Author Topic: A computer for Mrs. Lop (Read 2731 times)

chriskleeman · « **on:** September 11, 2006, 10:23:11 AM »

Hey all you TS'ers,

I am presently working on getting my old Powerbase 200 ready to send off to Mrs. Lop because it looks like her 4400 is dying.

At one point, I had a G3 Powerlogix upgrade board in this machine, and I've still got the G3/G4 cache enabler installed. Anyone out there got a G3 upgrade board for this series of machine that they'd like to donate or sell for this little project? I installed the G3 board I had in a friends' computer that her daughter had, and it's long gone...

It would be a nice little speed bump for this computer, and worked pretty much flawlessly as I remember.

Thanks,

Chris K

Well, never mind... I went to e-Bay and lo and behold, a few $$$ later, I have a G3 Powerforce coming for Mrs Lop!!!

Mrious_be · « **Reply #1 on:** September 11, 2006, 01:36:55 PM »

Gregg · « **Reply #2 on:** September 11, 2006, 08:28:53 PM »

Very nice of you Chris.

I know; you're not looking for praise, just trying to help.

I'm sure it will be appreciated.

krissel · « **Reply #3 on:** September 12, 2006, 01:46:02 AM »

Good work, Chris.

I haven't heard from Mrs. Lop since she sent me her address last week. I've sent her 11 zip disks and some OS and application software CDs via UPS. But my emails to her have not been answered so I feared she had lost her ability to get online. If you don't have her address, let me know and I'll email it to you.

chriskleeman · « **Reply #4 on:** September 12, 2006, 08:44:16 AM »

QUOTE(krissel @ Sep 12 2006, 02:46 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Good work, Chris.

I haven't heard from Mrs. Lop since she sent me her address last week. I've sent her 11 zip disks and some OS and application software CDs via UPS. But my emails to her have not been answered so I feared she had lost her ability to get online. If you don't have her address, let me know and I'll email it to you.

Hey Kris,

I'm all set... I've got her address and phone #... I'm just waiting for this G3 card now. I haven't gotten an e-mail back from the seller yet, but I'm hoping to have this card by the end of the week, and then I can ship out the Powerbase. Hey, this thing has been collecting dust for a long time, ever since I got my first "real" mac, my 9600, so I'm just glad someone can use it. And for as little as this G3 card cost, it makes the machine light-years faster.

And a pat on the back is always welcome, needed or not! The last e-mail I have from her is on 9-8, fyi, so I'll keep you posted by e-mail if I hear from her.

TS has saved me lots of time and $$$, so why not give to a member in need?

Best,

Chris K

chriskleeman · « **Reply #5 on:** September 17, 2006, 09:14:27 AM »

Ok, I'm hitting a snag here... I got the Powerlogix G3 card, but instead of dip-switches it has rotary switches to set it up for any given computer. Does anyone out there have any info on this? I did an extensive web-search this morning, but came up empty-handed. I e-mailed OWC to see if they have any info, so we'll see what happens there maybe by tomorrow morning.

I have the old Powerlogix "Switch Demo" still in my computer from circa 2000, but it doesn't show the rotary controls...

If I can't find the info, I'll just ship out the Powerbase to Mrs. Lop with the old 603...

Darn it!!!

Chris K

kelly · « **Reply #6 on:** September 17, 2006, 04:43:32 PM »

Checked here Chris?

http://forums.xlr8yourmac.com/action.lasso...yes&-search

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/cpucards.html

chriskleeman · « **Reply #7 on:** September 18, 2006, 10:14:31 AM »

QUOTE(kelly @ Sep 17 2006, 05:43 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Checked here Chris?

http://forums.xlr8yourmac.com/action.lasso...yes&-search

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/cpucards.html

Thanks Kelly, but I had found those links and couldn't find any info for this card... I did find a posting for rotary switches on a ZIF card, but the one I have has #'s only...

I got a reply back from a tech at OWC, and he's looking into it, maybe I'll get lucky!

Chris K

krissel · « **Reply #8 on:** September 19, 2006, 01:36:43 AM »

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/tips/PF_pwrcurve.html

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/G3-ZONE/PF_ZIF.html

http://www.xlr8.com/Daystar_Technology_Mac...x_carrier1.html

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/G3CARDS/XLR8_MA...erZIFsetup.html

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/G3CARDS/XLR8_MA...rZIFsetup6.html

QUOTE

If your ZIF CPU module has jumpers or a rotary switch then refer to the manual for your specific ZIF module for how to adjust Bus/CPU ratios, as these ZIFs will ignore the CarrierZIF's switches 9-12 (bus/cpu ratio) setting.

QUOTE

The PowerForce G3 466 ZIF contains the fastest PowerPC to date - the IBM 466MHz G3. The white rotary switch in the lower right corner is used to select the bus speed multiplier (ratio) that determines the CPU speed. The advantage to having this adjustment is twofold; it allows the upgrade to work at the proper CPU speed in both beige G3 and B&W G3s (different bus speeds, so different ratios required) and it also allows experimenting with higher CPU speeds (potentially risky, but rewarding in this case).

Can you use the info from the DayStar as to the rotary number for the multiplier and the info from the MAChCarrier for the rest?

krissel · « **Reply #9 on:** September 19, 2006, 01:50:50 AM »

OK, maybe this will help. I think this guy has the same machine as you do though the upgrade card is higher. He has some caveats regarding clones..

QUOTE

Out of the box, the card was set to operate at 500MHz, assuming a buss speed of 50MHz (using a 'multiplier' setting of 10) but the Clone constantly crashed with this setting. Technical support at AM Micros (PowerLogix' UK distributor) suggested using the dipswitches on the card to set the buss speed to 60MHz (as on the original processor) and lowering the multiplier to eight, giving a processor speed of 480MHz. However, the fastest setting I could make it run at without crashing was 400MHz, on a 50MHz buss (ie. with a multiplier of eight) and the tests were carried out at this speed. The curse of my Clone's incompatibility with more or less everything might be at work here, as this card has worked OK on other machines in other reviews. Although the G3 Cache profiler control panel installed by the PowerLogix installer disk allows you to fiddle with Backside cache Ratio and various other settings, I left these set to default with all the cards where alterations could be made. The most important point here is that in all cases, I left the backside cache ratio set to 2:1 — ie. the cache was running at half the speed of the processor.

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/Dec01/arti...acprocessor.asp

chriskleeman · « **Reply #10 on:** September 19, 2006, 08:37:13 AM »

Thanks Kris,

The problem here is that these links are about the ZIF replacements, not the Daughter-card type in the Powerbase. The Powerbase is a unique clone amongst all those Powercomputing machines in that there were a very narrow range of upgrade cards available for it, and the settings on these cards were unique to the Powerbase... you couldn't really speed-bump or over-clock the card, but the speed bump just running at 300Mhz on a G3 with the backside cache running at 1/2 the processor speed was pretty amazing at the time.

Also, the rotary switches on this card have more settings than I see in these charts, but there is no reference to a card with 2 rotary switches... so I'm not sure I can come up with compatible settings using those two links together...

It may well be that this card, although it fits in the processor slot and and clears the case of the Powerbase, may actually be incomptible with my machine, especially if it's a ZIF card.

I have received another reply from the tech at OWC, and he and I may be closing in on this particular card. I'll keep you posted.

Best,

Chris K

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Author Topic: A computer for Mrs. Lop (Read 2731 times)