IBM Internal CDROMs, Quad Speed

[MiAmigo]

A conundrum: Picked up a couple of IBM internal SCSI CDROMs, quad speed, from eBay. Was hoping to use these with my A2000s, however, after several frustrating sessions trying to get the computer to see them (or even BOOT with one chained to a hard drive), I’m starting to think that maybe these CDROMs aren’t compatible with the Amiga.

Either that, or they're BOTH defective, which wouldn’t be all that unusual, considering them came from eBay.

They have jumpers for Parity and Sector size, along with Terminator and Term Power, and of course, device ID. I set ID numbers, careful to avoid ‘7’ (my G-Force 68030's ID number) and I made sure that my HD had a different ID than the CDROM. I even experimented with Parity and Sector size.

Nothing, nothing, nothing! The machine will boot with the HD or the CDROM alone, but not chained together, all I get is a steady drive light.

Are these quads too fast for the A2000? Are there certain brands not capable of working with Amigas? I am at a loss, and looking to shelve these for some other hardware option, if I can’t solve this soon. Any thoughts, insights, ideas, or obvious stuff I missed?

[amigadave]

Since your A2000 boots with one SCSI device, or the other, but not both when they are both connected to the SCSI cable, I would guess that you have some kind of device conflict still, or it could perhaps be a termination problem.

Exactly how do you have the jumpers set on the SCSI CD-ROM drive?

[freqmax]

Disabled termination and termination power on HDD?

Anyway check with your SCSI application from floppy which units that show up at all.

Btw, some SCSI units show up at all LUN(s) .. bad thing.

[glitch]

I was going to say the same thing as freqmax - sometimes the LEDs will be on for a VERY long time, and then the system will boot.  I have had the best luck with Apple SCSI drives myself.

[danbeaver]

OK, you have a working A2000 and a GVP SCSI Controller; the GVP is likely set as device 7, what are the HHD & SCSI ID's?

The GVP is self terminated, so for SCSI 2, parity should be set ON for both drives. The most consistent chain is:  GVP---HDD---CDROM----TERMINATION (active).  If you need a terminator, get one listed as "active," this means it "actively" compensates for signal fluctuations. "On drive termination" often is unreliable.  Make sure all connectors on the SCSI cable work; use your working HDD to check that it boots from the different connectors. Google you CDROM's specifications to make sure ther are no other odd jumper settings as "Sectors" is uncommon. The CDROM's drive specs may have other information (and could you tell us the exact model of HDD and CDROM. As above give us the most accurate information on everything; too much information never hurts.

I have an A2000 with GVP controller, HDD, CD/DVD-Rom, and SCSI card reader and all is well. Best guess is Termination issue, bad cable connector, and lastly some "weird Amiga thing."

[motrucker]

They surely are not to fast. 4x may even be to slow for some software. usually 8x is considered minimum.
I use an IBM 8X on my A2000 with no problems. What FS are you trying to use? As long as you have termination set correctly, this setup should work.

[freqmax]

Work from the bottom up:
 * Does all units have correct power? +5V +12V
 * Do the controller have termination and the last unit?, and everything else is without.
 * Is termination power removed from all but the last unit? and of the correct polarity? (some braindamage designs out there!)
 * Do all units show up with correct ID and LUN in your software SCSI tool (booting from floppy) ?
 * Is the correct driver for harddisc (scsi-hdd) and cd-rom (scsi-cd) being used?
 * AmigaOS makes use of these drivers?
 * CD-disc is of iso9660 format?
 * Filesystem driver is iso9660 ?
 * Can you list any directory from CLI ?

(once again reminded why computers can be a pain in the ass - but M$ is just pain )

[danbeaver]

If both drives work separately but not together, then in my brain damaged mind, there is a bunch of stuff ruled out.

[MiAmigo]

AND Its resolved! The solution is so long and detailed (or convoluted?) I won't post it unless someone else finds themselves in a similar position, at their wit's end, and REALLY needs it! Suffice to say scuzzy is well-named!

[danbeaver]

Great news!

[freqmax]

I know some SCSI drives for 8-bit SE mode will short circuit eachother if termination power (TRMPWR) is jumpered on both units. Now that is a a design fault.

Btw, I would like to read what the fault was..

[MiAmigo]

Work from the bottom up:
 * Does all units have correct power? +5V +12V
 * Do the controller have termination and the last unit?, and everything else is without.
 * Is termination power removed from all but the last unit? and of the correct polarity? (some braindamage designs out there!)
 * Do all units show up with correct ID and LUN in your software SCSI tool (booting from floppy) ?
 * Is the correct driver for harddisc (scsi-hdd) and cd-rom (scsi-cd) being used?
 * AmigaOS makes use of these drivers?
 * CD-disc is of iso9660 format?
 * Filesystem driver is iso9660 ?
 * Can you list any directory from CLI ?

(once again reminded why computers can be a pain in the ass - but M$ is just pain )

Sorry everybody, for not responding to these messages. I just checked my settings for this thread. Everything looks okay, but I'm not receiving email notifications each time a new response has been left.

As for my connectivity issues (with the IBM CDROMs), this problem seems to come and go, at will. My latest theory is that it must be an issue with the card itself, or the Rigid Disk Block.

Now, however, I need to make sure my notification settings for this forum are correct! :shocked:

[MiAmigo]

Okay, following all of the great advice I (belatedly!) found in response to my original posting, I've gotten my system back up and running, after only one 'hiccup' so far.

(It seems like the A2000 really does need a short respite of a few minutes between re-boots while a troubleshooting session is in progress. I have found that if I reboot too soon after a screw-up, the A2000 just stares at me with a pair of green and red eyes! I think the interval is between 7-10 minutes.)

ANYWAY, here are the details of my most recent working setup:

My Current Setup

1. GVP 68030
2. Hard drive Device #0
3. CD-ROM Device #2
4. CD-ROM Jumpers Settings:
   a. Term Power (closed)
   b. Terminator (closed)
   c. Sector Size (open)
   d. Parity (closed)

Note: These are the recommended settings for this CD-ROM from Matsu****a/IBM. The drive is CR-504-B, manufactured by Matsu****a for IBM.

IMPORTANT: Again, waiting at least 10 minutes before rebooting seems to be essential when trouble-shooting the Amiga 2000 HD!

I'd like to thank everybody who responded, and again, I'm SO sorry for the lateness of my response; now I need to look at and fix my settings for THIS forum!

[MiAmigo]

That's funny! The forum software (?) blocked out the middle part of the name of the Japanese manufacturer of IBM's CD-ROMs! I wasn't cussin' (yet!) I swear! I mean 'I promise'! :angel:

[AmmoJammo]

as for drive speeds, I'm using a 24x drive with my Amiga 500... not that it reads that fast anyway :p