GVP 2000 HC+8 and 50 pin HD... strange experience.

[flaviosr]

Hi,

I wrote sometime ago asking for help since my card was not able to use HDs (it was able only to see them). Nobody could help and I decided to buy a newer revision of the BIOS, now 4.15.
I received it and nothing changed... for a chance I tried to use the HD68pin of my A3000 (I use the controller in my A2000) and... the card now boots!!!
I made other tests and:
* all my 50pin HD are seen by the standard controller of my A3000 (I use anyway the controller of the CS!);
* the HC+8 sees all the HD but is able to use only 68 pin units (with adeguate adaptor)!

Now my usability problem is solved but... is there anybody that had my experience and can help solve the strange matter?

Thank you

[flaviosr]

Kin-Hell wrote:
When you use the HC8+ in your 2000, did you try powering the 50 pin hard drive from the PSU rather than the card?

I connected directly the HD to the PSU immediately... 50 pin HDs and 68 pin HDs... I do not like attaching directly to the card...

[flaviosr]

countzero wrote:
which filesystem did you format the the drive ? you can't use SFS with 68000.

Well, I was not able to format the 50 pin HDs...
Anyway I am using an A2630...

[flaviosr]

voxel wrote:
Hello countzero :-)

have you upgraded your A2630 roms to the last version (v7.0)?

you need to to this as you use kickstart v3.1 :-)

Yes, the card is with ROM 7.0... this is ok...

[flaviosr]

Kin-Hell wrote:

flaviosr wrote:

Kin-Hell wrote:
When you use the HC8+ in your 2000, did you try powering the 50 pin hard drive from the PSU rather than the card?

I connected directly the HD to the PSU immediately... 50 pin HDs and 68 pin HDs... I do not like attaching directly to the card...

Did you try terminating & un-terminating the 50 Pin SCSI drive.
Also & depending on what WB version u use, what about gvpscsi & gvpdat in the wbstartup drawer?

mmm... I cannot remember about the termination...
I remember I checked the termination was ok but perhaps I did not make the game "term-unterm"... I have to try next time I open again the case (I am now waiting from Germany an adaptor to mount the 68 pin HD on the card!): anyway the 68 pin HD imeediately works! :-?
I use OS3.1... I do not have gvpscsi or gvpdat... mumble, mumble... I launched the "HDTool gvpscsi.device" and that's it...
Did I forget something? :-o

[flaviosr]

Kin-Hell wrote:
Yeah.....on the install disk, you need to copy gvpscsi & gvpdat to the wb startup drawer. This should allow you to run the prep software & partition the Hard drive. After a re-boot, you will be able to format the NEW icons on your desktop.

Termination HAS to be right though! Just try 1 hard drive WITH Termination ON

mmm... I lauched the Fastprep from the GVP floppy (I had it original! :-o) but it did not worked! It was able to see the HD  but not to use it (with the 68 pin HDs I have no problems...).
I use terminated 50 pin HDs and not terminated with active termination at the end of the cable! :-o No results...
Anyway think that I have done the same things I am doing not with 68 pins HD! And 68 pins HD are ok while 50 pins are not!!! Terribly strange...

[flaviosr]

Jeff wrote:
I have the same card and it doesn't show those symptoms. Perhaps you should try and limit the amount of memory on the HC+8 to 4 megs if you have the full 8 installed. I am pretty sure the 4 megs of ram on your A2630 falls inside the 8 megs of Zorro address space. You might try it with no more than 8 megs total between both cards just to see if it helps.

Good Luck,
Jeff

I had to remove 4 Mb to use the A2630... I knew... and I had anyway to reduce the usable RAM to 2 Mb to use the A2286AT! So that th system sees 6+1 Mb...
ARGH!!! TERRIBLY STRANGE!

[flaviosr]

Kin-Hell wrote:
With a single hard drive on the card, do not terminate the rear of the card. Just try with a Terminated & unterminated hard drive (1). Copy gvpscsi & gvpdat to your wbstartup drawer & reboot before you try fastprep (2).
Heck knows what to do for sure on WB2..It's so long ago!
As a matter of interest, what WB version are you using?

I tried (1) and I had no results! Simply the card sees the HDs (type, BIOS revision and so on) but cannot determine the dimension, so it's not usable.
I will try (2) ASAP. I would like to use OS3.1... I also tried booting from the GVPScsi floppy (using Faaastprep) and I had no results, I have to check if these files are already in wbstartup of this floppy.

[flaviosr]

kranich-ba wrote:
maybe they are "special" workstation HDDs...

maybe you answered somewhere...
HDD work in A3000 and A1200, you can read parameters, partitioning, format?
did you try a PC with SCSI controller? --> format in pc scsi

I checked ALL the HD in my A3000 (they are seen and works great) and in my 2940UW in my PC (and again they are ok).
I created the data on the OS floppy in the A3000 and I forced them in the A2000 and... NOTHING!!! Incredible...
This will remain one of the greatest misteries of the Amiga world!