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Radius Pivot SE/30, large memory + Mode 32 - no mouse cursor
Posted by: Bendix on 2020-08-06 22:47:00
So I installed 68 MB (4x16 and 4x1) on my SE/30 with the Radius Pivot 4bit grayscale and now I loose the mouse cursor movement (click still possible), if enable 32 bit RAM access in the Mode 32 extension. Without the 2nd display connected everything works fine. The machine works also fine, if I disable 32 bit RAM access, but then the RAM upgrade is rather pointless. Do you think, this is connected to the ROM not being 32bit clean?

IMG_1762.jpg
Posted by: Bendix on 2020-08-09 00:11:21
Come on guys, this radius pivot setup with red and green connected to the blue line in order to get a greyscale picture on a vga TFT display is just a copy cat of numerous simliar configurations others posted here previously like @Bolleor @BadGoldEagle. None of you ever booted up his Mac with more than 8 MB ram? There must be some experience with this config somewhere out there, right?
Posted by: joethezombie on 2020-08-09 01:41:28
Exactly which pivot card are you using?  If the IIsi version, mouse movement issues can happen if the jumpers on the card are not set correctly.
Posted by: Bendix on 2020-08-09 03:21:59
It is this Radius Pivot SE/30 Display with upgraded VRAM (not on the pic).

View attachment 35217
Posted by: BadGoldEagle on 2020-08-09 16:46:36
None of you ever booted up his Mac with more than 8 MB ram?
Back when I was using this card, my SE/30 only had 8MB of RAM. When I upgraded to 32MB I also changed the ROM and removed the greyscale Pivot. I am currently on the lookout for the color SE/30 version. 

Here's the ROM SIMM I got: https://www.ebay.de/itm/GGLABS-512KB-MACSIMM-MAC-SE-30-IIsi-IIfx-flash-ROM-SIMM-64pin-Apple-820-0296-B/401282102630?_trkparms=aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20170511121231%26meid%3Df45c6f2ea1e34b19940bbb5e346a1b3f%26pid%3D100675%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D15%26mehot%3Dpp%26sd%3D401282102630%26itm%3D401282102630%26pmt%3D1%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D2380057&_trksid=p2380057.c100675.m4236&_trkparms=pageci%3A7d4056b1-dadc-11ea-a7af-74dbd1800bcf|parentrq%3Ad74e7b771730a9cb2cf7e342ffffef94|iid%3A1

It's a "stealth" upgrade: It comes preloaded with a IIsi ROM image (HD20 support) with ROM/RAM check disabled, is 32bit clean of course and has an SE/30 Gestalt ID (useful if you run 7.0 or 7.1). 

You just need to do a small hack to some system files to get it to work reliably. 

IIRC, my card also has a v1.0 ROM and it worked on 7.5.1 without any issues. 
Posted by: Bolle on 2020-08-09 17:32:34
IIRC, my card also has a v1.0 ROM and it worked on 7.5.1 without any issues. 
For those SE/30 grayscale Pivots that's the only ROM revision that exists I think.

Mine has v1.0 as well just like all the others I have seen so far.

ROMs from other Radius cards won't work with this card, because the EPROM also holds the configuration data for the FPGA, which makes the ROM specific to this card - unlike most other Radius PDS videocards where you can swap ROMs around between different cards.
Posted by: Bendix on 2020-08-09 18:02:24
Many thanks to both of you! I just ordered the systen ROM simm @BadGoldEagle recommended. Maybe you can give me a hint reg the small hack to some system files sometime or maybe this is described in the shipment.
Posted by: cheesestraws on 2020-08-09 18:44:41
Maybe you can give me a hint reg the small hack to some system files sometime or maybe this is described in the shipment.
Look here: https://www.bigmessowires.com/mac-se30-with-upgraded-rom/
Posted by: Bendix on 2020-08-09 19:46:41
Thanks cheesestraws, will do and then get back here to report, if this solves the paralyzed mouse cursor issue. I think it will take 2-3 weeks for the rom to ship from the US, it took at least that long for the 16 MB ram simms.
Posted by: BadGoldEagle on 2020-08-10 02:21:57
Hopefully that'll fix your issue. But at the very least you'll have a 32 bit clean ROM and you won't have to use mode 32, which can be buggy sometimes (and annoying if you don't have a PRAM battery).

Also, you must delete mode32 after you install the new ROM.  
Posted by: Bendix on 2020-09-16 03:50:37
I sadly have to report, that the 32 bit clean rom did not solve my problem of a freezing mouse cursor with a radius pivot SE/30 grayscale and more than 8 MB RAM. If the 2nd (pivot) screen is the main dektop I lose the cursor right after startup. With the SE/30 crt as the main screen it usually happens when I move a window to the pivot display.

But as BadGoldEagle said, at least I have a 32 bit clean rom now. So I put this into my 2nd SE/30 with ethernet, 128 MByte of ram and A/UX - now a fine unix machine. The radius pivot SE/30 has now 20 MB and Mode 32 in 24 bit mode. When there is no 2nd display connected to the Mac, I switch to 32 bit mode and have all the ram.  Otherwise I can only use the lower 8 MB. Still would be interested to learn if anyone else here has experience with radius cards and more than 8 MB.
Posted by: tact on 2021-07-06 03:05:11
I know this thread is a little old, but I had a similar problem with my radius pivot color card in my se30 with 68mb of ram 32bit clean using system 7 the mouse would freeze on startup only on the radius monitor. The issue was with the old ROM (I had v1.0) on the radius pivot card when using system 7 . The mouse would work just fine using system 6.08 but when using system7 the mouse would freeze. I updated the rom chip on the radius pivot card from v1.0 to the latest v2.6, I took the rom chip from a different Nubus version of the same radius card I got cheap on ebay and simply swapped the chip and the newer rom version 2.6 worked just fine in system7 now.
I believe someone uploaded some of the rom versions around here somewhere so people could flash a new rom chip to update their cards if they had the right equipment or find someone that could flash a chip for them would be easy to do but I didn't have the equipment to do so I found a card to take the rom chip from.

I hope this helps
Posted by: darkcruix on 2021-08-23 14:01:19
I have flashed the same card as discussed earlier with a 2.6 version of the ROM but the one i found was for the radius pivot color and it didn't work. If someone can help me with the same issue, I'd appreciate it.
The link to the ROM versions here: https://www.macintoshrepository.org/17294-driver-amp;-rom-for-radius-pivot-card
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