Help!-A2091-2 drv lockup
10 messages in this thread
I've had an interesting problem with my 2091, and would like to know if
this is a documented and preferrably fixed defect.
I have a 2091 with a Quantum ProDrive 105 on device 0 and a ProDrive 80 on
device 1. Periodically when accessing both drives through 2 different
multi-tasking programs, the disk led would come on full and everything
would lock up. By pressing my ear to the case, I can tell that there is no
head movement going on. At this point, my only recourse is to re-boot.
This is bad enough as it is, but it has occasionally trashed files when one
of the programs running is writing to a file. My file gets trashed and the
system has to go through validation on re-boot.
Yesterday, this happened again, only programs that were accessing the 2
disks were obviously writing. In trying to re-boot, the system went into
validation on both drives and locked up EVERY TIME. I had to tear down the
system to pull the power cable on the 80 meg drive, re-boot to allow the
100 meg drive to validate. Re-connect the 80 meg drive and reboot to
validate it.
Besides taking up 2 hours of my time trying other things before I thought
of doing this, this procedure puts a real crimp in my productivity if I'm
going to have to do it periodically, not to mention I will be constantly
facing the fear of loosing data everytime I try to run 2 programs at once.
There has got to be a solution. I hope someone can help ASAP.
Here's my configuration:
A2000/A2620 2 meg (3 total)
Old fat Agnus (512k)
Rev 4.2 motherboard
A2091 0 meg memory
Prodrive 105 on 0
Prodrive 80 on 1
1 is terminated, 0 is not
A2088 Bridgeboard
A1010 as df2:
ADos/WB 1.3.2
Beginning of my Startup-sequence
movessp
SetPatch
zeroclear
FastMemFirst
binddrivers
setcpu fastrom cardrom s:cardromlist nopatch verbose
…
Thanks in advance for any help you can give.
– Don
Don,
Since I have neither a 2091 or Quantum drives, I can only pass on
"hearsay". I seem to remember hearing about similar problems, and think
its a problem with the way that the 2091 handles SCSI re-select.
Apparently, if you re-configure the hd's (via the HDToolBox), and indicate
that the devices DO NOT support re-select, the problem will go away.
Hope this helps….
…BobR
White Wolf Productions
Don, I remember seeing a service bulletin warning against using 2 scsi
devices on a 2091. I can't recall the specifics of the problem, I can look
for the bulletin tomorrow in the store. I do recall the bulletin saying
that new ROMs for the 2091 were being tested, but no word on when they
would be available.
I'd appreciate it if you would check out the service bulletin if you get a
chance. This seems like the kind of thing that should have been tested at
West Chester.
– Don
Don,
Ok, here's a direct quote from the service bulletin dated Apr/May/June 90.
That's the latest one we have.
—–Reported problems with the A2091 Hard drive controller, which cause
the system to lock up when accessing two or more SCSI devices at the same
time, have been traced to the Western Digital SCSI controller IC, WD33c93.
New ROMs, which are currently being tested, will be available next month
and will correct this problem without having to replace the SCSI
controller. You will be notified when these new ROMs are available. This
will be treated as an in-warranty repair.
—–end of quote.
I agree with you that it seems odd a problem like that could have escaped
testing. Perhaps it's specific to certain date codes or revision levels of
the SCSI chip… Maybe they changed vendors. But those are totally
unfounded guesses on my part. If your dealer has one, it might be
interesting to change the 2091 with another one and see what happens.
-Jim
Thanks for the info. I'll give CATS a call today, since I bought the board
through the developer support program. Maybe they can tell me who my
"dealer" is that will replace the roms "in-warranty" 🙂
– Don
You're welcome…. If you hear anything interesting from CATS, I'd be
curious to hear it. It might prove helpfull if someone locally attempts
such a configuration.
Jim
If Western Digital chips are involved, IMHO, no amount of testing would
have found it. I've yet to see a WD chip which performs to spec.
Victor A. Wagner, Jr.
Don,
I'll check with the technical people and see if there's a way to prevent
this.
Dave
Commodore Online Relations