Can only use one channel of Adaptec SCSI card...Why please?
Richard
MB and this is the score.
Four drives on one channel and the system boots fine. Connect a four
drive cable onto the second channel with one drive on it and the system
throws up an error message to say that the OS cannot be seen. Any ideas
guys?
Many thanks
Richard
--
Multithreaded
wrote:
Hi, Richard. What card have you got? Is it a genuine two-channel card
like the Adaptec 39160, or a single-channle one like the 29160(N)s I
use in all nine of my PCs? Have you set the card to boot off a certain
SCSI ID (mine is always 0 for the boot drive)? Do you actually boot
off a SCSI drive, or does the bootloader live in the MBR of an IDE
disk? I do both on different machines.
Sorry for all the questions, but I haven't a clue what your exact
setup is.
--
Multithreaded.
Multithreaded
wrote:
>I am trying to run off both channels of an Adaptec SCSI card on a Tyan
>MB and this is the score.
Ah, just reread one of your earlier posts. If you're just relying on
the Windows bootloader, that can easily get confused by the sort of
mixed IDE/SCSI system you and I have. The only solution I have found
to this that works very well is to install GRUB (I use the Linux one,
but you can get it for Windows, too) and read the online manual VERY
carefully. I'd be happy to advise further if you can find a way to get
GRUB on your system; actually, if you don't mind manually booting from
floppy to start with, you can get a Grub floppy which will boot
absolutely anything from anything, should you know how. We can then
test a Grub config that works, before actually installing it to a HDD.
If you have no floppy (a pet hate of mine, because of situations like
this), I'm sure I can get GRUB to play on a flash drive (USB stick,
pen drive - heck, what are those things called?) and try to help you
further.
--
Multithreaded.
Nigel Wade
What does the SCSI BIOS tell you about attached devices?
Could be due to incorrect termination, or perhaps an invalid SCSI id
number (i.e. the SCSI disk attached to the second controller is set to
the same SCSI id as the controller). Or many other reasons - do you know
that the other channel actually works?
Also, try swapping the SCSI chains from one channel to the other. It
could simply be that the BIOS (or Windows) is enumerating the devices
such that the system is attempting to boot from that single device you've
added, which presumably does not contain a bootable OS.
--
Nigel Wade
Richard
Thanks for responding to this thread. The card is and Adaptec 39320A.
A bit of history may be helpful in getting to the bottom of this. The
board is a Tyan S2895 Thunder K8WE with on board dual channel SCSI.
After this system was delivered to me it was not stable and after
eighteen months of shipping it back and forward I decided that I would
put in the Adaptec card and from that moment the problems went away.
However I have always had the feeling that the computer was slower than
it should have been.
All four main drives are SCSI Seagate Cheetah 15K 320 and a few storage
SATA drives. I've only used one channel on this card prior to
yesterday so this channel may be faulty.
When I installed the card I was aware that there did not appear to be
any way of getting to the card's BIOS so it has run in whatever
configuration it defaults to. I've always had SCSI systems and am well
used to hitting Ctr A at boot up to set a card up, but this installation
is really odd. I have to say that I thought that perhaps this card did
not require user intervention ...so no facility to alter things in the
BIOS !
As to what address the card boots off I do not know how to find this out
and would welcome some guidance a to how to extract this information.
I've looked in properties for the card in System and this is what is
says. PCI slot 2 PCI bus 17, device 4, function 0.
Hope this helps you help me<G>
Cheers
Richard
Richard
Thanks for your suggestions. I do have a floppy drive but the reply to
your earlier posting may fill in some gaps and in the light of that you
may have other suggestions!
Cheers
Richard
--
Jeff Gaines
>When I installed the card I was aware that there did not appear to be any
>way of getting to the card's BIOS so it has run in whatever configuration
>it defaults to. I've always had SCSI systems and am well used to hitting
>Ctr A at boot up to set a card up, but this installation is really odd. I
>have to say that I thought that perhaps this card did not require user
>intervention ...so no facility to alter things in the BIOS !
It looks like it is still Ctrl+A, but you may have to be quick!
Manual is at:
http://www.adaptec.com/en-US/support/scsi/u320/ASC-39320A-R/index.htm
on the documentation tab.
--
Jeff Gaines Dorset UK
There are 10 types of people in the world, those who do binary and those
who don't.
Richard
>On 21/12/2009 in message <8KsaqyHT...@eclipse.co.uk> Richard wrote:
>
>>When I installed the card I was aware that there did not appear to be
>>any way of getting to the card's BIOS so it has run in whatever
>>configuration it defaults to. I've always had SCSI systems and am
>>well used to hitting Ctr A at boot up to set a card up, but this
>>installation is really odd. I have to say that I thought that perhaps
>>this card did not require user intervention ...so no facility to alter
>>things in the BIOS !
>
>It looks like it is still Ctrl+A, but you may have to be quick!
>Manual is at:
>
>http://www.adaptec.com/en-US/support/scsi/u320/ASC-39320A-R/index.htm
>
>on the documentation tab.
>
Thanks Jeff. I've been looking at the PDF and have tried tapping Ctr A
from the moment the system is started and it does not bring up the SCSI
utilities. What is a bit of a bind is that for most of the boot process
the screen is blotted out with a large TYAN so I cannot see anything
happening! There must be a way of disabling that, surely!
Cheers
Richard
--
Richard
Thanks Nigel. I swapped and all is fine in that both channels are
working. I gad the boot drive ad the other three drives on the B
channel and the extra drive on the A channel. Now that I have swapped
them over all is well. Still cannot bring up the SCSI utilities at
boot.
Cheers
Richard
--
Jeff Gaines
>Thanks Jeff. I've been looking at the PDF and have tried tapping Ctr A
>from the moment the system is started and it does not bring up the SCSI
>utilities. What is a bit of a bind is that for most of the boot process
>the screen is blotted out with a large TYAN so I cannot see anything
>happening! There must be a way of disabling that, surely!
Something along the lines of 'Full Screen Logo' on my Gigabyte board.
--
Jeff Gaines Dorset UK
That's an amazing invention but who would ever want to use one of them?
(President Hayes speaking to Alexander Graham Bell on the invention of the
telephone)
Surfer!
<ric...@spamfree.co.uk> writes
<snip>
>Thanks Jeff. I've been looking at the PDF and have tried tapping Ctr A
>from the moment the system is started and it does not bring up the SCSI
>utilities. What is a bit of a bind is that for most of the boot process
>the screen is blotted out with a large TYAN so I cannot see anything
>happening! There must be a way of disabling
Look in the BIOS to see if you can turn it off. I could and did with my
Gigabyte m/board.
--
Surfer!
Richard
>In message <dbzCeZJu33LLFwd$@eclipse.co.uk>, Richard
><ric...@spamfree.co.uk> writes
><snip>
>>Thanks Jeff. I've been looking at the PDF and have tried tapping Ctr
>>A from the moment the system is started and it does not bring up the
>>SCSI utilities. What is a bit of a bind is that for most of the boot
>>process the screen is blotted out with a large TYAN so I cannot see
>>anything happening! There must be a way of disabling
Thanks to you and Jeff for suggesting how I can get rid of the TYAN.
Maybe it is somewhere in the BIOS so I will have a good look!
Cheers
Richard
--
Richard Kenward