EIII SCSI hardware error

[dr.c]

Did you try the hard disk somewhere else, on a computer ?

Does this disk have the terminator resistors installed ?

Are the terminator and PWRTERM jumpers correctly setted ?

In cas of doubt, send me a picture of the controler board, or the exact reference of the disk so I can dig the tech note somewhere. Even better, if you have it, just send it here.

You should see on the HD controler board, near the middle of the data connector, a FUSE, generallly named "F1" wich is 1 amp.

Put the power on and measure the voltage at the edges of this fuse. Its a very commun failure on hard disks. If you read 5 V, it means that the fuse is CUT, therefore, the disk cannot work.
What you can do then is to solder another fuse, but don't do anything right now, if the fuse is bad, send me a picture for the controler card, I will show you how to fix it.

[midipuppies]

Tried 6 different drives. I know they are all good working drives. They work in everything else.
Cables are all ok.

[dr.c]

There is a thread, recent, ON THIS FORUM, where there is an adress where you can buy E-Mu parts and certainly NCR5380s.

[midipuppies]

Yo Doc, should the NCR5380 IC be warm or slightly hot to the touch? Mine is.
Also, I am having trouble tracking one down. No one seems to be willing to sell me just one. Lots of company's sell them, but only orders of 2-3 hundred at a time. I think some old SCSI cards used them, so maybe that would be easier?
Do you have any?

[dr.c]

Nope, I never had any HOT one, even warm.
Can yopu make a picture of your machine with rthe cover up, but alla the cards and cables in place, just like if you were bout to close it. I have an doubt...

[midipuppies]

So, it's not the NCR5380 chip either. It's not the SCSI cable, and it is not the software.
Just no damn internal SCSI, but it boots fine with the floppy.
I really do not have any more ideas as to what to try next.
Anyone??

[dr.c]

In the "Special" menu, you can decide wich is the processor board SCSI ID. Generally, its OK to put it to 6. The internal disk should be on 1.
This allows to EVENTUALLY connect a Mac wich has its processor board to SCSI ID#7, the CD Rom at 3, the internal disk at 0. This avoids any conflict on the SCSI chain.

Please check at least that your processor board has not the same SCS ID number than the disk.

Wich are the brands and models of the disks ? I will check their jumper config (termpwr, etc...)

Where are you located ?

[midipuppies]

Doc, I am ready to ship the fucking thing to you to see if you can do anything with it.
I am in Canada.
Today, I got the original drive working again, but it will not see any other drive including the C/F drive which started all of this bullshit.
I did nothing different than before, it just decided to detect the drive for unknown reasons.
Anyway, let me know if I can send it to you to look at or not.
Otherwise, I am going to put it up for sale with the original drive installed.

Thanks, Jay

[dr.c]

including the C/F drive

What do you mean by "C/F drive wich STARTED all of this bullshit" ?

Forget it, I am in France. PLEASE, send me the references of the drives. I am doing my best to help you, you know?

Cheers

[midipuppies]

I am not an amateur when it comes to E-mu samplers. I have tried EVERYTHING possible. The C|F drive is not compatible with this unit. I even bought the cards with the pink triangle on them. It SOMETIMES detects the drive, but NEVER completes the verification process. I have even left it overnight.
I have finally got the original 80 meg drive to mount up, format and take the software, and that is how I am going to leave it.
I am not implying that no-one is not trying to help me with this unit, but I have tried everything that has been suggested to no avail.
So, I am going to get rid of the unit. It will make someone very happy. It is in MINT condition and I have replaced the floppy and backlight. It is an 8 Meg unit, and functions fine- it just WILL NOT take the C/F drive.
No disrespect to anyone, and I really do appreciate the input from everyone.

Jay

[dr.c]

I can't believe it... I've been reading everywhere and I didn't see there was a peroblem with CF drive, wich still I don't know what this can be !

I understand now its a memory card apparently ?

I tought you were talking about DIVES as HARD DISKS !!!!

Do you mean you have installed the SCSI<>IDE card with the memory card, and it doesn't work ?

I may be interrested by your memory card and converter.

[Escobar]

As far as I have come to understand, the most critical part is the CF card it self when you try to replace the SCSI drive with it. Forget new cf cards since they are way to fast for older SCSI systems.
What I can recommend is SanDisk cards - the older ones which are red and blue.
When i first tried the CF solution I managed to make it work with TwinMOS cards but others had problem with that brand. I have an old Amiga computer and the problem is the same when I try to replace the drive with a cf card, newer cards doesn't work and some brands that work for some people on their gears doesn't mean it will necessary work on yours! It's wierd I know, but that's the way it is I guess... Again, try SanDisk cf cards the older ones. You can find those on eBay.
If it doesn't work, come back here again and we will make it work!

Good Luck!

//Escobar

[who]

Thanks Dr.C!  Your fix worked for me.

[Shogun]

Hi All and a Happy New Year.
I have the same issue wih my EIII (v2.42 and v2 Firmware) except it won't see the attached SCSI CDRom drive (with a Factory Disk inside).
When I go to load from from the CD Rom drive (It's shown in the list) it kicks up repeatedly one of three error messages -
"SCSI Hardware Error" or
"Not an EII Disk" or
"Disk not Formatted"
It used to read the Factory Library disks fine until recently. I have tested the CDRom on another system and it works fine. I have changed SCSI cables and they check out OK. All terminated correctly. It see's the Internal HD and Floppy OK. Problem only seems to be in the external SCSI chain connection.
Any thoughts welcomed.
Thanks
 

[Wolfram]

Hi,

I'm not sure in case of the EIII, but if it is like the EMAX II, it has only one SCSI Bus.
If it is so, you don't have to terminate your CD drive because you already terminated the internal hard drive.