Converting AEC-6280 to work on a Mac
The AEC-6280 is an IDE PCI card intended for PC's. The AEC-6280M is almost the same card inteded for Macs. The AEC-6280 is usually cheaper and easier to find than the Mac version, but it cannot be used in a Mac even with a firmware update, without modification. This page documents how to convert one of these cards to work in the Mac.
Do not flash the firmware yet. If an unmodified AEC-6280 is flashed with the Mac firmware, the Mac will not boot with the card installed. If this is the case, the card can be placed in a PC and flashed from there.
Hardware modification
- R71 must be removed (the resistor highlighted in the image, located on the right).
- R19 must be replaced by a 1k Ohm resistor
Installed 1k Ohm resistor
Software modification
Now that the hardware modifications are complete, the firmware needs to be flashed. I flashed the firmware on a Win98 machine, but it should be safe to flash from a Mac at this point. Go to the Acard website and grab the latest firmware and flash the card. Reboot. You should now be able to boot from the card in a Mac!
Notes
The AEC-6280 only supports UDMA 66/100/133 drives. If you're planning on using Compact Flash with this card, make sure your card supports UDMA. Most CF cards do not.