Problem installing Sonnet Encore/ST G4 Duet processor! Please help?

OK understood. The difficulty I seem to be having is actually getting to the installation point. I've made slight progress; yesterday, the Sonnet CD wouldn't even show on the OS9 desktop. Today, it shows, and even better, actually opens. When I open the installation programme and click 'Install', I get a 'One moment please...' message, then nothing. After an hour, I restarted and tried again, this time doing a custom install (with everything checked). Now I don't even get the 'One moment please...' message, just nothing at all.

I've removed the Radeon card and replaced it with my machine's original card, just to see if that made any difference. This may be the reason for the progress indicated above. I'm just about to download the installer from the Sonnet website, in case it's the CD that is at fault.

Will post again when I have done this. Thanks for keeping coming back to this, I appreciate it:-)

Rob

OK, again I seem to be making slight progress every time I restart in OS 9, just a little bit further each time. Now, I'm at the point where I can actually open the Sonnet CD, and install the software from it. However, when I get to the dialog box with the instruction to press and hold the programmers button, it crashes. I guess all I can do is keep repeating it until hopefully eventually I can get to the end of the process.

All I can say is that I'm very disappointed in Sonnet not upgrading their installer to OS X, and that the upgrade had better be worth all this trouble, if I can finally get it in there.

Now I'm getting as far as pressing the programmer's button, but the expected sound doesn't happen and the machine just powers down... This means that every time I go back into OS 9, I have to uninstall the Sonnet installation, then re-install it again, then try again.

SUCCESS!
Finally. After repeated restarts, the Sonnet installer eventually made it to the end of the process without freezing or crashing. The expected tone was heard, and the patch installed. Putting the actual processor in was the easy bit, and it now seems to be working fine and shows up in System Profiler. Everything alreadt seems faster. Now, I've just got to reinstall my Radeon graphics card, and dump OS 9.

Definitely the most awkward thing I've ever had to do with my Mac, and not an experience I recommend. It's clear the fault was with the Sonnet installer, and not a hardware issue, or (dare I say it) operator failure:-)

Still, all's well that ends well. Thanks for everyone's help.

Just to let people know, Sonnet finally responded. To be fair, there is an 8 hour time difference between London and California. I post their reply here in case it's of any use/help to anyone else with the same problem:

"The reason the firmware has to be patched under 9.2.2 is that
the installer was written when OS 9 was the predominant system.
All the machines this installer works on will boot OS 9
but not necessarily OS X (6100/7100/8100, etc).

With OS 9's diminishing presence in the market, we will have
to eventually release an OS X installer but currently the
powers that be have our engineers working on other projects.

The "MDX" upgrade is applicable to Mirror Drive Door machines only.

As far as the 9800 Pro not working under OS 9, the
excerpt below from ATI's website would seem to indicate otherwise.

[Mac OS 9.2.1 hangs on restart after running ATI Universal or RADEON Installer

This issue affects ALL ATI display adapters for Macintosh under Mac OS 9.2.1 with the following ATI Software:

* ATI RADEON Installer 1.x.x
* ATI Universal Installer 4.2.0 or earlier

The installer versions listed above predate the release of Mac OS 9.2.1.

After running any of the above installation software, the system may hang on restart.

Prior to the hang occurring, an X appears through the ATI Graphics Accelerator icon while extensions are loading.

In these cases, the ATI software overwrites the ATI Graphics Accelerator extension, replacing it with an older version which is not compatible with Mac OS 9.2.1.

If NO ATI Installer software has been run under Mac OS 9.2.1, this issue can be prevented as follows:

1. In the Extensions Folder, locate the "ATI Graphics Accelerator" extension and drag it to the desktop
2. Install ATI Software as normal
3. Restart with Extensions disabled (hold the shift key down at boot)
4. Drag the ATI Graphics Accelerator from the desktop back into the Extensions Folder
5. Click OK to overwrite the existing extension.
6. Restart normally

If the ATI software HAS been installed WITHOUT using the above procedure, the following steps will be necessary:

1. Restart with Extensions disabled (hold the shift key down at boot).
2. Launch the Mac OS 9.2.1 Installer and click "Continue".
3. Select the disk on which Mac OS 9.2 is installed as the Destination Disk.
4. When asked, Select "Add/Remove" to add or remove software features.
5. Select Mac OS 9.2.1.
For "Installation Mode", select "Customized Installation".
This should bring up a list of individual features to install.
6. For "Selection", choose "None".
This should remove any checkmarks from the list.
7. Scroll down the list to an entry named "Video".
8. Click the arrow beside Video to expand this list.
9. Select "ATI Graphics" from the list and click OK.
10. Click Start and allow the installer to complete.
11. Restart the system normally.

This should restore the ATI Graphics Accelerator to an appropriate version and allow for correct operation.]"

In general, I found the vast majority of people who answered very helpful indeed. However, it would be of greater help and assistance to those with problems, if people refrained from posting patronising and facetious comments such as "Go back and read the instructions". Do these people think we haven't done that 50 times already? If you can't offer constructive help, keep your comments to yourself, please. I expect those with more knowledge to actually help those with less, not mock them.