SCSI Boot

[Lockon_15]

I have A2000 with GVP ImpactII SCSI controller. IBM harddrive is set on ID1, while Plextor CDRW occupies ID2.

When I turn on machine, harddrive spins up, CDRW lights blinks, but screen display stays white. In order to proceed booting, I have to reset Amiga. On the other hand, system boot regulary if CDRW is disconnected.

I've read some posts on this forum regarding re-arranging ID on harddrive to ID6 (factory default), but does anyone has confirmed solution ?

Thnx

[patrik]

Make sure termination is correct. Check this page for more information.


/Patrik

[Lockon_15]

Hi Patrik,

I'm pretty sure termination is correct. Harddrive is connected by middle SCSI 50-pin connector and CDRW is terminated by jumper since it is connected by the end of SCSI ribbon cable.

Anyway, thnx for idea     :angry:

[patrik]

Ok, so the harddrive definately has no termination, not even any old resistor-packs?

Btw, the first harddrive usually is jumpered as id 0 - ie all id-jumpers removed. This shouldnt matter as it works when only the harddrive is attached, but for wierd problems, wierd things can be worth trying .


/Patrik

[Lockon_15]

Yes, harddrive has no cap on termination jumper. I'm not sure if SCSI chain is properly terminated on SCSI board since I have no user manual for GVP ImpactII controller. However, SCSI PCB has 3 jumpers for SCSI device ID (default is ID0 or even ID7).

[patrik]

The ImpactII has onboard termination and should have id 7 per default. It was the harddrive and id 0 I was talking about.


/Patrik

[Lockon_15]

OK. Can you recommend exact jumper settings for each SCSI chain part (controller, hdd, cd)?
Device position is fixed, since SCSI cable is too short to permit hdd/cd permutation.

I've read somewhere that there is exact SCSI detect order which can have impact on boot select. So far, it seems that HDD is too slow on spin-up and so misses pre-defined time frame for boot select.    

[patrik]

Sounds very reasonable.

Unfortunately, there is no option to lengthen the wait of the ImpactII controller at poweron. Is there any jumper on the harddrive to enable/disable auto-spinup at poweron which you could try changing?


/Patrik

[Lockon_15]

Yes, I have such jumper. It is currently disabled, so drive automatically spin-up as you power up the system. Enabling this jumper will mean that spin-up will commence only after specific directSCSI command is issued.

This would render HDD even more inert so I can't see it as a practical move towards succesfull boot-up. A friend of mine told me few hours ago that he experienced same problems running IDE HDD on A1200. He had 2 choices: to perform a hardware hack to delay boot interval, or to acquire SCSI disk for his Blizzard 1240. He went for disk and got rid of troubles.

Anyway thnx for trying.

[patrik]

Aye, I know, but maybe the ImpactII acts different when it has to tell the drive to spin up.

There is one more option, a long shot actually which most likely wont work. If you have access to an EPROM-burner, you could update the onboard ROM-driver (gvpscsi.device) to the latest version and hope that version waits longer. Check this page.


/Patrik

[CLS2086]

Hi,
only with 'SCSI 1' hdd you can add an another peripheral on this card due to a bios card limitation !
It happened the same to me.
The CDRW could only be seen with the old Quantum 80 Mb SCSI1 hdd. When I replaced it by any SCSI2 hdd the CDRW could not be seen any more.
We need a bios upgrade, and there is some on Ebay that are selling these  :-D .

[amigagr]

Lockon_15 wrote:
A friend of mine told me few hours ago that he experienced same problems running IDE HDD on A1200. He had 2 choices: to perform a hardware hack to delay boot interval, or to acquire SCSI disk for his Blizzard 1240. He went for disk and got rid of troubles.

this happened to me back in the old days with a wdc 420mb drive. when i jump to a newer 850mb problems stoped. all drives i have test after 1996 spining fast enough and there is no problem of this kind in a1200 with them

[Lockon_15]

This becomes more and more interesting. I have just checked ROM version by both visualID and issuing "version gvpscsi.device". It seems that I have v4.5 which is not last revision. Ralph Babel offers image for v4.15

[Lockon_15]

CLS2086 wrote:
Hi,
only with 'SCSI 1' hdd you can add an another peripheral on this card due to a bios card limitation !
It happened the same to me.
The CDRW could only be seen with the old Quantum 80 Mb SCSI1 hdd. When I replaced it by any SCSI2 hdd the CDRW could not be seen any more.
We need a bios upgrade, and there is some on Ebay that are selling these  :-D .

I will go for ROM burn. Now it seems that I had flaky ROM since SysInfo reported only 1MByte per second on my 1GB IBM DPES-31080.

Thnx

[Hyperspeed]

Hang on a second, doesn't v4.5 mean it's newer than v4.15? I've seen some coders using for example v4.15 as sub-revision fifteen as opposed to one-five...

I would have thought v4.5 is better?

I know Phase 5 updated the v8.1 to v8.5 ROM on the SCSI-IV kit because of issues with CD burning etc. BlizKick can do this in software if you have the v8.5 image I believe.

Maybe the same could apply for your controller?