Quadra 700 setup with SCSI2SD v6

[goi]

Dear all,

I'm struggling to make an EMTEC 4GB sdcard work on my Quadra 700 with a scsi2sd v6 board.

I've followed Steve's installation step by step (http://www.savagetaylor.com/2018/01/05/setting-up-your-vintage-classic-68k-macintosh-using-a-scsi2sd-adapter) and all went fine until I switched the IDs (from the disk where I copied his 755_2GB image to the disk where I installed OS 8.1).

[SIZE=1.4rem]After switching IDs, making ID 0 the disk with the OS8.1. installation, I either get a "bus error" after the OS starts loading or, if I try to boot with extensions disabled, it hangs.[/SIZE]

Any ideas? I have a very standard Quadra with 64MB of memory. No additional cards installed. 100% stable running OS 7.6.1 from its original IBM SCSI drive.

Thank you all in advance for the invaluable knowledge sharing in this forum!

--

lG

 

[cheesestraws]

When does it hang when it reboots?  How far does it get into the boot sequence?

 

[CharlesT]

Hi, I have both V5 and V6 versions of SCSI2sd in various systems. I have never had any issues with the V5, but the V6 has always been very sensitive to environmental conditions, specifically ribbon cable condition and noise from the power supply. With those conditions the symptoms were all over the place, including bus errors and just hanging. I did a lot of troubleshooting on my own and also worked with Michael (the designer in Australia) on trying to resolve the issues. With some fixes he did to my board (mine was an early version) things improved somewhat, but never resolved to reliable operation.  What I found in my system (a power mac 7600) was that if I used a good quality short ribbon cable routed away from the power supply, it worked every time and was very reliable. If I used any ribbon cable routed around the power supply (the standard configuration) it was nothing but the random problems. 

Since the power supply generates electrical noise, and the ribbon cable is unshielded, we concluded that the noise conducted onto the scsi bus was too much for the V6 to handle reliably. This with a unit that I had returned to Australia and was updated to the latest hardware configuration as of early last year. So, I would suggest experimenting with different ribbon cables and routing to see if this solves your problems. Incidentally I never saw any of these issues with the V5 board with any of my 7600 configurations. 

 

[goi]

When does it hang when it reboots?  How far does it get into the boot sequence?

It hangs after the screen saying "extensions disabled".

I'm just starting to play with Mac OS, but decided to give it a try with System Picker. I've copied all the OS 8.1 System Folder to the OS755 disk image and chose this as the system folder to be used. It hangs, with or without extensions enabled. So something doesn't seem right this 8.1 installation, or is there any internal reference to the second disk?

On Basilisk II, this 8.1 installation runs just fine with the same CPU and memory configurations I have on my Q700, although I'm using a Performa's ROM.

 

[goi]

(...)[SIZE=1.4rem] So, I would suggest experimenting with different ribbon cables and routing to see if this solves your problems. Incidentally I never saw any of these issues with the V5 board with any of my 7600 configurations. [/SIZE]

Hi,

I have a Q700, so in terms of ribbon cable routing, there isn't mutch I can do. However, I don't think there's an issue with the SCSI2SD. It boots and works fine with the OS755 image. As long as I don't switch IDs, it runs just fine.

 

[goi]

Small update,

I did end up upgrading the OS755 image to OS81 in Basilisk. It worked like a charm! I still have a smaller 1.6GB SCSI 1 but won’t touch it for the time being.

Next steps:
– setup LAN using an m0437 (LEDs blink but DHCP or fixed IP don’t seem to work; router doesn’t even show a new MAC address; I had the same behaviour with OS7.6.1 but was hoping that OS8.1 would solve it).
– setup Personal LaserWriter 300 (can’t find drivers for it; “https://www.macintoshrepository.org/8435-misc-mac-drivers-1990-1997-” only has an empty folder for this printer)

Challenges after challenges!

lG

 

[cheesestraws]

I did end up upgrading the OS755 image to OS81 in Basilisk. It worked like a charm!

Excellent!

I had the same behaviour with OS7.6.1 but was hoping that OS8.1 would solve it

Ahh, following on from my post in your other thread, if both OS versions are having issues with it it is sounding more like a hardware issue, honestly (or perhaps, at risk of suggesting the obvious, an Ethernet cable issue?).  Perhaps try another dongle if you can find/borrow one?

setup Personal LaserWriter 300

Pretty sure the drivers for this are bundled with the OS.  It's just called "LaserWriter 300" in the Chooser.

 

[goi]

The cable is fine, but it's quite difficult to source a dongle around here. I'll move to the physical inspection of the connections/dongle.

As for the LW 300, with 7.6.1 it couldn't detect it. I didn't have the opportunity to plug it yet, but since I found that folder at the MacintoshRepository.org's drivers toast image, I immediately assumed I would need some drivers. I'll try out the obvious later on today!

Thanks

 

[goi]

Sorted out the LW300. Indeed, the drivers were in the OS installation image, although a "Simple Install" doesn't include them by default. I did a custom install, ticking pretty much everything that didn't mention PPC or Appletalk and found the LW300 drivers.

Almost 30 years later, the LW 300 is printing again!

 

[cheesestraws]

Ah, I was wondering whether I'd explicitly asked for all the printer drivers when I installed here...

And that's incredibly satisfying.  Well done.

 

[goi]

Indeed!