800Mhz |
September, 06, 2002 8:22 PM |
mjoecups358 |
Anybody got one of those sonnet 800Mhz PCI upgrades working with Xpostfacto yet???? |
. |
RE: 800Mhz |
September, 20, 2002 11:20 AM |
marcush |
. |
I can't say for sure that it does. I'm assuming so, but maybe the 7455 doesn't need to use these techniques because of the addition of the L3 cache in additon to the secondary cache. I noticed after I installed the Sonnet card that the panel that had these options dissapeared from Powerlogix Cache Control X v. 2.1b4. |
. |
RE: 800Mhz (Cache technology) |
September, 20, 2002 10:27 AM |
rettink |
. |
Can anyone that has the 800mhz card installed tell me if it uses write back, write through cache technology or a switchable combination of the two? I currently have a NewerTech G4 450 that supports both caching technology in which the write back is significantly faster than write through. I would assume the Sonnet card has the same technology but want to be sure before laying down the $cache$ :-) Thanks Tim |
. |
Getting the L2 & L3 caches initialized in OS 9.2.2 |
September, 16, 2002 2:33 PM |
marcush |
. |
Just read this in the xlr8yourmac cpu upgrades database" "I can also booted into OS9.22 but the caches couldn't be enabled with various means (restarting, zapping PRAM). So I dropped in the "L3 Enabler INIT" - 7450CacheEnableINIT1.2b3 - from PowerLogix for their PowerForce G4 Series 100 and the caches (L2 and L3) were finally activated as revealed by both Metronome and 7450Profiler2.0a3." I'm going to try this tonight when I get home. |
. |
RE: 800Mhz |
September, 12, 2002 5:04 PM |
Tony.Scaminaci |
. |
Ben, I had the same idea. I looked through the resources in the Sonnet enabler trying to figure out where it was checking for the version of the System file. I'd be interested in knowing if you find the resource that does this check and figure out how to modify it. I asked Sonnet for help with this and they never responded. At the moment, my 7200 with the Sonnet G4 card is stuck with a 9.1 system file. It would be great to be able to do a clean update to the 9.2.2 system file on this machine. Tony |
. |
RE: 800Mhz |
September, 12, 2002 4:25 PM |
mjohnson1 |
. |
My Sonnet 800 install was literally plug and play. I installed the software on a volume with 9.1 (waiting for Ben's fix to install it on my 9.2 Classic system), removed my old card (XLR8 G4 450), re-interleaved my RAM, reset the CUDA switch put in the card and booted up immediately. No problems whatsoever. 10.2 is definitely much snappier now - faster window draws, etc. Will post again if I encounter any problems, but so far it works great. |
. |
RE: 800Mhz and 9.2.2... |
September, 12, 2002 2:20 PM |
bralston |
. |
I've been following this thread to see how the progress is going with those that are lucky enough to have the new Sonnet 800 mhz upgrade. I'm happy to hear that some of you have gotten it working. However, I'm unhappy to hear that you weren't successful using it with 9.2.2. I'll download the Sonnet driver later today and have a look through it's hex and see what I can come up with. If I can find a fix, I'll integrate it into the next version of OS 9 Helper (b7). However, I also have another idea that might work that might not require hacking the Sonnet driver. I'll play with that too and get back to you all. Thanks, Ben www.os9forever.com |
. |
RE: 800Mhz (9.2.2) |
September, 12, 2002 2:09 PM |
rdemby |
. |
Hi all, I'm using a Sonnet G4 400 on a 7300 and OS 9.2.2 and OS X 10.1.5 with no problems with the extensions not loading. Just using the patch from os9forever allowed me to boot with 9.2.2. Interestingly though I also loaded PowerLogixs G3/4 cache enabler and it loads and runs perfectly as well. |
. |
RE: 800Mhz |
September, 12, 2002 11:49 AM |
marcush |
. |
I almost forgot. Stephen, Thanks for sending me the images and for pointing me in the right direction in resolving my problem. I was very frustrated until I read your posts. |
. |
RE: 800Mhz |
September, 12, 2002 11:46 AM |
marcush |
. |
I haven't run any Benchmarks yet. Haven't had the time. I plan on trying Speed Run and Altivec Fractal Carbon. I also want to do some framerate tests in Quake III and UT but those will have to wait till the weekend. These test would include comparisons to the performance of my G4 450 so that is going to be a lot of work. |
. |
RE: 800Mhz |
September, 12, 2002 11:43 AM |
marcush |
. |
Tony, I'd be interested trying what you did. Did you use Resedit to do this or the utility available from OS9forever? When I ran Ben's patcher on the 9.2.1 and 9.2.2 updates it was a simple application file that just asked for the location of the update. I checked in at the site for the first time in months and saw that he has added a new interface. I'll go back and dowload it this time and experiment with it. My next project this week is to upgrade to Jaguar. |
. |
RE: 800Mhz |
September, 12, 2002 11:00 AM |
Tony.Scaminaci |
. |
Marcus, Since you already have a bootable 9.2.2 installation, all you need to do is drop in a 9.1 system file in place of your 9.2.2 system file and the Sonnet extension will load. I went a step further and patched my 9.1 system file by comparing the resources between 9.1 and 9.2.2 and then copying all of the additional 9.2.2 resources into the 9.1 system file. I've been running this way for a few weeks without problems. The Sonnet extension thinks it's booting into a 9.1 system so it loads and enables the upgrade. I don't know if adding in the 9.2.2-specific resources was helpful or not, but my thinking was that it couldn't hurt, especially if some OS call was looking for one of those 9.2.2 specific resources. Two months ago, I put in a formal request with Sonnet tech support to modify their enablers to suppport booting with 9.2.x system files. They wrote back that they would consider it but were currently devoting all of their time to the upgrades they released last month and will release this month (we hope). I'm not holding my breath on this change being made any time soon. Tony |
. |
RE: 800Mhz |
September, 12, 2002 10:43 AM |
Tony.Scaminaci |
. |
Marcus stated: "For some reason I can't get the Sonnet Processor Upgrade Extension to load under OS 9.2.2." Sonnet doesn't support any version of 9.2.x with their upgrade cards because Apple doesn't support it. Sounds dumb, but that's their philosophy. I've had the same problem but got around it for the most part by patching the various System files (painful) and ended up with a 9.2.2 installation but using a patched version of the 9.1 System File. Actually, any version of the 9.1 System file should work. Today, you can do this much more easily by going to Ben Ralston's web site (os9forever.com) and using his utilities to upgrade the OS. Bottom line though, the Sonnet extension will NOT load unless it sees a 9.1 System file. Upgrading the rest of the OS to 9.2.2 does result in a much more stable OS from my personal experience, even with the 9.1 system file. Tony |
. |
Have you run any Benchmark programs yet? |
September, 12, 2002 9:24 AM |
brfransen |
. |
Just curious as to what kind of improvement you will see. You mentioned you have a PTP right? Britney |
. |
RE: 800Mhz |
September, 12, 2002 1:57 AM |
marcush |
. |
I can finally answer the original question. I've got the G4 800 running 10.1.5. I am using the Powerlogix Cache Control 2.1b4. It correctly enables the L3 cache. It correctly displays the processor speed running at 800 Mhz. The L3 cache is shown to be running at 200 Mhz [4:1]. Temperature information is no longer given as I believe this is now disabled on the processor itself. OS X is definitely snappier than before with the XLR8 G4 450. So far it looks like Sonnet has a winner. I'll also make a plug for Cache Control. I like it because it is more full featured than L2 Cache Config right now. Until Ryan updates it to enable L3 caches it is the only way to go. It also has command line tools to enable/disable the cache, set the cache ratio, and display current status. |
. |
RE: 800Mhz |
September, 12, 2002 1:11 AM |
marcush |
. |
I got my machine up and running again. I got the G4 firmware patch disk from Sonnet late this afternoon. I moved took all of my PCI cards out of the machine except the Radeon and attached a SCSI drive to the external bus connect, inserted the disk and started up. The disk drive began working immediately but I still had no video signal. I waited until the drive was quite and restarted. This time the video came back and I disk booted again. At the moment I've reinstalled the G4 800 and my Acard adapter and my IDE boot drive. Everything is running perfectly in OS 9.1. Metronome shows a processor speed of 799 Mhz, cpu bus speed of 49.9 Mhz, system bus speed of 49.9 Mhz. The 256k backside cache is running at 799Mhz, and the 1MB L3 cache is running at 200 Mhz. For some reason I can't get the Sonnet Processor Upgrade Extension to load under OS 9.2.2. My 768 MB of RAM is interleaved with no ill effects so far. Gauge Pro and ASP no longer give accurate information but I guess that can be expected. I would like to see know what moving memory performance is though. Next on to testing for resolution of the six-slot issue and OS X. |
. |
RE: 800Mhz |
September, 11, 2002 10:14 PM |
macman |
. |
Marcush - I've emailed the disk images to you. I had the one from Sonnet & the one from XLR8. Hope this works! I really want one of these cards, but with the suspicion that G4 + Jaguar != Classic means that I might delay my upgrade. Stephen |
. |
RE: 800Mhz |
September, 11, 2002 9:53 PM |
mjohnson1 |
. |
mjoecups358 - let's see who can be successful first. My card arrived today, I will pick it up tomorrow and hopefully have some time tomorrow evening to get it up and running. I am a little dismayed by marcush's experience, but I will back everything up before I get in over my head. Would be very nice if it turns out being a plug and play install... :) |
. |
RE: 800Mhz |
September, 11, 2002 3:52 PM |
marcush |
. |
mjoecups385, I agree. I see some promise in changing the video card because it just does not seem that the logic board is dead since I still get the startup chime. The video seems to be what is hanging the machine. I spoke to Josh at Sonnet tech support and he told me that the G4 firmware fix is hardcoded into the ROM on the card. I'd still like to get a disk though. They said they'd email me the disc image but I don't know how long that is going to take. Macman, if you could email me a disc image too I would very much appreciate it. Josh also thought that switching the video card might do the trick as well. I gather from his comments that his opinion is that the logic board is not dead. If neither of these options work they want me RMA the card so that they can test it. |
. |
RE: 800Mhz |
September, 11, 2002 3:03 PM |
mjoecups358 |
. |
In this case the black screen has nothing to do with the resolution IMHO. My powerwave went into this mode even when connected to an HP90 CRT which is a true multisync. I was using the Radeon PCI (original) also... I have ordered the 800Mhz part UPS says fri. So if one of you all wants to beat me to it(working that is), you better get busy... |
. |
RE: 800Mhz |
September, 11, 2002 2:47 PM |
marcush |
. |
Macman, I just emailed you about the G4 fix/firmware patch disk but maybe you'll see this first. The Crescendo manual mentions this but I did not get this disk with my kit. Would you email me a disk image of the disk? That may just be all I need. Mail it to the email address linked to my forum name. Thanks, Marcus |
. |
RE: 800Mhz |
September, 11, 2002 2:43 PM |
marcush |
. |
I'm using a Dell 19 in. monitor. I have the faster original Radeon PCI card, not the 7000. When I have booted into OS X in the past the video resolution is indeed set to 640x480 but once the ATI driver loads it switches to the resolution that I had set in the monitors control panel. Power Tower Pro's do not have onboard video. |
. |
RE: 800Mhz |
September, 11, 2002 2:37 PM |
macman |
. |
OH! Hey, do you have the G4 firmware fix/patch rescue disk from sonnet? It should flash the firmware on boot. Since you said that you cleared the pram, then this firmware fix is not there anymore - without it, it won't boot. I had this problem some months ago, which made me think that my 8500 logic board was dead. Make the floppy (you have another mac, right?), then boot with it in the drive. it will come up, flash, then you can reboot. Until that happens, you won't get your cdrom or anything else. You have to do this before anything else, since your pram is wiped clean. stephen |
. |
RE: 800Mhz |
September, 11, 2002 2:12 PM |
macman |
. |
What kind of monitor are you running? I remember seeing that the Radeon 7k wants to start at 640/480 resolution, something that some (older apple) monitors can't handle, thus, sync fails. Do you have any on board video? Stephen |
. |
RE: 800Mhz |
September, 11, 2002 1:00 PM |
marcush |
. |
mjoecups358, Your suggestion is an interesting one. I still have an ATI Orion 128 card, as well as a Voodoo 3 and Voodoo 5 card. I will give swapping the cards a try. It also didn't occur to me that I should try booting off of a SCSI drive too until this morning. I'd removed all of my SCSI disks except for my Yamaha CD-RW. I'd switched over to all IDE drives. I was thinking that the logic board was fried, it doesn't make sense because I do get the startup chime and drive spin-up, as well as the monitor synch light. On the other hand, macman, I can not boot from either the CD or floppy drive. I disconnected all of my drives and tried that. I can't even get as far as the gray openfirmware screen. The CRT never lights up. I made a disk tools boot floppy from the OS 8.5 CD I still have. The video signal, or lack thereof, makes sense as a source of the problem though and gives me a bit of hope of ressurecting the machine. I never got as far as booting the machine into OS X. I was trying to get it setup and stable in OS 9.1 before going any farther. In hindsight it might have been better to go straight to OS X. At least that boot option might have been preserved. I updated to XpostFacto 2.1 before I got the card and as I recall none of the debug options were set. I had been in OS X before this disaster happened. Also, I have tried the original processor now and it did not work. The video card switch and SCSI boot now seem like my best options right now. If neither of those work then I bought a new PTP logic board for $61 on e-bay a couple of days ago so at least I'll have that to fall back on when it arrives. |