3 Feb
2002
3 Feb
'02
4:21 a.m.
On Sun, 3 Feb 2002, Richard Erlacher wrote:
A friend has come to me with a problem I don't
seem to be able to
solve. He's got a couple of Seagate ST32550W drives and a Mylex
DAC960PD PCI controller, a single-channel type, that just doesn't want
to "see" the drives attached to it. I've verified that the drives
work using a different controller, and the diagnostic software from
Mylex seems to suggest that the board itself thinks it works OK, up to
the point at which it is supposed to "see" attached drives. That's
where things fall apart.
Use high quality cables and active terminators. I had problem after
problem with many Mylex/BusLogic boards till I started using active
terminators on the end of the chain.
He wants to run this thing under Windows95 and
I've found him a set of
what appears to be the appropriate set of drivers, but the plug-n-play
operation doesn't seem to go well. His machine is an HP PC-Clone, a
"Pavillion" with a 2GB ide drive and about 64 MB of RAM. The computer
is remarkably solid, from what I've seen, having no particularly
noticable problems aside from those associated with the Mylex
controller.
Some of these controllers are also quite picky about sharing an IRQ with
another PCI card. You might have to play with the BIOS settings of the
motherboard to allow the card exclusive use of an IRQ. Of course, if that
does not cure the problem, change the settings back :)
Have any of you guys had experience with the MYLEX
SCSI adapter
involved here, to the extent that you can suggest ways to make the
plug-n-play features work to fit the system?
Double check the cables, use active or forced perfect termination, and
check the IRQ the board wants to use.
Please let me know, as, having had some experience
with MYLEX
products, I think this is potentially a really good product for him to
use.
Has Mylex discontinued this board? A couple years ago they discontinued
nearly all of their SCSI products.
-Toth