#WarpEngined 3000
21 messages in this thread
I sympathize with you, believe me. I'm still going through odd hells with my
WarpEngined 3000, and the tech support I've received has been all over the map.
I'm not sure anymore that it's the WarpEngine's fault, although the machine
does work just fine without it. For some reason, once I installed my
replacement WarpEngine, my 3000 stopped locking up except in the first few
minutes or hours after being turned on–depending on how long it was turned
off; a few seconds means one or two quick lockups, a few minutes could mean
many hours of annoyance. Power failures and circuit breaker trips are a real
b*tch though.
Dennis @ MacroSystem has been somewhat helpful–he gave me no problems about
replacing my first WE–but I am royally ticked off that he first told me to
replace my 16MB SIMM, which he was 95% sure was the problem. An unsupported
type, he told me. So I did–at a cost of well over $300–and it didn't help a
bit.
One current theory is that I need a new motherboard, but one would cost over
$300, which I really can't afford, and no one has one in stock anyway.
And then there's another problem–my 3000 won't boot unless my tape drive w/
external termination block is attached to the 3000's native external SCSI port.
I'm wondering if I can somehow terminate the port alone and then put the tape
drive on my external WE connector. And I'm wondering what this problem means,
but Dennis hasn't been very helpful on the subject.
Oh well, I didn't mean to rant on at you about this–just an opportunity for
catharsis I guess. My 3000 locked up in the middle of this message, since I'd
turned it off about an hour ago to attach some cables to my Ad516 and also test
the tape drive situation, and I had to retype it.
I swear, I've completely taken apart and rebuilt my 3000 close to 50 times, if
not more. And I just found out I could have traded in my Progressive 040
board, gotten for $425, and partly defective, and sold for $225, plus $500, for
the very WE that I paid over $1400 for. An $800 difference. I swear…
Mr. Zombie
Ouch, that trade-in thing sounds painful! (Is that direct through
MacroSystems?)
Sorry to hear fo your continued problems. Were you ever able to swap out
the DMAC & RAMSEY?
The termination thing sounds kind of weird too. I assume you left the
terminators on the 3000 motherboard?
BTW, what version of the SCSI util is MacroSystems shipping now? The one I
got with mine over a year ago was never able to setup the RDB on my 1GB
drive correctly….
Erik Flom
Yah, I think the trade-in is direct. I read about it in the current Amazing.
With my current money problems, I can tell you, my stomach just dropped right
through the floor.
I never touched the motherboard terminators, and I assume they're there since
the machine worked fine without the WE and without the tape drive, but maybe
that's something to check. Where are they?
As to the SCSI util… whatever the version is, it bites petrified horse manure
sticks. I bought a 1gig drive a few weeks ago–a Seagate Hawk, Fast
SCSI-2–and I couldn't configure the drive, but I think it was the drive,
because I tried it on the native SCSI, and my dealer tried it on his Fastlane,
and it just didn't work. What did you wind up doing?
Oh well, soldier on.
Mr. Zombie
Did you buy the WE direct from MacroSystems? If you paid them near retail,
you _might_ be able to give them a real good sob story….
The motherboard terminators are located near the 50 pin IDC connector
leading to the internal SCSI devices – they're kind of jumbled around the
connector, not in a row like you'd expect.
I remember I had trouble with one or two external devices when they were
hooked up to my 3000. I seem to remember that the system wouldn't power up
if the external device was on.
Hvae you tried switching JP1 (terminator power) on the WE. While it's a
long shot, maybe the extra load is causing a problem? Do you have anything
hooked up to the external WE SCSI connector?
The only problem I have with _my_ 1GB drive is that I can't set the
AutoMount flag. If it's set to mount, the WE will crash immediately after
polling the drive. I've tried low level RDB reformatting with all
available programs, but can't seem to get rid of a MicroBotics driver that
somehow got itself embedded somewhere, at one time.
As it stands, I have to use SCSIMounter to mount it every time I boot. (I
guess I could do it in the startup, now that I think about it….)
Marching to the beat of a different drummer……
Erik Flom
Erik-
Try out HDInstTools, which is in a file called Oktins.lha, I think, in the libs
here. It's Oliver Kastl's, of Oktagon fame, and it's first rate. Put a
DEVICE= tooltype, and use the menu item Expert Mode. It's worth a try, anyway.
My replacement drive just came in today. I hope I don't have that problem.
I'll have to check out the termination resistors next time I open up the
machine. I finally managed to get my 3000 to boot without the tape drive
attached–by sticking a pass-through passive terminator on the end of the cable
and leaving the cable on. I haven't even installed the external WE connector
yet, because I don't see how I can do it with the materials included. There's
the external adaptor cable, and a little connector that's supposed to go in a
Zorro slot port, but I don't think it's big enough to fit by itself. And most
of all, I don't think the internal ribbon cable that came with the WE will
reach and still allow an internal hd. So I'm going to have to call Dennis
again, about that and the termination issue.
This whole thing is so lame. I promised Jason at Amiga Report a review of the
WarpEngine over a month ago, and I still haven't finished it. I'd gotten 2/3s
through, and then had to reformat my Work partition. 🙁 I do have a printout
somewhere though.
Arrgghh!!
Mr. Zombie
Erik-
Unfortunately, I bought the WE from my dealer, who purchased it directly from
them. I guess I'll drop a hint to him, but I don't want to give him any
trouble. He's a good friend and a great guy. Should be appearing online here
soon, too–he's Sean Hannon's partner.
Mr. Zombie
Your dealer _might_ have a better chance of working some kind of rebate,
especially considering all the problems you're having with the board?
I'll definitely check out the Oktagon installer (I thought I had them
_all_! :^)
Interesting problems with your A3000 SCSI?!?
I assume you don't have the WE plugged into the A3000 SCSI bus in any way?
Other than that, I'd definitely play with termination power….
(Did you move any drives _onto_ the A3000 SCSI bus, and are they setup
correctly for the new configuration? [I know, these are obvious questions,
but I'm running out of ideas.])
BTW, I made my own SCSI cable for the WE in my A4K. I just used a 50 pin
Centronics SCSI, and hooked it into a spare slot opening with some cable
ties. Works great! (Cost about $7)
Good Luck!
Erik Flom
>>I assume you don't have the WE plugged into the A3000 SCSI bus in any way?<<
<BG> I've done some pretty dumb things in the past, but nothing *that* stupid!
When I open up the machine to put in the new hard drive I guess I'll take a
look at the termination resistors. For now I have a terminator on the end of a
SCSI cable attached to nothing except the external port, and things are working
like they were with the tape drive hooked up–which is to say poorly, but the
machine will boot most times.
>>(Did you move any drives _onto_ the A3000 SCSI bus, and are they setup
correctly for the new configuration? [I know, these are obvious questions, but
I'm running out of ideas.])<<
Nope, at this point I have my stock Maxtor SCSI-1 internal 121MB (formatted)
drive on the ribbon cable attached to the WE. I don't have docs about the
drive, though, so who knows how termination should be configured–or how to
configure termination on the drive? I'm hoping that the lockup problem *is*
termination, because I have a manual for the Seagate, and I'm going to call
Dennis to ask him what to do to be sure.
When I stick the new drive in, I'll also put in my !!$79!! external SCSI
connector and re-hook-up the tape drive. I assume you just have a ribbon cable
connector in the slot opening? What's a cable tie? ACK!!!! $7!!!! I hate
you!!!! <g>
Mr. Zombie
Actually, you _could_ plug the WE bus into the A3K SCSI bus, and even use
them at the same time! You'd have to change the Host ID number for the
native A3K SCSI, and be a _REAL_ glutton for punishment (}:^), but you
_could_ do it ! (Not sure why you'd _want_ to though?….But, then you
could just go out from the WE to the DB-25 SCSI on the back – good luck
running SCSI-II, though…)
So, you don't have _anything_ plugged into your A3K SCSI right now?
(Short of that external terminator?)
I just made a long ribbon cable with a Centronics 50 pin connector on one
end – it _just_ fits into the slot opening on the back of my 4000, and
then I used four cable ties to hold it in place. (2 ties through the hole
on each side.)
BTW, cable tie = the little white nylon, single-use straps to hold wires
in electronic projects, that you can get from Radio Shack for about
$3/100…..
Erik Flom
Oh well. I got suckered then, cause I paid &79.95 plus $20 shipping for
MacroSystem's gizmo, which I haven't even installed yet. What did you attach
the ribbon cable to on the inside of the computer? There are two connectors on
the ribbon cable that I got, and they're very close to each other, so I can't
stretch that ribbon cable over to a slot opening. Is there such a thing as a
male to female ribbon cable, so that I can plug the male end (with the same
kind of connector as on a drive) into the free connector on the internal ribbon
cable and then stretch it over and plug the female connector into the male
connector on the slot-hole-widget that they sold me? Did I even write that in
comprehensible English? (It's been a long day.) I guess I should call Redmond
cable tomorrow as well as MacroSystem.
Anyway, no, except for the external terminator, I don't have anything plugged
into the A3k's SCSI now. But unless I'm misunderstanding you, I wouldn't have
to mess with the host-ids to get both working, because they're different
controllers.
Mr. Zombie
I just bought 10 feet of 50 pin IDC cable, and some connectors, and made
my own cable to just the right length. (It's real easy to use a hammer to
install the IDC connectors – once you've practiced on a few! ;^)
I _think_ I just attached the cable ties to a mounting plate and screwed
it into the empty slot above my T4000 card.
(Who says the Toaster wastes _two_ slots?!?)
If you don't have _anything_ on the A3000 SCSI, I _could_ see a problem –
since the SCSI chain is supposed to have terminators on each end, and
you're only running with the one set on the motherboard…..
My comment about changing the A3K controller ID was only if you were going
to run both controllers on the _same_ bus.
Erik Flom
Yah, I guess the termination problem is because the drive was terminated when
it was on the 3k's SCSI bus. So I do have terminators on my motherboard.
Whheeee!!!!
>>My comment about changing the A3K controller ID was only if you were going to
run both controllers on the _same_ bus.<<
Huh. I didn't even know that was possible at all.
I'm *REALLY* hoping that the problems I'm having are because the drive is
terminated, the WarpEngine is terminated, and the tape drive is terminated…
except I just realized that the tape drive isn't attached for now, so there
shouldn't be a termination problem. 🙁 It just goes to show, as usual, that I
have no idea what's going on.
Anyway, turned out that MacroSystem sent me the connector for the 4k's
knockout! So they're sending me a new one. 🙁
Mr. Zombie
(It's real easy to use a hammer to install the IDC connectors – once you've
practiced on a few! ;^)
I love ingenuity 8^) For my warpengine cable I used a large bench vise we have
at work. Didn't even think of the hammer solution, and I'm an electronics tech
by trade. We use large hammers for everything else <g>.
// John (Warp 4040 & Emplant Quadra 840)
\X/ Mercury@ins.infonet.net
Paul,
You were wondering if you could terminate the port you use for your
tape drive with the drive disconnected (or at least that's how I interpert your
comment (no quoting ability yet)…
I've got a GVP Series II connected to my A2000/040 (Fusion
Forty) and a tapedrive (Python, external) also. Since I don't like the noise
the Python makes, and I only use it for backups, I've taken to terminating the
SCSI cable and leaving the tapedrive off most of the time. Seems to work fine
here!
Asha
Asha-
Lo and behold it fixed the problem. I attached a termination block to the end
of the cable, and now the machine boots. I wonder now whether I need to fix
the terminators on my motherboard–and whether that might not be my main
problem to begin with. So now as soon as I install the WarpEngine's external
connector I'll have the tape drive back.
Mr. Zombie
Paul,
I had a lot of problems with termination and the GVP Series II. At the
time, it was still possible to call them and TALK to someone so we did. They
seemed to be just as in the dark on what did what and why things weren't
working as we were. I could never, for example get a CD ROM Drive to work
externally on my A2000/040; it was never seen (tried different software
options, different terminations, you name it). I've been told that I could
have put it internally and it would have worked, but I've got my harddive in
the 5 1/4 inch bay and there just isn't any room for a CD Rom Drive. So my
husband took it and put it in his clone…sigh…
BTW, when we fooled around with the Series II terminators nothing
worked at all….sigh…
What bothered me the most about GVP's support was that whenever
they couldn't figure out why something wasn't working, they'd blame it on
Commodore…sigh…
Well, maybe GVP's new owners will do it right! 🙂
Asha
Asha-
Yah, termination can be really confusing. People over in the clone world have
similar problems sometimes. I just hope I can get an external CDROM drive
working, because I'm going to need one now.
Mr. Zombie
Paul,
Good luck with your termination and the CDROM drive! I still hope to
get a 4000T with its own CDROM built in (hey, I'm a dreamer..:) ).
Take care!
Asha
Asha,
Do (or did) you have any other drive hooked to your exernal SCSI chain when
you tried to connect your CD-ROM or was the CD-ROM the only drive in the ex
chain.
I am asking because I have the same set up (minus a CDROM) and have been
having troubles getting a second SCSI device recognized in the external chain
(I have a Syquest hookup also). So, I suppose I have been in a state of denial
thinking that I can hook up a CDROM externally without removing the Syquest.
Thanks for bringing me back.
The Worst That Is..
Is Better than the Best that Could Be.
Michael,
I have a tape drive connected externally (SCSI) and did when I tired to
connect the CDROM drive. The tapedrive (Archive Python) works virtually all
the time. Every once in a while (say every six to eight months) it'll forget
that it's there. So I turn it all off, unplug and replug it, turn it all back
on and it's just fine.
I haven't tried hooking anything else externally to the SCSI setup so I
don't know about Syquests etc.. Good luck!
Asha