My G4 won't initialize the new SSD - please help!

[IIO]

in this case, when the problem comes back after everx volume failure, formatting the thing elsewhere is no option of course.

was den flaschenhals angeht: er benutzt eine PCI to SATA-150 karte, und die ist nicht unwesentlich langsamer als der hauptspeicher eines solchen rechners es auch ist. (oder mit anderen worten: SATA-300, das schnellste was es für OS9 gibt, macht ausschliesslich auf rechner mit DDR 3 RAM sinn.)

im übrigen seid ihr herzlich eingeladen, das german language forum zu benutzen.

[MacTron]

The non English post, should be accompanied of an english translation. Otherwise it should be placed in to the "Basic World Help for NON English speakers" sections, with our new German native moderator. 

IIO: do you accept to be de moderator of the German section?

if there is nobody else, then yes. but lets see first if there are any posts.

[twokayprod]

Of course. I will report any findings in English. This just got carried away, because it was happening quite fast...
Off to a meeting now.
We discovered, that a downgrade of the Sonnet Tempo TSATA card might be necessary and that I could try to install another OS9 image than the one I tried. Babysteps.
I'll keep you posted...

[twokayprod]

Ok, there's a few things I'm gonna try before declaring this whole thing a failure and move on.
First, in my stupidity I never tried plugging the SSD into the second port of the Sonnet card. I don't think this will make a difference (and it shouldn't), but it can't hurt to try. Then, I'm gonna try to downgrade the firmware of the Sonnet TSATA. I've been to the Sonnet website yesterday and there's a FAQ about it - see the attached screenshot.
Since the SSD works fine when connected via USB, I'll try to install OS9 while it's connected that way (no idea if that has even a chance of succeeding) and afterwards connect the SSD to the Sonnet again.
And lastly I'll try two different OS9 downloads: *** Mac OS 9.2.2 Universal Install - ISO CD Image *** - this I have tried yesterday, but it failed after just a few seconds. I'll download and try again, maybe the download was faulty. And then this one here:  Mac OS 9.2.2 General Image - OS X DMG Format.

Onwards...



p.s. I'm gonna wait with the firmware downgrade of the Sonnet. I just read the instructions that come with the firmware and they say version 5.13 is compatible with 10.4 and 10.5 - there's no mention of OS9 at all. So this moves to the end of the list of things to try...

[supernova777]

do u have your cpu overclocked? how is it that u have dual 566?
if your cpu is overclocked.. it could be the reason for your problems..
i had problems with a similar overclock, and when i set the cpu back to normal all was ok.

and the 5.13 firmware is fine.. its what is on my card and my card works fine.
(and the clones that i have aswell)

according to my new world timeline (http://www.oldschooldaw.com/forums/index.php?topic=389.0)
your mac is originally from batch introduced on January 9, 2001
the macs released at the same time shipped with mac os 9.1.. the dual processor was a x server version..   i guess yours was one of the first macs ever to ship with X server installed ... http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/mac_server_g4/specs/macserver_g4_533_dp.html

but it says dual 533. not 566

have u tried connecting a normal sata drive? like an 80gb drive? to confirm the card is functioning properly?

have u tested the sata card inside another mac or pc? it should function in any computer that has a pci slot.

does the ssd/card combo work fine in TIGER osx?

i dont read german so i have no idea what the symptoms were when u tried booting os9 from this SSD.. it would be of help if u could explain exactly what u are experiencing..

i have many of these sata cards and have had no problem.

[supernova777]

ok i see now your other post above that i missed..

i think u should try the downgrade of firmware of the sonnet card
do not be afraid of this.. just do it..

if that doesnt work it may be something about this particular ssd model that has made itself incompatible with the sonnet card.. in which case. u should be able to simply return it to the store u bought it from. and purchase a different model of SSD and all will be fine.

[supernova777]

do u have any other pci cards installed in this system?

[twokayprod]

My G4 isn't overclocked, my fault, I meant to say 533MHz, sorry. Specs attached.

Alright, I'll try the firmware downgrade then. First I have to upgrade to 10.4 as there's still Panther installed - downloading now...
I have no normal SATA drive to check out the card. I do have a G4 Quicksilver that I bought for 40 bucks on eBay because I wanted the keyboard  but it's not in working order right now, after the Mac-sound it doesn't boot up but turns itself off again - I'm guessing a broken Harddrive but I didn't have time to check anything yet. So no, at this time no other machine with a PCI slot.
So far, I didn't try booting OS9 from the SSD because I couldn't install it on the SSD. The SSD shows up on the desktop with all three partitions, in First Aid everything checks out fine, no errors or anything, BUT only when it's connected via USB. I just wrote almost 6GB of random data onto it and then erased this data again, so the SSD works fine. But I couldn't install OS9 onto it, not even with the USB connection.

I'm trying to download another OS9 install, but A-drive doesn't let me download right now, it always fails after about 75% of the download is complete...


So the next steps are to replace Panther with 10.4.11, then downgrade the Sonnet firmware and try again...


I'm a bit confused about the PCI cards. I only have an ATI Radeon 9000 and a USB card that makes USB 2.0 possible, but in the System Profiler there's two USB-cards and another card listed that I don't even know about - and all in the same Slot - WTF??      pic attached...

[twokayprod]

Ah, I remember, there was a WLAN-card that I took out when I cleaned the G4, because it's no longer needed. But that wouldn't explain the two USB-cards. Is there a way to reset this list somehow?

[supernova777]

i would suggest you remove all the pci cards that u have installed temporarily to test with the sata card by itself only once u have downgraded the firmware

but this may not be neccessary as i think the firmware downgrade will fix your problem. none of my cards have this firmware (dated november 2007 by the looks of it on your pic?)
and they all work 100%, perhaps this firmware edition was specialized for mac os x leopard on G5 / intel machines.. or windows vista on pc.. (remember this card is mac/pc compatible)

it looks like they updated firmware to fix some later compatibility or perhaps trying to maximize performance .. and they seem to have broken some type of compatibility with the older 2000-2003 systems.. this is normal.. hence the reccommendation to downgrade the firmware to ensure proper compatibility with the legacy systems.. the firmware i have is definately not from 2007.. i think it dates to 2002 or 2003.

[twokayprod]

I agree, I was searching the web a little and this looks like the source of the problem (the firmware of the Sonnet).
I opened up the G4 and there's 3 cards total, wait.....let me take a pic....

- There's the ATI Radeon Mac9000 in the green slot - I guess it's an AGP?
- Then I left one slot free for better air circulation around the ATI (or is this wrong?)
- Next is the USB 2.0 card
- and closest to the camera is the Sonnet TSATA

that's it. But why does the System Profiler get this wrong? And how can I correct this? Maybe there's a problem as well. If the PCI-slots/cards are not recognized correctly, then this could create troubles, or not?

[devils_advisor]

take that usb car out for a test and have the sonnet flashed (older firmware) im not aware of any working usb2 solution under os9 anyway

[supernova777]

take that usb car out for a test and have the sonnet flashed (older firmware) im not aware of any working usb2 solution under os9 anyway

exactly u dont want this card installed while running mac os 9.
u want to use firewire for mac os 9.
firewire kicks usb's ass anyway (even 2.0) because it is not cpu-dependant.. imho this is the real reason why steve jobs didnt allow mac os to use USB... he didnt want them making the processors look slow.

but usually its ok to leave this usb card in.. i have one inside my MDD 1.25 (2003) - mainly because one of the usb ports on the back of this machine is damaged.. the ports will work fine but are useless for anything but mouse/keyboard + midi/audio interfaces that use usb1.1... such as the mbox etc

[devils_advisor]

the card will provide usb 1.1 but whats the point having another tower heater if you can use the onboard plugs

[twokayprod]

Will do. The card is still in there, because there's both OS9 and OSX installed. I'll take it out now and once Toast finished burning Tiger I'll replace Panther with it and flash the old firmware on the Sonnet...

[twokayprod]

This G4 used to be my everyday Mac AND my studio machine. So I needed USB 2.0 and OSX. But now it's gonna be for studio work only, so in the end I want only OS9 and no ballast whatsoever. Taking the USB card out now...

[devils_advisor]

well if you need the card leave it in the machine but for the test run to isolate your problem take out what you dont need.

[twokayprod]

Well, it didn't work 
I took the USB card out, so the Sonnet was the only card left. I installed 10.4.11 with all updates to the internal harddrive. Then I rebooted and downgraded the Sonnet firmware to 5.13. Everything good so far.
Now I put the SSD back in the G4, connected it to the Sonnet and the three partitions show up on the desktop. So I used Disk Utility and checked the SSD with First Aid - and lots of red, errors, errors, errors 
Right now, I'm trying to erase the SSD - and nothing. Rainbow disk of doom...

Ah, now it says: Erasing did not work, because of the following error: "Resource busy"

I'm pretty sure now the Samsung Evo 850 SSD is just not compatible with the Sonnet TSATA, I don't know what else to try. When connected via USB I can use the SSD (I can't write a system on it, but other than that it works just like a huge USB stick), but as soon as I plug it into the Sonnet, I get errors. This sucks   

[devils_advisor]

use the restore function and the general image

[supernova777]

wow thats really screwed up..

u sure your sata cable is ok??

it must be something to do with this specific ssd
just return it + get a diffferent brand/model