*BSD News Article 88362


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From: dremu@emf.net (The Mu-Meister)
Newsgroups: comp.periphs.scsi,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: Bizarre SCSI problem (3 disks work, 4 don't) (2940UW/Quantum Atlas II)
Followup-To: comp.periphs.scsi,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Date: 4 Feb 1997 15:33:38 GMT
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Alan Judge (ajudge@maths.tcd.ie) spoke thusly:
: I have a really odd (in my experience, at least) SCSI problem.  The setup is
: a PC (running FreeBSD 2.2-BETA) containing an Adaptec 2940UW.  No internal
: disks.  The external 68-pin connector is connected to a case containing 4 
: Quantum Atlas II disks.  Inside the case, the 4 disks are chained together
: on a ribbon cable.  The case is terminated with an external active 
: terminator, and the 2940 termination is set to automatic.

: The 4 disks are numbers 0..3.  When *any* three disks are connected to
: the ribbon cable, everything works fine;  I can access and use the
: disks.  When all four are connected, the SCSI system fails quite
: quickly.  The usual symptoms are a lockup where one of the disk
: activity lights will remain on.  Eventually FreeBSD times out and
: things unlock and an error is generated.  This problem can occur as
: early as the initial probing of the disks.

I betcha you disabled the termination on the drive via a jumper. What you may 
well need to do - I had to on a chain of CDC drives once I won't describe due 
to embarassment now - is remove the resistor packs as well. (This assumes your 
drives have them!) If they're present, even though the +5V side isn't 
connected (ie the unit isn't terminated) the ground side is still connected 
and it hoses the SCSI bus.

Just a thought.
--
home: dremu@emf.net                               http://www.emf.net/~dremu
that's  doctor emu                                  ftp.emf.net/users/dremu

work: aaron_shephard@peoplesoft.com               http://www.peoplesoft.com

                      My other computer is a Linux box

and of course, the views expressed herein are those solely of the indivudal
and in no way alleged to indicate those of PeopleSoft or other PeoplePeople