Recent Posts

Pages: [1] 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1
CPU Upgrades / Re: Mac Mini G4 Overclock just because its fun.
« Last post by ssp3 on Today at 12:13:40 PM »
A bit more detailed instructions would be helpful. All I can see at the moment is a ton of .c files. Do I have to compile them first? And where/which is the script you're talking about?
2
Storage / Re: Adaptec PowerDomain 2940UW files are no longer available :(
« Last post by ssp3 on Today at 06:39:52 AM »
Is 9500/9600 not an AV Mac even though it's very similar to the other Macs listed?

No. 9500/9600 lack the AV board with audio and video inputs and outputs.

They also have 6 PCI slots and, IIRC, two PCI bridges, each for 3 slots. Adaptec 2940 is a busmaster card, so that also could be a reason why there was different firmware for different machines. Since 2940UW worked in G4 machines too, I think AV firmware was a special case. I don't remember much, but I think that video in AV Macs went thru PCI bridge and SCSI cards had to "play nicely" with everything else on the PCI bus.
I also vaguely remember that at some point Digidesign required Adaptec cards to be throttled down for compatibility reasons with ProTools (or was it Avid?) systems.
3
Storage / Re: Adaptec PowerDomain 2940UW files are no longer available :(
« Last post by joevt on Today at 05:58:55 AM »
What's the difference between the AV and the non-AV version?

How about double clicking "PowerDomain 2940UW v4.1 Readme"?  ;D ;D ;D
Too much work...

AV refers to the Mac (7300, 7500, 7600, 8500, and 8600). You can't use the non-AV installer on an AV Mac but can you use the AV installer on a non-AV Mac? What's the downside? Is 9500/9600 not an AV Mac even though it's very similar to the other Macs listed?
4
Storage / Re: Adaptec PowerDomain 2940UW files are no longer available :(
« Last post by ssp3 on Today at 05:18:08 AM »
What's the difference between the AV and the non-AV version?

How about double clicking "PowerDomain 2940UW v4.1 Readme"?  ;D ;D ;D
5
Storage / Re: Adaptec PowerDomain 2940UW files are no longer available :(
« Last post by joevt on Today at 12:05:25 AM »
The ROM resources use lzo1x compression.

What's the difference between the AV and the non-AV version?

The AV version has a 64KB (512Kb) Open Firmware PCI Option ROM (only one image).

The non-AV version has two 64KB Open Firmware PCI Option ROMs concatenated together. The second image is identical to the one in the AV version. Why would it need two separate Open Firmware images? What's the first image for? Does the card exist as multiple devices? Does it have a firmware switch? Both parts have the same device ID.

The first image is small and doesn't contain an ndrv.

The lzss compressor is unable to compress the second image to a smaller size but there's no point since the image is already < 64KB.
6
Storage / Re: Adaptec PowerDomain 2940UW files are no longer available :(
« Last post by joevt on Yesterday at 07:04:48 PM »
The 'Rom' resource in the v4.1 flasher is 64783 bytes.
There's 'Crc' resource that probably should be modified as well as 'cfrg' resource. Maybe something else too.
Even if you manage to hack the flasher and squeeze in compressed ROM, then there's PowerDomain control panel, that, I think, changes card settings in the ROM and not in some preferences file. It is uncertain whether the CP will play along with compressed ROM.

v4.1 flasher is attached to the 2nd post.
The Rom resources appear to be compressed. There's a mention of lzo compression in the PEF of the datafork so I'll try that.
7
Hardware / Re: AcBel PSU / Quicksilver
« Last post by aBc on Yesterday at 06:46:24 PM »
PM sent. ;) 



*Example images. Clickable for larger views.

8
CPU Upgrades / Re: Mac Mini G4 Overclock just because its fun.
« Last post by joevt on Yesterday at 06:27:11 PM »
Hang on.. is that a 'flashrom' build for Mac? Can it be used to dump Mac Mini onboard ROMs? If so, it could be very useful to compare "original" and "silent upgrade" ROMs to figure out what they've screwed improved in graphics department with later one.
Yes and Yes.

https://github.com/joevt/flashrom/blob/bb1afb074b2dc64aeb3bf5667ab05e731db4aaf1/doc/classic_cli_manpage.rst#L309

Try the anymem programmer first. One of the scripts in the zip file uses that method to get the Mac rom.

There's an internal programmer but it hangs my B&W G3 - it might work on later Macs but I haven't tried it. If it works without crashing then compare the result with the anymem result. You probably need to hold the power button at boot until you hear a chime to get into programmer mode.

The anypci programmer can get the option rom from any PCI card that has an option rom. Some PCI cards hide their option rom after boot (may return bad data). If it has an Open Firmware option ROM image, then DumpPCIRom.sh will convert it to Forth and verify the checksum.
9
Hardware / Re: AcBel PSU / Quicksilver
« Last post by gert79 on Yesterday at 02:00:13 PM »
Hello everybody

Sorry I couldn't follow the forum for a while due to real life priorities.

I still have all the photos of my QS PSU disassembly but I am a fan of decent resolution images and don't want to go thru the annoying work of resizing them for upload and furthermore have a loss of detail.

Sequence Of Events photos are the only way for me to be able to reassemble the PSU, so I will not post any single image. It is not my way of working.

Factually I was even a bit annoyed that my photos were scales down for "conformity". Imho we live in the age were it does not cost you much to shoot proper photos and also storage is available. You can always delete redundant photos later but you can never generate a missing photo when the work is done. And most of the time disassembly photos are assembly photos if you swap the order ...

I come from control cabinet wiring. Usually I shot thousands of photos each year in the highest resolution that was available on mobile device at the given time.

Currently 4000x3000 is good enough for me, and my intent was to have a photo that clearly shows the Apple Partnumber while being so high res that you could reproduce the PCB from that photo or even reverse engineer the schematics if you have good nerves. I like to think about the future, solve issues before s*it hits the fan.

Furthermore I am a bit stuck since I have to find the caps somewhere in Europe and I don't know with which substance I can replace the white goo, since it is needed to protect against mechanical stress, to prevent unwanted movement of caps closer to heat sources, but also to dampen any kind of coil noise. I had to break the hardened goo in some places and a full clean and re-goo later on has to be done once I have the caps sourced and mounted.

Going a bit OT as usual, I can share my photos via Google photo gallery but I absolutely don't take any responsibility if someone wants to do it like I did.

I don't want to come across as rude or arrogant but too many times in my life people thought I am an eejit and I am tired of it, being treated like that. So everything I explained above is just to add some more depth to my avatar gert79, which is actually a male name in Europe.

@aBc - please send personal message here in the forum and I will prepare the photos for you. Please handle with care like you usually do, I guess you just want to compare types of layouts anyways. If you have any special ideas which components I could replace, as the PSU is still disassembled, I would be very grateful :)
10
Development & Programming / Re: Debugging ATI drivers for Mac Mini
« Last post by ssp3 on Yesterday at 09:14:11 AM »
An update.
I now think that ATI Resource Manager also plays a role here. I've changed back to 3.1.6 Resource Manager as an experiment and now the Mini hangs at start-up with previously working f63 ATI driver in a similar way it does with f100 ATI driver and 3.2.1 Resource Manager
Pages: [1] 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10