Fried SCSI Controller on Q950?

[Sir Foxx]

I am coming here in hopes to get another perspective on my problem. About a year ago, I wanted to put a 68-pin SCSI HDD in my Q950 due to the original drive failing. Right before I left for college, I managed to format a small partition on the drive using my beige G3. When I came home, I started messing around with my Quadra again. I've had nothing but troubles with it, and I cannot figure out why. When I boot off a custom floppy image containing Mt.Everything, all it will show on ID 4 is "Error--Check Termination!!!". The drive is set for ID 0, and the drive is properly terminated with an active terminator. I even tried a vintage apple drive with the passive terminator and its giving me the same error.

Over at the MacRumors forum we determined: The HDD's, cable, terminators are fine, and we are getting proper terminator power. Since the host controller chips are connected logically, we don't know if one chip is fried due to the fact that if one is dead, neither of them will work. We also don't know if there is noise/interference in the power coming from the power supply causing a disruption in how the drives are getting terminated. Any ideas?

If anyone is interested in reading the forum post over at macrumors, here is the link:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1884497

 

[tanuki65]

Maybe https://systemfolder.wordpress.com/2015/01/04/quadra-drive/  would help?

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

I saw no mention of the make/model/production year of the drive you're testing. The SCSI spec changed, so If it's F/W SCSI3, 50 pin F/N may or may not be supported.

https://68kmla.org/forums/index.php?/topic/17795-scsi-voodoo-howto/

 

[Elfen]

I remember many of those 68pin SCSI HDs by IBM has a jumper to set termination, not put in a set of resistor packs. Look over the drive and see of there is a jumper on the board labeled "TERM" on it is. If there is, put a jumper on it.

 

[trag]

I remember many of those 68pin SCSI HDs by IBM has a jumper to set termination, not put in a set of resistor packs. Look over the drive and see of there is a jumper on the board labeled "TERM" on it is. If there is, put a jumper on it.

Might be labeled "TE".   I think that's what they use on the Seagate drives.  TE = Termination Enable; TP = Termination Power.

 

[Sir Foxx]

I will look into that--However I did mention that I tried a vintage apple drive with a passive terminator and got the same error, indicating that it is a problem with the computer, not the drive.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

You might try a flanking attack: if you've got a Zip Drive, try that externally, booting from the Disk Tools floppy. Going from memory, Iomega Guest ought to fit onto a custom boot floppy and if you can run it, the Zip is about the most rudimentary, well tested termination implementation available. If that works, it will eliminate the controller bits from your SCSI Voodoo equation.

In other threads you'll find ways to boot the Compact series directly from internal Zip setups. Never really looked into it for that, however the notion of using an External Zip Drive coupled with a set of Zip Disks with universal installs of all 68k and early PPC System/OS versions with my utilities suite and some basic apps for testing purposes did cross my mind.

 

[Sir Foxx]

Unfortunately I do not own any SCSI zip drives. Was it possible for the Q950 to boot off of a CD Drive without any OS installed? Any other ideas as to why I'm getting an termination error on ID 4? 

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Yep, no problem if you've got an Apple ROM CD Drive, that's how you install an OS. Customized boot/tools/driver floppy ought to get you up and running for SCSI testing, even without a supported optical drive.

Snag an external SCSI Zip drive at first opportunity. There are folks who hate them with a passion, I've been the opposite from before they shipped. I was seeded two enclosures for developing an alternate top cover. I had a couple of hiccups using them IRL, but there's nothing like 'em for sneakernet, especially across the peripherals support crevasse and climbing the OS/modern machine rock face, even cross platform.

No other notions offhand, you've got quite the interesting Catch-22 Degubbing session going there. :wacko:

___________________________________________

On second thought, maybe someone can chime in with a NetBoot based solution for testing?

 

[Sir Foxx]

Yep, no problem if you've got an Apple ROM CD Drive, that's how you install an OS. Customized boot/tools/driver floppy ought to get you up and running for SCSI testing, even without a supported optical drive.

Snag an external SCSI Zip drive at first opportunity. There are folks who hate them with a passion, I've been the opposite from before they shipped. I was seeded two enclosures for developing an alternate top cover. I had a couple of hiccups using them IRL, but there's nothing like 'em for sneakernet, especially across the peripherals support crevasse and climbing the OS/modern machine rock face, even cross platform.

No other notions offhand, you've got quite the interesting Catch-22 Degubbing session going there. :wacko:

___________________________________________

On second thought, maybe someone can chime in with a NetBoot based solution for testing?

Hrm, using a CD Rom drive would be helpful, but if the SCSI controller isn't even seeing the hard drive from the same era, what are the chances of it seeing a cd drive? I also looked on ebay for scsi zip drives, and people want a bloody fortune for them! 

Also, how would you be able to load a OS off a server if the Q950 won't see a hdd?

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Dunno anything about NetBoot options, sounds cool when others talk about it though, hoping they'll chime in. That's for search and another thread if you can't find the info posted here already, methinks.

It seems to me that the SCSI controllers may not have been definitively identified as the culprit. SCSI Voodoo is still a possibility. Booting from a Disk Tools floppy, CD, Zip or one of Dougg3's ROM SIMMs (duno if that's an option or not) could narrow your chicken/egg problem down a bit.

I'm sleepy, a troubleshooting review of what you've tried in an ordered outline/checklist might shake something loose a/o garner more responses. Going back to basics can't hurt, you've checked the Service Source?

Sillly, sleepy question: you've reseated the RAM SIMMS? If not, definitely do, if so, do it again and clean the contacts with an eraser while you're at it.