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[IIO]

it is usually the user and not the machine

describe in detail what you do and what happens to get a more useful answer.

[velvetcave]

So I used this to convert an FW800 G4 to work with os9. I need this as a backup system for my remote session music stuff. It works very well with protools 5.1.3 and all the cards and peripherals are working fine. Very happy:). Just something a bit odd, I used two of my external firewire drives ( a glyph GT050 and a Lacie rugged) to transfer session data onto the new machine to check it out. No problem with that but on returning to my original FW400 G4 both drives are running very slow for transferring files, both onto and off, usually in the first 30 seconds, then the speed picks up but still nowhere near as fast as they used to be. I will be formatting the drives again and am confident that will fix but just seems a bit strange. Also, there's something weird going on with USB, it (the fw800 machine) doesn't seem to like more than two devices (in my case a hub for keyboard and mouse and a midi transmitter) being operational at the same time.
I have yet to get round to testing the system thoroughly, there was too much other stuff to do, and at the end of the day it works.
Apart from those things this is a wonderful thing. Thank you!

[Angelgreat]

I'm late in announcing this, but Action Retro featured the fw800iso for his video on the FW800 MDD. Here is a link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZVI9vum6f4

To be honest, he says it works like a regular FW400 MDD with OS9, except with the 400 ports not working and the 800 ports working but seen as a 400 ports.

[Metrophage]

I eventually wasn't able to use my FW800 anymore, so tonight I am going over it to understand why it won't boot.

What I think happened is that after I applied an Open Firmware patch, it won't boot without it. Except that the PSU can be flaky so sometimes I need to leave the system unplugged, and then it loses its patch. Since the patches are no longer necessary with hacked ROMs, I should probably figure out a reverse patch to make it stock again. It was years ago, I don't remember what I did!

Either that it's my typical luck of MDDs having RAM flakiness.

 

[UnexpectedBomb]

-No Fw800, No USB 2... but I had read long time ago that this is posible.

Turns out @MacTron was right all along... I'm excited to announce that I've finally cracked BOTH.

Using the MacOS9Lives FW800 MDD ROM (containing iMic's modification) as its base, I developed a ROM that fully unlocks the FW800 MDD's NEC USB controller (the OHCI side was always active but the EHCI side was hidden). Combined with my G4 MDD EHCI activator system extension, you will now have USB 2.0 on both of the FW800 MDD's on-board USB ports. No PCI USB card required. You can download the USB 2.0 ROM and its accompanying extension from my repo here:

https://github.com/UnexpectedBomb/MacOS9-USB2-EHCI/releases

As for the FireWire ports on that machine, I developed a patched version of the FireWire Support system extension. Drop that into your Extensions folder, reboot, and all three ports will be restored to their proper speeds: both FW400 at S400, and the single FW800 at S800. You can download that extension here:

https://github.com/UnexpectedBomb/MacOS9-FW800-FireWire/releases/tag/s800rel

In-depth details on how the original problems were diagnosed and how the solutions were developed can be found in the documentation on these repos as well, for those who are curious. I would love feedback from anyone who gives these solutions a try. Let me know how it goes!

[Jubadub]

-No Fw800, No USB 2... but I had read long time ago that this is posible.

Turns out @MacTron was right all along... I'm excited to announce that I've finally cracked BOTH.

Using the MacOS9Lives FW800 MDD ROM (containing iMic's modification) as its base, I developed a ROM that fully unlocks the FW800 MDD's NEC USB controller (the OHCI side was always active but the EHCI side was hidden). Combined with my G4 MDD EHCI activator system extension, you will now have USB 2.0 on both of the FW800 MDD's on-board USB ports. No PCI USB card required. You can download the USB 2.0 ROM and its accompanying extension from my repo here:

https://github.com/UnexpectedBomb/MacOS9-USB2-EHCI/releases

As for the FireWire ports on that machine, I developed a patched version of the FireWire Support system extension. Drop that into your Extensions folder, reboot, and all three ports will be restored to their proper speeds: both FW400 at S400, and the single FW800 at S800. You can download that extension here:

https://github.com/UnexpectedBomb/MacOS9-FW800-FireWire/releases/tag/s800rel

In-depth details on how the original problems were diagnosed and how the solutions were developed can be found in the documentation on these repos as well, for those who are curious. I would love feedback from anyone who gives these solutions a try. Let me know how it goes!

This is fantastic. It finally puts the FW800 models ever-so-slightly-above the other ones for Mac OS use. Back when I had the privilege of collecting multiple MDDs, I always went specifically for the MDD 2003 motherboards + the original MDD 2002 case (House of Moth elaborates on why), but I always avoided the FW800 models specifically because it just meant having 1 less FW port than the other models. But now it's the opposite, and with FW800 speeds to boot?!

FW800 owners may rejoice.

By the way, I hear that the MDD 2003 models (not FW800) have the same USB 2.0 chips in the motherboard as the FW800 boards do, whereas the original MDD 2002 models don't. Are you able to confirm that personally, @UnexpectedBomb?

I honestly wish we had full MDD schematics in a way so that we could order in our own custom MDD motherboards and daughtercards via the likes of PCB Way and whatnot. This would give us hardware independence that we currently lack, and keep real Mac hardware coming.

[UnexpectedBomb]

This is fantastic. It finally puts the FW800 models ever-so-slightly-above the other ones for Mac OS use. Back when I had the privilege of collecting multiple MDDs, I always went specifically for the MDD 2003 motherboards + the original MDD 2002 case (House of Moth elaborates on why), but I always avoided the FW800 models specifically because it just meant having 1 less FW port than the other models. But now it's the opposite, and with FW800 speeds to boot?!

FW800 owners may rejoice.

Totally agree. In my mind, the FW800 MDD has now been upgraded from "problem-child not-as-desirable MDD" to "the most desirable MDD model".
In fact, this is what I am now envisioning:

The FW800 MDD OS 9 Hardware Enablement Pack

- hardware temperature monitoring (DONE)
- native FW800 (DONE)
- functional FW400 x2 (DONE)
- native on-board USB 2.0 (DONE)
- Bluetooth (up next)
- AirPort Extreme (after Bluetooth is done)
- improved sleep/power management support (currently broken)

In collaboration with @DieHard, perhaps we can eventually develop a single OS 9 installer disc, specifically for the FW800 MDD, that unlocks all of its hardware features in one fell swoop. That would make the FW800 MDD the undisputed king of OS 9 machines.

By the way, I hear that the MDD 2003 models (not FW800) have the same USB 2.0 chips in the motherboard as the FW800 boards do, whereas the original MDD 2002 models don't. Are you able to confirm that personally, @UnexpectedBomb?

Ah yes, the June 2003 FW400 MDD. Good thought! From what I can tell, this is not a late board that inherited FW800 features, it's the older 2002 board brought back to pacify those who (rightfully) complained about not being able to boot OS 9    However, I don't have one on-hand to confirm this with certainty. If anyone does have one and can confirm, that would be helpful. I do know this June 2003 model dropped AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth, so I suspect the NEC USB 2.0 controller went with them as well.

I honestly wish we had full MDD schematics in a way so that we could order in our own custom MDD motherboards and daughtercards via the likes of PCB Way and whatnot. This would give us hardware independence that we currently lack, and keep real Mac hardware coming.

Given the speed at which AI and technology in general are advancing, this may be possible sooner than you think!