SyQuest Advice
32 messages in this thread
I'm getting a SyQuest 44 meg drive soon. A few questions: will it operate
in a vertical configuration? My A2000 stands on edge, with the power
switch at the "top" like a tower case. The SyQuest would mount in the 5 1/4
drive bay. Also, I've got a GVP 030 Combo board – any known troubles with
it and a SyQuest? Next, I'm looking for a cheap source of cartridges, and
advice about things to do or not to do in order to make it as reliable as
possible.
I've already bumped into carts (on other people's systems) that act flakey
– they don't mount, they suddenly get errors, etc. Any anecdotal advice
about treating these right?
I have a GVP 030/882 with the SyQuest 44 hooked up to it (in an A2000).
Have six cartridges I use regularly with -0- problems. Have done so for
about one-two years now. Two freinds here in town also have SyQuests, one
hooked up to a stock A2000, another to a commodore 030 and 2091 controller.
Neither have had any problems. We have no problems swapping cartridges
either.
As far as reliability, I voiced a comment here that folks made fun of once,
that my computer was in a fairly 'dust free' room (hey, it's just a regular
room in the house, but we actually sweep it each week…. I know, hard to
believe:). Given that the SyQuest is not a 'sealed' cartridge, I still
believe that just treating the cartridges right, and not getting crap all
over them, will go a long ways to avoiding problems. OK, fire away 🙂
I've heard anacdotal comments about reliability (even to the extent that
one person said that SIX cartridges wouldn't work for them), but I've never
been able to figure out what actually happened….
Have no idea about vertical orientation. Sorry.
–jp–seattle–
John–
Here's my advice/lowdown on SyQuest 44 drives:
First: I have successfully run them on GVP Series I and Series II SCSI
controllers; since the Combo board presumably runs the same ROM, and comes
from the same company, I would guess *NO* problems.
The carts tend to hold up well, as long as they are babied a bit. In
other words, always keep them in their case when not in use; avoid dust and
smoke like the plague; do not leave one in the drive for days at a time….
I work in a hostile environment; there is a terrible amount of dust
(printer's offset powder) in the air. Out of 12 carts, only one does not
work well. The carts seem to have a heat problem (hence, not leaving them
in the drive for very long periods)…or perhaps, it is the lack of a
filter in the carts that caused this one to go bad. This is the only one
that I leave in the machine all the time, especially when rendering for
days on end (since my present setup, which is admittedly odd, likes to have
one around).
I also have one hanging off of a Mac II cx…absolutely no problems
there.
I would suggest APS as the vendor. They are cheap, know their stuff,
and offer a good warranty. I believe that the warranty extends to the
carts, although I have not tried this on my flakey cart.
I do not hestitate to recommend the SyQuest – its the best for the
money, IMHO.
Jonathan
– via Whap!
Yes, I bought my CD-ROM drive from APS, they served me well.
Jonathan,
Have you ever investigated the possibility of `tradeing' in old
cartridges? Do you know of anyone who refurbishes them? I had one that went
south and it took me about 10 trys to get it to format but I finally got
it. But it would be nice if we could get something for old cartridges that
we can no longer use.
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Skip–
There is a reason why I buy my carts from APS…that is the one year
warranty. Haven't had any die when purchased from them…don't know if
there is a trade-in source, either.
Jonathan
Jonathan,
I'll have to check them out. With all these 24 bit files and morphs and
animations and you name it, I'll need a couple dozen maybe;-)
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You forgot one other problem with the SyQuest. No matter how many
cartridges you get – you always need one more! 😉 I used to think that my
120megs of HD space would be more than I would ever need. Now I wish I
could afford to buy SyQuest carts. by the case!
-Paul-
Paul–
Yeah, I know what you mean. Might be time to start looking at the 88 meg
version…hmm..
Jonathan
John:
I guess you're looking for info about SyQuest drives & the Amiga. I have a
SyQuest hooked up to my 2000 via a GVP Combo 33mhz68030/SCSI/memory board.
I have at the present time 9 different cartridges, and so far I've only had
one cart that was bad (it was bad when I bought it, and I promptly
exchanged it at my local dealer), and one other that while it works 100% it
sort of makes strange noises, I probably should have exchanged it when I
first got it, but I didn't. Of the other 8 cartridges I've never had a
moments trouble with them, and my environment is anything but a 'clean'
environment! I smoke around the computer constantly, the computer is in a
room with thick carpeting that seems to attract dust (every time I open my
machine I remove LOTS of dust from inside), and to top it off I have a four
year old daughter who has upon occasion knocked into my desk (typical
$99.00 cheapo computer desk – not very stable) and sent one or more
cartridges (in their boxes) about 4 feet from where they were on the desk
to the floor, and it's never caused a problem. I've also dropped them when
getting into or out of my car onto the street (also within their case), and
that too hasn't seemed to effect the cartridges at all. I know that I'm
pushing these things by doing these things, but I guess that I'm just not
the gentlest of people (I've already accidentally thrown my brand new
cellular phone on the floor (or street) a few times, thank god it's a
Motorola, not one of the cheaper Japanese ones (I had an Oki, but it didn't
survive me too well, so I replaced it with the Motorola).
Back to the SyQuest drives, I've basically mishandled mine for about 1.5
years now with NO ill effects at all. I've had it hooked first to a GVP
seriesII SCSI controller, then on a Microbotics HardFrame, and now on the
seriesII combo board, and it's worked flawlessly with all of them, and I've
never even had to reformat them between controllers (this is more a
testament of Microbotics & GVP's adherance
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[ continuation ]
to the RDB specs). I just got the newest version of FastRom (or FaaastRom
if you prefer) version 4.4 that I'm going to install tonight, it supposedly
will allow the GVP to work properly with the new 20meg flopticals, and
might even make it work properly with the older Konica 10 meg 5.25"
floptical drives that I'm selling, if so I'll stand a better chance of
selling them than I do now. If I can help you any more just ask.
-Mike Schiller
In sunny Fort Lauderdale
Thanks for the lengthy reply! I don't smoke, like to keep my computer area
clean of dirt and dust, have a far-too-heavy computer desk – so it looks
like I'm home free! Biggest problem now is that my A2000 currently has two
hard drives, and I'm going to need to swap a 50M for the SyQuest, in order
to have enough power to go around, and my present SCSI cable only has two
ends on it.
Any further advice from anyone else would be appreciated re: these new
"problems" – with a Toaster, 10 M of RAM, a modem card, a second SCSI
controller, I don't think I have enough juice to run three hard drives: a
Quantum 210, a Q52, and the Syquest, plus the 030 card. I think I'm at the
limit of the power supply. Maybe I should run one of them externally with
its own supply. The Syquest would be the best choice for that, I think,
except I'd need to find a box for it and a supply for it.
John:
The stock A2000 has more juice in it than you might think. I have a bomac
tower case here, and it has more bays than a normal A2000. At one time I
had 2 HD's, a SyQuest, a BB floppy (and of course the BB to go with it,
complete with every PC Slot filled), and I might have even had a free Amiga
slot, although I really don't remember if I did or not. Anyway all this was
powered off the stock Amiga power suppy with no problems. I've since
slimmed down my system (I removed the BB and all it's assorted cards &
drives), I switched from a 2630 card to the GVP Combo, so freed up several
slots (I had an 8up, HardFrame, 2630 – all replaced by the Combo), and for
the added cooling I've added another power supply (the bomac tower will
accept the 'baby AT' style power supply as well as the stock Amiga one) for
all my 5.25" devices. Actually now that I've trimmed down my system I've
given it more power, but I really didn't need to as the stock supply seemed
to be doing the job.
-Mike Schiller
In sunny Fort Lauderdale
Mike,
I just recently picked up a Bomac tower myself. Sure has lots of room!
I'd like to add a second power suppy also. Where did you pick up yours?
And about how much was it? Will any `baby AT' style work?
Paul:
I got the baby AT power supply at a local PC store (The Byte Shop) here in
Ft Laud. What you should do is to remove the plate that covers the squarish
hole behind the 5.25" bays (the one with one of the screw holes offset),
and take that down to your local PC dealer, and make sure that the mounting
holes on the powersupply line up with the holes in that plate. As you might
have guessed by now, that's where you mount the extra powersupply! The way
I wired it up was to jumper out the switch wires on the supply, and then I
hooked the power cable coming out of the Bomac to the AT powersupply, and
then using a monitor powercable (for PC's) I went from the PC to the Amiga
powersupply, so that both come on with the one switch, and with only one
wire plugged into the wall, as it seems when there are Amiga's around there
are never enough power outlets! 🙂 I hope this info helps.
-Mike Schiller
In sunny Fort Lauderdale
Thanks for the info! I want to get one soon and take a load off of my
Amiga's power supply.
The Byte Shop….that's where I bought my first Amiga! I'll never forget
that day. I convinced myself the day before that I'd wait to buy an Amiga,
and that morning I woke up and HAD to get it that day! One of the better
purchases I've ever made. 🙂
Steve
John,
If you don't smoke, have a computer area free of dirt and dust and a far
too heavy desk, Syquest isn't for you! Pamper it too much and it acts up!
My Syquest and/or carts have never given me any problems at all and my
environment is much like Mike's.
Also, I purchased my Syquest from my dealer. It is an OEM'ed product
labeled Total Peripherals (a Mac peripherals company) and is an external —
very nice molded plastic case about the same color as my 3000, and power
supply. I think I paid $500 for it. On the 3000, it was just plug and go.
-sja
Mike –
Are you sure about that 4.4 version number? I just upgraded a couple of
months ago and they sent me 4.0, which they said was the latest. If they're
up to 4.4 now, I should probably call them and find out what's been
changed/fixed. Thanks …
Harry
Harry:
My local dealer has 4.4 ROMs in stock. I called GVP today, and the person I
spoke to didn't know much about it, she thought 4.0 was the latest, so it
is possible that my dealer got a beta lot, as he does lots of business with
GVP, and always seems to get their stuff in before others. I was hopeing
that the 4.4 ROM would allow the GVP controller to work with the Konica
KT-510, but with no luck, still has the same problems. Another small touch
about the 4.4 ROM is that unlike the 4.0 release which would come back as
version 3.16 if you did "version gvpscsi.device" this one returns the
proper version (4.4), so I guess they were able to get their marketing &
technical people to agree on a version number this time.
-Mike Schiller
In sunny Fort Lauderdale
Mike –
Thanks for the info. I'll wait 'til sometime next week to call, maybe by
then tech support will have caught up to engineering and marketing 8^).
Harry
Hey, Mike!
Sorry I couldn't talk to you longer when I was at TCR the other day…I had
to get back to work. Anywho, Does the 4.4 firmware seem to make your tape
drive behave better?
Steve
Steve:
Hmmm… Now that you mention it, I wonder if that's the cause of my
problem? Ok, I'll backup a moment. When I installed the 4.4 ROM I also
installed a newer MegaChip board (I'm sending my old one off to DKB for
replacement with the newer 500/200 style, so got one from Brett to install,
will replace it with DKB's replacement), as well as installed an external
CD-ROM drive. I also reinstalled one of my Konica KT-510's to see if the
4.4 would make it work (Mark thought it might), and soon found out that the
Konica is still not supported. At the same time I noticed that the fastrom
wouldn't notice my tape drive on the bus anymore. I took the Konica out,
but then had all sorts of problems with my 2 internal Quantums, and thought
it might be a termination problem. (the terminator is removed from all the
internal drives except the Konica, so there was no termination. The CD-ROM
I bought has a switch option for termination, so I thought I was OK there.
A couple of days later I tried plugging in an external terminator I had
here into the CD-ROM and seeing if that helped. Well, it solved the
problems with the Quantums (my 170meg drive sometimes wasn't recognised),
but the tape drive still isn't recognised by the system. It might be that I
need a terminator on it as well, as it's currently the last physical device
on the SCSI bus internally. Do you happen to remember off hand if the C=
manual shows where the terminators would go on the Caliper drive itself?
(mine is now an internal drive in my Bomac tower) Do you also happen to
know what the useable limit is to a SCSI bus? I'm not sure, but I think I
might be over the limit with my current setup, as my external cable to the
CD-ROM is either 6' or 8' (I'm not sure), and my internal cable is about
5-6' due to all the crazy twists and turns it needs to make because nothing
is standardized regarding connector location or orientation on internal
drives!
-Mike Schiller
In sunny Fort Lauderdale
Mike,
I don't think there was anything in the manual about how the tape drive is
terminated. I remember looking for it, and I couldn't find it.
There can be only 7 devices, 0-6, on the SCSI bus….5 or 6 feet for a
cable is a bit long. It might be the cause of your problems. I bet Larry
P. would be able to give you the right answY.'8bout that.
Steve
I think they recommend ten feet total, including all those little short
bits and a fudge factor for what's on the board.
Well, I seem to have found my problem. It seems that GVP's new Fastrom
(I forget how many a's they use) versions 4.0 & up have a problem
with 2 quantums in one machine. It seems that at power up the system
will only recognise 1 of the quantums. I'm gonna talk to GVP about
this real soon.
If 5 or 6 feet is too long boy am I in trouble! If I add the lengths
of my internal cable & external cable I've got between 11 or 12',
just a wee tad over what you mentioned!
Nope…you're ok. Max length is a bit over 19'…and that's just
the spec. I've seen them work just fine with longer cables….but too much
longer, and you are asking for trouble.
Steve,
Total cable length is 6 meters (a bit over 19 feet). Stubs, or
short cable peices between the actual bus and the device, may be up to 4"
long.
And just a bit of a nit…there can be 8 devices on a SCSI bus (ID
0-7) but the host adapter is one of them…and is usually set at ID 7, it
doesn't have to be ID 7. So depending on what ID you have set..or the
factory set…on the host adapter, the other devices may be anywhere
between 0 and 7.
5 or 6 feet is well within SCSI standards and should be no problem
with correct termination and a good controller. Would this problem
possibly be on a A3000? I'm hearing a lot of unusual drive problems
with the A3000.
Another thing about the Syquests. When you push the eject button, some
carts come out nice and easy. But SOME are like little rockets. The button
will push kind of hard and if you aren'y ready, the cart will literally fly
out. Almost knocked out my dog once:-). Now he waits to catch them:-).
The only trouble I've ever had is when I had mine hooked up to my A500
with a TrumpCard. The controller was an older version and I had lots of
problems at first. With my 3000, no problems at all. Oh…except that when
I formatted one of the carts, it ended up as HS: instead of DHS as I
intended. Still havn't figured that one out yet….
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