R/W errors with SCSI CD drive

[motorollin]

I've recently installed a Blizzard SCSI kit on my 1260. I've also got a 25->50 converter and a 4-way SCSI cable. Currently I only have a SCSI CD-RW connected. The drive itself has an active terminator built in, which is enabled with a jumper. The drive is set to unit 2.

UnitControl can see the drive and correctly identifies it. I have changed my CD0 mountlist (which uses CacheCDFS) from scsi.device unit 1 to 1230scsi.device unit 2. When I insert a disc, it takes ages for the disc to be recognised, but eventually the icons appear on Workbench. I tried to copy some files from the CD to RAM as a test, but got a read/write error, then error 296.

I then installed AmiCDFS from the provided floppy disk, and tried the mountlist from that. Once again I got a read/write error, then error 45.

I have tried connecting the scsi controller at one end of the cable and the CD-RW at the other end, and also putting the controller and the drive on adjacent connectors, but this has made no difference.

I should point out that I have emailed Matthew at Amigakit who has been most helpful as always, and given me a couple of things to try when I get home. I'm just looking at all options so I can get it up and running as quickly as possible.

Thanks in advance for any help!

--
moto

[pVC]

I'd say the CD-RW drive is broken or dirty, if it does it for all CD:s. Optical drives aren't very long lasting things... I've had couple of drives which broke down and usually the problem comes first with recognizing the cd.

[motorollin]

Hmmm I did think of that, but Matthew at Amigakit tested the drive prior to sending it out and it was working.

Matthew also sent me the mountlist he used to test it, which made no difference. I also tested the drive on every connector of the SCSI cable, with the same behaviour on each.

I experimented with taking off the jumper labelled "Active Term". Bizarrely, the drive was still detected and mountable, which is not what I expected. The problem still occurred though.

Could it be that the controller isn't terminating the SCSI chain? Is this optional?

--
moto

[Boot_WB]

Hi moto,

I thought the unitcontrol program automatically mounted the scsi drive for you, rather than having to manually edit a mountfile?  It's been a while...
IIRC aren't there some configuration variables at the bottom of the mountlist, telling it to use diskchange interrupt, scsidirect, etc - perhaps these may need changing from the previous settings?
Either that, or you could re-install IDEfix97 and get it to mount your 1230scsi.device during the scannow section.  

The termination on the Blizzard scsi controller is hard-wired (a set of resistors soldered to the board).  These look like, erm.. skinny little caterpillars?  It's be fairly obvious if they'd been removed, as there would be a couple of lines of empty holes around here.

REgards



Rich

[motorollin]

I think the mount function in UnitControl is just for mounting hard drives - though I could be wrong. As for dodge mountlist entries, I had thought of that but I'm using the same mountlist Matthew used when he tested the drive. I'll check my controller for caterpillars when I get home :lol:

--
moto

[pVC]

Usually things work without termination too, if you only have one or two devices on chain, but better have them in correct way anyway I don't think either that unitcontrol can mount cd-drives... at least I have mountlists. How unitcontrol could know what filesystem to use etc? Anyhow, it still sounds to me that drive isn't working physically or you're trying damaged or noncompatible discs. Some CD:s just don't like to work on some CD drives If the drive was posted, maybe it's got damaged somewhere?

I'd try with different drive too.. or drive on other computer. I guess you can find free or cheap SCSI CD-ROM drives somewhere for testing... or HD for overall working of your controller...

[Thomas]

I'd first try to reduce the MaxTransfer value in the DosDriver. 64k (0x10000 or 0xfe00) should be fine.

Bye,
Thomas

[motorollin]

Thanks Thomas - I'll add that to my list of things to try :-) I noticed when copying files in AmigaDOS that it copies some files, then always fails on the same one. This suggests to me that it's copying x number of bytes then fails.

I've also asked one of the server support guys at work to dig out a spare SCSI CD-ROM to test with just in case the drive was damaged in transit.

--
moto

[Thomas]

have changed my CD0 mountlist (which uses CacheCDFS) from scsi.device unit 1 to 1230scsi.device unit 2.

You should also run Prefs/CDFSPrefs resp. Prefs/CacheCDFS and check if it complains about some settings (e.g. direct-SCSI, change interrupt, motor-off etc.) and if it does, save the new settings.

When I insert a disc, it takes ages for the disc to be recognised, but eventually the icons appear on Workbench.

Does that also happen if you don't connect the data cable (only power) ? Then it might hint on some dirt in the drive or a weak / misaligned laser or something like that.

Bye,
Thomas

[motorollin]

Thomas wrote:
You should also run Prefs/CDFSPrefs resp. Prefs/CacheCDFS and check if it complains about some settings (e.g. direct-SCSI, change interrupt, motor-off etc.) and if it does, save the new settings.

I wondered what that prefs file was for :-) Will take a look.

Thomas wrote:

When I insert a disc, it takes ages for the disc to be recognised, but eventually the icons appear on Workbench.

Does that also happen if you don't connect the data cable (only power) ? Then it might hint on some dirt in the drive or a weak / misaligned laser or something like that.

Not sure - I'll check this too and report back.

Thanks!

--
moto

[FrankBrana]

Does anyone have the docs of unitcontrol?

I want to make my HD synchron ( up to 10mb/s with the scsi of my blizz2060 ) to get the most performance possible. ( I also have a MO unit and 2 cd drives in the same chain )

[motorollin]

An update:

The problem with it taking ages to recognise the disk seems to have gone away. Weird!

I changed the maxtransfer value to the one Thomas suggested (tried both of them) but it made no difference.

Tried looking in CacheCDFS prefs and got no errors. I then tried copying a file from the disc and got the read/write error. Then I went back in to CacheCDFS prefs, and got a message saying "You use a version of the CacheCDFS filesystem this program can't handle!". Not sure what this means.

I have "C:SoftSCSI NORES" as the first line in my startup-sequence, with the 8.5 ROM in C:.

Matthew from Amigakit suggested disabling CPU caches. I allowed my system to boot fully, entered the "cpu nocache" command, and mounted CD0, but still the same errors.

--
moto

--EDIT
My CacheCDFS settings for CD0:

Retries: 0
BootPri: -
Buffers: 50
Data Cache: 8
Line Cache: 1
Min Direct: 1
Scan first for: ISO 9660
SCSI direct: no
No Changeint: no
Motor off: no
Quiet: no
Protection: RWED
Files to Lowercase: yes
Volumes to Lowercase: yes
Convery First Char: no
Auto Lowercase: yes
No RockRidgeNames: no
No Joliet Names: no
No Trailing Dots: no
Allow MS-DOS pathnames: no
Cut filenames to 30 chars: no

Tried enabling SCSI direct, but it made no difference (not sure what it does tho)

Also the machine has rebooted a couple of times when trying to access CD0, after I clear the read/write errors.

[motorollin]

I've also had a situation where, when browsing a CD (and cancelling the read/write error which keep appearing) I get to a folder which does actually exist on the CD (I checked by putting it in an IDE CD-ROM), and the folder has my default CD icon. When I double click it I get a requester saying "Please insert volume afadaba'a^aZaXaVaaaPaNaLaJaKaFaDaBa@ in any drive"

( represents the square escape character).

These folders on any other machine behave exactly like any other folder. This has happened with several discs.

[motorollin]

The problem with discs not being recognised seems to occur only with certain discs. Some discs are recognised immediately, others take ages and I can hear the drive seeking a lot, and some are not recognised at all and the drive is seeking forever (or at least for as long as I waited!). This occurs even if the data cable is disconnnected.

--
moto

[amigakit]

Some CDRs have certain coatings that some lasers in CD drives dont read (hence the protracted seeking delay)

Not every CDR or CDRW will work on a given CD drive.  However professionally authored CDs should work nearly every time.