2091 HELP
11 messages in this thread
Help! I just replaced my CLtd Kronos board with the new 2091. Worked just
fine with my Seagate ST157N, but ran into problems with my external drive.
It is an Okidata 540 with an Adaptec 4070 SCSI-RLL board. The drive
formatted and verified fine, but when I went to format with AmigaDOS, I had
READ/WRITE errors. Also, the HDTools program would not let me change the
bad block list properly. I entered 5 bad blocks and went to save the
changes, but only 2 changes were saved! Is there a bug in the tool program?
Also, why can't I change the interleave? Any help will be greatly
appreciated. Bob
Bob: Your problem with the A2091 and the 4070 SCSI-RLL sounds all to
familiar. When I traded in my A1000 for the A2500/30, I was planning to
keep my CLtd disks to hook up to the A2091. Like you I had an Okidata RLL
drive (a 33 MB one, I don't know the number), hooked to the SCSI via an
Adaptec 4070. I spent alot of time up here on CIS, and no one had any
help. The only thing that anyone suggested was that the Adaptec didn't
follow all of the SCSI standard (but I didn't think that anyone did…),
and at the much higher rate that the 2091 goes it was missing some subset
of the handshaking that was required. Anyway, some folks suggested that I
replace the 4070 with the equivalent Omti board (I'm not sure of the
number) which apparently is much newer and much faster. I eventually sold
my drive and controller as a package to another A1000 owner. Now I'm
desperate for more disk space. I hope you have better luck. I'm really
curious, so if you do find a solution, please let me know.
Steve (74375,1514)
Steve, sounds like you are right and I have already lined up a buyer for my
package. The OMTI 3527 board is the one you are talking about. I can get
one from Comp-u-save in New York for about $150, but I'm going another
route by buying new drives. Now I've got other problems that you may be
able to help with. I got my 2091 without any manual because it was removed
from a 2000HD to accommodate a customer who didn't want the Hard drive. I
now have a Seagate ST-1096N mounted on the 2091 board and a Seagate ST-157N
in an external case. How do I get the system to see the external drive as
unit 1? No matter where I put the jumpers on the drive, the system thinks
both drives are unit 0 and won't boot. I suspect I have to do something on
the 2091 board, but without the manual, I'm lost. Can you look it up in
your manual about how to connect external drives? As soon as the store gets
more cards in, they promised me a manual, but I'm impatient. Thanks,
Bob(75766,1474).
Bob: I looked thru the A2500 manual in the section about the A2091, but
didn't see anything that might be causing your problem. In the 2500, the
A2091 is set to SCSI address 7 and the 40Meg Quantum is at address 6. When
I had my CLtd drives I had them set up at address 1 (logical units 0 and 1)
and didn't have any problem. There must be a jumper somewhere on the drive
that you are missing. I'm especially curious about your problem because
I'm about to spring for an external drive – hope there isn't a similar
problem looming for me. Sorry I can't help! Steve (74375,1514)
Hmmm… My 2091 is LUN 0 and the drive is SCSI address 0. What does the
manual say about the three option jumpers on the board? My external drive
jumper is set for address 1 and I removed the jumper on my internal drive.
The system still forces both addresses to 0!!! I think the option jumpers
are the key. When I get it working properly, I'll let you know. Thanks for
the help, Bob.
Bob: The options jumpers are (from top to bottom):
1) LUN Enable – Set this to on if you have more than one LUN per
SCSI address, otherwise off.
2) Time-out length – Set this one to on if you are using a
drive with a long spin-up period (the A2500 manual gives
some Seagate drives as examples). This keeps the controller
from timing out before the drive is ready on power up.
3) Reserved, factory set to off. I don't know if that helps any… I
played with both when I had my CLtd drive, as I had added a slow drive on
the Adaptec to give me two LUN's at SCSI address 1. Anyway, good luck!
Steve
Ok Steve, that's the info I was looking for. I had already figured them out
though I wanted to be sure. With jumper 1 set, my internal Seagate was all
7 lun's!!! I now am able to get the system to boot with both drives
connected. Here's one of the problems I found. Originally, my ST157N was
internal and set for the first partition to be bootable. When I got the
ST1096N, I put it inside and moved my ST157N to the external case. It
appears that the system was looking at both drives and seeing a bootable
partition on each and causing the system to hang. The fix is to format each
drive separately and set up the partitions as non-bootable. Then connect
them both and run the install software. Still have one problem. The second
drive is not there upon boot, even though the HDToolbox sees it. It shows
as unknown every time. Tomorrow I'm going to remove the termination
resistors from the internal drive and I suspect it will correct the
problem. Talk about frustration!! See if your manual says anything about
the terminators. Thanks for all the help. I'll let you know if I am
successful. Bob.
Bob,
ONLY the last drive in the chain should have terminators.
Don
Thanks Don. I finally got everything working. Seems that the buss driver
current on the 2091 can't drive a 10 foot extension cable, even though SCSI
standards call for up to 9 meters! Seagates tech help said that because the
internal drive is possibly on a separate buss that I can probably leave the
resistors in. It works fine that way. He said if I was daisy chaining on
the external buss then I should remove them on all but the last. Keep the
10 foot cable problem in mind in case any other users encounter problems.
Bob – 75766,1474
Robert,
I've got a 10 foot cable on my A2090 (predecessor to the A2091) and
it works fine. The SCSI spec calls for 6 meter cable…not 9 (although 9
would probably work) max for single ended devices (which both are).
No…the A2091 doesn't have 2 SCSI busses…although the host
adapter (what's commonly called the "controller") can be anywhere on the
bus so it could appear that it has 2 busses. The A2091 *should* (don't
know if it does) have termination built into it (SCSI busses need to be
terminated on both ends) and stubs are permitted. I *believe* the internal
connector on the A2091 is simply a stub…not another end of the bus. As
such, if you've got an internal and external drive connected, terminators
should only go on the external drive.
However, all that aside…if your setup is working…leave it alone
as long as you're not having problems.
Don
Thanks Don. I don't have the terminators installed on the internal drive,
so I guess I'm ok. The 2091 does have them on it. I tried the 10 foot cable
again and it doesn't work. I even put a meter on the conductors to make
sure no wires were broken, so I guess the drive current on the buss just
isn't up to snuff. I noticed the SCSI chip on the board says 'Proto', so
maybe the next version (sigh!) will bump it up. I'm going to cut the cable
to about 4 feet and solder a connector on it. I'll let you know if it works
out. Can't wait to solder all those wires! Bob.