IBM Internal CDROMs, Quad Speed

[MiAmigo]

A conundrum: Picked up a couple of IBM internal SCSI CDROMs, quad speed, from eBay. Was hoping to use these with my A2000s, however, after several frustrating sessions trying to get the computer to see them (or even BOOT with one chained to a hard drive), I’m starting to think that maybe these CDROMs aren’t compatible with the Amiga.

Either that, or they're BOTH defective, which wouldn’t be all that unusual, considering them came from eBay.

They have jumpers for Parity and Sector size, along with Terminator and Term Power, and of course, device ID. I set ID numbers, careful to avoid ‘7’ (my G-Force 68030's ID number) and I made sure that my HD had a different ID than the CDROM. I even experimented with Parity and Sector size.

Nothing, nothing, nothing! The machine will boot with the HD or the CDROM alone, but not chained together, all I get is a steady drive light.

Are these quads too fast for the A2000? Are there certain brands not capable of working with Amigas? I am at a loss, and looking to shelve these for some other hardware option, if I can’t solve this soon. Any thoughts, insights, ideas, or obvious stuff I missed?

[MiAmigo]

AND Its resolved! The solution is so long and detailed (or convoluted?) I won't post it unless someone else finds themselves in a similar position, at their wit's end, and REALLY needs it! Suffice to say scuzzy is well-named!

[MiAmigo]

Work from the bottom up:
 * Does all units have correct power? +5V +12V
 * Do the controller have termination and the last unit?, and everything else is without.
 * Is termination power removed from all but the last unit? and of the correct polarity? (some braindamage designs out there!)
 * Do all units show up with correct ID and LUN in your software SCSI tool (booting from floppy) ?
 * Is the correct driver for harddisc (scsi-hdd) and cd-rom (scsi-cd) being used?
 * AmigaOS makes use of these drivers?
 * CD-disc is of iso9660 format?
 * Filesystem driver is iso9660 ?
 * Can you list any directory from CLI ?

(once again reminded why computers can be a pain in the ass - but M$ is just pain )

Sorry everybody, for not responding to these messages. I just checked my settings for this thread. Everything looks okay, but I'm not receiving email notifications each time a new response has been left.

As for my connectivity issues (with the IBM CDROMs), this problem seems to come and go, at will. My latest theory is that it must be an issue with the card itself, or the Rigid Disk Block.

Now, however, I need to make sure my notification settings for this forum are correct! :shocked:

[MiAmigo]

Okay, following all of the great advice I (belatedly!) found in response to my original posting, I've gotten my system back up and running, after only one 'hiccup' so far.

(It seems like the A2000 really does need a short respite of a few minutes between re-boots while a troubleshooting session is in progress. I have found that if I reboot too soon after a screw-up, the A2000 just stares at me with a pair of green and red eyes! I think the interval is between 7-10 minutes.)

ANYWAY, here are the details of my most recent working setup:

My Current Setup

1. GVP 68030
2. Hard drive Device #0
3. CD-ROM Device #2
4. CD-ROM Jumpers Settings:
   a. Term Power (closed)
   b. Terminator (closed)
   c. Sector Size (open)
   d. Parity (closed)

Note: These are the recommended settings for this CD-ROM from Matsu****a/IBM. The drive is CR-504-B, manufactured by Matsu****a for IBM.

IMPORTANT: Again, waiting at least 10 minutes before rebooting seems to be essential when trouble-shooting the Amiga 2000 HD!

I'd like to thank everybody who responded, and again, I'm SO sorry for the lateness of my response; now I need to look at and fix my settings for THIS forum!

[MiAmigo]

That's funny! The forum software (?) blocked out the middle part of the name of the Japanese manufacturer of IBM's CD-ROMs! I wasn't cussin' (yet!) I swear! I mean 'I promise'! :angel: