PCI GPIB not working on older Mac

[JustinK]

Hi-

I just bought a PCI-GPIB, and can't get it to work.   When I go into the control panel (NI-448 Config),  the Interface Type drop-down has the PCI option greyed out, preventing me from configuring it properly.  When I run IBDIAG PCI, it identifies a card, but when I test, it produces "The application "IBDAIG PCI" has unexpectedly quit, because an error of type 1 occured....."

I am trying to get it to work on a PowerTower Pro 225 (an old PowerPC mac), with 128MB ram.  I have OS 8.1 and 9.04 on the machine (I boot form either of two hard drives), and have the same problem with both OSs.  I installed drive 7.6.6.  The GPIB card is one of the small form-factor cards.  The card has the following markings: N114, 113150B, Copyright 2003 PCI-GPIB.  The chip has the following markings:National Instruments, 0430DFY,TNT5004-AQ.

Thanks,

Justin

[ScottieB]

Justin,

The TNT5004 PCI-GPIB boards will not work in old Mac computers due to a firmware difference.  You must specifically order a Macintosh PCI-GPIB kit to get the other kind of board that has a TNT4882C chip on it.  See paragraph 6 of the solution in this KB: http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/websearch/027DAA04316B440A8625694C007C0971?OpenDocument

The TNT5004 board that you have will, however, work on a Mac OS 10.3.5 computer with the newest 2.3 driver.  Hope this helps.

Scott B.

GPIB Software

National Instruments

[jsmanson]

Scott/others, I need some clarification on the PCI-GPIB board compatibity issue with the old Mac's.

I have a PCI-GPIB Card, Rev 183619B-01, TNT4882C that I have been using successfully in a Mac PowerPC 9600.  It works fine there.

I tried putting this card in a slightly newer G4 PowerPC "Digital Audio" Mac, which is running two operating systems - Macos 9.2.2, as well as Mac OS-X 10.4.11 (Tiger).  The card does not work in either operating system, using the appropriate downloaded Nat Inst. drivers for these OS's.  The boot with 9.2.2 results in a crash as soon as the system starts up, and OS-X loads OK, but can't read the card (Fails diagnostics).

I see that this card, which is designed for Mac OS9 systems, cannot be used in OS-X systems, and so I understand now why this card won't work in OS-X, but I am puzzled why it won't work in OS9.2.2 (NOT running as a classic window, booting directly to 9.2.2).

Is it possible that this card just can't be used in this machine no matter what OS I use??  Or would it run under OS9.1, but not 9.2.2???

Thanks

John Manson

[jsmanson]

Scott et all - as an update to my previous post - The card part number I read off the back of the card - the sticker on the front tells me it is a rev G card, 4882.

So, I'm seeing, based on another KB article I found, that I probably need to update the firmware on this card in order to get it to work in this G4 Machine (533mhz single processor).  The KB talks about running the firmware update either from windows 95 or 98, or OS-X V10.3.   Not having any of these OS's installed (I have 10.4.11 OSX and Windows 7 64 bit), I'd like to ask if he firmware updater was ever modified to run in later versions of either OS-X, or windows.  Otherwise  it's going to be a bit work for me to rig up a win 95 or 98 machine.  Win xp may be less difficult.  There may also be a way to 'fool' the firmware updater to think it's running windows 95 or 98, but it's actually running in a later version of windows, but I'm not sure I want to risk buggering up the card if the update does not work properly......

John