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Author Topic: Help .....Adaptec 2940UW SCSI problem.  (Read 17661 times)

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Offline AdMartin

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Re: Help .....Adaptec 2940UW SCSI problem.
« Reply #29 from previous page: August 13, 2004, 07:38:37 PM »
A simple question, do you have a terminator attached at the end of the Wide SCSI cable?

/Martin
 

Offline dnelsonfl

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Re: Help .....Adaptec 2940UW SCSI problem.
« Reply #30 on: August 13, 2004, 10:39:09 PM »
The Adaptec controller has a setting to turn off display of the "Press CTRL-A ..." message. It will still respond to CTRL-A, though, and once in the BIOS you can change the settings. I believe the message is off by default. Adaptec controllers also came in two flavors, OEM and Retail, and both were a little different in some ways depending on the model. The exact model is very important: the AHA-2940UW and AHA-2940UW PRO differ in how many connectors you are allowed to use at one time as was mentioned earlier. Also, the BIOS updates are model specific and the OS drivers for the AHA-2940UW PRO will work with the AHA-2940UW, but not vice versa. You'll want to try and get into that CTRL-A BIOS setup, though. If the drive is seen in the BIOS, then you can concentrate on figuring out why the OS isn't letting you see it. It doesn't hurt to double-check the termination settings. I've had a drive that I thought I had set up termination correctly, but after downloading information from the manufacturer, I realized I had it slightly wrong. You might want to check your settings against the documentation from the harddrive manufacturer just to be sure. Good luck! :)

-David

 

Offline melottTopic starter

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Re: Help .....Adaptec 2940UW SCSI problem.
« Reply #31 on: August 14, 2004, 05:17:42 AM »
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Assuming the initial poster really isn't seeing any Adaptec messages whatsoever when booting, I'm leaning towards the Macintosh ROM/corrupted card BIOS theory, at least as the next thing to try. AFUV220.EXE (Adaptec.com) is the appropriate update if this is a 2940UW non-Pro (as it probably is); you'll need to reboot to "DOS Mode," unpack it (self-extracting executable), and run whatever it is you run to make it work.
----------------
This is correct...... I see the card listed in the Bootup
but 'Ctrl-A' won't get me into the Bios.
Also my card is taged as an 'AHA2940"W"/AHA2940UW'.
I found no listing of the 2940"W" /2940UW at Adaptec,
What I found is the AHA2940"U"/2940UW, I don't know how much
difference that would make.
I tried making a DOS boot disk as per docs but that doesn't
work eather.
I D/L'ed the AFUV220.exe file and will try it tomorrow.
Stealth ONE  8-)
 

Offline yogisumo

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Re: Help .....Adaptec 2940UW SCSI problem.
« Reply #32 on: August 14, 2004, 06:28:09 AM »
Not being able to get into the bios is a pretty good sign that somebody tried to flash the bios and screwed it up.  I had that problem with my 2940UW.  If you are going to flash it, do it in a system with a pci video card and nothing else in it.  In my case, I had a Matrox AGP card in the slot and the flash appeared to go well.  Even got success return code but flash was still screwed.  Adaptec tech support says to remove all cards and flash only with barebones system... It might work for you without going to all this trouble but...  You definitely want to make sure you don't have an IRQ conflict...
 

Offline hikermike

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Re: Help .....Adaptec 2940UW SCSI problem.
« Reply #33 on: August 22, 2004, 11:23:52 PM »
As to "fictional", the above information is what came with my Adaptec Card.  You will get conflicts with the different bios"s, however, the mixed up flash sounds like it was the cause but then why would one disk show up and not the other?
The comment "conflicts are easily fixed if you know what to do" is not helpful cuz that's why they're asking the questions.  Some of us like to Use our computers, not spend the day messing with them.  (Then why do I still fire up the 'ol 2500 and fix another broken part?)  Anyway, I wish he'd post the final outcome!
 

Offline yogisumo

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Re: Help .....Adaptec 2940UW SCSI problem.
« Reply #34 on: August 22, 2004, 11:35:29 PM »
One disk might show up if it was scsi fast and the other might not because it was scsi ultrawide.  The Adaptec bios allows you to set the speed of each drive/id.  It also allows you to turn allow or disallow each id to be included in the bios scan.  The bios settings might still be set but the corrupted bios would not allow changing the settings.
 

Offline melottTopic starter

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Re: Help .....Adaptec 2940UW SCSI problem.
« Reply #35 on: August 23, 2004, 03:48:28 AM »
I guess the card is parically broke.. It does reconize
a 50 pin drive although the "Adaptec Bios loaded" does
NOT show in the boot up.

I bought another AHA 2940W/ 2940UW card and it works
fine. It shows up in the boot as loaded.

Now all I have to do is get these 68 pin Compaq drives
to work :-?

Stealth ONE  8-)
 

Offline Floid

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Re: Help .....Adaptec 2940UW SCSI problem.
« Reply #36 on: August 23, 2004, 06:05:06 AM »
Quote

melott wrote:
I guess the card is parically broke.. It does reconize
a 50 pin drive although the "Adaptec Bios loaded" does
NOT show in the boot up.

I bought another AHA 2940W/ 2940UW card and it works
fine. It shows up in the boot as loaded.

Now all I have to do is get these 68 pin Compaq drives
to work :-?
Is the new card having equal trouble with those, or are you just talking formatting?  I've missed what you're using for termination, so I'll have to look back in the thread as to that.

If you just mean formatting, there's a good chance there *are* bad things that could happen to zap only the wide chain (my understanding is that pretty much any SCSI controller that routes the chain through the chip is odd like that -- it 'should' just be straight through, but in practice, the chip has to act as a sort of active bridge to compensate for the different electrical properties of silicon vs. cabling, so there are 'transceivers' for both wide and narrow sides that could theoretically blow)... but if you can't get the Compaqs to show at all, you might want to double-check whether they're HVD, or just dead!
 

Offline hikermike

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Re: Help .....Adaptec 2940UW SCSI problem.
« Reply #37 on: August 24, 2004, 08:07:43 AM »
Another situation.  I was throwing out old computer books tonite and as I was thumbing through an old PC Repair Book, in the scsi section it mentioned the following about the Adaptec  2940 specifically.  If the harddrive your using to boot was used with a previous scsi card, the 2940 will not recognize it as it writes a specific file to the harddrive.  At best they suggest rewriting the MBR but say that  probably  won't work and you'll have to reformat the Harddrive completely including the MBR.  Is that the situation?
 

Offline melottTopic starter

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Re: Help .....Adaptec 2940UW SCSI problem.
« Reply #38 on: August 24, 2004, 03:30:46 PM »
@HikerMike

No .. this system has never had a SCSI controller in it
before. (I built it myself)

I don't know why the first 2940 card doesn't work in
68 pin mode. I bought another card (factory refurbished)
AHA 2940UW  and it works fine.
The problem now is it won't do the drives that I bought
it for. They are (new) Compaq 4.3 gig 68 pin LVD drives.
I D/L'ed the error codes from Adaptec but I can't make
sense of them, they don't match the error massages I'm
getting from the BIOS.
Stealth ONE  8-)
 

Offline RiP

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Re: Help .....Adaptec 2940UW SCSI problem.
« Reply #39 on: December 10, 2016, 08:20:06 PM »
Just bought 2940UW but it can't find my Quantum ProDrive LPS 50MB SCSI, just stuck in Scanning SCSI ID after pressing Ctrl+A :(