I first got my Sonnet CPU card, it crashed unexpectedly as well. I think after running it for around a week, things settled down and things were stable. It was strange, but you need to try installing Sonnet's extensions, or try installing XPF's/PowerLogix's over that. I think it has something to do with speculative addressing. I've done that several times, but I think I'm currently using Sonnet's extensions with joevt's BootX modification. |
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