Adding Firewire 800 PCI Express Card to G5

Question

Adding Firewire 800 PCI Express Card to G5

I wanted to add a Siig Firewire 800 3-Port PCI-express card to my G5. One of the requirements was connecting a 4 pin power y cord to an available 4 pin power connector for reliable power output. I can't locate an available 4 pin power connector in my G5. Is there one available? Where is it? Which slot is best for the installation?

G5, Mac OS X (10.4.10)

Posted on Aug 3, 2007 2:46 PM

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Answer 1

Aug 3, 2007 2:50 PM in response to notbadphotography

Hi notbadphotography-

Greetings and welcome to the Apple boards.

I am sure you will need an adapter to convert the SATA interface power to a 4-pin connector. What i am not sure about is where you can find one.

Google may be your friend or someone else with an answer may happen along.

Luck-

-DaddyPaycheck

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Answer 2

Aug 3, 2007 2:58 PM in response to notbadphotography

You will have to use the optical drive's power connector. you may need a splitter cable (available at any computer store).
<http://www.amazon.co.uk/Molex-5-25-Two-Power-Splitter/dp/B000ITL4KI>

If you don't have any bus-powered FireWire devices, you don't need to connect the power cable.

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Answer 3

The hatter

Level 9

61,051 points

Aug 3, 2007 3:50 PM in response to notbadphotography

I think those are more for IF you use something that is bus-powered rather than has its own power plug. Also, PCIe should supply enough power to the card already.

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Answer 4

Aug 8, 2007 8:58 AM in response to notbadphotography

I just purchased the SIIG FireWire 800 3-Port PCIe for my new Mac Pro. Although they give you a power cable to connect internally, it is not needed (as mentioned by the previous poster above) unless you will be using any devices that don't have their own power supply (A.K.A. bus-powered devices).

The card works great in my machine running OS 10.4.9. SIIG's pre-sales/support was very good too.

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Answer 5

Aug 23, 2007 6:18 AM in response to teknosmoker

I just installed the same SIIG card, and attached a hard drive through one of the FW800 ports, but.... nothing is showing up on the desktop. I didnt connect the internal power cable because it's not necessary in my setup, but I'm wondering if there's one more step I need to take to get this external HD to show up? Perhaps the SIIG card has to go into a specific PCIe slot?

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Answer 6

The hatter

Level 9

61,051 points

Aug 23, 2007 6:24 AM in response to Kerry Muzzey

Try zapping PRAM/NVRAM from cold boot, or boot into Open Firmware and reset-nvram plus reset-all and see if System Profile shows drive and FW800 interface.

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Answer 7

Aug 23, 2007 6:35 AM in response to The hatter

Oh man.... I'm embarassed at how easy that was. All it took was zapping the PRAM... I shoulda known. Many thanks!

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Answer 8

The hatter

Level 9

61,051 points

Aug 23, 2007 7:33 AM in response to Kerry Muzzey

It isn't really you, it is a bug in the G5 where the device list or device tree and nvram aren't rebuilding and can become corrupt just from change in hardware (memory, swap out hard drive, PCI cards are especially an issue).

So you could swap drives and it would still "think" the old drive was still present! 😟

The olde "kick the machine" to get your candy bar.

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Answer 9

Aug 23, 2007 8:37 PM in response to The hatter

Well, I think I may need a new kick for this candy machine. After turning the G5 off and coming back to it later, the drive no longer showed up. I tried zapping PRAM again a few times, but no dice. Is there another trick available?

Kerry

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Answer 10

Aug 24, 2007 4:47 AM in response to Kerry Muzzey

So, it turns out that if I want to access that new hard drive through the FW800 PCIe card I added, I need to zap the PRAM 4 or 5 dings' worth when I boot up, and then the Mac sees the card & drive. Hmm, maybe it's time for a service call.

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Answer 11

The hatter

Level 9

61,051 points

Aug 24, 2007 5:07 AM in response to Kerry Muzzey

Use Open Firmware instead. Then see if it works okay.

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Answer 12

Aug 24, 2007 5:29 AM in response to The hatter

Hatter, you're my hero. 🙂 What exactly is open firmware, though, and how do I use it? Is it just a different way of booting?

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Answer 13

The hatter

Level 9

61,051 points

Aug 24, 2007 6:30 AM in response to Kerry Muzzey

#1 zapping PRAM/NVRAM has to be from a cold start, and done thru 2 reboots (don't need to go crAZy with 3-5).

#2 Open Firmware is thorough, efficient, and can be done on any type of startup.

#3 "reset-nvram" - as I mentioned above, should be first step in hardware troubleshooting or anytime after changing hardware and getting a kernel panic on first restart.

(whoops)

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Answer 14

Aug 24, 2007 7:10 AM in response to The hatter

Hatter, I'm not sure how one boots into, or uses Open Firmware -- is that an application, or is does it just mean that you zap the PRAM twice then let the G5 start up?

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Answer 15

The hatter

Level 9

61,051 points

Aug 24, 2007 7:59 AM in response to Kerry Muzzey

Then you didn't read.

http://www.apple.com/support/powermac/

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=42642

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