Need SCSI configuration help :(

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

I'm very new to Amiga SCSI, and am banging my head against a wall on this one.

I recently upgraded my A500 GVP Series II controller to a Mechware card reader on the 50-pin internal header.  Note my dilemmas in my http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=64506">previous thread.  After several late nights of struggles I think I've got it working well.  Boots, no errors, able to open & save files, move files around, etc.  All three partitions are under 2GB and MaxTransfer set to 0x1FE00.  I've got the card reader configured as unit 1 (my original hard drive was unit 0), and the termination jumper on since the unit doesn't seem to want to boot without that (even though my original hard drive had no jumpers on it).  I don't even get an early startup screen without that jumper on the card reader on.  I've also got about 300 buffers per partition in HDToolbox.

So now I'm trying to re-add my external SCSI CD-R drive which previously worked fine.  My internal HD was set to 0, the CD drive was set to 5 and had an active terminator plugged into it's second port.  Basically when I bought it off ebay I didn't have to do anything, plugged it in to the 25-pin external header on the GVP and it worked fine, only now it's error city.  

- If I set the card reader (on the internal header) as unit 1, with termination, and the CD drive as unit 0, no termination, I get errors before Workbench even loads.

- If I set the card reader (on the internal header) as unit 1, with termination, and the CD drive as unit 5, also with termination, I'm able to boot into Workbench, but get errors attempting to copy files.  I can copy them off the CD drive and into RAM: fine, but when I try to copy them onto the CF card I get errors.  Suspect they're getting corrupted.

Notes:  With the Mechware reader on the internal header and the original hard drive plugged into the CD drive's external case everything works fine.  Flip-flop that, put the Mechware reader in the external chassis and the original hard drive in the GVP it also works fine.

What am I missing here?  Logically I would think it should go something like this:

GVP controller ---> internal Card reader (1) ---> external CD drive (0) ---> Terminator

However since the card reader doesn't boot without that termination jumper on, I've got a round-about series.  Still I'd think

GVP controller ---> external CD drive (0) ---> internal Card Reader (1) ---> Terminator

Should work, no?  Am sure there's an obvious answer to this, but right now I want to throw the guy who invented SCSI out the window, LOL.  

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

The external terminator is powered through the CD drive.  I've attached a pic.  

*I think* the GVP unit sees the combination of internal and external devices as a single chain ().  So I should have no terminator on the external drive (when I configure it as ID 0) and a terminator on the card reader (since it's configured as ID 1).  That way it should work whether the CD drive is turned on or not.  But when I try it this way I get errors before Workbench even loads.  

The errors when copying from the CD to RAM: to the CF card are unrelated, they only come up when I "break the chain" and configure the card reader as 1 (with termination) and the CD drive as 5 (with termination).  But hey, at least Workbench boots this way!  Aargh.  :-/

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

To think I almost had it!  Configured card reader as ID 0 *and terminated*, configured external CD drive as unit 1 *and terminated*, changed that pesky CD0 mountlist file to Unit = 1...  rebooted, and "Not a DOS disk in device DH0".  Somehow hosed my boot partition.  FML.  I'm getting really good at re-installing my OS onto CF.  

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

I'm not sure that really answered the bus powered/device powered question...

The scsi hdd I have, has jumpers to power its own terminator, supply power to the bus (for active terminators on another device), or use the bus for power for its own terminator.

Not sure I understand the question.  The card reader has four jumpers on the bottom, three for configuring device ID and one marked "Termination".  I assume this means "termination on or off".  I have to leave it on or else the computer doesn't boot - doesn't even give me the early startup screen.

The external CD drive only has buttons on the back for changing it's device ID, and a big 50-pin centronics header for plugging in the termination thingy.  If I remove the drive from it's chassis I can see there's a lot more jumpers on the back but I haven't messed with any of these because it was working fine with my previous hard drive, all I'm trying to change is the hard drive for a card reader.

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

on another note!

my cdrom drive, connected externally to the A590 scsi controller, doesn't work properly when I have the tomthul 8meg enabled in my A500...

Does your A590 also have memory installed in it?  Might be a buffers issue, or a DMA thing?  All I've got is 1 MB chip (motherboard + modified trapdoor memory) and 4 MB fast (in the GVP).  Not a complicated setup at all, killing me that it doesn't want to work right...

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Reinstalling, what's that? Disksalv for FFS, and PFS3 has PFS doctor. Both restore everything back to how it was :-)

What model is the SCSI card reader and are you using the PCMCIA adapter?

Yeah, I haven't downloaded either of those yet.  One day at a time, getting this thing up and running.    Does PFS work with just a 68010?  In any case, reinstalling for me right now means just plugging my old HD back into the external chassis that the CD drive uses, and copying about 40 MB of files over onto the CF.  Not too big a deal.

It's a Mechware PCD-60B card reader, and I'm using the PCMCIA adapter with a 4GB Transcend x133 CF card.  Wouldn't work right just plugged into the CF slot on the reader (HDToolbox wouldn't save settings).

I've reinstalled now and have configured it as:
- Card reader, ID 1, termination on
- CD drive, ID 2, termination on
- Updated my CD0 entry to Unit = 2 (had been forgetting this step a few times)

It's now booting, and sort of working, but I'm getting a ton of checksum errors copying files from the CD drive onto the CF card.  I can also copy them off the CD drive and into RAM:, but then copying from RAM: to CF gives the same errors.  I don't get these errors when the CD drive isn't plugged in, like if I'm just dragging big files around on the CF card it works fine.  :-/  I've already added hundreds of buffers, 200 on the CD drive and 300-400 on each of the CF partitions.  Any ideas?

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Okay, I've tried lowering my MaxTransfer on all CF partitions to 0xFE00 (whatever that means, I think it's lower than 0x1FE00), and just for giggles added 2500 buffers to one of my partitions.  I still get erratic errors trying to write even small files onto the CF, even snapshotting icon positions gives errors.    But all these problems go away as soon as I unplug the CD drive.

And that's another thing - when I had my hard drive inside the GVP if I didn't want to use the external CD drive I could just cut it off with it's power button.  Now when I do that the Amiga refuses to boot.  If I don't want to use the CD drive now I have to physically unplug it from the controller.  Again, the only change I've made is replacing the GVP hard drive with a card reader.  Ugh!  

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

...just buy a mac :p

Excellent suggestion.  

For your A590 + tomthul memory board issue, have you tried physically removing the memory from the A590?  Maybe "disable" doesn't disable it enough?  LOL.  

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Well, once again persistence pays off and I got it working.    Not going to list them all but it feels like I tried every combination of MaxTransfer value and jumper setting (and saw every possible error message), before finally settling on a solution that would work.

Here was the winning answer, for anyone who comes across this post in the future:

- GVP controller with internal Mechware card reader, SCSI ID 1 and termination jumper on, 4GB Transcend "x133" CF card in the PCMCIA slot using included adapter.  MaxTransfer set to default of 0xffffff (a tip from Mechy) and 100 buffers per partition
- External SCSI CD-R drive, Microboards PlayWrite, that I got for $2 off ebay and couldn't find any documentation for.  Configured as SCSI ID 2, removed the large external terminator, removed the "Term Power" jumper off the drive itself and moved it to the "Terminator" pins.  This appears to be the change that made it finally play nice with the card reader.

Also took this time while the CD drive was out of it's housing to remove the wiring for the external audio ports, an unused activity LED and wiring, and an extra fan that had noisy bearings.  Figure the increased airflow possible without the extra wiring crammed in there will offset me removing one of the fans.

Works great and I can copy files with no problems, although I still want to toss the guy who invented SCSI out a window.  

Last, some hardware pr0n before I put the covers back on everything:

...working great, I love it, so what's my next project to keep me up all night cursing?  Add an accelerator to this mess!  Ha!