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FWB NuBUS Jackhammer Incompatible with Fujitsu 2.3G MO Drive

olePigeon

Well-known member
I'm currently downloading 1999 Macworld CD-ROM collection. Will hunt for 2000 Macworld CD-ROM collection, too. Search through them for JackHammer software. I'll take a look at MacAddict, too.
 

olePigeon

Well-known member
Well, I managed to re-discover the 3.2.3 firmware on the January 1998 Macworld CD-ROM. But that was after quite a few hours of searching.

On to the MacAddict CDs. :p
 

olePigeon

Well-known member
Went through all MacAddict CDs from 1999 to 2001. Nothing.

I suspect 3.2.6 will be on an OEM CD for one of the clones.
 

olePigeon

Well-known member
According to LEM, Radius had a SCSI JackHammer build-to-order option for the System 100.

Unfortunately I couldn't find a System 100 disc, only the 81/110.
 

olePigeon

Well-known member
I found a possible lead on the Release 2.2 CD-ROM. "DLCC Legacy Software Catalog" from Daniel's Legacy Software Collection. It lists the Power Computing Release 2.2 CD-ROM. I sent Daniel and email. I hope he still has it.
 

ArmorAlley

Well-known member
I figured I'd fiddle around with my Jackhammer. Tried out a 15k RPM SCSI drive. Was insanely fast. Funny watching it format and then create 16 2GB partitions. :p

Unfortunately, I discovered that so long as the Jackhammer card is installed, my Fujitsu drive won't mount any MO disks. I even tried erasing them with FWB HDT and using the FWB driver, but no go.

There is a list of specific MO drives in the manual that it says it's compatible with, but I was very disappointed to learn that it won't work with my MCR3230SS Fujitsu. :(
How is the Fujitsu drive connected to the Mac? Via the JackHammer card, via the Mac's external SCSi port or via another SCSI card?
If it is via the JackHammer card, you have to see how your terminators on the card are configured. In one of the appendices of the manual, it lists the various combinations available.
Would the problem be something as simple as the lack of termination on the external chain or conflicting IDs? I wouldn't expect the external bus to be on the same bus as either of the internal buses, but then again, it has been a while since I have used by JackHammer card.
And finally, have you checked whether the Fujitsu drive, the 68-pin to 50-pin cable and then the 50-pin to 25-pin adapter work without any problems on another Mac?
 

olePigeon

Well-known member
@ArmorAlley It's a 50-pin device installed in a Fujitsu external case connected via a 50-pin Centronics to 25-pin cable to my Mac's internal SCSI bus. It is terminated. I've tried to both with an active inline terminator, and by using just the built in self-termination on the Fujitsu drive itself (and then again both.) It is the last device on the SCSI chain at ID 6, per the drive manual's recommendation. It is the only device other than my internal HDD at ID 0, which is terminated.

I have also taken the drive out and connected it directly to the JackHammer's 50-pin connector, configuring the terminators for 1x internal, 0x external devices. Does not work.

The Fujitsu drive works perfectly fine until the JackHammer card is installed. It merely has to be present on my NuBus for the Fujitsu drive to stop working on my Mac's internal SCSI bus.

It works fine on other Macs. I've tested it on my IIfx and on a Centris.
 

ArmorAlley

Well-known member
@ArmorAlley It's a 50-pin device installed in a Fujitsu external case connected via a 50-pin Centronics to 25-pin cable to my Mac's internal SCSI bus. It is terminated. I've tried to both with an active inline terminator, and by using just the built in self-termination on the Fujitsu drive itself (and then again both.) It is the last device on the SCSI chain at ID 6, per the drive manual's recommendation. It is the only device other than my internal HDD at ID 0, which is terminated.

I have also taken the drive out and connected it directly to the JackHammer's 50-pin connector, configuring the terminators for 1x internal, 0x external devices. Does not work.

The Fujitsu drive works perfectly fine until the JackHammer card is installed. It merely has to be present on my NuBus for the Fujitsu drive to stop working on my Mac's internal SCSI bus.

It works fine on other Macs. I've tested it on my IIfx and on a Centris.
It is good to eliminate the obvious possible causes. Thanks for this. I have a couple of SCSI Fujitsu MO-drives (only up 640MB though). I must how they behave in my IIfx with the Jackhammer card.
 

olePigeon

Well-known member
640 may not have the same issues. It'd be worth trying. As much as I love my 2.3G drive, I'd be willing to downgrade to a 640 if means that it works with my JackHammer card.
 

trag

Well-known member
You might check the Wayback Machine for the "eccentricities" section of "The Unofficial Turbo601 Home Page". I reported something kind of similar there, IIRC. I think there was a problem where my tape drive wasn't seen on the built-in SCSI bus under certain circumstances. I had a JackHammer in the IIci along with the Turbo601.
 

olePigeon

Well-known member
@trag Interesting. There's a section about System 7.5 and the SCSI Manager 4.3 extension, and how you should leave it enabled if you want to use a device on your Mac's primary SCSI while also having the JackHammer installed. I don't have a Turbo601, but I do have a Turbo040. Although I have tried using my JackHammer without the Turbo040 card installed.

I do not have the SCSI Manager 4.3 extension installed because I'm running System 7.1.1. I don't recall if 7.1.1 Pro can utilize the extension. I'll find out.
 

olePigeon

Well-known member
I guess the SCSI Manager 4.3.1 extension is not really an Extension extension, but something they've bundled in with System 7.5.x. What a shame.

Never mind, I found it. I'm surprised it's not on Macintosh Garden.
 
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Unknown_K

Well-known member
Did you look in the manual to see if you needed to adjust the removable terminators? Not sure if you are using both internal and external connections at the same time.

Anyway MO drives are not that fast so run one on the built in SCSI and any fast HDs on the Jackhammer.
 

trag

Well-known member
@olePigeon Darn. I was hoping it was related to SCSI Manager 4.3.

My understanding is that the original implementation of SCSI on the Macintosh allowed multiple SCSI hardware busses, but only one logical SCSI bus.

This is why the Q950, which has two SCSI busses (? or when the PDS card is installed?) still requires unique IDs even if the devices are on different busses.

SCSI Manager 4.3 added logic so that different physical SCSI busses are also different logically, and now SCSI busses each have their own set of unique SCSI IDs.

However, there's a gotcha. If SCSI Manager 4.3 is not in ROM (all pre-Q-AV machines, IIRC) then at boot time, the machine is going to treat all physical SCSI busses as a single logical bus and overlapping SCSI IDs on different busses may still cause issues until the SCSI Manager 4.3 extension loads.

The JackHammer gets around this (I think) by loading a copy of SCSI Manager 4.3 from its Declaration ROM.

The Turbo601 basically has PM6100 ROM on-board and it also loads a copy of SCSI Manager 4.3 because of that ROM.

That's how it is meant to work. But if one is having trouble with devices not appearing in early machines, SCSI Manager 4.3 is a good thing to look at. However, it sounds like it didn't help in this case.

I feel like there was something that solved the issue with my Tape Drive, but it may have been specific to Retrospect software.
 

olePigeon

Well-known member
@Unknown_K It doesn't even work on the local SCSI BUS simply by having the JackHammer card installed. It's not a termination issue, unfortunately.

@trag Hmm. I do have a programmable SIMM in my IIci with a programmer. If someone could make a ROM image with SCSI Manager 4.3.1 bundled in-ROM, it'd be worth trying.

However, all my SCSI IDs are unique. So there's nothing overlapping. Although, it wouldn't surprise me if there's still some sort of driver conflict. Like maybe it's getting confused by the single logical SCSI BUS.
 

olePigeon

Well-known member
I forgot to post that version 2.3.2 driver didn't do anything, either. Tried it with and without the SCSI Manager extension. :(

I really hope I can track down 2.3.6, considering it shipped with a PowerPC NuBus machine and 7.5. I'm hoping it'll fix those bugs. But just haven't had any luck contacting the people who appear to have the CDs.
 
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