So a couple of weeks ago I had broken one of the black plastic pin housings off of my scsi cable. I had planned on replacing the cable, but decided to use it anyway, and just tape off the part that had broken, as this scsi cable supports multiple drives, and the rest of the cable seemed fine. Anyway, now when I connect it and try to start the computer I get a SCSI Phase Error. Why would I be geting that? All that broke was one of the plastic retaining brackets. The cable is not spliced or otherwise damaged. I don't want to try to reconnect another cable anyway, as the Octagon scsi card has some bent pins and I think it is kind of fragile. Do SCSI cables have one end which is supposed to go to the drive and one to the board? I am not that familiar with SCSI...
Cables do not have a side meant for the drive or controller, they will work either way. They are keyed though, the red strip on the cable must be at pin 1. Many cables have a little square on one side so you can't put it in backwards. If it was in backwards I don't think you would be getting a phase error anyways...
A phase error is usually is a bad cable, since your cable is broken I would start there. It can also be bad termination, but if the system worked prior it is doubtful.
With some controllers and drives the cable length is important.
What hard disks and devices do you have on the chain?
