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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!lucy.swin.edu.au!news.rmit.EDU.AU!news.unimelb.EDU.AU!munnari.OZ.AU!spool.mu.edu!howland.erols.net!worldnet.att.net!news.bbnplanet.com!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!EU.net!Ireland.EU.net!maths.tcd.ie!maths.tcd.ie!not-for-mail From: ajudge@maths.tcd.ie (Alan Judge) Newsgroups: comp.periphs.scsi,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Subject: Bizarre SCSI problem (3 disks work, 4 don't) (2940UW/Quantum Atlas II) Date: 4 Feb 1997 10:11:13 -0000 Organization: Dept. of Maths, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland. Lines: 38 Sender: mathnews@gosset.maths.tcd.ie Message-ID: <5d7201$qa@gosset.maths.tcd.ie> NNTP-Posting-Host: gosset.maths.tcd.ie Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.periphs.scsi:69702 comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:35040 I have a really odd (in my experience, at least) SCSI problem. The setup is a PC (running FreeBSD 2.2-BETA) containing an Adaptec 2940UW. No internal disks. The external 68-pin connector is connected to a case containing 4 Quantum Atlas II disks. Inside the case, the 4 disks are chained together on a ribbon cable. The case is terminated with an external active terminator, and the 2940 termination is set to automatic. The 4 disks are numbers 0..3. When *any* three disks are connected to the ribbon cable, everything works fine; I can access and use the disks. When all four are connected, the SCSI system fails quite quickly. The usual symptoms are a lockup where one of the disk activity lights will remain on. Eventually FreeBSD times out and things unlock and an error is generated. This problem can occur as early as the initial probing of the disks. The only change that I make between a working 3 disk setup and a broken 4 disk one is to disconnect the ribbon connector from the back of the drive that I decide to remove. I leave the power connected, in case it's a power supply problem. Removing any of the four disks results in a working system. I'm stumped. Any ideas? In case they help, the sort of errors that FreeBSD sees include: Feb 3 16:32:56 siobhra /kernel: sd3(ahc1:2:0): timed out in datain phase, SCSISIGI == 0x44 Feb 3 16:32:56 siobhra /kernel: SEQADDR == 0x59 Feb 3 16:32:56 siobhra /kernel: Ordered Tag queued Feb 3 16:33:01 siobhra /kernel: sd3(ahc1:2:0): timed out in datain phase, SCSISIGI == 0x44 Feb 3 16:33:01 siobhra /kernel: SEQADDR == 0x59 Feb 3 16:33:01 siobhra /kernel: sd3(ahc1:2:0): abort message in message buffer Feb 3 16:33:03 siobhra /kernel: sd3(ahc1:2:0): timed out in datain phase, SCSISIGI == 0x54 Feb 3 16:33:03 siobhra /kernel: SEQADDR == 0x59 Feb 3 16:33:03 siobhra /kernel: ahc1: Issued Channel A Bus Reset. 1 SCBs aborted -- Alan Judge <A HREF="http://www.dsg.cs.tcd.ie/dsg_people/amjudge">Magic!</A> "I have an 8 user poetic license" - terry@icarus.weber.edu