Jeff, Plenty of English at the Maclife/Sapphire card info forum:
<http://www.falkemedia.com/cgi-bin/forum/ forum.cgi?board=hardware;action=display;num=1045243482;start=820>
this link will get you to the current last page where there is lots of talk about
the flash chips. 128KB are in fact the needed chips. It does seem that many
Sapphire 64mb cards had 128KB chips mislabeled as 64KB chips. Which is
why everyone is so confused since the mislabeled chips were flash-able and
the correctly labeled ones not, odd but perhaps true!
Will, thanks for the link. I've just read the most recent three pages and it is very interesting. I have a couple of ideas I may wish to contribute, but I think I may want to try a few experiments first.
One idea is that the memory (flash) space on the cards may be partly in the ATI chip. That is, there could be 64K of flash space on the ATI chip and the separate flash chip is supplementing that. I consider this very unlikely, but it would explain the possibility of only 64K of flash being accessible and the apparently mismarked chips (not actually mismarked if this hypothesis were correct) and the 'lock' issue. The memory in the ATI chip would be the bit that is locked.
A second idea is to just desolder the flash from one of the cards that Pete sent me, put it on my EEPROM programming machine, and see what it has to say about the chip. This would have the added benefit that while the chip is on there, I can read out the Mac firmware which Pete put on the card, which might have applications for flashing other cards. One obstacle is that I do not have an 8 pin SOIC socket for my EEPROM programmer, and the socket adapters are about $150 each. I may be able to rig something up though, if the serial EEPROM also comes in a DIP package.
I believe you got your cards from Pete just after I did. I can tell you mine flashed and runs just great! So we likely got the good batch with mislabeled chips!
I believe that is correct. Pete flashed mine for me which is why I've never felt any need to test them. I want to install them some day, of course, but I don't have a top two slot available. I bought them before I was ready to use them, because we had no way of knowing how long the flashable Saphire cards would be available. I think that has worked out well, given recent events.
I really need to get one of the SIIG 133 cards to replace my VST card, I guess, which would free up a top slot for the R7000. But I'd also like to get one of my Power Tower Pro motherboards back into service and replace the S900 board in this box with that, so instead of doing either, I've done neither and the R7000s stay in the box...
More bad news reports are that the latest batch of Power Color
32mb cards have the smaller chip and are not Mac flash-able. So while ones
that work are out there it's going to be hard to tell which are which and also
the odd issue of working Sapphire cards seeming to have mislabeled chips
adds to the maze. Will S
One fellow (PartyMarty) on the forum offered to send folks the 128K chips, so he apparently has a supply. I don't know what he's charging for it though. I'm tempted to email him and ask. My Digi-Key catalog suggests that those chips should cost about $6 - $10 each but Digi-Key is always on the high end compared to ordering from a regular distributer--but they sell smaller quantities.
Anyway, it sounds like folks who can solder adn get a hold of the 128K chips are not out of luck, though I'd like to see more reports of chip replacement and this "Lock" issue before being certain of that. Because I have two cards with the apparently mislabeled serial flash chips, I may try to confirm that mislabeling theory.
Jeff Walther
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