Okay, I skipped a lot of that, 'cause it's review :-P ;-)
Anyhow, to answer your question, all slots were full but the very bottom. I had a flashed Wintel Radeon in the top slot, a Sonnet ATA 133 card in the second ( it casued issues otherwise ), the USB/Firewre card in the third ( and, yes, I did use both capabilities simultaneously ). In the fourth... hell, I can't remember. I remember the first three cards, because they were the most essential, and the radeon and ATA card would only work in the top two slots. I think I had a 68-pin SCSI card in the fourth slot. The USB/ Firewire card worked wherever I put it. As for Formac cards, the ProTV/ Stereo also required one of the top two slots, or the machine would freeze as soon as OS 9 loaded the extension. SO, that card had to go. As for the Acard-based ATA cards, yeah, they work just about anywhere, and have a reputation which reflects such. My Sonnet was FirmTek based, and those seem to be a bit bratty, even in my G4. I think the Tango Trio ( USB/ Firewire/ ATA133 combo card ), also uses a FirmTek chip, so it may only work in one of the top two slots. All that said, S900s are so unique, that they're even unique between themselves. Some people have issues which no else does. Come to think of it, it seems as if many do. On 8/13/05, Paul Corsa <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > The Sonnet/Acard ATA 66 does work in the lower slots. Paul C > > Jeff Walther wrote: > > > At 10:17 -0700 08/13/2005, Tony Michaels wrote: > > > >> Really? > >> I had my Tempo ( Sonnet USB 1.0/ Firewire ) in the thrid slot. > >> Typically, it's ATA and video cards which would only work in the top > two. > >> > >> -Antonio > > > > > > It's actually considerably more complicated than that. If you had > > your Tempo working in the third slot, I suspect that either slots 4 - > > 6 were empty, or that you were only using either the USB or the > > Firewire portion of the Tempo card. If neither of these were the > > case you could help the list out by letting us know which additional > > cards you had in the lower slots. > > > > The firmware (ROMs) in the S900 (and presumably the entire Apple x500 > > series, since they're the same ROMs) do not work properly when PCI-PCI > > Bridges (PPBs) are daisy chained. > > > > Because the S900 already has a PPB on the motherboard, this situation > > occurs pretty frequently for us. Some PCI cards have PPBs on board. > > These are the multi-function PCI cards such as USB/FW, dual SCSI, dual > > video cards. When you put one of these cards in a lower slot in the > > S900, you've formed a daisy chain of PPBs--the one on the motherboard, > > serving the lower slots, and the one on the PCI card. > > > > However, the exception is that if there are no other cards in the > > lower PCI slots, then this daisy chaining can work. Also, if there > > are other cards in the lower slots but they lack on-board firmware > > (ethernet, USB, FW, e.g.) then that configuration may work as well. > > > > I've also found that either the Twin Turbo or the Adaptec 2940UW > > (can't remember which any more) may be tolerated in a lower slot as > > long as it is lower or higher (again, can't remember which) than the > > PPB bearing card. I'm pretty sure it was the Twin Turbo that was > > tolerant this way. > > > > Some cards don't have a distinct PPB chip on board, but they act like > > they have a PPB on board and so create this incompatibility. These > > include a great many of the ATI video cards (dual video or other > > multi-fuction) and the Atto UL2D (dual SCSI on a single chip, but that > > chip must have an internal PPB). > > > > Cards such as the Formac Proformance III video card (single video) > > work just fine in the a lower slot. The Twin Turbo is fine in the > > lower slots, but IMS revised the drivers several times to make it > > work. The Ult. Rez. card does not work properly in the lower slots if > > the driver that provides acceleration is enabled. Specifically, if > > you try to change resolution or colors the machine will freeze, if the > > Ult. Rez. is in a lower slot. I guess IMS went out of business before > > they could revise the drivers enough. Of course the work around is, > > disable the Ult. Rez. driver in Ext. Man., reboot, change the > > resolution, etc., reenable the driver in Ext. Man. and reboot again. > > What a pain. :-( > > > > Oddly, the Adaptec/Apple 2940U2B doesn't work in the lower slots even > > though it is a single SCSI bus card. At least I had trouble with it > > there, though it seemed to work at first. > > > > Another oddball is the VST UltraTek/66 card which does not have a PPB > > but demonstrates the same type of incompability as cards which do have > > a PPB. However, a look at the device tree of a machine with a VST > > installed yields a clue. Apparently the VST firmware makes the > > UltraTek/66 look as if it is two devices, hence similar to a PPB and > > that is probably what triggers the firmware bug. > > > > As far as ATA cards go, the Acard ATA cards work just fine in lower > > slots. I have a 6280M working in a lower slot right now and have for > > months. The Sonnet ATA cards generally don't work in the lower slots. > > > > I believe, but am not certain, that the distinction is that cards with > > firmware written by FirmTek have trouble in the lower slots and others > > don't. FirmTek writes the firmware for the Sonnet cards and wrote the > > firmware for the VST card. Apparently they use a programming choice > > that triggers this bug. > > > > I'm not sure about the Acard ATA-66 card. I have a vague memory that > > either it didn't work in the lower slots because on that one card > > Acard got the firmware from FirmTek, or that it does work in the lower > > slots and the Sonnet card based on it does as well. But I can't > > remember which. Sigh. > > > > Also, I think that Sonnet and/or SIIG uses the Acard 6880M for their > > RAID ATA card and so that particular Sonnet and/or SIIG card will work > > in the lower slots, even though their other cards do not. > > > > BTW, the Acard 6280M is down to $60 at Newegg with $5 shipping. > > > > Jeff Walther > > > > > > > > -- > SuperMacs is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... > > Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | > Service & Replacement Parts [EMAIL PROTECTED] | & CDRWs on Sale! | > > Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> > > SuperMacs list info: <http://lowendmac.com/supermacs/list.shtml> > --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; > Send list messages to: <mailto:[email protected]> > To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/supermacs%40mail.maclaunch.com/> > > > --------------------------------------------------------------- > iPod Accessories for Less > at 1-800-iPOD.COM > Fast Delivery, Low Price, Good Deal > www.1800ipod.com > --------------------------------------------------------------- > > -- SuperMacs is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | Service & Replacement Parts [EMAIL PROTECTED] | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> SuperMacs list info: <http://lowendmac.com/supermacs/list.shtml> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[email protected]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/supermacs%40mail.maclaunch.com/> --------------------------------------------------------------- iPod Accessories for Less at 1-800-iPOD.COM Fast Delivery, Low Price, Good Deal www.1800ipod.com ---------------------------------------------------------------
