Mediator hardware key?

[jbenam]

Hi mates,

I was googling around trying to find out a solution to my Mediator woes, and I suddenly found this picture on Elbox's website:
http://eu-shop.elbox.com/userdata/pu..._M1200_UPs.jpg

What's this hardware key they are talking about? I bought my Mediator 4000Di Mk. I used, and it didn't come with a CD.

Is this still a thing? Because I am not sure I have ever gotten these "hardware upgrades" for 2.x MMCDs - and I am not even sure that the files I have got are actually matching this "hardware key" thingy. What kind of issues could this cause?

Cheers!

[trixster]

The 4000Di Mk3 i bought came with the CD but didnt have any 'hardware keys'. Was this even a thing for the 4000D?

[kriz]

Yes I think these mach keys are only for the first A1200 mediator boards: http://eu-shop.elbox.com/en_GB/p/Med...dware-keys/655

[Jpor]

Originally Posted by kriz

Yes I think these mach keys are only for the first A1200 mediator boards: http://eu-shop.elbox.com/en_GB/p/Med...dware-keys/655

News to me

I’ve got 3 of them including the latest 1200 TX+ that just came out this year. I have the MMCD’s for all of them including the 4000 Di MKIII, 1200TX and 1200TX+

Unless this is something for the new 1200TX+ or the new 4000 Di MIV? My 1200TX+ appears to work fine with all 6 PCI slots occupied.

Possibly to do with the new PCI.Library v 14.00?

At the moment the Elbox website only has MMCD 2.6 update with 13.10 PCI.Library

[Jope]

If they came with the MMCD, you won't need an upgrade as far as I understood it.

[Jpor]

Originally Posted by Jope

If they came with the MMCD, you won't need an upgrade as far as I understood it.

I do know if you don’t have the MMCD with the Mediator then you can’t implement any of the update packages without it

Not sure how you go about it if it’s one of the first Mediators that just came with a floppy disk

Maybe worth contacting Elbox support

[jbenam]

Originally Posted by Jpor

Unless this is something for the new 1200TX+ or the new 4000 Di MIV? My 1200TX+ appears to work fine with all 6 PCI slots occupied

It's definitely an old thing, might be only for Mediator 1200s, though?

Originally Posted by Jpor

I do know if you don’t have the MMCD with the Mediator then you can’t implement any of the update packages without it

Not sure how you go about it if it’s one of the first Mediators that just came with a floppy disk

Maybe worth contacting Elbox support

But how does the hardware key work, I wonder? It's a generic Mach chip upgrade for old Mediators? Only 1200s need it? It's very confusing...

I have already written to the Elbox support, let's see what they answer.

[Jpor]

Originally Posted by jbenam

It's definitely an old thing, might be only for Mediator 1200s, though?


But how does the hardware key work, I wonder? It's a generic Mach chip upgrade for old Mediators? Only 1200s need it? It's very confusing...

I have already written to the Elbox support, let's see what they answer.

The MMCD that comes with the mediator boards have the software drivers for the PCI board as well as drivers for graphics, sound, network, TV cards etc.. as well as extras such as Warp3D. As far as I am aware the MMCD discs are not keyed to any CLPD version. I have even used one on a A1200 first gen Mediator board. Then upgraded using the MMCD update downloads off Elbox.

[jbenam]

Originally Posted by Jpor

The MMCD that comes with the mediator boards have the software drivers for the PCI board as well as drivers for graphics, sound, network, TV cards etc.. as well as extras such as Warp3D. As far as I am aware the MMCD discs are not keyed to any CLPD version. I have even used one on a A1200 first gen Mediator board. Then upgraded using the MMCD update downloads off Elbox.

That's what I thought as well, as I have never heard anyone having these kind of issues - just scaremongering then?

[Daedalus]

I have one of the first generation Mediators, and I had to upgrade the Mach chips to use the MMCD. It's not a key as such, from memory it was to enable DMA between cards, which is needed for most of the MMCD-specific drivers like 100Mb ethernet, audio and TV cards. Graphics cards, 10Mb ethernet cards and some others don't use DMA like that and don't need the upgraded Mach chips. After a certain point, all Mediators shipped with the upgraded Mach chips already fitted.

[jbenam]

Originally Posted by Daedalus

I have one of the first generation Mediators, and I had to upgrade the Mach chips to use the MMCD. It's not a key as such, from memory it was to enable DMA between cards, which is needed for most of the MMCD-specific drivers like 100Mb ethernet, audio and TV cards. Graphics cards, 10Mb ethernet cards and some others don't use DMA like that and don't need the upgraded Mach chips. After a certain point, all Mediators shipped with the upgraded Mach chips already fitted.

Is there anything alerting you to this fact? Like a warning in the installer or something?

I have a very first generation Mediator 4000Di and I have been having plenty of issues with VoodooMemOS and I am not sure if I have the upgraded MACHs or not - I wonder if VoodooMemOS needs upgraded MACH chips to work?

[Jpor]

Originally Posted by jbenam

Is there anything alerting you to this fact? Like a warning in the installer or something?

I have a very first generation Mediator 4000Di and I have been having plenty of issues with VoodooMemOS and I am not sure if I have the upgraded MACHs or not - I wonder if VoodooMemOS needs upgraded MACH chips to work?

You might have a different issue then. Which Voodoo card? If it’s the Banshee then you will have difficulty. Voodoo 3 to 5 you can add it. Same for Radeon 9200 to 9250. I’ve even got 1200 towers with both cards and use the 128MB off the Radeon as FastRAM whilst still using the Voodoo 4 for primary RTG.
Don’t forget in the 4000 Di boards there are jumpers. On my Mk IIImthere is one for setting RAM under or over 256MB. Not sure about yours?
Also have you downloaded and updated the MMCD to version 2.6 and tried pci.library at version 13.10? As all these are also fixes in a software sense.

I take it after installing you are using “Medconfig” afterwards to choose the Mediator board and what cards you are configuring? The MMCD updates have also got updated versions of Medconfig which you can run to configure.

[jbenam]

Originally Posted by Jpor

Also have you downloaded and updated the MMCD to version 2.6 and tried pci.library at version 13.10? As all these are also fixes in a software sense.

I take it after installing you are using “Medconfig” afterwards to choose the Mediator board and what cards you are configuring? The MMCD updates have also got updated versions of Medconfig which you can run to configure.

It's a very long story, and I have at this point literally tested almost everything.

It has got its own thread: http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=107445

I've opened this thread because I started wondering after seeing the "hardware key" if my lack of "original" MMCD that came with the board could've been the root of the issues.

At this point I am still not sure if I have got one of the upgraded MACHs or not...

EDIT: After downloading a bunch of old ISOs and reading through Elbox's news updates, it seems like they had MediatorUP packages, which were for "classic" Mediators, and MM_CD_UP packages, which were for Mediators upgraded with the new MACHs.

Originally Posted by MediatorUP 3.12 news update

MediatorUP 3.12 is the last update for these Mediators, which are not equipped with the Mediator Multimedia CD. From the next update Mediator System Files will be part of the MM CD UP, the new System Files will not support Mediators without MM CD keys.

Also, according to:

Originally Posted by MediatorUP 3.10 news update

Voodoo.card ver. 4.26
- the first common Voodoo.card version for MM CD and no-MM CD users
- support for hardware de-interlacing in overlay added

So it seems they merged the code-bases at a certain point.

The cut-off point for older Mediators, was 2.0 (as expected). VoodooMemOS was added in 2.0, so it might be that the issues I am having are because I don't have the MACH upgrades.

I can see a "MM" sticker on one of my chips, and it seems like another one had a sticker on it at some point.

Does anyone else remember if these indicated the new MACHs?

[Kin Hell]

@ Jbenam

If it's any help, I had to swap a couple of MACH Chips out as per link http://eu-shop.elbox.com/userdata/pu..._M1200_UPs.jpg in order for a Mediator 1200 to work. - 12 years ago ffs....

As Daedalus experienced, my Mediator was also an older version & drivers from the Elbox website refused to work. - I had no MMCD until I paid for the MACH Chip upgrade kit.

Iirc, these MACH Chips require replacing from time to time in line with Software updates from Elbox. - They might refer to them as Keys but I'd be more inclined to call them a Firmware Update.

My original experience can be seen here:

https://www.amibay.com/forum/amibaye...rt-to-ravestar

Unfortunately, not all the Photo's accompanying this thread are complete. See posts #16 & #20/page 2 for MACH Chip upgrade.

I would imagine if you could find the original CD for that particular release of 4000Di, (if they were available back then) the Mediator should work fine. - However, even if you did, it would not work with recent Elbox updated drivers without the newer MACH Chip upgrade.

Cheers.

[jbenam]

Originally Posted by Kin Hell

As Daedalus experienced, my Mediator was also an older version & drivers from the Elbox website refused to work.

Hi, thanks for your very informative post!

Could you please expand on the "refused to work" part? What did happen without the upgraded MACHs? Did you receive an error message? Did it just guru or something when loading the driver?

I am trying to understand if what I am facing here might be a symptom of non-upgraded MACHs or not...

I agree in them being just upgraded firmware chips - when I had opened this thread I was thinking of a per-device serial embedded in the CD somewhere, which in turn meant that every CD was linked to a certain Mediator... Luckily enough it doesn't seem to be the case

[Kin Hell]

Originally Posted by jbenam

Hi, thanks for your very informative post!

Could you please expand on the "refused to work" part? What did happen without the upgraded MACHs? Did you receive an error message? Did it just guru or something when loading the driver?

I am trying to understand if what I am facing here might be a symptom of non-upgraded MACHs or not...

I agree in them being just upgraded firmware chips - when I had opened this thread I was thinking of a per-device serial embedded in the CD somewhere, which in turn meant that every CD was linked to a certain Mediator... Luckily enough it doesn't seem to be the case

No errors of any kind. The PCI Cards refused to Setup under OS3.9 & OS4.0 wouldn't even run the install, bombing out at the select language part....

I'd like to think if you go ahead & buy the upgrade kit, install the MACH Chips carefully, then all should be good. - Just be very very careful getting the 0ld MACH chips out. Those sockets will be quite brittle with age.

Good Luck!

[Nobby_UK]

I have a Rev 1.0 PCI 1200
2 of the 7 chips (U3 +U5) have MM stickers
as show in the Pic