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+--- Thread: Beige G3 Rev w/ 2930 followup Q...? (/showthread.php?tid=16941)
Beige G3 Rev w/ 2930 followup Q...? - Buzz - 08-14-2006
while nuking and repaving, I looked at the 2930 card talked about in prior thread:
it is a retail mac card w/ EPROM v. 4.0 stamped on the sticker on the chip. I haven't been able to hook it up, because the cable is too short, and the current configuration has the HD open and the zip terminated at the end of the chain. after reading some earlier replies, and googling a bit, I'm left perplexed at how one upgrades to the correct eprom version. Adaptec support is supposed to call me back in a few hours w/ their version of an answer. is the 2930 flashable?, can the eprom be replaced? or does the whole card gotta be swapped? I have a handful of various flavors of 2940 cards, but everything I've heard says they're a no-go past early X, if at all. also have an ATTO express card w/ both wide and narrow connectors on it that I believe was an apple oem pull that could possibly be used, but I know it is a couple of years older than the 2930, so info on the 2930 is appreciated. thanks,
Buzz
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Re: Beige G3 Rev w/ 2930 followup Q...? - JoeH - 08-14-2006
The retail version of the 2930 is upgraded by replacing the PROM chip. Adaptec would send out an upgrade PROM chip to owners of retail cards if they were experiencing sleep problems. They may still be able to send that for you, but the last time I did this for a 2930 was about 4 years ago. Later versions of the 2930 also have a jumper connection in the middle of the card near the PROM socket. This was used to handle differences between the original PCI bus PowerMacs and the so-called New World ones. The installation guide tells how and when to jumper this connection. The 2930B Apple/OEM versions have a Apple specific version PROM soldered to the board and have no jumper. Later, the 2930 cards for BTO G4's were identical to the 2930CU retail versions, but do not have a TIL number sticker to get support from Adaptec.
Re: Beige G3 Rev w/ 2930 followup Q...? - tortoise - 08-14-2006
The upgrade is done by changing the ROM BIOS chip on the card, not really a big deal I have done it many times. I have 10 of the updated v4.3 ROM BIOS chips in stock, contact me via email if you need one. $14 + cost of shipping USPS first class mail.
Obviously remove the bracketed material
dmagner@{nospam}mac.com
Re: Beige G3 Rev w/ 2930 followup Q...? - MacMagus - 08-14-2006
Check Atto's web site for a firmware update for the Atto card. You may be pleasantly surprised.
I've got a bunch of ancient Atto cards currently deployed under OS X and working flawlessly.
Re: Beige G3 Rev w/ 2930 followup Q...? - Buzz - 08-14-2006
[quote MacMagus]Check Atto's web site for a firmware update for the Atto card. You may be pleasantly surprised.
I've got a bunch of ancient Atto cards currently deployed under OS X and working flawlessly.
I checked previously, and couldn't find anything that old, unless it is listed as a subcategory under one of the similarly named listings there... I didn't drill down through all of their "Express" listings with the appendages that didn't match, but I'll snag the card and look for more markings to search on there next time. BTW, I've also deployed several somewhat newer Atto cards in X w/o probs, but by doing so, I ran out of 'em...
Re: Beige G3 Rev w/ 2930 followup Q...? - Racer X - 08-14-2006
The ATTO cards that were BTO in the beige G3s are actually more X friendly than the B&W G3 and early G4 BTO cards, because they were made by Adaptec.
Re: Beige G3 Rev w/ 2930 followup Q...? - MacMagus - 08-15-2006
[quote Racer X]The ATTO cards that were BTO in the beige G3s are actually more X friendly than the B&W G3 and early G4 BTO cards, because they were made by Adaptec.
I dare you to find any citation to demonstrate that Atto cards were made by Adaptec.
Atto cards have always been more reliable than Adaptec cards (even the flawed Apple BTO Atto cards from 1997-1998, once the firmware updates were made).
Re: Beige G3 Rev w/ 2930 followup Q...? - Racer X - 08-15-2006
poor wording, the ATTO cards in the beige worked because ATTO supports X, and the later cards were Adaptec, and they only support X in some retail cards, and not at all with the Apple OEM?BTO cards.
Really early ATTO cards are SOL, but who really wants to screw around to get a card that maxes out at 5 megs/sec to work anyway.
Re: Beige G3 Rev w/ 2930 followup Q...? - PeterB - 08-15-2006
Jeez...
I come late to this thread... and look what I find!
Here's my $0.05:
For the cost of the EEPROM upgrade, you could get a whole new (used) card on ebay ($20 shipped or less)... that's where I got my 2930CU EEPROM v4.3 cards from, and they've worked great on two G4's and one B&W G3. The issue with the EEPROM has to do with supporting deep sleep on the G4 towers, IIRC. The earlier EEPROM v4.x cards will probably work, but IIRC, may cause kernel panics and/or sleep problems. There is a trick or two to getting the 2930CU v4.3 cards to work properly in X though... my remembrance is that I used an earlier version of the drivers, and also there are some tricks as regards to Zip drives (STF for my previous posts about this).
ATTO: I've had a few of these cards. The ATTO's have, in general, not been working as well as the Adaptecs in my hands... hard to believe, because the ATTO's are generally officially supported in X, while the Adaptecs aren't (though Adaptec is still listing them as being supported on their webpage, and ATTO is now listing some cards which were previously supported, as now unsupported). The non-PSC's won't work in X at all, the PSC (their lowest level card) will work in X, but not Tiger, at least last I checked. Here is a flash firmware updater for the Apple OEM ATTO cards, which I've found useful: http://www.os9forever.com/SCSICard.html