GRex PCI + Voodoo 3 3000 16 MB + LAN + Sound

[x56h34]

@thread:

No go. This BPPC rev. 0 definitely doesn't work with Grex. I've tried using Voodoo 3 in every PCI slot, and the results were always the same. CGXMODE doesn't run, and there's no video output through Voodoo 3 when in early boot menu, or when in BPPC boot menu.

I've even made sure that the motherboard gets extra power through the floppy power connector, as well as the PPC card itself (+5V through the fan connector). P8 and P9 connectors are inserted directly to the Grex.

:-(

Back to mediator for me. :-) I'm not going to fool around with this anymore, as flashing the PPC card with different firmware back and forth ain't healty. I was curious to see if rev. 0 would really work, however it seems that it won't (at least not my card).

[Effy]

The auction for these cards is ending in one day and nine hourse and is currently at 68,12 euro or 89 USD ... and the Infinitiv tower auction is ending around the same moment and is currently at 45,50 euro or 59,55 USD ...

[djbase]

No go. This BPPC rev. 0 definitely doesn't work with Grex.

I heard from one that has a BPPC rev0 (040/25 + 160) and it works with G-Rex.

[StormLord]

Anyone knows exactly whats the problems with a bppc rev0 ??
x56h34 says that it does not even display earlyboot startup in voodoo..
mine displays it correctly but does not init the voodoo3 monitor driver (maybe because i setup CGX 4 from the begining and not first cgx3...)
AmiGR ? do I need to setup CGX3 BEFORE going 4 ?
If I make it to work I will write a tutorial with all my experience and knowledge I have gain from this.
With too many new users registering in AO we need some tutorials so they can start to learn  8-)

[x56h34]

I'm using a BVision now with the same BlizzardPPC card and it works great. I can see the early-boot-menu and PPC boot menu just fine.

Grex 1200 is another story. :-(

I think that my rev. 0 card simply requires too much power in order to "trick" Grex into working. So far everyone that says that a particular rev. 0 card worked seems to be talking about a no-SCSI version. My BPPC is an 060/240/SCSI version, and I think that unless upgraded to rev. 2, its power management is simply not good enough for such a major attachment (an entire busboard).

[lordspider]

x56h34 wrote:

I think that my rev. 0 card simply requires too much power in order to "trick" Grex into working. So far everyone that says that a particular rev. 0 card worked seems to be talking about a no-SCSI version. My BPPC is an 060/240/SCSI version, and I think that unless upgraded to rev. 2, its power management is simply not good enough for such a major attachment (an entire busboard).

I was using the G-Rex with BPPC 060/200/SCSI and it worked. The card had revision 0, but I never used the SCSI because there was no cable with the card.

[x56h34]

@lordspider:

I don't know what to think anymore. :-)

- Maybe your Grex was tolerant of BPPC rev 0. cards more than mine is?
- Maybe your tested rev. 0 cards were all tolerant of Grex, unlike mine?
- Maybe my Grex busboard is faulty (it worked before with a rev. 2 card, but who knows...)?

Anyway, I don't think it's worth the trouble messing around with making my Grex work anymore. It's simply too demanding as far as requirements go for it to work.

[AmiGR]

As far as I know, the omissions in the Rev.0 board PCI logic are DMA related. I've never heard of a BVPPC not working at all (while they are supposed to), and if that works, the Voodoo 3 should too, DMA might or might not work, apart from the DMA stuff, the PCI bridge on the 1200 version is virtually identical to the BVPPC one afaik, the 4k version is different (includes full dma on all slots and parity support). Stormlord: if you're getting a signal on the early startup, the G-Rex *is* working. People, don't forget that many BPPC cards might be damaged. My own card sustained some damage when I did something pretty stupid that fried my mobo and PSU and found that PCI stuff with a dynamic PCI address (G-Rex stuff for example) don't work on PPC OSes anymore, the board returns an incorrect base address, while it works fine with static ones, or in 68k mode. (Yes, WarpOS/PowerUP stuff *do* work)