Problems with booting from A3000 native scsi with Cyberstorm PPC

[Kraftwerk]

I took out one of my A3000's yesterday to put in some of my
"excess" hardware and get it working as a backup.

I am using the original Quantum LPS 105 drive that came with
the A3000. I installed OS3.9 on it long ago (Wise choice...)
and it boots up just fine on the stock A3000.

However, I have now added a few cards, mainly a CSPPC, PIV,
GVP PhonePAK and an Ariadne II, (stuff I had lying around)

I can not get it to boot from the native scsi. I turned off
all the LUNS in the CSPPC. I can see it detecting the drive,
but it just will not boot.

I made sure I do not have the SCSIPATCH set in the CSPPC flashrom.

If I put in my Spitfire SCSI controller it boots fine, but with
 that one I can not get an external CD-Rom to work. Again
it detects it, but once I access it it locks.

So, I tried an Oktagon controller. That one did not do anything at all.

Since it is a backup, I would be happy if I could get the native SCSI to work.

Would upgrading the SCSI chip on the MB make a difference? I
am not sure what version it is.

Any ideas?


 

[Castellen]

I gather you're refering to the motherboard SCSI controller?
There's lots of things to look at, of course you need to check drive jumper settings and SCSI termination is OK.
Use SCSI Inquire (Aminet) to report what the controller is actually seeing.
For some drives, you need to edit the motherboard SCSI prefs (stored in the battery backed memory of the RTC).  There are progs on Aminet to edit this.  I've found that sometimes you need to enable synchronous, fast synchronous and SCSI2 queing mode to make some fussy drives work OK.  Weird, but it can make a difference.  Older Seagate Barracuda drives are sometimes bad for that.

If the RTC battery is dead, you'll loose the SCSI settings every time the computer is powered off, so make sure it's healthy.

Check for 5V on pin 25 of the ext SCSI connector.
This comes from diode D800 (near the back of the motherboard) which supplies the 5V termination power to the SCSI devices.  This was fitted in backwards in some A3000s, meaning no termination power, which some devices require.  The diode can also go open circuit, but can easily be replaced with any common power diode like a 1N4004.


Remove the PhonePak board for now, these caused funny problems on some systems.  Add it in later once things are working better, and check the compatibility notes on Amiga-Hardware.com


As for the Cyberstorm's SCSI controller.  It uses DMA modes, so the INT_2 interrupt signal is required.  This is missing from the CPU board socket on most (all?) A3000D boards.  It's easily fixed with a simple wire link modification.  I wrote an article on fixing it, available from Aminet or here:
http://amiga.serveftp.net/downloads.html

[Kraftwerk]

I did the INT_2 interrupt signal already so the Cyberstoem SCSI should work if I get another drive.

I will take a look at the diode thingie..

Not sure about the battery, but I did see all the various A3000 SCSI tools. I will play with that for a while.

I guess I should just get an adapter and forget the motherboard SCSI.

Thanks for the input

[Holley]

I know this sounds daft, but have you still got the passive termination on the motherboard?

[vpcs]

change the id of the CS Scsi Adapter to 6 and the onboard should work..

[Framiga]

by vpcs on 2004/6/22 22:48:14

change the id of the CS Scsi Adapter to 6 and the onboard should work..

how can you change, the ID of the CSPPC SCSI controller?

[x56h34]

@Framiga:

Through the CSPPC early-boot-menu (hold ESC at boot). It's in the SCSI settings. Just double click on the controller in the list of the SCSI IDs and you will be able to change it to something else.

[Framiga]

hi x56h34

OMG . . i'm starting to be old!! . . .just seen this afternoon . .

I need some holiday :-)

Thanks

BTW- i've just installed an UWSCSI and i need to boot from it.

I've noticed that the host ID of the A4000 IDE is 7 like the one of the CSPPC.

Must i change the ID of the CSPPC controller to another ID?

Then, the boot partirion MUST be within the first 2GB?

Now the first partition is 2.1GB (for testing) and i have problem to boot from it.

[Kraftwerk]

I do not see how the ID of the controller card can be relevant since they are two totally different scsi devices and seperate scsi chains. Changing the ID will not change anything. If it does, please explain how it dies so.

[Kraftwerk]

And no, there is no passive termination on the MB. Not sure if there should be or not.

[Castellen]

You need motherboard termination fitted if there are no external SCSI devices (I.E. nothing plugged into the ext SCSI port at the back).

To enable MB termination, you fit three resistor networks to the sockets around the MB SCSI connector, positions RP802, 803, 804.  Make sure to get the polarity correct, pin 1 is the common network connection.

I forget the ratings, but should be fine if you use 220 ohm or 330 ohm resistor networks (available from most professional electronics sockists like RS & Farnell).

Don't forget you need termination enabled on the last physical device on the internal SCSI cable, and all devices in between should have no termination.

[Noster]

Hi

> I made sure I do not have the SCSIPATCH set in the CSPPC flashrom.

Is this the patch/switch from the Cyberstorm Early-boot menu that disables the motherboards SCSI-controller to speed up booting ?
I think, I remember that there was such a switch, that disables the motherboards SCSI-controller so this SCSI-bus is not scanned during startup to increase the booting speed. Check out your early-boot menus settings.

Noster

[Kraftwerk]

Ok, I put in motherboard termination and still, NADA!

It accesses the HD once, and then at a second access the LED goes on and just stays on.

Could there be something in setpatch? I almost get the feeling that it is actually loading setpatch and locking.

On the other hand, I can not get the Startup menu to appear while holding both mouse button and have the HD be listed. There is just a floppy disk there.

[x56h34]

Here is what I suggest how your SCSI chain should look. Pull out the passive terminators first.

Int ACTIVE term ------ Hard Drive ------ Ext DB25M ACTIVE term

Go to Aminet and download SetBatt utility and run it from your A3000 (through the WB3.1 floppy if you can't boot from the hard drive).

Tweak those SCSI settings until your hard drive finally boots (this has got to be it!).

Remember that for your settings to become permanent, even after powering off, you must have a working RTC clock battery, otherwise no SCSI settings would be kept!

Remember also that if you take a search on Google groups you will find that a lot of people had trouble with CSPPC in A3000, in regards to native SCSI controller, so it may be that your unit is one of those that are less tolerant, who knows...

[Noster]

Hi

> I can not get the Startup menu to appear while holding both mouse button

If I remember right, you have to press the Escape-key [ESC] during startup to enter the early-boot menu of the Cyberstorm.
If you have a graphics card, you have to connect a monitor at the native Amiga video output for the early-boot menu. The AmigaOS early-boot menu is entered via pressing the left mouse-button during system start. If you use a PC-mouse and an adaptor like Topolino, this might fail, use an original Amiga-mouse for this purpose.

Noster