Compact Flash reader on A2000 causing strange problem

[Lurch]

I never had any luck booting without the pcmcia adapter. Even followed a couple of posts, just sits there after it's scanned through the luns. Has some strange quirks, but works really well with the adapter, downside is the cover of the a590 wont fit on with the adapter.

Case modding time coming up I guess.

[danbeaver]

Yes, the A2091 behaves the same way. The GVP SCSI Boards are fine with the CF card in second slot

[mechy]

I see this in OS 4.1 where I have an LED attached to the CSPPC board and it flashes about every second, even with SCSI CF card reader not mounted in the CSPPC scsi menu.  I haven't figured why you can't boot off the Card Reader in OS 4.1; you can in OS 3.X. The CF cards are present and can be mounted and read in OS 4.1. In the Media Toolkit you save device changes with "Inject" button as the "Save to Disk" button gives an error "Can't write to sector 0."

I may be wrong here, as i never tried it under os4.1 but ave you tried to remove the rdb from the cf and try it? If you are using a cheap uw to 50 pin adapter may play a role, you should use a proper high byte adapter if possible. Purely speculation mind you , again, i have not tried it under 4.1.

[mechy]

I never had any luck booting without the pcmcia adapter. Even followed a couple of posts, just sits there after it's scanned through the luns. Has some strange quirks, but works really well with the adapter, downside is the cover of the a590 wont fit on with the adapter.

Case modding time coming up I guess.

The problem with the 2091 is there are many chip revisions on them. I tested with 2 different 2091's originally with different roms,dmacs and WD scsi chips.
The revision 4/proto scsi chips are problematic. The pcd-50B is a true scsi2 device needing parity. the revision 4 scsi chip is known to have broken scsi II command set and problems with multiple devices. That being said the 2 2091's i tried worked ok with the older revisions when i tested them,but with all this old stuff, mileage can vary i guess. They are slow cards. adding 512MB+ ram to them helps some.
Make sure you have the maxtransfer set correct.

this link may help some of you. it what i found out in testing the A590:

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=62178&highlight=a590

[danbeaver]

I have GVP in that A2000 with a GVP 040 and 32MB of ram plus an Indivision ECS;  I keep the OS on the CF and the WHDLoads on SD. It has a dual boot ROM so I can degrade it back to KS 1.3 and a 68000 if I need to. I use my other SCSI CF readers in my A4000T's where they work fine, except I can't boot from them in OS 4.1; I can boot from a CF over my IDE Controller (scsi.device). But we are here to answer why the controller flashes every second, which we did; so on to new thread!

[k4lmp]

I use the same setup, 2091 with latest roms and latest controller chip.  I boot my A2000 from CF card with the CF in the CF slot, not in the pcmcia adapter.  The 2091 with LUNs enabled, will scan through all LUNs on all scsi devices first, and flash the HD light.  Sometimes, if I change something, it will go through twice.  It takes about 30 seconds to a minute to boot this way, but I don't mind, as it is better than having the pcmcia adapter sticking out all the time, and I can use all of the slots this way.  If I use the pcmcia adapter, it boots immediately and is up in a few seconds.  My HD light flashes every little bit, when the computer is up, kinda in synch with the floppy "click".  I don't think it does this in ClassicWB which disables the floppy "click", but I am unsure of that.  My CD and card reader leds, however, do not flash after the 2091 completes scanning the scsi bus at bootup, with LUNs enabled.  I don't know why this is happening.  As long as it is working OK, I really wouldn't worry about it.  If you are worried, send MECH an email, as he is GREAT at helping out, and stands behind what he sells.  He is very knowledgeable with all his products.  Hope this helps.