HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: jsnow@moons.sim.es.com (John Snow)
Subject: Re: Panic, WD chip availability
Keywords: WD scsi 33C93A
Organization: Evans & Sutherland Computer Corporation
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1992 16:00:44 GMT

jon@alpha.ee.ufl.edu (Jon Mellott) writes:

>In article <1992Jul20.134117.8149@id.dth.dk>, mds@id.dth.dk (Impedantzer (EMP)) writes:
>|> Hello world!
>|> 
>|> Our local Western Digital sales rep. here in denmark told
>|> me today that WD has stopped selling their chips because they
>|> want to use them themselves. Does anybody know if this is true????
>|> I ask this group because I use the WD33C93A which is an easy to use
>|> SCSI interface chip.
>|> 
>Seems unlikely, but could be. Advanced Micro Devices second sources the 
>device though, so availability shouldn't be a big problem: I buy the AMD 
>devices because my usual distributors don't stock WD stuff. BTW, 
>the AMD device has better static protection (3500V as opposed to 2000V on 
>the WD device), and AMDs patented "glitch eater" which does a world of 
>good for cleaning up the SCSI bus. 

I can vouch for the fact that the AMD parts are more immune to noise
than the WD parts. I had the WD part designed into a board. WD did a
new mask for the 33C93A and all of the sudden all of our newly built
boards with the new mask 33C93A stopped speaking SCSI. I talked to WD
and they verified that the new mask was a little more sensitive to
noise on the REQ/ACK signals and recommended putting ferrite beads on
these signals.

I took an easier approach to fixing the problem. I disqualified the WD
parts and qualified the AMD parts and things have worked happily ever
since. 

--John




--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
John F. Snow                         INET:           jsnow@moons.sim.es.com
Evans & Sutherland Computer Corp.    
Salt Lake City, Utah                 America Online: JohnSnow  GEnie: J.SNOW2
From: berger@atropa (Mike Berger)
Newsgroups: comp.periphs.scsi
Subject: Re: Drive burps?
Keywords: Hard Drive
Date: 28 Jul 92 15:46:33 GMT
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana

ajchuah@mtu.edu ([*BARK*]) writes:
>  I just got a ST41600N SCSI HD.  It is a 1.3G HD.  I have never
>had a big SCSI HD so this might be a common problem that i am
>unused to but i hope somone can help me clarify this problem?
>Every now and then, maybe every hour(i'm guessing) the drive 
>would burp/make some funny noise/sound like it is transfering
>data.  Is this a common noise or is there something wrong 
>with my drive?  Is it suppose to do this even if it is new?
*----
I don't know for sure:  Fujitsu drives do it too.  I suspect
it's sweep cycles to keep the heads from riding in one place
too long when the disk isn't used.
--
	Mike Berger
	Department of Statistics, University of Illinois
	AT&TNET     217-244-6067
	Internet    berger@atropa.stat.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: comp.periphs.scsi
From: dave@copi.cmhnet.org (David Diller)
Subject: Re^2: So Maxtor Won't work on SUN Microsystems anymore?
Keywords: Maxtor,SunOs 4.1.2
Organization: Coordinated Office Programs
Distribution: comp
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1992 21:24:23 GMT

dplatt@ntg.com (Dave Platt) writes:

>>Just talked to Maxtor tech support, and found out that SUN will not support
>>Maxtor drives in release 4.1.2!  Now this sounds a bit strange to me, I'm
>>going to call SUN and hear their side of the story before I get too
>>disappointed!  

>It's news to me.

>>Anyone out there using a Maxtor MAX-P012S (1.2 GB) SCSI on a SPARC station
>>running Sun/Os 4.1.2?  This makes my week!

>Yes.  I have four of these drives on four SparcStation-2GX systems here
>at NTG.  I also have five XT-8760S Maxtors, and a bunch of smaller
>Maxtor internal drives (LXT-213S, both Sun-labelled and from anDATAco).
>In fact, the only Sun-branded drives here are the internal drives which
>came with the SparcStations... all of our external drives are non-Sun.

>I just finished upgrading our entire network to 4.1.2 on Friday.  No
>problems with the disks... zero, nada, none.  The machines boot from
>Maxtor disks (the 2GX machines boot from LXT-213s, the Sparc-1 boots
>from an XT-8760S).

[stuff deleted]

>"We do not support X" does not, fortunately, mean "X doesn't work."  At
>least, not always.

>-- 
>Dave Platt                                                VOICE: (415) 813-8917
>              Domain: dplatt@ntg.com      UUCP: ...netcomsv!ntg!dplatt
> USNAIL: New Technologies Group Inc. 2468 Embarcardero Way, Palo Alto CA 94303

Alright so I jumped the gun. I had a bad day and posted the orignal right
after hanging up the phone.  (with maxtor tech support)  The next day I 
received a call from Maxtor saying Ooops the real problem was formatting
a maxtor drive with 4.1.2, I was told that you can not format a Maxtor drive
with 4.1.2!!!!  I don't know if you can or not it appears that Maxtor is
wrong if you say that you did great! Thanks that makes me feel better.


-- 
David Diller            (dave@copi.cmhnet.org)
Newsgroups: comp.periphs.scsi
From: berger@atropa (Mike Berger)
Subject: Re: terminators
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Fri, 31 Jul 1992 17:12:05 GMT

ifai645@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Paul C. Janzen) writes:
>  I recently bought a used SCSI drive and an Adaptec-1542B controller.
>The drive itself apparently has no terminator, and needs a terminator
>that plugs between the device and the cable. (that is, it's got a male
>and a female rectangular [not Centronics] plug, and the terminating 
>resistors go inbetween the two.) 
>  Needless to say, the guy I bought it from did not include this vital 
>organ. (the drive was in the middle of the bus, so it didn't need it.)
>Locally, I've been able to find what I think would be the right thing, 
>only it has two Centronics connectors, instead of the internal-style 
>connectors.
*----
There are several options.  The easiest would probably be to find
the resistor network packages (probably SIP or DIP) that actually
plug into the board on your drive.  If you really want the type of
pass-through terminator you described, Methode Electronics makes
them.  They're sold by Newark Electronics and cost about $ 25 each.
--
	Mike Berger
	Department of Statistics, University of Illinois
	AT&TNET     217-244-6067
	Internet    berger@atropa.stat.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: comp.periphs.scsi
From: berger@atropa (Mike Berger)
Subject: Re: Adaptec + Fujitsu --> cold boot problem. advice?
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1992 15:37:50 GMT

hobbes@spacemanspiff.den.mmc.com (Stephen Camp) writes:
>what have people's experiences been with the Maxtor line:  
>specifically the LXT-200s, LXT-213s, LXT-340s models...

>I had 2 LXT-200s' that crapped out.  My current drive, an LXT-213s, is
>still going after 1 1/2 years... of course, since i have an electronic
*----
In general, my experience with Maxtor drives has been very good.
The LXT-200 was notoriously problematic.
--
	Mike Berger
	Department of Statistics, University of Illinois
	AT&TNET     217-244-6067
	Internet    berger@atropa.stat.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: comp.periphs.scsi,comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard
From: sm@cel.co.uk (salim mehta)
Newsgroups: comp.periphs.scsi,comp.sys.sun.hardware
Subject: Re: SMD to SCSI converters, anyone?
Date: 30 Jul 92 16:00:27 GMT
	<ETNRWI.92Jul8141911@raptus.etn.ericsson.se>
	<DMASON.92Jul8183346@plg.waterloo.edu> <2797@contex.contex.com>
	<45dm#z+@Stollmann.DE> <rschuler.712165328@pv690d.vincent.iastate.edu> <DMASON.92Jul29073856@plg.waterl
Distribution: comp
Organization: Crosfield Electronics Ltd.
In-reply-to: dmason@waterloo.edu's message of 29 Jul 92 11:38:56 GMT

In article <DMASON.92Jul29073856@plg.waterloo.edu> dmason@waterloo.edu (Dave Mason) wrote:

(stuff deleted)
> I had been told about a product from Highwater Designs, the address
> of which I forwarded to comp.periphs.scsi (in the first referenced
> article).  Mike Tuffs followed up on that, and here's his note to me.
>
> From: Mike Tuffs <miket@redact.uucp>
> I've just phoned Highwater designs
                   ^^^^^^^^^
> the interface is a special for CDC SMD drives, they're designed for a
> printing application (Hell/Cromatron)
                        ^^^^

Just an amusing piece of useless information:

HighWater is a start-up outfit set up by ex-employees of Hell (UK); a German
company. I think their name is quite clever:

As in ".....come Hell or high water" : ) : )

--
 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Salim Mehta                                 Crosfield Electronics Ltd
                                             Three Cherry Trees Lane
 Tel:  +44 442 230000  x3450                 Hemel Hempstead
 Fax:  +44 442 232301                        Hertfordshire  HP2 7RH  England
 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 sm@crosfield.co.uk, sm@cel.uucp, sm@cel.co.uk, ...!{mcsun,ukc,uunet}!cel!sm
 ============================================================================
Xref: sparky comp.periphs.scsi:3775 comp.sys.amiga.marketplace:6286
From: anwar+@cs.cmu.edu (Anwar Mohammed)
Newsgroups: comp.periphs.scsi,comp.sys.amiga.marketplace,comp.sys.mac.market,comp.sys.sun.market
Subject: Re: Bernoulli 90 MB Transportable + Cartridges for Sale
Date: 29 Jul 92 05:52:39 GMT
Organization: School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon

In article <1992Jul29.034551.150222@cs.cmu.edu> anwar+@cs.cmu.edu (Anwar Mohammed) writes:
>
>I am selling a Bernoulli 90 MB Transportable cartridge drive + three cartridges.
>The drive is about 6 months old.  
>
>The Iomega Bernoulli cartridge drive is both faster and far more reliable than 
>Syquest-based drives.  I've had it for 6 months, *I haven't experience
>a single failure*.  The drive is a SCSI drive (built in terminator), but Iomega 
>sells adaptors for PC parallel ports(*).  This is an extremely versatile drive.  
>Each cartridge is large enough to hold a lot of archived information and the
>fast access time makes it a painless drive to work off of.  The drive also comes 
>with a built-in handle (for easy transporation) and a side stand.  The
>drive head has a built-in cleaning system and all you need to replace is the 
>air filter once in a while.  The cartridges last for 5 years at 40 hrs a week 
>(MTBF is 60,000 hours), I've only used them somewhat sparsely for 6 months 
>(<10 hrs a week).   The cartridges can withstand 1000g's of force.

That should read 1000g's.

>
>This is really a great drive, IMHO.  I used this drive off a year-old NeXTstation 
>and it worked like a charm.
>
>Right now, it retails for $700-800.  I am including 3 90 MB cartridges which retail
>for around $150 each.
>
>I'd like $850 for the package, but I'll gladly consider reasonable offers. 
>Send me e-mail (anwar@cs.cmu.edu) or call me at 1-412-421-9779.
>
>
>-anwar
>
>(*) If you're interested in this option,  I'll call Iomega and get the details.
>-- 
>Anwar Mohammed                           Graduate Student
>anwar+@cs.cmu.edu  (NeXTmail welcome)    School of Computer Science
>Voice: +1 412 268 3043                   Carnegie-Mellon University
>Fax:   +1 412 681 5739                   Pittsburgh, PA  15213-3890


-- 
Anwar Mohammed                           Graduate Student
anwar+@cs.cmu.edu  (NeXTmail welcome)    School of Computer Science
Voice: +1 412 268 3043                   Carnegie-Mellon University
Fax:   +1 412 681 5739                   Pittsburgh, PA  15213-3890
Xref: sparky comp.periphs.scsi:3721 comp.sys.next.hardware:1128
From: vail@tegra.COM (Johnathan Vail)
Newsgroups: comp.periphs.scsi,comp.sys.next.hardware
Subject: Re: Attaching/removing a SCSI drive on running system
Date: 24 Jul 92 17:44:48 GMT
     <1992Jul8.222743.25173@tandon.com>
     <1992Jul12.160554.1731@oetl1.scf.lmsc.lockheed.com> <1992Jul24.140849.3227@kth.se>
Organization: Tegra, Inc., Billerica, MA
In-reply-to: ragge@nada.kth.se's message of 24 Jul 92 14:08:49 GMT


In article <1992Jul24.140849.3227@kth.se> ragge@nada.kth.se (Ragnar Sundblad) writes:

   I had another idea, I don't know if it would be hard
   to implemented:
   If it would be possible to make a "transparent" on/off-switchable
   scsi-tranceiver (maybe there are such devices on the market),
   so that one could split the bus into two electrically separated
   buses, the tranceiver could be made to switch on or off only
   when the bus is idle.
   Something like this:

   <================> main SCSI Bus
	    |
	    |-----------------|
	 +-----+      +----------------+       +---------------+
	 | xvr |<---+-| busy inhibitor |<------| on/off switch |
	 +-----+    | +----------------+       +---------------+
	    |       |       +-------------------+
	    |       +------>| drive pwr control | (<- fancy extra fature)
	    |               +-------------------+
	 <=======> detachable bus     ||
	       |                      ||
       +------------------+           ||
       | removeable drive |<============ power
       +------------------+

   What do you think, are there any such "scsi-tranceivers" on the
   market, or could they easily be made? Comments?


I assume that your busy inhibitor is a SCSI target than can answer
SELECTIONs with BUSY status while the removable is removed?

SCSI bus transceivers have some kinks to them but are not that
difficult.  We electriclly hot-switch SCSI devices between buses in
several products.

jv


"Honesty without Fear" -- Kelvinator
 _____
|     | Johnathan Vail     vail@tegra.com     (508) 663-7435
|Tegra| jv@n1dxg.ampr.org    N1DXG@448.625-(WorldNet)
 -----  MEMBER: League for Programming Freedom (league@prep.ai.mit.edu)
From: wegrzyn@nic.cerf.net (Chuck Wegrzyn)
Newsgroups: comp.periphs.scsi
Subject: Problems with Archive 2150S
Keywords: Archive SCSI Tape Syntron
Date: 29 Jul 92 14:21:40 GMT
Organization: CERFnet;  La Jolla, CA

I am having a problem with my SCSI tape drive, an Archive S2150, and
thought that maybe someone can help.

I have the following hardware configuration:

	Micronics 486/33 EISA with 16Mbytes of RAM
	Adaptec 1542B SCSI controller
	PO-12S SCSI Maxtor drive (1.4Gbytes)
	CDC 94191-15 SCSI drive (667Mbytes)
	Archive 2150S SCSI tape drive
	Pioneer DEU-7001 SCSI Dual Media Optical Drive
	3.5" Floppy
	5.25" Floppy
	Logitech 256 Gray Scale ScanMan
	Znix Mouse
	4 Serial ports using 16550AF
	2 Parallel ports
	Zoom 14.4 Internal Fax Modem Board
	WD8013 Ethernet controller
	MediaVision Pro 16 Soundboard
	ATI Graphics Ultra board
	Monochrome adapter board

For software I run the standard ASPI4DOS, latest version, QEMM-386,
the latest version - 6.01, Windows 3.1, DOS 5.0 and for backup
software I am attempting to use Syntron software. Windows is running
in enhanced mode!

I have made sure that all the interrupts, DMA channels, mapped 
memory is in the correct spot, etc. I have verified all this with
the manuals and various test programs. The problem that I am having
is that if I do a backup of either of the two harddisks to the tape
and put verify on, the thing fails in the verify step.

I have contacted Syntron -- who seems to never answer anything -- and
they have said, "Well, it must be the tape drive, check the ROM, it
must be the wrong version. " The problem is that the ROM version on
they say I need is version 5 or better, and mine doesn't say anything
about version. According to Archive, the ROM is ok. 

Any ideas? I would really appreciate any help at all.

By the way, does any one know of any Window software that performs
backups of SCSI devices using real windows?


Chuck Wegrzyn....
Newsgroups: comp.periphs.scsi
From: neumann@cubic.com (Paul Neumann)
Subject: Need help with DEC RZ55
Organization: Cubic Toll Systems
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 92 13:20:58 GMT

I recently purchased  a DEC RZ55 SCSI hard drive and am having a problem
installing it in my 386SX.  The only information I was given about the
drive was the three (3) jumpers for the drive ID, however, there are
approxiamately 9 additional jumpers on the drive.

Can anyone tell me who the original manufacturer is and what the model number
is?  Or, what the remaining jumpers are?

I would appreciate any information I can get about this drive.

Thanks.

Paul
neumann@cubic.com
From: sjc@pooky.udev.cdc.com (Steven J Craig)
Newsgroups: comp.periphs.scsi
Subject: SCSI Bus Analyzers ???
Keywords: SCSI Bus Analyzer
Date: 22 Jul 92 22:38:44 GMT
Organization: Control Data Systems Inc.

I am starting to look for a decent SCSI Bus Analyzer.  I have tried several
times to get in contact with my local Adaptec 'Guy' and have had little
luck.  They have two newer analyzers (SDS-310F and SDS-318FD)  

I would like to hear from you that have tried these (or others) and your
thoughts about them (strengths / weeknesses).  I will summarize the
results.

The analyzer should be able to handle SCSI-1 and SCSI-2 controller boards
SCSI-2 FAST would also be a plus.  Actual data transfer capture capabilities
a must.  I do not really care if the analyzer is a PC-AT board or not. 
DIFF and SE connections a must.

Thanks for your help!
    -Steve
-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|  Steven J. Craig (612) 482-4705    There are still to many misakes in this |
|  Control Data Systems Inc                world to have WORM media.         |
|  M/S ARH215                                                                |
|  4201 North Lexington Avenue                                               |
|  Arden Hills, Minnesota  55126               sjc@pooky.udev.cdc.com        |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: comp.periphs.scsi,comp.sys.next.hardware
From: Ragnar Sundblad <ragge@nada.kth.se>
Subject: Re: Attaching/removing a SCSI drive on running system
Organization: Royal Inst of Tech, Stockholm, Sweden
X-Useragent: Nuntius v1.1b3
     <1992Jul8.222743.25173@tandon.com>
     <1992Jul12.160554.1731@oetl1.scf.lmsc.lockheed.com>
Date: Fri, 24 Jul 1992 14:08:49 GMT

In article <1992Jul12.160554.1731@oetl1.scf.lmsc.lockheed.com> Alan
Strassberg, alan@oetl1.scf.lmsc.lockheed.com writes:
>	I saw a device to do this the other day - similar to a
>	data pack, you switch off power, remove drive in caddy,
>	insert new drive or device. The secret is the caddy and
>	the technique to make/break contacts using different length
>	pins.

Is this really a supported and/or safe way of doing it?
Is it totally clear that a busy scsi bus will not be disturbed
by the small capacity changes and such that detaching/attaching
a device will make?

I had another idea, I don't know if it would be hard
to implemented:
If it would be possible to make a "transparent" on/off-switchable
scsi-tranceiver (maybe there are such devices on the market),
so that one could split the bus into two electrically separated
buses, the tranceiver could be made to switch on or off only
when the bus is idle.
Something like this:

<================> main SCSI Bus
         |
         |-----------------|
      +-----+      +----------------+       +---------------+
      | xvr |<---+-| busy inhibitor |<------| on/off switch |
      +-----+    | +----------------+       +---------------+
         |       |       +-------------------+
         |       +------>| drive pwr control | (<- fancy extra fature)
         |               +-------------------+
      <=======> detachable bus     ||
            |                      ||
    +------------------+           ||
    | removeable drive |<============ power
    +------------------+

What do you think, are there any such "scsi-tranceivers" on the
market, or could they easily be made? Comments?

/Ragnar Sundblad, Systems engineer
Newsgroups: comp.periphs.scsi
From: dave@copi.cmhnet.org (David Diller)
Subject: So Maxtor Won't work on SUN Microsystems anymore?
Keywords: Maxtor,SunOs 4.1.2
Organization: Coordinated Office Programs
Distribution: comp
Date: Fri, 24 Jul 1992 12:34:59 GMT

Just talked to Maxtor tech support, and found out that SUN will not support
Maxtor drives in release 4.1.2!  Now this sounds a bit strange to me, I'm
going to call SUN and hear their side of the story before I get too
disappointed!  

Anyone out there using a Maxtor MAX-P012S (1.2 GB) SCSI on a SPARC station
running Sun/Os 4.1.2?  This makes my week!

Any hints would be greatly appreciated.
-- 
David Diller            (dave@copi.cmhnet.org)
Newsgroups: comp.periphs.scsi
From: hobbes@spacemanspiff.den.mmc.com (Stephen Camp)
Subject: Maxtor Problems? (was Re: Adaptec + Fujitsu --> cold boot problem...)
Summary: Maxtor experiences?  also, does low level format cause problems?
Organization: Denver, Colorado
Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1992 17:03:17 GMT


Many apologies on my previous article.  I apparently fouled up my 
response posting in my news reader.  oh well.

Somebody else had recently said:
>which worked for a couple weeks, then started coming up with "sector not
>found" errors, even after re-low-level-formatting it.  The third drive
                           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

After I my first Maxtor started to not be found by my Adaptec 1542A, but
before it crapped out, I too low-level formatted it with the on board
1542A firmware accessed throught the dos debug command.  Well, the drive
seemed to work for a while (read a few weeks) then died.  

Well, when my second LXT-200S ( a factory refurbished unit - you could tell
by some scratches on the disk case! ) started to go, I somehow (can't 
remember how) got in touch with the Maxtor LXT-200S product engineer 
in California.   After describing the problem and what had happened to the
first disk, even after my attempt at _low-level_ formatting it again, he
told me *never* to low-level format a (maxtor?) scsi disk, at least with
the Adaptec on board utilities.  He said something about the low-level
format overwriting the special area on the disk where the disk stored
important information about itself.  I can't remember what kind of information,
boot code or bad sectore code or something.  Anyways, he claimed that
doing a low-level format would zap (or could zap) important information
about the disk and to *NEVER* do a low-level format, only do a high-level 
format (DOS or UNIX or such).

So we then proceeded to do a low-level format using some SPECIAL MAXTOR
UTILITY PROGRAM  i downloaded from Maxtor's bbs.  I assume this utility
also rewrote, restored, or something that special area on the disk.  Well,
it didn't help!  The disk died a week later anyway.  Actually, it didn't 
die, but was very sick, and I whined and complained and bothered the
engineer who then recommended to some manager that the disk be replaced.
By this time, the second disk was out of the original warranty, but 
I got really lucky (!) and Maxtor sent me a brand new LXT-213SY, that has
been fine ever since.  (But I'm not sure I trust Maxtor's anymore, after
my experiences.  At least Fujitsu disks can be had (some models) with
a *5* year warranty.)

Anyways,  can a low-level format screw a SCSI disk?  I thought that the
way SCSI works, the AHA-1542A on board utility simply sent the SCSI
command to the disk to reformat itself!  So how would this screw the disk?
Or was the engineer wrong?


Sorry this was so long winded.

Steve Camp
hobbes@spacemanspiff.den.mmc.com
Newsgroups: comp.periphs.scsi