G3 Modem and ATA Controller Card

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Level 2

279 points

G3 Modem and ATA Controller Card

I am upgrading a B&W G3 350 MHz Yosemite running Tiger for some friends. They use dial-up (pooh) and the B&W did not ship with an internal modem. I found an Apple OEM on welovemacs.com for $60 ($10 more than the Apple USB). I am not sure which route to go (internal or USB). I am in a timed situation, so I am also considering a PCI modem. Any suggestions on the PCI modem (brand and model)? I know Tiger will not support some PCI modems.

Also, the G3 will not support larger HDDs. It currently has a 40 Gig drive in it. I tried installing an 80 Gig, but the ATA controller chip (Rev 1 logic board) did not recognize it. Any suggestions on a PCI based ATA controller card (brand and model)? Also, do these ATA controller cards usually ship with the power and data cables, or do I need to buy them separately? If so, any suggestions on which ones to buy and where?

I would appreciate any help as quickly as possible.

Thanks,

Thomas

Dual 500 MHz PowerMac G4 Gigabit Ethernet & 500 MHz Titanium Powerbook G4 15 Inch, Mac OS X (10.4.7), Tower: 2GB PC-133 RAM, Pioneer DVR-107, Powerbook: 512 MB RAM, Matshita DVD-RAM

Posted on Jul 15, 2006 11:18 PM

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Answer 1

Jul 16, 2006 12:16 AM in response to Thomas Mastin

"Any suggestions on a PCI based ATA controller card (brand and model)? Also, do these ATA controller cards usually ship with the power and data cables, or do I need to buy them separately? If so, any suggestions on which ones to buy and where?"

The lowest priced Mac ATA-133 card I know of is $55 here.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16816123110
I bought one of these (from this shop) a year ago and have had no trouble.

Mine came with two ATA-133 cables.
As for power connections, your power supply should already have some extra four-pin Molex connectors available.
ATA drives use these as-is.
A Y-adapter can be used if you run out of power connections.
http://www.case-mod.com/store/4pin-yadapter-p-268.html

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Answer 2

Jul 16, 2006 1:37 AM in response to Thomas Mastin

Thomas,

ther emust be some other sort of problem in your G3. I installed a Western Digital 80GB in my sons B&W (Rev. 1) and it works without problems.

The limitation applies to hard drives bigger than 128 GB, and it does not apply to Firewire and USB.
I have a 120GB installed in my B&W and again, I do not have any problems.

If you are aiming at using the bigger hard drive as storage, you might be better off investing in an external HD (FW or USB), which will also offer you portability in addition to being able to use large drives.

cheers

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Answer 3

Jul 16, 2006 7:50 AM in response to Thomas Mastin

The problem with the Rev 1 "Heartbreaker" Blue & White G3's built-in IDE/ATA controller is much more likely to be related to drive Speed than drive Size. Drives up to 128 GB will be recognized and initialized just fine. Only when you start to use them do you begin to notice more than a casual amount of crashes, lock-ups, and eventually, data corruption.

An 80 GB hard drive should be recognized immediately if it is correctly cabled and the straps are set correctly. Both 80 GB and 40 GB drives may be encountering corruption problems on the built-in controller.

The cables required for a controller card are 80-wire cables on 40-pin headers. They typically use high tech plastics that give then a distinctly shiny appearance, and MUST be shorter than 18 inches maximum.

Why not broaden your options with an external modem?

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Answer 4

Thomas Mastin Author

Level 2

279 points

Jul 16, 2006 12:10 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Grant,

"Only when you start to use them do you begin to notice more than a casual amount of crashes, lock-ups, and eventually, data corruption. An 80 GB hard drive should be recognized immediately if it is correctly cabled and the straps are set correctly. Both 80 GB and 40 GB drives may be encountering corruption problems on the built-in controller."

The 40 GB drive has been in this machine for at least 4 years. It was originally my machine given me by a Mac Genius buddy. I used it for over a year before I bought my G4. I then loaned the B&W to my cousin who used it for over 2 years before HE bought a G4 and returned the G3 to me.

When I installed the 80 Gig drive (which already had 10.3 installed), the machine would not boot from it. I booted from the Tiger install DVD and tried to install Tiger. The installation got all the way to the end, then the installation seemed to stop. I left the machine sit for about an hour, then heard the boot tone of the machine re-starting. It never booted, though. I got the gray Apple screen and could actually hear the "Welcome to Tiger" music coming from the speaker, but the gray Apple screen never went away.

I tried re-jumpering the drive, thinking I had gotten the jumper opposite of what it should be, but that didn't do any good either. I tried putting the drive in my Granite Digital external Firewire HDD casing, but the drive would never mount on my G4. So, I re-re-jumpered the drive back to the way I originally had it jumpered. It mounted on my G4 just fine at that point. So, I then installed Tiger via the external Firewire casing using my G4 tower. Tiger installed successfully, and I put the HDD back into the G3, but it STILL would not boot. It would never get past the gray Apple screen, or the machine would kernel panic if it did.

So finally, in desparation, I put the old 40 Gig that was in the machine when my cousin shipped it back to me, back into the G3 and it booted from it just fine. I later did a clean install of Tiger, and the machine still boots fine.

So, as you can see, it really seems that the ATA controller chip does not like the 80 Gig drive.

"Why not broaden your options with an external modem?"

I may indeed decide to go with the Apple external USB, but was told by a Specialist at the Apple Store that the new Apple USB modem might not work with the G3. My friend, whose parents I am setting the G3 up for, owns a MacBook Pro, so he can use the Apple USB if it does not work with the G3 and when and if his parents get broadband.

I still would like to know if a PCI based modem will work with the the G3. I found a post on this board late last night (after I posted this thread) where a user had a question similar to mine. He/she was trying to swap a PCI modem between a PC and a B&W. Whoever responded to the post stated that the B&W will not support ANY PCI based modems. It will only support the OEM Apple modem that plugs into the logic board near the USB and Firewire ports or an external USB modem (similar to, but not specifially the Apple USB modem).

Thanks,

Thomas

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Answer 5

Jeff

Level 6

12,328 points

Jul 16, 2006 8:22 PM in response to Thomas Mastin

" I still would like to know if a PCI based modem will work with the G3."

All PCI modem cards are marketed to/for the PC platform. They typically fall into two categories - (1) completely or partially software-based (soft-modems or WinModems) and (2) full-hardware modems. The differences lie in the inclusion of an onboard DSP and a controller, without which, the computer's CPU picks up the slack. For the first two types of modems, the software drivers are all Windows-based. As for the full-hardware PCI modem card (and they are few in number), US Robotics has one (at $80 - not a big seller), but they never wrote Mac drivers for it. So, the only internal modems that function in Macs are those specifically designed for the various Apple COMM slots or unique/designated slots on the motherboards.

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Answer 6

Thomas Mastin Author

Level 2

279 points

Jul 16, 2006 10:37 PM in response to Jeff

Thanks Jeff (and Grant and Dave). The info you have provided has been most helpful. Looks like my friend's parents have decided to step into the new millenium and upgrade to broadband, so we won't need the modem. I will keep in mind the ATA controller cards when they are in the market to upgrade their hard drive.

Thanks again!

Thomas

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