On Jan 1, 2:30 pm, "[email protected]" <[email protected]> wrote: > Hello group > > Apologies, this is a long one... > > Not sure if this is strictly for this group as it's a question about > the stated PCI Card in my PowerMac G4 Quicksilver (2001). The machine > started off as just a bargain £10 hobby but now has 1Ghz DP, maxed out > RAM, a modified 256mb GeForce 6200 card and 320GB HDD and the original > HDD from the PowerMac (OS X 10.5.8 boot drive- 40GB) and the HDD from > a Digital Audio G4 (OS 9.2.2 -40GB). This is where my problems began, > I bought the ACARD AEC-6280M from eBay to allow me to use the 320GB > HDD in my Quicksilver, as the on board ATA controller doesn't support > over 128GB. But having installed the PCI controllers drivers on the > the OS X boot Drive (40GB) was able to format the new drive, but > unable to write files onto the drive (which also appears as an > external SCSI drive.) The computer would complain that any file's > name was too long to go onto the drive. I made some modifications in > Open firmware, allowing the onboard ATA controller to access the full > 320gb hard drive and using carbon copy cloner replicated my OS X hard > drive and booted from it using the onboard ATA to make sure the hard > drive wasn't a dud, the drive worked brilliantly. So plugged my OS > 9.2.2 drive into the PCI card, can access files from it and copy from > it, but can not place files on there or boot from the drive while > attached to the card, same with OS X drive, the ? folder will appear, > flash twice, show the boot screen for Mac OS and then get stuck in a > boot loop. The original 40GB OS X drive does not work in the card at > all. > > So long story short... I have this PCI ATA controller in my PowerMac, > and it will not boot (as it describes it can, either os 9.2.2 or OS X > 10.5.8) and I can not write to hard drives attached to it. Is the card > a dud, or have I missed a trick? The only other problem is that while > the card claims to be a 6280M i tried to update the firmware and it > would only accept the firmware of the 6880M card, which seems to do > the same job, and uses the same driver. While I have my large hard > drive working thanks to modifications in open firmware, if I have to > reset the PRAM I will lose these and that puts me in a bad position if > I've got data over 128GB. > > Can anyone out there help me out in my situation? > > Many thanks > Sam Walker > > PowerMac G4 Quicksilver, Powerbook G4 Al, and iMac Intel user
The Acard AEC-6280M PATA controller card works with the OS X built-in drivers for all iterations of OS X. NO other drivers are required to be installed. Your having installed additional drivers (Universal Drivers) may be the source of your problems. Your firmware would have to be really out of date to cause a problem on the G4 you are using. You do not need to install any drivers for operation under any version of OS X running on a PPC Mac. The latest firmware for your card is v2.16 available at the link given below. Install it. Then, remove the drivers you installed, and/or reinstall the original OS X drivers from the driver installation package using Pacifist to extract the appropriate Acard drivers. Better yet, if you have a current backup of your user files, and software apps, reformat the drive from the OS X Install DVD/CD, and reinstall the operating system on the hard drives you want to boot from. Use Migration Assistant to reinstall your user files and software. On the other hand, you should look at the drive compatibility list here: <http://www.acard.com.tw/english/fc0101.jsp> Make sure your drives are supported. Almost all drives from all manufacturers are supported, and I'd be surprised if yours aren't. -- You received this message because you are a member of G-Group, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list
