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What have you done with an early Intel recently?

ToniCH said:
If its SATA then the OWC Accelsior S will provide a good improvement (around double or more) vs. the internal SATA bus, which is super slow.
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The problem with that card is its controller uses just one PCIe 2.0 lane, so you're looking at ≈400 MB/s. A card that uses e.g. a Marvell controller with two lanes would be better. I'm getting over 500 MB/s from an 88SE9235.

Correction: the card does use a two-lane Asmedia ASM1062.

ToniCH said:
But even any of the cheap dummy NVMe to PCIe cards + a NVMe SSD will triple the performance vs the Accelsior S.
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NVMe SSDs are not bootable in a MacPro3,1 OOTB. AHCI SSDs are, they're even bootable in a 1,1. A Samsung SM951 will do ≈1500 MB/s.
 
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Amethyst1 said:
The problem with that card is its controller uses just one PCIe 2.0 lane, so you're looking at ≈400 MB/s. A card that uses e.g. a Marvell controller with two lanes would be better. I'm getting over 500 MB/s from an 88SE9235.


NVMe SSDs are not bootable in a MacPro3,1 OOTB. AHCI SSDs are, they're even bootable in a 1,1. A Samsung SM951 will do ≈1500 MB/s.
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Yes, my read speed test results in a cMP 5,1: internal SATA bus ~260mbps, Accelsior S SATA ~540mbps, KryoM.2 + NVMe ~1490mbps and expensive Lycom card + NVMe ~2850mbps. Putting 2 NVMe's into the Lycom card + RAIDing them didn't improve anything over 1 drive so I guess the PCIe bus limit was hit?

I believe the Accelsior S should deliver similar performance in cMP 3,1 when installed to 16x PCIe slot.

Well, if the NVMes do not boot in cMP 3,1 then something else, like you suggest. But, can you with OCLP enable NVMe boot? I think I've seen such option. If yes, then surely it can be enabled without OCLP too?
 
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First up is my 2006 MBP. I previously had a Windows XP/Snow Leopard dual boot config, but in the interest of giving SL more disk space and the audio being way louder on the Windows side than on the OS X side, I decided to setup Windows in Virtualbox. Was initially going to be XP again, but not feeling like dealing with the product activation crap or its workarounds, I went with 2000 instead. 2000 works well, though after installing the guest additions, it takes much longer to start up now. I also found that the AC 97 is the way to go instead of Soundblaster 16 for sound. Once this was set up, I was able to change my cassette/vinyl digitization workflow and did something I should have done years ago: use Audacity for recording and LP Ripper to split the recording into separate tracks. I use Audacity in SL, boot up the VM after recording, open the WAV file from Audacity in LP Ripper thanks to Virtualbox's shared folders feature, split the file into individual tracks, then convert the tracks to AAC using SL's iTunes. Much happier with this setup than the previous one, expcept for the boot time of the VM.

Over on my 2012 MBP, some changes were made. I was experiencing a problem with Sonoma where when I woke the laptop from sleep it would freeze up on the login screen. Sometimes the login prompt would appear, sometimes only the background image would show up. Then the screen would go black and I would have to do a hard shutdown. Despite having a good amount of battery left, I would always have to plug the MBP in to do this step. When this happened once, I thought it was just a fluke. When it happened multiple times over the course of several weeks and various Sonoma and OCLP updates, I decided to downgrade to rule out Sonoma/OCLP. I chose Mojave because I need HS or newer for Handbrake and I wanted dark mode, but didn't want to use Catalina. I haven't seen the freezing issue since the downgrade. Downside to the downgrade though is things like the Discord app no longer working in Mojave, so I used Virtualbox 6.1.50 and used it to make an Ubuntu VM. Performance is pretty good, but I've been having trouble getting the app store to open. Then again, I've had times where the app store wouldn't open on real hardware. Overall, I think I will keep the 2012 on Mojave for the foreseeable future. The ThinkPad can handle daily driver stuff that requires an up to date OS and iTunes is still able to uncloud my old TV and movie purchases, so at the moment I'm good. I am a bit concerned about futureproofing, namely how much longer Mojave's iTunes will be able to connect with the iTunes store, but I would rather keep this Mojave setup going than go back to OCLP patched OSes right now.
 
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MacFoxG4 said:
Was initially going to be XP again, but not feeling like dealing with the product activation crap or its workarounds...
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Okay but for future reference you could've used the corporate version of XP that does away with serial keys and product activation. It was a godsend for whenever I had to install or repair install XP. ;)
 
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Sworn a lot at it, that's what I've done. Having sat and ordered all the parts for getting it going properly, it now will not power up at all. Zilch.
Very frustrating.
 
DCBassman said:
Nope.
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My iMac G3 had a similar episode after I installed an SSD. Pulling the RAM and reinstalling them, pressing the CUDA button and temporarily switching back to a spinner did the trick. If you've not done so already, it might be worth trying this and resetting the SMC by removing the power cable, waiting 15 seconds before reconnecting it and then wait another 5 seconds before attempting a cold boot.

DCBassman said:
Will find the service manual.
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Great. Keep us posted. :)
 
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Absolutely dead.Have carefully stripped out the PSU and blown out a lot of fluff, checked for damaged cables etc, etc.
Nothing. Replace RTC battery, which was a step to take regardless - nuffink.
There is barely any 'snap' when the power cord is inserted into the unit, so it may be the PSU has just upped and died.
RatsRatsRats.
:mad:
 
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DCBassman said:
Absolutely dead.Have carefully stripped out the PSU and blown out a lot of fluff, checked for damaged cables etc, etc.
Nothing. Replace RTC battery, which was a step to take regardless - nuffink.
There is barely any 'snap' when the power cord is inserted into the unit, so it may be the PSU has just upped and died.
RatsRatsRats.
:mad:
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Rats, indeed.

If you have a multi-meter on hand then you can test the PSU to confirm that it's dead. There's someone on eBay UK selling a 3,1 PSU for around £20 GBP but it's untested...
 
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It's often cheaper in the long run to first investigate if the parts you buy actually fit your computer, or in case of the repair parts first investigate if the part you are replacing is actually faulty. You can throw cheap parts to computer they do not fit or fix and end up with expensive collection of useless parts.
 
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DCBassman said:
I have an old Fluke 29 somewhere... but what do I test?
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This isn't something that I'm familiar with, unfortunately. Maybe another member will be better informed. If not, I'll investigate later and see what I can come up with. However, I've had a look through the Service Source guide and on P.159 I found this information about verifying the power supply:

sZFRUnx.png


Have you tried this yet? If not, it's a worth a go - at least to confirm the situation.

DCBassman said:
And I found another at #17.71 +p&p, which was taken from a working 3,1, so I've grabbed that. Suddenly not-so-cheap!
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Where old gear is concerned, we have to brace ourselves for these unexpected - and unwanted costs. Look at it this way, you could've paid more for the Mac Pro and then experienced this issue and had to shell out £££ to replace the PSU. :)

I bought a brand new Mac that lasted no more than an hour after its unboxing...
 
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Yup, ran through all of that, and a good deal more. There's no life to be found, at all. No LEDs anywhere lighting up, and the logic board reset switch (at least there is one!) ineffective. One slight glimmer of hope is that there's not a dead short somewhere, as I'm fairly certain that would have produced some heat or olfactory clues! So a dead PSU still seems the most likely answer.
 
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ToniCH said:
Don't throw it away even if you get a working one to replace it. PSUs can often be repaired and you might need it in the future.

I have a G4 MDD PSU waiting for recapping as its showing early signs of failure.
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Indeed, I might yet have to build one out the two!
 
I have owned a Bose Soundlink I Color (mild irony that mine is white :D ) since 2017. The battery finally has bit the dust so was researching a replacement for the battery. The only drop in replacements I could find were rare and around $26 for a battery/pcb/leads drop in package. I stumbled upon an ifixit repair for just the battery, salvaging and reusing the pcb and leads section with a Panasonic NCR18650B battery. I found this on ebay for a paultry $8 bucks USD. They'll come to me on the slow boat from China it looks but I can wait.

I used my Trusty 2008 a1278 aluminum unibody macbook running Lubuntu for this research. Speaking of Lubuntu, I have not figured out a fix for the slow boot up, but the performance boost Lubuntu has brought to this old mac once into its gui is excellent. It's been a few months of DDing Lubuntu on this portable and I have no plans of replacing it with anything else. It is a snappy experience with plenty of apps for all sorts of needs. It's been so nice on this macbook, that I am considering learning how to fix the installer so it is 32bit and will install onto my 1,1 cMP. That machine crushes ElCap but I think a separate partition of Lubuntu on it would rock some socks.

Obligatory screen capture below.
screen3.jpg
 
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ToniCH said:
Don't throw it away even if you get a working one to replace it. PSUs can often be repaired and you might need it in the future.

I have a G4 MDD PSU waiting for recapping as its showing early signs of failure.
Click to expand...

DCBassman said:
Indeed, I might yet have to build one out the two!
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Just found an answer on iFixit that points out the symptoms I have is a relatively simple fault on the AC inlet side of the PSU. What the actual fault is or might be was unfortunately not discussed, but it does narrow the problem down a bit.
 
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DCBassman said:
Just found an answer on iFixit that points out the symptoms I have is a relatively simple fault on the AC inlet side of the PSU. What the actual fault is or might be was unfortunately not discussed, but it does narrow the problem down a bit.
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Well, open it up and take a look. Sometimes the faults are visible like bulging or blown caps, burned transistors or other burn marks. Don't touch anything big though, caps might still have charge. ;)
 
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