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CONTENTS AT A GLANCE Understanding SCSI Concepts

Device independence SCSI variations Initiators and targets Synchronous and asynchronous Disconnect and reconnect Single-ended and differential Terminators SCSI IDS Bus configurations SCSI cables and terminators SCSI drivers Tips for a smooth upgrade Configure and install the SCSI adapter Configure and install the SCSI peripheral Cabling and termination Real-mode SCSI driver issues Tips for Windows 95 SCSI drivers

Understanding SCSI Bus Operation

Negotiation Information

Troubleshooting the SCSI System

Isolating trouble spots General troubleshooting tips Symptoms

Upgrading a PC for SCSI

SCSI peripherals SCSI host adapter

Further Study

PC designers have always sought ways to connect more devices to fewer cables. This
reduces the amount of adapter card hardware in the system, so power, space, cost, and
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maintenance demands are also lowered. In the early 1980s, it became clear that a more versatile and intelligent interface would be needed to overcome the myriad of proprietary interfaces appearing at the time. By 1986, PC designers responded with the introduction of the Small Computer System Interface (SCSI, pronounced scuzzy). SCSI proved to be a revolution for PC power-usersa single adapter could operate a number of unique devices simultaneouslyall daisy-chained to the same cable. Where other low-end PCs needed one adapter for hard drives, one adapter for the CD-ROM, another adapter for a tape drive, etc., a system fitted with a SCSI adapter could handle all of these devices and achieve data throughputs that other interfaces of the day couldnt even dream of. Todays PC industry has changed. Proprietary interfaces are largely discouraged and the standardized interfaces (such as ATA-2, also known as EIDE) now support a variety of devices while offering low cost and performance levels rivaling SCSI. Yet, SCSI has endured and evolved, and it remains the interface of choice for multitasking and high-end systems. This chapter examines the inner workings of the SCSI interface, and shows you how to deal with installation and troubleshooting problems.

Understanding SCSI Concepts

Ideally, peripherals should be independent of the microprocessors operation. The computer should only have to send commands and data to the peripheral, and wait for the peripheral to respond. Printers work this way. The parallel and serial ports are actually device-level interfaces. The computer is unconcerned with what device is attached to the port. In other words, you can take a printer built 12 years ago and connect it to a new Pentium-based systemand the printer will work just fine because only data and commands are being sent across the interface. Very simply put, this is the concept behind SCSI. Computers and peripherals can be designed, developed, and integrated without worrying about hardware compatibility. Such compatibility is established entirely by the SCSI interface.

DEVICE INDEPENDENCE
From a practical standpoint, SCSI is a busan organization of physical wires and terminations, where each wire has its own name and purpose. SCSI also consists of a command seta limited set of instructions that allow the computer and peripherals to communicate over the physical bus. The SCSI bus is used in systems that want to achieve device independence. For example, all hard-disk drives look alike to the SCSI interface (except for their total capacity), all optical drives look alike, all printers look alike, etc. For any particular type of SCSI device, you should be able to replace an existing device with another device, without any system modifications. New SCSI devices can often be added to the bus with little more than a driver upgrade. Because the intelligence of SCSI resides in the peripheral device itself and not in the computer, the computer is able to use a small set of standard commands to accomplish data transfer back and forth to the peripheral. Now that you understand a bit about the nature of the SCSI interface, the following sections explain some of the important terms and concepts youll need to know.

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SCSI VARIATIONS
This section covers at the evolution of the SCSI interface and the ways in which it has evolved and proliferated. SCSI began life in 1979 when Shugart Associates (you might remember them as one of the first PC hard drive makers) released their Shugart Associates Systems Interface (or SASI) standard. The X3T9.2 committee was formed by ANSI in 1982 to develop the SASI standard, which was renamed SCSI. SCSI drives and interfaces that were developed under the evolving X3T9.2 SCSI standard were known as SCSI-1, although the actual SCSI-1 standard (ANSI X3.131-1986) didnt become official until 1986. SCSI-1 provided a system-level 8-bit bus that could operate up to eight devices and transfer data at up to 5MB/s. However, the delay in standardization lead to a lot of configuration and compatibility problems with SCSI-1 setups. Table 39-1 compares SCSI-1 specs to other versions.
Although SCSI-1 was supposed to support all SCSI devices, manufacturers took liberties with the evolving standard. This frequently led to installation and compatibility problems between SCSI-1 devices which theoretically should have worked together perfectly. Today, all existing SCSI-1 adapters should be upgraded to SCSI-2 installations.

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Earlier in 1986 (even before the SCSI-1 standard was ratified), work started on the SCSI-2 standard, which was intended to overcome many of the speed and compatibility problems encountered with SCSI-1. By 1994, ANSI blessed the SCSI-2 standard (X3.131-1994). SCSI-2 was designed to be backwardly compatible with SCSI-1, but SCSI-2 also provided for several variations. Fast SCSI-2 (or Fast SCSI) doubles the SCSI bus clock speed and allows 10MB/s data transfers across the 8-bit SCSI data bus. Wide SCSI-2 (or Wide SCSI) also doubles the original data-transfer rate to 10MB/s by using a 16-bit data bus instead of the original 8-bit data bus (the SCSI clock is left unchanged). To support the larger data bus, Wide SCSI uses a 68-pin cable instead of the traditional 50-pin cable. Wide SCSI can also support up to 16 SCSI devices. Designers then combined the attributes of fast and wide operation to create Fast Wide SCSI-2 (Fast Wide
TABLE 39-1 COMPARISON OF SCSI VARIATIONS BUS SPEED (MB/S) BUS WIDTH (BITS) BUS LENGTH (METERS) DEVICES SUPPORTED

TERM SCSI-1 SCSI-1 SCSI-2 Fast SCSI Wide SCSI Fast Wide SCSI SCSI-3 Fast-20 SCSI Wide Fast-20 SCSI *Fast-40 SCSI *Wide Fast-40 SCSI

5 10 10 20 20 40 40 80

8 8 16 16 8 16 8 16

6 3 3 3 1.5 3 n/d n/d

8 8 16 16 8 4 8 16

* These standards are still in development, and their full specifications are still being determined.

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SCSI), which supports 20MB/s data transfers across a 16-bit data bus. Whenever you see references to Fast SCSI, Wide SCSI, or Fast Wide SCSI, youre always dealing with a SCSI-2 implementation. But SCSI advancement hasnt stopped there. ANSI began development of the SCSI-3 standard in 1993 (even before SCSI-2 was adopted). SCSI-3 is intended to be backwardly compatible with SCSI-2 and SCSI-1 devices. Although SCSI-3 is still not finalized, many SCSI devices and controllers are using the advances offered by SCSI-3 development. These early SCSI-3 devices are generally known as Fast-20 SCSI (or Ultra SCSI-3, also termed Ultra SCSI). Ultra SCSI uses a 20MHz SCSI bus clock with an 8-bit data bus to achieve 20MB/s data transfers. By using a 16-bit data bus, SCSI-3 offers Wide Fast-20 SCSI (Wide Ultra SCSI-3, also termed Wide Ultra SCSI) which handles 40MB/s data transfers. For the future, the SCSI-3 standard is also proposing Fast-40 SCSI (called Ultra2 SCSI-3 and Ultra2 SCSI), using a 40MHz bus clock to provide 40MB/s data transfers with an 8bit data bus. The 16-bit data bus version is known as Wide Fast-40 SCSI (called Wide Ultra2 SCSI-3 or Wide Ultra2 SCSI), which is supposed to support 80MB/s data transfers. Whenever you see references to Ultra, Fast-20, Ultra2, or Fast-40, youre almost certain to be faced with a SCSI-3 setup.
Youll probably encounter a lot of literature using the term Ultra SCSI, but the use of Ultra as a SCSI-3 designator is being actively discouraged because of legal disputes with companies using the term Ultra in their SCSI-2 (yes, SCSI-2) devices. As a rule, use the Fast or Wide Fast terms instead of the Ultra terms.

SCSI has traditionally been a parallel bus; that is, 8 or 16 bits of data are transferred at a time across parallel data lines. SCSI-3 is proposing three new serial connection schemes. Youll see these noted as Serial Storage Architecture (SSA), Fibre Channel, and IEEE P1394 (a.k.a. Fire Wire). These serial schemes will offer faster data transfers than their parallel-bus cousins, but are not backward compatible with SCSI-2 or SCSI-1.

INITIATORS AND TARGETS

Basically two types of devices are on the SCSI bus: initiators and targets. An initiator starts communication when something has to be done and a target responds to the initiators commands. The important thing for you to understand here is that this master/slave relationship is not a one-way arrangementan initiator might become a target at some points in the data-transfer cycle, and the target might become the initiator at other points. You will see more about this role duality later in this chapter. A SCSI bus can support up to eight devices simultaneously, but at least one initiator and one target must be in the system. An SCSI host adapter (the expansion card installed in one of the computers expansion slots) is typically the initiator, and all other devices (e.g., hard drives or CD-ROMs) are usually targets, but that is not necessarily the only possible case. Many kinds of computer peripherals are candidates for the SCSI bus. Each peripheral offers unique characteristics and applications, but each also requires different methods of control. By adding SCSI intelligence to these devices, they can all be made to share the same bus together. The SCSI nomenclature groups similar devices together into specific device types. The original SCSI standard defines six devices:

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s s s s s s

Random-access devices (e.g., hard drives) Sequential access (e.g., tape drives) Printers Processors WORM (write-once read-many) drives Read-only random-access devices The SCSI-2 interface adds five more devices to the specification:

s s s s s

CD-ROM drives Scanners Magneto-optical drives Media changer (jukebox) Communication devices

SYNCHRONOUS AND ASYNCHRONOUS

As a system-level interface, SCSI requires an operating handshaking protocol that organizes the transfer of data from a sending point to a requesting point. The three typical handshaking protocols for SCSI are: asynchronous, synchronous, and fast synchronous. The asynchronous protocol works rather like a parallel port. Each byte must be requested and acknowledged before the next byte can be sent. Asynchronous operation generally results in very reliable (but slow) performance. Synchronous and fast synchronous operation both ignore the request/acknowledge handshake for data transfer only. This allows slightly faster operation than an asynchronous protocol, but a certain fixed amount of time delay (sometimes called an offset) must be allowed for request and acknowledge effects. The fast synchronous protocol uses slightly shorter signals, resulting in even faster speed. An important point to remember is that SCSI systems can typically use any of these three protocols, as desired. The actual protocol that is used must be mutually agreed to by the initiator and the target through their communications. SCSI systems normally initialize in an asynchronous protocol.

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DISCONNECT AND RECONNECT

In a number of instances, it would be desirable to allow a target to operate off-line while the initiator is occupied elsewhere. Tape rewind time is just one example. An important feature of SCSI is the ability to disconnect two communicating devices, then reconnect them again later. Disconnect and reconnect operations allow several different operations to occur simultaneously in the system This is the main reason why SCSI architecture is so desirable in a multitasking environment. It is up to the initiator to grant a disconnect privilege to a target.

SINGLE-ENDED AND DIFFERENTIAL

The signal wiring used in an SCSI bus has a definite impact on bus performance. The two generally used wiring techniques for SCSI are: single-ended and differential. Both wiring schemes have advantages and disadvantages. The single-ended (SE) wiring technique is just as the name impliesa single wire carries the particular signal from initiator to target. Each signal requires only one wire. Terminating

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resistors at each end of the cable help to maintain acceptable signal levels. A common ground (return) provides the reference for all single-ended signals. Unfortunately, singleended circuitry is not very noise resistant, so single-ended cabling is generally limited to about six meters at data transfer speeds of 5MHz or less. At higher data-transfer speeds, cable length can be as short as 1.5 meters. In spite of the disadvantages, single-ended operation is simple and popular because of its simplicity. The differential (DIF) wiring approach uses two wires for each signal (instead of one wire referenced to a common ground). A differential signal offers excellent noise resistance because it does not rely on a common ground. This allows much longer cables (up to 25 meters) and higher-speed operation (10 MHz). An array of pull-up resistors at each end of the cable help to ensure signal integrity. The problem with differential wiring is that it is more complicated than single-ended interfaces.

TERMINATORS
When high-frequency signals are transmitted over adjacent wires, signals tend to degrade and interfere with one another over the length of the cable. This is a very natural and relatively well-understood electrical phenomenon. In the PC, SCSI signal integrity is enhanced by using powered resistors at each end of the data cable to pull up active signals. Most high-frequency signal cables in the PC are already terminated by pull-up resistors at drives and controller cards. The small resistor array is known as a terminator. Because the number of devices that can be added to a floppy drive or IDE cable is limited, designers have never made a big deal about terminationthey just added the resistors and that was it. With SCSI, however, up to eight devices can be added to the bus cable. The SCSI cable also must be terminated, but the location of terminating resistors depends on which devices are added to the bus and where they are placed. As a result, termination is a much more vital element of SCSI setup and troubleshooting. As you will see later in this chapter, poor or incorrect termination can cause intermittent signal problems. Later on, you will see how to determine the proper placement of terminating resistors. Termination is typically either active or passive. Basically, passive termination is simply plugging a resistor pack into a SCSI device. Passive resistors are powered by the TERMPWR line. Passive termination is simple and effective over short distances (up to about 1 meter) and usually works just fine for the cable lengths inside a PC, but can be a drawback over longer distances. Active terminators provide their own regulated power sources, which makes them most effective for longer cables (such as those in external SCSI devices, such as page scanners) or Wide SCSI systems. Most SCSI-2 implementations use active terminators. A variation on active termination is forced perfect termination (FPT). FPT includes diode clamps, which prevent signal overshoot and undershoot. This makes FPT effective for long SCSI cable lengths.

SCSI IDS
A SCSI bus will support up to eight devices. This means that each device on the bus must have its own unique ID number (0 to 7)if two devices use the same ID, there will be a conflict. IDs are typically set on the SCSI adapter and each SCSI device using jumpers or DIP switches. Typically, the SCSI adapter is set for ID 7, the primary SCSI hard drive is

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set to ID 0, and a second SCSI hard drive is ID 1. Other devices can usually be placed anywhere from ID 2 to ID 6.

BUS CONFIGURATIONS
Most of the SCSI implementations currently available use single-ended cabling that supports an 8-bit data bus (known as an A-cable). An A-cable is a 50-pin assembly outlined in Table 39-2. The three major sections to the 50-pin single-ended SCSI cable are: ground wires, data signals, and control signals. You will notice that at least half of the singleended interface carries ground lines. There are eight data lines (D0 to D7) and a data parity bit (DPAR). Notice that SCSI parity is always odd. There are four terminator power lines (TERMPWR) and nine control-signal wires. Each signal is explained:
s C/D Control/Data (driven by target) Allows the target device to select whether it will

be returning a command or data to the initiator.

s I/O Input/Output (driven by target) Allows the target device to determine whether it

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will be receiving or sending information along the data bus.

s MSG Message (driven by target) Allows the target device to send coded status or er-

ror messages back to the initiator during the message portion of the SCSI bus cycle.
s REQ Request (driven by target) A data strobe signal that allows a potential target de-

vice to obtain data on the bus.

TABLE 39-2 PINOUT OF A STANDARD SINGLEENDED A-CABLE SIGNAL Ground Ground Ground Ground Ground Ground Ground Ground Ground Ground Ground reserved open reserved Ground Ground Ground Ground Ground G d PIN 1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 37 39 PIN 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40 SIGNAL Data 0 Data 1 Data 2 Data 3 Data 4 Data 5 Data 6 Data 7 Data parity Ground Ground reserved TERMPWR reserved Ground ATN Ground BSY ACK RST

(Attention) (Busy) (Acknowledge) ( R t)

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TABLE 39-2 PINOUT OF A STANDARD SINGLEENDED A-CABLE (CONTINUED) SIGNAL Ground G Ground Ground Ground Ground Ground PIN 1 39 41 43 45 47 49 PIN 2 40 42 44 46 48 50 SIGNAL Data 0 RST MSG SEL C/D REQ I/O (Reset) (Message) (Select) (Control/Data) (Request) (Input/Output)

s ACK Acknowledge (driven by initiator) A data strobe signal sent in response to the

targets REQ signal, which informs the target device that it has gained use of the bus.
s BSY Busy (driven by initiator or target) Allows a device to inform the bus that the

device is currently busy.

s SEL Select (driven by initiator or target) A signal used by an initiator to select a tar-

get device.
s ATN Attention (driven by initiator) A signal produced by the initiator that informs

the target that the initiator has a message ready. The target should switch to the message phase. s RST Reset (driven by initiator or target) A strobe signal that triggers a bus-wide reset of all devices. Usually, only one device produces a Reset signal. The differential SCSI interface replaces most of the ground wires with +signal leads. For example, pin 2 represents +D0, while pin 27 is -D0. These + and - signal pairs are the differential signals. Notice that there are still a few ground wires, but the grounds are not related to differential signals as they are to single-ended signals. Just about all of the data and control signals in the differential interface serve an identical purpose in the single-ended interface, but the signal locations have been rearranged (Table 39-3). The one additional differential signal is the DIFFSENS (Differential Sense) line, which provides an active high enable for differential drivers. Remember that plugging a differential cable into a single-ended interface (or vice versa) can damage the device, the SCSI adapter, or both. As you might imagine, wide SCSI implementations will not work with A-cables. A 16bit cable is needed. Early implementations of wide SCSI used a second cable to provide the extra signal lines, but was quickly abandoned for a single cable assembly (called a Pcable). The single-ended P-cable is shown in Table 39-4. Although many of the signals might look familiar, you will notice that it has 68 pins instead of 50primarily to support the eight additional data lines (D8 to D15). Control lines are identical to those in the Acable. Table 39-5 shows the pinout for a differential 68-pin P-cable.

Understanding SCSI Bus Operation

Now that you have learned about SCSI bus concepts and structure, you can see how the interface behaves during normal operation. Because bus wires are common to every device

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TABLE 39-3 PINOUT OF A STANDARD DIFFERENTIAL A-CABLE SIGNAL Ground +Data 0 +Data 1 +Data 2 +Data 3 +Data 4 +Data 5 +Data 6 +Data 7 +Data parity DIFFSENS Reserved TERMPWR Reserved +ATN Ground +BSY +ACK +RST +MSG +SEL +C/D +REQ +I/O Ground PIN 1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 37 39 41 43 45 47 49 PIN 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40 42 44 46 48 50 SIGNAL Ground Data 0 Data 1 Data 2 Data 3 Data 4 Data 5 Data 6 Data 7 Data parity Ground Reserved TERMPWR Reserved ATN (Attention) Ground BSY (Busy) ACK (Acknowledge) RST (Reset) MSG (Message) SEL (Select) C/D (Control/Data) REQ (Request) I/O (Input/Output) Ground

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TABLE 39-4 PINOUT OF A STANDARD SINGLE-ENDED P-CABLE SIGNAL Ground Ground Ground Ground Ground Ground Ground Ground Ground Ground Ground PIN 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 PIN 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 SIGNAL Data 12 Data 13 Data 14 Data 15 Data parity 1 Data 0 Data 1 Data 2 Data 3 Data 4 Data 5

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TABLE 39-4 PINOUT OF A STANDARD SINGLE-ENDED P-CABLE (CONTINUED) SIGNAL Ground Ground Ground Ground Ground Ground TERMPWR TERMPWR Reserved Ground Ground Ground Ground Ground Ground Ground Ground Ground Ground Ground Ground Ground Ground Ground PIN 1 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 PIN 35 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 SIGNAL Data 12 5 Data 6 Data 7 Data parity 0 Ground Ground TERMPWR TERMPWR Reserved Ground ATN Ground BSY ACK RST MSG SEL C/D REQ I/O Data 8 Data 9 Data 10 Data 11

(Attention) (Busy) (Acknowledge) (Reset) (Message) (Select) (Control/Data) (Request) (Input/Output)

TABLE 39-5 PINOUT OF A STANDARD DIFFERENTIAL P-CABLE SIGNAL +Data 12 +Data 13 +Data 14 +Data 15 +Data parity 1 Ground +Data 0 +Data 1 +Data 2 +Data 3 +Data 4 +Data 5 D 6 PIN 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 PIN 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 SIGNAL Data 12 Data 13 Data 14 Data 15 Data parity 1 Ground Data 0 Data 1 Data 2 Data 3 Data 4 Data 5 D 6

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TABLE 39-5 PINOUT OF A STANDARD DIFFERENTIAL P-CABLE (CONTINUED) SIGNAL 6 +Data 12 +Data 7 +Data parity 0 DIFFSENS TERMPWR TERMPWR Reserved +ATN Ground +BSY +ACK +RST +MSG +SEL +C/D +REQ +I/O Ground +Data 8 +Data 9 +Data 10 +Data 11 PIN 13 1 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 PIN 47 35 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 SIGNAL 6 Data 12 Data 7 Data parity 0 Ground TERMPWR TERMPWR Reserved ATN Ground +BSY ACK RST MSG SEL C/D REQ I/O Ground Data 8 Data 9 Data 10 Data 11

(Attention) (Busy) (Acknowledge) (Reset) (Message) (Select) (Control/Data) (Request) (Input/Output)

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attached to the bus, a device must obtain permission from all other devices before it can take control of the bus. This attempt to access the bus is called the arbitration phase. Once a device (such as the SCSI controller) has won the bus arbitration, it must then make contact with the device to be communicated with. This device selection is known as the selection phase. When this contact is established, data transfer can occur. This part of the chapter details negotiation and information transfer over the SCSI bus.

NEGOTIATION
Devices must negotiate to access and use an SCSI bus. Negotiation begins when the bus is free (BSY and SEL lines are idle). A device begins arbitration by activating the BSY line and its own data ID line (data bit D0 to D7, depending on the device). If more than one device tries to control the bus simultaneously, the device with the higher ID line wins. The winning device (an initiator) attempts to acquire a target device by asserting the SEL line and the data ID line (data bit D0 to D7) of the desired device. The BSY line is then released by the initiator and the desired target device asserts the BSY line to confirm that it has been selected. The initiator then releases the SEL and data bus lines. Information transfer can now take place.

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INFORMATION
The selected target controls the data being transferred and the direction of transfer. Information transfer lasts until the target device releases the BSY line, thus returning the bus to the idle state. If a piece of information requires a long time for preparation, the target can end the connection by issuing a disconnect message. It will try to re-establish the connection later with a new arbitration and selection procedure. During information transfer, the initiator tells its target how to act on a command and establishes the mode of data transfer during the message-out phase. A specific SCSI command follows the message during the command phase. After a command is sent, data transfer occurs during the data-in and/or data-out phases. The target relinquishes control to the initiator during the command phase. For example, the command itself might ask that more information be transferred. The target then tells the initiator whether the command was successfully completed or not by returning status information during a status phase. Finally, the command is finished when the target sends a progress report to the initiator during the message in phase. Consider this simple SCSI communication example:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Bus Free Phase Arbitration Phase Select Phase Message-Out Phase Command Phase Data-In Phase Status Phase Message-In Phase Bus Free Phase

System is idle A device takes control of the bus The desired device is selected Target sets up data transfer send Command Exchange data Indicate the results of the exchange Indicate exchange is complete System is idle

Upgrading a PC for SCSI

Whether you are considering adding SCSI support to your own computer or are planning an upgrade for a customer, four essential elements must be considered: the SCSI peripheral, the SCSI host adapter, the SCSI cable assembly, and the SCSI software driver(s). If any one of these four elements is missing or ill-planned, your installation is going to run into problems.

SCSI PERIPHERALS
The first item to be considered is the SCSI peripheral itself. You first need to know what type of device is needed (such as a SCSI hard drive or CD-ROM). The peripheral should be compatible with SCSI-2 architecture. You might also find a growing base of SCSI-3 compliant adapters and peripherals. Each SCSI peripheral device should also have a wide range of available SCSI ID settings. SCSI typically handles eight IDs (0 to 7) and the peripheral should have the flexibility to run on virtually any ID. If only a few IDs are available, you might be limited when it comes time to add other SCSI devices. Peripherals should support SCSI parity.
Ideally, a SCSI-3 host adapter should support SCSI-2 devices. If you have any intention of using SCSI-3 (Wide/Fast 20 SCSI) devices, be sure to use a SCSI-3 adapter.

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SCSI devices are available in both internal and external versions. If you consider an internal peripheral, be sure that there is adequate drive space in the PC to accommodate the new peripheral. Either there is a drive bay available, or an existing device might be removed to make room. If the peripheral is to be an external device (such as a printer or scanner), there should be two SCSI connectors on the device to allow for daisy-chaining additional devices later. All SCSI peripherals other than hard drives will require device drivers. Be sure that the device driver is compatible with the same standard protocol used by the adapter (i.e., ASPI, CAM, or LADDR). This is a serious consideration because peripherals using incompatible device driver standards will not work properly. Finally, try to choose SCSI peripherals that offer built-in cable termination.

SCSI HOST ADAPTER

The next item to be considered is the SCSI host adapter (often just called a host or HA) that fits in the PC expansion bus (Fig. 39-1). Be sure to choose an adapter that is compatible with the PC bus in use (e.g., ISA, EISA, MCA, PCI, etc.). Bus-mastering 32-/64-bit PCI SCSI adapters will provide superior performance if your system will support them. Like

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FIGURE 39-1

SCSI adapter boards.

Copyright 1995 Future

Domain Corporation. Reprinted with permission

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the peripheral itself, the adapter should also be designed to support the SCSI-2 standard (or SCSI-3, if possible). Although most adapters are assigned a SCSI ID of 7, the adapter should be flexible enough to work with any ID from 0 to 7. The host adapter will also require a device driver for using devices other than hard drives. Be sure that the host device driver uses the same standard as the peripheral(s) (ASPI, CAM, or LADDR). It is important to note here that the driver standard has nothing to do with the choice of SCSI, SCSI-2, or SCSI-3. It is only important that the peripherals and the adapter use the same driver standard.

SCSI CABLES AND TERMINATORS

Check that you select the proper cabling for the SCSI level you are using. Although SCSI cabling is now highly standardized, some older cables might use slight modifications for particular peripherals (a typical trick used with SCSI-1 devices. Be certain that you know of any specialized cabling requirements when choosing peripherals. Try to avoid specialized cabling, if at all possible. But if you must use specialized cabling, you should determine what impact the cabling will have on any other SCSI peripherals that might be installed (or might be installed later). Use good-quality SCSI cables, specifically intended for the SCSI level you are using (probably SCSI-2), and keep the cables short to minimize signal degradation. SCSI cables must be terminated at the beginning (host adapter) and end (after the last device) of the SCSI chain. Try to choose internal peripherals that have built-in terminators. Also try to select a host adapter and peripherals that use the same type of terminator resistor network. SCSI-2 systems use active terminator networks. Much more about cabling and termination is included a bit later in this chapter.

SCSI DRIVERS
Device drivers provide the instructions that allow the SCSI host adapter to communicate with the PC, as well as the peripherals in the SCSI chain (or the SCSI bus). The host adapter itself requires a device driver, as will every peripheral that is added. For example, a SCSI system with one CD-ROM will need a driver for the host adapter and a driver for the CDROM. Be sure that driver standards (ASPI, CAM, or LADDR) are the SAME for the host adapter and peripherals. The only exception to the device-driver requirement (at this time) is the SCSI hard drive, which might be supported by the SCSI adapters BIOS ROM. Real-mode device drivers are added by including them in your PCs CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files. One issue to remember when adding device drivers is that drivers use conventional memory (unless you successfully load the drivers into high memory). The more drivers that are added, the more memory will be consumed. It is possible that a large number of device drivers might prevent certain memory-demanding DOS applications from running. To keep as much conventional memory (the first 640KB in RAM) free as possible, use the DOS devicehigh and loadhigh features to load the drivers into upper memory (from 640KB to 1MB in RAM). Windows 95 uses protected-mode drivers for the host adapter and devices.

TIPS FOR A SMOOTH UPGRADE

SCSI upgrades are not terribly difficult to perform properly, but the subtle considerations and inconsistencies that have always been a part of SCSI implementations can result in

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confusion and serious delays for you and your customer. The following tips should help to ease your upgrades:
s Add only add one SCSI device at a time By adding one device at a time and testing the

system after each installation, it becomes much easier to determine the point where problems occur. Suppose what happens when you add an adapter, hard drive, and CD-ROM. If the system fails to function, you will have to isolate and check each item to locate the fault. On the other hand, by adding the adapter and testing it, then adding the hard drive and testing it, then adding the CD-ROM and testing it, installation troubleshooting becomes a much simpler matter (although it might take a bit more time overall). s Record the host adapters resources One of the most difficult aspects of troubleshooting is determining what the configuration of a system is. This is especially important during an upgrade because you must know the interrupts (IRQs), DMA channel(s), and I/O ranges used by other expansion devices in the PC. Any overlap in the use of these system resources will eventually result in a hardware conflict. When you install a SCSI host adapter, make it a point to record its IRQ, DMA, and I/O settings along with the SCSI ID settings of all devices that are installed. Tape the record to the inside of the PCs cover. The next time the PC returns for service or upgrade, youll have the information right at your fingertips. s Use good-quality cabling Using the correct terminators and cables can have a profound effect on the performance of your SCSI installation. Good-quality cables and terminators provide electrical characteristics that support good signal transfer. This results in good data reliability between the host controller and peripherals. If the cable quality is sub-standard or terminator networks are not correct for the SCSI level being used, the cables electrical characteristics and data transfer will be degraded.

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CONFIGURE AND INSTALL THE SCSI ADAPTER

The SCSI adapter is an expansion boardmuch like any other expansion board in your PC. You will need to configure the adapter before installing it. Most SCSI adapters need four system resources: an IRQ, a DMA channel, an I/O range, and ROM addresses. Settings are typically made by changing jumper placement. The users manual for your particular adapter will outline precisely what selections are available, and how to change each one. When choosing system resources, be very careful to avoid conflicts with other adapters in your system. Although manufacturers try to avoid conflicts by pre-setting the adapter to rarely used settings, you should check for possible conflicts anyway. You can also set the adapters SCSI ID and the SCSI parity. In almost all circumstances, the adapter will use a SCSI ID of 7. Parity is a means of error checking the data passed along a SCSI data path. The problem with parity is that all installed SCSI devices must support it or parity should be disabled. If you select only peripheral devices that support SCSI parity, you can enable it on the adapter. Record the settings on paper and tape the paper inside the PCs cover. Insert the adapter into an available expansion slot and secure the board properly.

New SCSI host adapters (mainly PCI boards) are often Plug-and-Play (PnP) devices, and are configured through the SCSI BIOS and host adapter driver(s) at startup.

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CONFIGURE AND INSTALL THE SCSI PERIPHERAL

It should not be difficult to configure a SCSI peripheral. You should be concerned with setting the SCSI ID and SCSI parity. The ID (also called Target ID or Target SCSI ID) can range from 0 to 7. Because the adapter is almost always set at 7, only 0 through 6 remain. However, SCSI hard drives for AT-compatible machines should be issued IDs of 0 or 1. As a general rule, do not use ID 0 or ID 1 for any devices but hard drives. If you intend to boot your PC from the SCSI hard disk, assign it an ID of 0. PS/2 machines place the bootable hard drive on SCSI ID 6. When assigning IDs in systems with more than one SCSI peripheral, be careful not to use duplicate IDs. Each device must have its own unique ID number. If the device supports SCSI parity, the setting should be enabled. Remember that to use SCSI parity, all SCSI devices in the system must support it. If even one device does not support it, parity must be disabled system-wide. If another device already in the system relies on SCSI parity (such as a CD-ROM drive), disabling parity to accommodate a new device can render an existing device inoperative. You might need to change your selection of peripheral to one that supports SCSI parity. Depending on the SCSI device being installed, you might also need to set a Start-on command jumper. Drives draw a serious amount of power during startup. If a large number of devices are trying to draw power, the power supply can be overloaded. A Start-on command option (if available on your peripheral) will keep the device idle until a Start command is sent from the SCSI adapter. This way, multiple SCSI devices can be started in a staggered fashion to spread out the power load. For external SCSI devices, situate the device close to the computerSCSI cables tend to be kept short. If the peripheral is an internal device, you should now mount it in an available drive bay.

CABLING AND TERMINATION

Once the host adapter and peripheral are configured and installed, you must connect them with a cable. Internal devices are typically connected with a 50-pin Insulation Displacement Connector (IDC) ribbon cable (an A-cable). By placing multiple connectors along the length of cable, daisy chaining can be achieved with a single connector on each internal device. External devices typically connect to an external 50-pin connector on the rear of the SCSI adapter, and each device offers two connectors, which allows daisy chaining to additional devices. Most commercial adapter and drive kits are packed with an appropriate cable. The cable(s) must be terminated. Internal and external SCSI cable terminators are available, along with SCSI devices that have terminating resistor networks already built in. The concept of termination is reasonably simpleachieve the desired signal-cable characteristics by loading each end of the SCSI chain with resistors. If the chain is not terminated properly, signals will not be carried reliably (which invariably results in system errors). For technicians and end-users alike, the trouble usually arises in determining where the ends are. A number of examples clarify how to determine the chain ends. For a single SCSI drive and adapter (Fig. 39-2), the ends are easy to see. One end should be terminated at the host adapter (which usually has terminating resistors built in). The other end should be terminated at the SCSI hard drive (which also usually has terminating resistors built in). In this type of situation, you need only connect the cable between both devices and verify that the terminators are in place.

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SCSI ribbon cable

SCSI host adapter ID 7 Terminated Inside the PC FIGURE 39-2

SCSI hard drive ID 0 Terminated

Terminating an internal SCSI adapter and hard drive.

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SCSI ribbon cable

SCSI host adapter ID 7 Terminated

SCSI hard drive ID 0 UNterminated Inside the PC

SCSI CD-ROM ID 6 Terminated

FIGURE 39-3

Terminating an internal SCSI adapter, HDD, and CD-ROM.

When a second SCSI peripheral is added (Fig. 39-3), termination becomes a bit more complex. Suppose that a CD-ROM is added with a SCSI ID of 6. The terminator on the existing SCSI hard drive is no longer appropriate; it should be removed, and the termination should be made on the CD-ROM, which is now the last device in the SCSI chain. In most cases, a terminator network can be deactivated by flipping a DIP switch or changing a jumper on the peripheral itself. If the terminator can not be shut off, it can almost always be removed by gently easing the resistor network out of its holder using needle-nose pliers. If you remove a terminator, place it in an envelope and tape it to the inside of the PC enclosure. If it is simply impossible to remove the existing terminator on the hard drive, place the CD-ROM between the adapter and hard drive and remove the CD-ROMs terminator (re-arrange the chain). The SCSI host adapter must remain terminated. So what happens if an external device is used (such as a scanner), as in Fig. 39-4? An external cable connects the adapter to the scanner. Because the scanner (ID 6) and adapter (ID 7) are the only two points in the chain, both are terminated. Most external devices designed for SCSI-2 compatibility allow the active terminator built into the peripheral to be switched off, if necessary.

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SCSI-2 cable

SCSI host adapter ID 7 Terminated Inside the PC FIGURE 39-4

SCSI scanner ID 6 Terminated

Terminating an external SCSI device.

SCSI ribbon cable

SCSI-2 cable

SCSI hard drive ID 0 Terminated

SCSI host adapter ID 7 UNterminated Inside the PC

SCSI scanner ID 6 Terminated

FIGURE 39-5

Terminating mixed internal and external SCSI devices.

Suppose that both an internal and an external SCSI device are being used (Fig. 39-5). The SCSI host adapter (ID 7) is no longer at an end of the chain, so its terminator should be switched off or removed. The internal hard drive (ID 0) and external scanner (ID 6) now form the ends, so both devices should be terminated. Because both peripherals should ideally support internal termination, nothing needs to be done, except to confirm that the terminators are in place and switched on.

REAL-MODE SCSI DRIVER ISSUES

Hardware configuration and installation is only one part of the SCSI installation. Software needs to be installed to allow the hardware to interact with your system. The problem with SCSI drivers is that prior to 1991, various drivers were rarely compatible. For example, an adapter and hard drive might have worked fine, but adding a CD-ROM would create havoc because the CD-ROM driver was not compatible with the hard drive or the host adapter driver (or both). After 1991, a set of universal driver standards appeared, which created a buffer between the operating system and hardware, which isolated each particular dri-

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ver from one another. Drivers can now be written for each peripheral without worry of incompatibility so long as the drivers are written to be compatible with the standard. Three SCSI standards are now competing: ASPI (Advanced SCSI Programming Interface), CAM (Common Access Method), and LADDR (Layered Device Driver Architecture). ASPI is the most popular of the three standards. The idea for compatibility is to select a host adapter and peripherals that support the same standard. For example, if you select a host adapter that uses an ASPI driver, each of the peripherals that you choose must also use ASPI drivers. If you upgrade the host adapter later, you also upgrade the hosts ASPI driverfull compatibility should be maintained. The actual installation process varies little from other software installations. The realmode driver files for your adapter and peripheral(s) are copied to a sub-directory on the hard drive, then the CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files are updated to load the appropriate drivers on system startup. If your particular system commits too much conventional memory to drivers, you can manually optimize your startup files later to load as many drivers as possible into upper memory.

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TIPS FOR WINDOWS 95 SCSI DRIVERS

If you intend to use your SCSI system under Windows 95, youll need to install protectedmode drivers for the host adapter and devices. Contemporary SCSI host adapters (and many SCSI devices) are compliant with Plug-and-Play operation under Windows 95this means Windows 95 should typically be able to identify the SCSI adapter (or newly installed devices) and install the appropriate protected-mode drivers for it. Ordinarily, this process should be automatic, but the following tips might help you handle Windows 95 installations:
s Verify the SCSI adapter and devices in DOS first with its real-mode drivers. s If Windows 95 does not automatically identify the SCSI hardware, run the Add new

hardware wizard to register the device(s) and install the protected-mode drivers (remember not to let Windows 95 detect devices itself). s You can use the Add New Hardware wizard to update existing SCSI drivers if new versions become available. s If your SCSI hardware is not listed in the Add new hardware wizard, youll need to contact the hardware manufacturer(s) and download the correct .INF file and protected-mode drivers. If no protected-mode drivers are available for your SCSI hardware (that would be rare today), youll need to use the real-mode (DOS) driversthis might result in all system drives running in DOS compatibility mode and impairing system performance.

Troubleshooting the SCSI System

As far as the bus is concerned, very little can go wrongwires and connectors do not fail spontaneously. However, it never hurts to examine the wiring, connectors, and terminator network(s) to ensure that the physical connections are intact (especially after installing or configuring new devices). The most likely areas of trouble are in the installation, setup, and operation of the devices residing on the bus.

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ISOLATING TROUBLE SPOTS

Assuming that your SCSI devices have been installed correctly, problem scenarios can occur during normal operation. The first indication of a problem usually comes in the form of an error message from your operating system or application program. For example, your SCSI hard drive might not be responding, or the host PC might not be able to identify the SCSI host controller board, etc. The advantage to SCSI architecture is that it is reasonably easy to determine problem locations using intuitive deduction. Consider a typical SCSI system with one initiator (a host controller) and one target (e.g., a hard drive). If the hard drive fails to function, the trouble is either in the host controller or the drive itself. If drive access is attempted, but an error is generated, the trouble is probably in the drive. If no drive access is attempted before an error is generated, the error is likely in the host controller. As another example, consider a setup with one initiator and two or more targets (e.g., a hard drive and CDROM). If both the hard drive and CD-ROM become inoperative, the problem is likely in the host controller card because the host adapter controls both targets. If only one of the devices becomes inoperative (and the other device works just fine), the trouble is likely in the particular device itself. Of course, these are only common isolation methods, and their effectiveness will depend on the sophistication of the particular system that you are working with. There is always some amount of uncertainty in the intuitive approach because it is not quantitative. You can suspect where the trouble is coming from, but you can not prove it. Given the great expense of many SCSI peripherals, it is often unwise to purchase replacement parts based solely on intuitive techniques. To prove the problems source, you can track communication along the SCSI bus using a specialized SCSI tester. If you perform extensive SCSI testing on a professional level, you might wish to invest in an SCSI bus tester, such as Ancots DSC-216 portable SCSI bus analyzer. An analyzer can let you track the communication process along the SCSI bus, as well as provide bus-speed calculations and command profiling. Once you have located the problem device, you can deal with that device specifically through replacement or repair. However, specialized test equipment carries a significant price taga worthy investment if you have the service volume to justify it, but hardly a reasonable outlay for the casual PC hobbyist. Fortunately, a growing number of contemporary diagnostic software packages are being upgraded with SCSI test capabilities. For example, the PC Technician software by Windsor Technologies can test a limited number of SCSI adapters (such as Western Digital, Adaptec, and NCR) and associated peripherals. SCSIDiag by AMI is a diagnostic specifically designed for SCSI system testing. The reason for this lack of broad diagnostic software support is simpleSCSI is not supported by the PC motherboard BIOS (where IDE and EIDE are supported). As a result, the diagnostic must be written to handle specific SCSI controllers. The issue to remember when selecting a diagnostic for SCSI testing is that the software must be compatible with the SCSI adapter in your systemjust because a diagnostic says SCSI-compatible does not necessarily make it so for the PC setup you are faced with. As an alternative to commercial diagnostics, you might be able to find small controller diagnostics right on the software disks that accompany the SCSI adapter. You would run the test routine after installation to see that the controller is working, but you can also use it in a pinch for as-

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needed troubleshooting for that particular controller. Check with the manufacturers BBS or CompuServe forum to find up-to-date test routines for various controllers.

GENERAL TROUBLESHOOTING TIPS

No matter how many precautions you take, you cannot always prevent problems from striking during a SCSI installations or replacements. Fortunately, if you are installing devices one-by-one, as suggested, you will have far fewer problem areas to check. Your first diagnostic for a SCSI installation should be the host adapters SCSI BIOS initialization message. If you see no initialization message when the system powers up, the problem is likely with the adapter itself. Either it is not installed properly or it is defective. Be sure that the adapter is set to the desired ID (usually 7). Try a new or alternate SCSI adapter. If the adapter provides its initialization message as expected, the problem is probably related to driver installation. Check the installation and any command-line switches for each device driver. When installing a SCSI hard drive instead of IDE/EIDE hard drives, you must ensure that any previous hard-drive references are mapped out of the CMOS setup by entering none or not installed. If pre-existing drive references are not removed, the system will try to boot from IDE/EIDE drives, which arent there. Be aware that faulty SCSI ID settings can result in system problems, such as ghost disksdisks that the system says are there, but that cannot be read from or written to. Some peripherals might also not work properly with the ID that has been assigned. If you have problems interacting with an installed device, try the device with a different ID, and be sure that no two devices are using the same ID. Dont be surprised to find that certain types of cables dont work properly with SCSI installations. Be sure that everything is terminated correctly. Also be sure that any external SCSI devices are powered up (if possible) before the PC is initialized. If problems persist, try different cables. An quick-reference checklist is shown:
s Check the power to all SCSI devices (be sure that the power supply has enough capac-

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ity to handle all of your attached SCSI devices).

s Check the cable to all SCSI devices. A good-quality cable should be attached securely

to each device.
s Check the orientation of each connector on the SCSI cable. Pin 1 must always be in the

proper orientation.
s Check the SCSI ID of each device. Duplicate IDs are not allowed. s Check that both ends of the SCSI cable are properly terminated and that the terminators

are active.
s Check the SCSI controller configuration (IRQQ, I/O, BIOS addresses, etc.). s Verify that the SCSI controller is not conflicting with other devices in the system. s Check SCSI host adapter BIOS. If youre not booting from SCSI hard drives, you can

often leave the SCSI BIOS disabled. This will also simplify the device configuration.
s Check the CMOS setup for drive configurations. When SCSI drives are in the system

and IDE/EIDE drives are not, be sure that the drive entries under CMOS are set for None or Not installed. s Check the PCI bus configuration in the CMOS setup. See that the PCI slot containing the SCSI host adapter is active and is using a unique IRQ (usually named IRQ A).

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s Check for the real-mode drivers under DOS. If youre working under DOS, see that

any needed driver(s) for the host adapter and non-HDD device(s) are installed in the CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files. s Check for the protected-mode drivers under Windows 95. If youre working under Windows 95, see that any needed protected-mode drivers for the host adapter and SCSI devices are installed. s Try remarking-out real-mode drivers if problems occur only under Windows 95. Realmode SCSI drivers can sometimes interfere with protected-mode SCSI drivers. If the SCSI system works fine in DOS, but not in Windows 95, try temporarily disabling the DOS drivers in your startup files.

SYMPTOMS
Even the best-planned SCSI setups go wrong from time to time, and SCSI systems already in the field will not run forever. Sooner or later, you will have to deal with a SCSI problem. This part of the chapter is intended to show you a variety of symptoms and solutions for many of the problems that you will likely encounter.
Symptom 39-1. After initial SCSI installation, the system will not boot from the floppy drive You might see an error code corresponding to this problem.

Suspect the SCSI host adapter first. An internal fault with the adapter might be interfering with system operation. Check that all of the adapters settings are correct and that all jumpers are intact. If the adapter is equipped with any diagnostic LEDs, check for any problem indications. When adapter problems are indicated, replace the adapter board. If a SCSI hard drive has been installed and the drive light is always on, the SCSI signal cable has probably been reversed between the drive and adapter. Be sure to install the drive cable properly. Check for the SCSI-adapter BIOS message generated when the system starts. If the message does not appear, check for the presence of a ROM-address conflict between the SCSI adapter and ROMs on other expansion boards. Try a new address setting for the SCSI adapter. If a BIOS wait-state jumper is on the adapter, try changing its setting. If you see an error message indicating that the SCSI host adapter was not found at a particular address, check the I/O setting for the adapter. Some more-recent SCSI host adapters incorporate a floppy controller. This can cause a conflict with an existing floppy controller. If you choose to continue using the existing floppy controller, be sure to disable the host adapters floppy controller. If youd prefer to use the host adapters floppy controller, remember to disable the pre-existing floppy controller port.
Symptom 39-2. The system will not boot from the SCSI hard drive Start by

checking the systems CMOS setup. When SCSI drives are installed in a PC, the corresponding hard-drive reference in the CMOS setup must be changed to none or not installed (this assumes that you will not be using IDE/EIDE hard drives in the system). If previous hard-drive references have not been mapped out, do so now, save the CMOS setup, and reboot the PC. If the problem persists, check that the SCSI boot drive is set to ID 0. You will need to refer to the user manual for your particular drive to find how the ID is set.

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Next, check the SCSI parity to be sure that it is selected consistently among all SCSI devices. Remember that all SCSI devices must have SCSI parity enabled or disabledif even one device in the SCSI chain does not support parity, it must be disabled on all devices. Check the SCSI cabling to be sure that all cables are installed and terminated properly. Finally, be sure that the hard drive has been partitioned and formatted properly. If not, boot from a floppy disk and prepare the hard drive, as required, using FDISK and FORMAT.
Symptom 39-3. The SCSI drive fails to respond with an alternate HDD as the boot drive Technically, you should be able to use a SCSI drive as a non-boot drive

(e.g., drive D:) while using an IDE/EIDE drive as the boot device. If the SCSI drive fails to respond in this kind of arrangement, check the CMOS setting to be sure that drive 1 (the SCSI drive) is mapped out (or set to None or Not installed). Save the CMOS setup and reboot the PC. If the problem persists, check that the SCSI drive is set to SCSI ID 1 (the non-boot ID). Next, be sure that the SCSI parity is enabled or disabled consistently throughout the SCSI installation. If the SCSI parity is enabled for some devices and disabled for others, the SCSI system might function erratically. Finally, check that the SCSI cabling is installed and terminated properly. Faulty cables or termination can easily interrupt a SCSI system. If the problem persists, try another hard drive.
Later SCSI host adapters use BIOS that allows SCSI drives to booteven with IDE/EIDE drives in the system. In such a configuration, the Boot order entry in CMOS setup will determine whether A:, C:, or SCSI will be the boot device. Symptom 39-4. The SCSI drive fails to respond with another SCSI drive as the boot drive This typically occurs in a dual-drive system using two SCSI drives.

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Check the CMOS setup and be sure that both drive entries in the setup are set to none or not installed. Save the CMOS setup. The boot drive should be set to SCSI ID 0 while the supplemental drive should be set to SCSI ID 1 (you will probably have to refer to the manual for the drives to determine how to select a SCSI ID). The hard drives should have a DOS partition and format. If not, create the partitions (FDISK) and format the drives (FORMAT) as required. Check to be sure that SCSI parity is enabled or disabled consistently throughout the SCSI system. If some devices use parity and other devices do not, the SCSI system might not function properly. Be sure that all SCSI cables are installed and terminated properly. If the problem persists, try systematically exchanging each hard drive.
Symptom 39-5. The system works erratically The PC hangs or the SCSI adapter

cannot find the drive(s). Such intermittent operation can be the result of several different SCSI factors. Before taking any action, be sure that the application software you were running when the fault occurred did not cause the problem. Unstable or buggy software can seriously interfere with system operation. Try different applications and see if the system still hangs up (you might also try any DOS diagnostic utilities that accompanied the host adapter). Check each SCSI device and be sure that parity is enabled or disabled consistently throughout the SCSI system. If parity is enabled in some devices and disabled in others, erratic operation can result. Be sure that no two SCSI devices are using the same

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ID. Cabling problems are another common source of erratic behavior. Be sure that all SCSI cables are attached correctly and completely. Also check that the cabling is properly terminated. Next, suspect that a resource conflict might be between the SCSI host adapter and another board in the system. Check each expansion board in the system to be sure that nothing is using the same IRQ, DMA, or I/O address as the host adapter (or check the Device manager under Windows 95). If you find a conflict, you should alter the most recently installed adapter board. If problems persist, try a new drive adapter board.
Symptom 39-6. A 096xxxx error code appears This diagnostic error code indi-

cates a problem in a 32-bit SCSI host adapter board. Check the board to be sure that it is installed correctly and completely. The board should not be shorted against any other board or cable. Try disabling one SCSI device at a time. If normal operation returns, the last device to be removed is responsible for the problem (you might need to disable drivers and reconfigure termination when isolating problems in this fashion). If the problem persists, remove and re-install all SCSI devices from scratch, or try a new SCSI adapter board.
Symptom 39-7. A 112xxxx error code appears This diagnostic error code indi-

cates that a problem is in a 16-bit SCSI adapter board. Check the board to be sure that it is installed correctly and completely. The board should not be shorted against any other board or cable. Try disabling one SCSI device at a time. If normal operation returns, the last device to be removed is responsible for the problem (you might need to disable drivers and reconfigure termination when isolating problems in this fashion). Try a new SCSI host-adapter board.
Symptom 39-8. A 113xxxx error code appears This diagnostic code indicates that a problem is in a system (motherboard) SCSI adapter configuration. If a SCSI BIOS ROM is installed on the motherboard, be sure that it is up-to-date and installed correctly and completely. If problems persist, replace the motherboards SCSI controller IC or replace the system board. It might be possible to circumvent a damaged motherboard SCSI controller by disabling the motherboards controller, then installing a SCSI host adapter card. Symptom 39-9. A 210xxxx error code appears A fault is in a SCSI hard disk. Check that the power and signal cables to the disk are connected properly. Be sure that the SCSI cable is correctly terminated. Try repartitioning and reformatting the SCSI hard disk. Finally, try a new SCSI hard disk. Symptom 39-10. A SCSI device refuses to function with the SCSI adaptereven though both the adapter and device check properly This is

often a classic case of basic incompatibility between the device and host adapter. Even though SCSI-2 helps to streamline compatibility between devices and controllers, the two just dont work together in some situations. Check the literature included with the finicky device and see if any notices of compatibility problems are included with the controller (perhaps the particular controller brand) you are using. If warnings are included, alternative jumpers or DIP switch settings might be included to compensate for the problem and allow you to use the device after all. A call to technical support at the devices manufacturer might help shed light on any recently discovered bugs or fixes (e.g., an updated SCSI

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BIOS, SCSI device driver, or host adapter driver). If problems remain, try using a similar device from a different manufacturer (e.g., try a Connor tape drive instead of a Mountain tape drive).
Symptom 39-11. A No SCSI controller present error message appears

Immediately suspect that the controller is defective or installed improperly. Check the host adapter installation (including IRQ, DMA, and I/O settings) and see that the proper suite of device drivers have been installed correctly. If the system still refuses to recognize the controller, try installing it in a different PC. If the controller also fails in a different PC, the controller is probably bad and should be replaced. However, if the controller works in a different PC, your original PC might not support all the functions under the interrupt 15h call required to configure SCSI adapters (such as an AMI SCSI host adapter). Consider upgrading the PC BIOS ROM to a new versionespecially if the PC BIOS is older. An upgraded SCSI BIOS or host adapter driver might be available to compensate for this problem.
Symptom 39-12. The PCI SCSI host adapter is not recognized and the SCSI BIOS banner is not displayed This often occurs when installing new PCI

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SCSI host adapters. The host computer must be PCI REV. 2.0 compliant and the motherboard BIOS must support PCI-to-PCI Bridges (PPB) and bus mastering. This is typically a problem (or limitation) with some older PCI motherboard chipsets, and youll probably find that the PCI SCSI adapter board works just fine on newer systems. If the system doesnt support PPB, it might not be possible to use the PCI SCSI adapter. You can try an ISA SCSI adapter instead or upgrade the motherboard to one with a more recent chipset. If the system hardware does offer PPB support and the problem persists, the motherboard BIOS might still not support PPB features as required by the PCI 2.0 standard. In this case, try a motherboard BIOS upgrade if one is available. If the problem continues, either the board is not in a bus-mastering slot, or the PCI slot is not enabled for bus mastering. Configure the PCI slot for bus mastering through CMOS setup or through a jumper on the motherboard (check your systems documentation to see exactly how).
Symptom 39-13. During boot-up, a Host-adapter configuration error message appears In virtually all cases, the problem is with the PCI slot configuration

for the SCSI host adapter. Try enabling a IRQ for the SCSI adapters PCI slot (usually accomplished through the CMOS setup). Be sure that any IRQ being assigned to the SCSI adapter PCI slot is not conflicting with other devices in the system.
Symptom 39-14. An error message, such as No SCSI functions in use, appears Even when a SCSI adapter and devices are installed and configured properly,

there are several possible causes for this kind of an error. First, be sure that no hard-disk drivers are installed when no physical SCSI hard disks are in the system. Also be sure that there are no hard disk drivers installed (i.e., in CONFIG.SYS) when the SCSI host-adapter BIOS is enabled. HDD drivers arent needed then, but you could leave the drivers in place and disable the SCSI BIOS. Finally, this error can occur if the HDD was formatted on another SCSI controller that does not support ASPI, or uses a specialized format. For example, Western Digital controllers only work with Western Digital HDDs. In this case, you should try a more generic controller.

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Symptom 39-15. An error message, such as No boot record found, appears This generally simple problem can be traced to several possible issues. First,

chances are that the drive has never been partitioned (FDISK) or formatted as a bootable drive (FORMAT). Repartition and reformat the hard drive. If you partitioned and formatted the drive with a third-party utility (e.g., TFORMAT), be sure to answer Y, if asked to make the disk bootable. A third possibility can occur if the disk was formatted on another manufacturers controller. If this is the case, the only alternative might be to repartition and reformat the drive again on your current controller.
Symptom 39-16. An error, such as Device fails to respondNo devices in use. Driver load aborted, appears In most cases, the problem is something

simple, such as the SCSI device not being turned on or cabled correctly. Verify that the SCSI devices are on and connected correctly. In other cases, the SCSI device is on, but fails the INQUIRY commandthis happens when the SCSI device is defective or not supported by the host adapter. The device might need default jumper settings changed (i.e., the drive should spin up and come ready on its own). You might find that the SCSI device is sharing the same SCSI ID with another device. Check all SCSI devices to verify that each device has separate SCSI ID. You might have the wrong device driver loaded for your particular device type. Check config.sys to be sure the correct driver is loaded for the drive type (e.g., TSCSI.SYS for a hard disk, not a CD-ROM).
Symptom 39-17. An error, such as Unknown SCSI device or Waiting for SCSI device, appears The SCSI hard disk has failed to boot as the primary drive

check that the primary hard disk is set at SCSI ID 0. Be sure that the drive is partitioned and formatted as the primary drive. If necessary, boot from a floppy with just the ASPI manager loaded in CONFIG.SYS (and no other drivers), then format the drive. It might also be that the SCSI cable termination is not correct (or TERMPWR is not provided by the hard disk for the host adapter). Verify the cable terminations and the TERMPWR signal.
Symptom 39-18. An error, such as CMD failure XX, appears This typically

occurs during the format processthe XX is a vendor-specific code (and youll need to contact the vendor to determine what the error means). The most common problem is trying to partition a drive that is not low-level formatted. If this is the case, run the low-level format utility that accompanied the SCSI drive, then try partitioning again. If youre suffering a different error, you might need to take other action, depending on the nature of the error.
Symptom 39-19. After the SCSI adapter BIOS header appears, a message, such as Checking for SCSI target 0 LUN 0, appears The system

pauses about 30 seconds, then reports BIOS not installed, no INT 13h device found. The system then boots normally. In most cases, the BIOS is trying to find a hard drive at SCSI ID 0 or 1, but no hard drive is available. If you do not have a SCSI hard drive attached to the host adapter, then it is recommended that the SCSI BIOS be disabled.
Symptom 39-20. The system hangs up when the SCSI BIOS header appears This is usually caused by a terminator problem. Be sure that the SCSI devices at

the end of the SCSI chain (either internally or externally) are terminated. Check all device IDs to be sure that they are unique, and also check for system resource conflicts (e.g.,

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BIOS address, I/O address, and interrupts). You might also need to disable the Shadow RAM feature in the CMOS setup.
Symptom 39-21. The SCSI BIOS header is displayed during system startup, then the message appears: Host adapter diagnostic error The

card either has a port-address conflict with another card or the card has been changed to port address 140h and the BIOS is enabled. Some SCSI host adapters are able to use the BIOS under port address 140h, so check for I/O conflicts. You might need to reconfigure the SCSI host adapter.
Symptom 39-22. When a VL bus SCSI adapter is installed, the system hangs at startup Chances are that the VL SCSI adapter is a bus-mastering device and

requires that the VL slot support full 32-bit bus mastering. Most VL bus systems have either slave slots and/or master slots. The SCSI adapter must be inserted into a master slot. If you are not sure if the system supports bus mastering or if you have a master slot, contact the system manufacturer. Also, the slot that the SCSI VL card is inserted into must be a 5-Vdc slot that operates at 33MHz or less. The VL bus speed is typically set through a jumper on the motherboard. It should be set in the <=33MHz position. The motherboard might also need to be set for write-through caching. This might be set in the motherboards CMOS setup utility or it might be configured via a jumper on the motherboard (if both a CMOS setting and a jumper are used, be sure that both are set the same way).
Symptom 39-23. When upgrading a VL bus system CPU to a faster model, the system locks up with a SCSI VL card installed, or it wont boot from the SCSI HDD Most likely a DMA or other timing discrepancy is between the SCSI

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adapter and the VL local bus. The SCSI adapter probably works fine on VL bus systems running up to 33MHz. Faster CPUs can increase the VL bus speed beyond 33MHz. Above this 33MHz speed, variations in motherboard, chipset, or CPU design might cause the SCSI adapter to function intermittently or to fail. In some cases, this problem can be resolved:
s The motherboard might have jumpers that govern the VL bus speedbe sure that the

VL bus-speed jumper is set in the <=33MHz position.

s This might also be set in the motherboards CMOS setup. s In the CMOS setup, you can disable the CPU external cache or change the caching

method to write-through instead of write-back.

s The internal cache on some CPUs might also cause the VL SCSI adapter to hang. Try

disabling the CPUs internal cache.

s Reducing the CPU speed might be necessary to allow the SCSI adapter to function re-

liably.
s Try disabling the systems turbo setting during the boot-up sequence, then re-enable

the turbo setting after the system has booted.

Symptom 39-24. The VL SCSI adapter wont work with an SLC type CPU

VL SCSI adapters often refuse to run with SLC type CPUs because the SLC uses 16-bit architecture, rather than 32-bit at the VL bus. Some VL SCSI adapters will run in this configuration, but it is rare. Use an ISA SCSI adapter instead of an VL adapter in this circumstance.

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Symptom 39-25. When running the Qualitas 386MAX memory-manager software on ISA or VL systems with an SCSI host adapter, the system crashes when booting 386MAX is known to cause problems with SCSI systems, and

youll need to adjust the 386MAX command line. Do not allow 386MAX to load during boot up, then include the key NOIOWRAP on the 386MAX command line. This will allow you to boot with 386MAX loaded.
Symptom 39-26. When installing an EISA SCSI adapter and running the EISA configuration utility, you see an EISA configuration slot mismatch or board not found in slot x error This error occurs because your board is not

completely seated in the EISA slot. You can verify this by booting to a floppy diskette, and running the DOS Debug command. After typing Debug, you will receive the debug prompt (a dash). Then type i (space) Xc80 where X is the EISA slot where your board is physically installed. If a 04 is returned, the board is correctly seated and the problem lies elsewhere. If FF is returned, the board needs to be pushed down further. Power down your system before re-seating your board.
Symptom 39-27. An EISA SCSI adapter cant be configured in enhanced mode You get the error: Unable to initialize Host Adapter or the system hangs after

the SCSI BIOS scans the SCSI devices. These errors are usually limited to motherboards that do not support LEVEL INT triggering. These chipsets (such as the Hint and SIS) require a few modifications be made to the host adapters EISA configuration (.CFG) file. Make the following changes to the !ADP000X.CFG file:
CHOICE = "Enhanced Mode" FREE INT=IOPORT(1) LOC (7 6 2 1 0) 10000B LINK IRQ=11|12|10|15|14|9 SHARE = "AHA-1740" (Change to: SHARE = NO) TRIGGER = LEVEL(Change to: TRIGGER = EDGE) INIT=IOPORT(3) LOC(4 3 2 1 0) 10010B | 10011B | 10001B | 1010B | 10101B | 10000B (Change first zero in each binary number to a one: Example: 10010B = 11010B)

Another option is to download the latest .CFG file for your SCSI adapter card (i.e., ASWC174.EXE). Reconfigure the card with new .CFG file and select edge-triggered IRQ.

Further Study
This concludes the material for Chapter 39. Be sure to review the glossary and chapter questions on the accompanying CD. If you have access to the Internet, take a look at some of these SCSI system resources: Adaptec: http://www.adaptec.com AMI: http://www.megatrends.com

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Ancot: http://www.ancot.com/ Fibre Channel Association: http://www.Amdahl.com/ext/CARP/FCA/FCA.html Quantum: http://www.quantum.com/src/ SCSI FAQ: http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/scsi-faq/top.html SCSI guide: http://www.delec.com/Tech_Links/SCSIGuide/ SCSI Trade Association: http://www.scsita.org/ SCSI-2 spec: http://abekas.com:8080/SCSI2/ Symbios articles: http://www.symbios.com/articles/articles.htm Symbios specs: http://www.symbios.com/x3t10 Western Digital: http://www.wdc.com

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