Sub-par Sonnet Harmoni G3/600 Performance?

[utn]

Anyone know why I'm seeing what I think I'm seeing?

I have a G3/600mhz Sonnet Harmoni in a Rev. A iMac and the CPU benchmarks appear to be in line with a G3/300mhz.
Real world performance also doesn't seem 'double' the factory CPU. In normal use it feels nearly identical to stock.

What is odd is, the FPU test shows ~double a 300mhz G3, but normal CPU does not..?

Do these upgrades require any kind of system extensions or something - anyone seen anything like this - is this expected..?

Thanks!
 - The screenshot also shows the original G3 at 233mhz and overclocked to 266mhz.

[Mat]

Sonnet is a really commendable company, regarding Mac OS 9 drivers and informations. I do not unnderstand why so many people do not have a look at the producing companies when searching for documents and software, …

http://www.sonnettech.com/support/kb/kb.php?cat=318&expand=&action=a3#a3

[utn]

The card was pulled from a working iMac and installed into mine.
From what I understand the software they provide copies the system firmware onto a brand new (blank) Sonnet card.
In other words - if this software and had never been used on this card before, my iMac would not be booting or running anything, as shown in the screenshot.

I'm not sure how what you shared helps.

[Mat]

HARMONi Processor Upgrade Software 1.1   

Aug-07-2009
Operating System Requirements: Mac OS 8.1-9.2
File Name: harmoni_install_v11.hqx
File Size: 349.9 KB
Description: This installer software is required with the HARMONi G3 iMac processor/FireWire upgrade card. It must be installed before the HARMONi hardware is installed.

[utn]

Already installed and up to date.

Since the ROM has already been copied onto the harmoni CPU card, making it bootable, I am not able to 're-install' this process - don't think it would make a difference even if I could - unless the ROM is corrupted or something.

[Mat]

utn, why are you talking about the ROM of the card? There are 2 downloads at the Sonnettech website, to me it appeares you are just talking about the "Firmware updater" that you do not need (as you discovered yourselve). The first one (ID 156) is the driver for the Mac OS. Install it to your system please. All your problems sound like if your OS has no driver for the card, …

[utn]

From what I understand, none of the files provided by Sonnet are 'drivers'.
They are not additional software added to the OS to run the card.

Again, from what I understand, which may be incorrect, the Sonnet card was manufactured without a 'ROM' on the card - the Sonnet software copies the ROM from the original Apple CPU and then writes that to the Sonnet card, making it bootable/workable.

Therefore, there should be no drivers/extensions involved here.

Since this process has already been performed in the past by a previous owner of this upgrade, it should not require anything new and should work (which it technically does - including firewire) - and also does not allow me to run the software again, since it is a one time operation.

And yet - it's benchmarking, and performing, like a G3/300 and acting weird.

[Mat]

From what I understand, none of the files provided by Sonnet are 'drivers'.
They are not additional software added to the OS to run the card.

This "discussion" is bizzare, … the "HARMONi Installer 1.1" is exactly that, a software driver for your OS that enables the hardware.

Here is the absolute direct link to the .hqx file for the case you cannot see it at sonnets website: https://www.sonnettech.com/support/downloads/software/harmoni_install_v11.hqx

As it needs to be installed before the hardware, like Sonnet writes, your idea about "no drivers involved" must be wrong. Also your problems remind me to every behaviour of one of my 5 Sonnet upgrade cards I had in my live without active driver. So please download it and install it. I cannot test it, as the installer refuses to install anything at non-Imacs, but it looks like a usual sonnet-driver-installer!

[refinery]

Older Mac OS is not like modern operating systems in that it just sees a processor and runs at what it's rated for. It's a two-part process. The ROM just tells the motherboard "hey I'm a g3 CPU! We can work together" but the OS still needs a driver to be told "hey I'm a 600mhz g3 CPU!" because 600mhz CPUs didn't exist at the time that machine was released.

[ovalking]

I tried this installer out on a (standard) iMac Rev. B.
I also expected it to install a driver extension (like in my Crescendo upgrades).
Interestingly, the only visible item installed is 'Installer Cleanup' in start-up items. I'm not sure what this does, but decided not to risk opening it on a perfectly working machine!
I did find some invisible Sonnet files at the top level, but nothing in extensions or control panels.
In conclusion, I'm not sure if a driver gets installed or not, but it seems churlish for the OP not to try it.

[ssp3]

You can lead a horse to water ..

[Mat]

And, … ?

[utn]

Computer is not currently booting with either the factory CPU card or Sonnet.
Orange light - no HDD spin up - no display - cdrom will not eject.

I've replaced the flyback transformer, tried a different (good?) power supply board.
On-board clock battery is new.

Maybe I was somehow unclear. I have run the Sonnet software multiple times. It changes nothing and the sonnet cleanup software, which runs on startup, says it failed to succeed.
The system profiler reports correct CPU speed, firewire was also working fine (when the computer was booting)
.
I stand by my mysterious presumption that the sonnet software is only ever required to be run one time for a CPU card (ever) as the copyrighted Apple ROM is copied from the original CPU onto the Sonnet card - thus making it work - as they were not able or willing to pay for an Apple ROM license. There are no drivers/extensions involved as far as I understand.

If I had to further venture a guess - the Sonnet software likely copies the factory ROM onto the hard drive, and a brand new Sonnet card reads that and writes it to it's blank (or blank-ish) ROM.

tldr; I am a churlish, rabies ridden horse, that is fiercely recalcitrant, thanks for noticing.