The ST39140W is making noises like it cannot initialize. That certainly may be why it gets recognized but it fails the unit start request. I think I just have to wait until a new SCSI hard drive arrives in the mail.
~sigh~
~sigh~
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Dell OptiPlex GXa won't boot; how to configure devices in SCSI BIOS
- Thread starter Bill-kun
- Start date
New SCSI hard drive arrived in the mail; it is 80-pin SCA SCSI. So after that, I had to wait for a SCSI 80-68-50-pin adaptor. That adaptor arrived today.
Questions:
The SCSI card has 3 possible internal cable connectors. Two are 68-pin; one is 50-pin. The CD-ROM drive is on the 50-pin cable.
Now what?
Addendum: I should note that while the SCSI hard drive was arriving, I made other upgrades. I gave the GXa a new button CMOS battery which is so nice because I no longer have to constantly check the BIOS settings every time I work on this now. I also added a 5.25-inch 1.2 MB. floppy drive. The native 3.5-inch floppy drive has no jumpers, so I can no longer have it set as drive A. The 5.25-inch floppy is drive A; the 3.5-inch floppy is drive B. None of this should affect the current problems, though.
Questions:
- The Molex connector on the adaptor is to provide power to the 80-pin set, because the 80-pin hard drive has no Molex connector, correct?
- The jumper pins on the adaptor are labeled LED, SYN (synchronous), DLY (delay device starting, as discussed earlier), MTR ("RMT-Start" says the leaflet that came with it), and the SCSI ID binary digit pins.
- What is the LED this is talking about? I don't see one on the adaptor.
- What is "synchronous"?
- What is "RMT-Start"?
The SCSI card has 3 possible internal cable connectors. Two are 68-pin; one is 50-pin. The CD-ROM drive is on the 50-pin cable.
Now what?
Addendum: I should note that while the SCSI hard drive was arriving, I made other upgrades. I gave the GXa a new button CMOS battery which is so nice because I no longer have to constantly check the BIOS settings every time I work on this now. I also added a 5.25-inch 1.2 MB. floppy drive. The native 3.5-inch floppy drive has no jumpers, so I can no longer have it set as drive A. The 5.25-inch floppy is drive A; the 3.5-inch floppy is drive B. None of this should affect the current problems, though.
Last edited:
Chuck(G)
25k Member
SCA = "Single Connector Attachment". Just that--it carries power and signal lines in a single connector. So yes, the 4-pin Molex is a standard 12-0-0-5 disk power connection.
Let's look at the jumper block. There should be no jumper on that position--it's for attaching a LED activity indicator. SYN shouldn't matter as the Adaptec controller doesn't care about spindle synchronization. Similarly, leave DLY unjumpered.
D0-D3 should all un-jumpered for SCSI ID 0, or D0 jumpered for SCSI ID 1.
See:here for details.
Let's look at the jumper block. There should be no jumper on that position--it's for attaching a LED activity indicator. SYN shouldn't matter as the Adaptec controller doesn't care about spindle synchronization. Similarly, leave DLY unjumpered.
D0-D3 should all un-jumpered for SCSI ID 0, or D0 jumpered for SCSI ID 1.
See:here for details.
Chuck(G)
25k Member
Does the drive spin up with no cables (other than power) connected?
If the HDD's 68-pin SCSI ribbon is connected to J1 on the Adaptec SCSI card, the HDD built-in LED comes on and stays on. The drive does not spin up.
If the HHD's 68-pin SCSI ribbon is connected to J2 on the Adaptec SCSI card, the HDD spins up and its LED comes on. The LED then goes off and the drive remains spinning.
Chuck(G)
25k Member
The link you gave appears broken. I got a "Could not load file" error from that website.
Chuck(G)
25k Member
Feh, trying a new PDF renderer that doesn't appear to know where it gets documents. It's gone...
Try this link instead
Try this link instead
Not all of them did. The crossed-out one does not exist in my SCSI BIOS. I changed two others as noted. The Send Start Unit Command was only off for device 0, which is the device number I have the HDD set for. However, this did not change the HDD's observable behavior when connected to either J1 or J2.
I also have a 1.2 MB. floppy disk with DOS 6.22 that I am also trying to boot from, but the computer keeps saying "Non-system disk or disk error." I know for a fact that the drive is a 1.2 MB. drive because it has a factory label for that.
Chuck(G)
25k Member
That floppy won't boot, regardless of the SCSI adapter setup (i.e. won't boot with the adapter completely unplugged?).
The "non system disk or disk error", followed by "Replace..." message is contained in the boot sector of the floppy. It usually means that the boot sector on the disk could be read, but other sectors on disk could not be successfully read--or there is no system on the disk (i.e. a data non-system disk).
The "non system disk or disk error", followed by "Replace..." message is contained in the boot sector of the floppy. It usually means that the boot sector on the disk could be read, but other sectors on disk could not be successfully read--or there is no system on the disk (i.e. a data non-system disk).
I think you mean that the SCSI settings have no bearing on the floppy drives. That makes sense because they are not plugged into the SCSI card, but the integrated motherboard. Before I put the 5.25-inch drive in, I was able to boot successfully from the 3.5 inch floppy drive. I don't know why the 5.25-inch drive isn't doing it. Maybe I should just try some different 5.25-inch floppies.
What should I try next about the SCSI hard drive and the SCSI CD-ROM drive?
What should I try next about the SCSI hard drive and the SCSI CD-ROM drive?
Chuck(G)
25k Member
Well, as I said, either the drive or the disk has issues; neither is uncommon.
Let's try to go about this thing methodically (I did warn against SCA-connected drives
--the adapter is just one more thing to go wrong). There should be no difference in drive behavior (spin-up) between the internal or external connectors. Many SCSI drives will refuse to spin up if the connector is on upside-down. We'll assume that the drive is operational for now, which leaves us with the cable and adapter. Double-check the cable, please.
Let's try to go about this thing methodically (I did warn against SCA-connected drives
--the adapter is just one more thing to go wrong). There should be no difference in drive behavior (spin-up) between the internal or external connectors. Many SCSI drives will refuse to spin up if the connector is on upside-down. We'll assume that the drive is operational for now, which leaves us with the cable and adapter. Double-check the cable, please.I double-checked all the cables and connectors, including power connectors. It looks like the floppy data cable got ever so slightly pulled out of the motherboard on one end of the connector (pulled out by all the other cables). I reseated it and the computer can now boot from the 5.25-inch floppy drive A. I will see if I have a longer floppy drive cable or can reroute some of these cables. No change in the SCSI BIOS device scans.
Chuck(G)
25k Member
I assume that the SCSI BIOS scan at bootup doesn't report anything with the drive on either connector. This is not good. Have you buzzed the 68-conductor cable out end-to-end?
Chuck(G)
25k Member
You've got me flummoxed here, Bill. I have no idea why your drive doesn't appear. I suppose you could remove the external terminator and try that.
I tried a 50-pin SCSI HDD. It was not recognized. The CD-ROM drive was also not recognized, which happens more often than not.
I tried the same Adaptec card with the 80-pin SCA HDD in a different computer. Same result. I didn't connect the CD-ROM drive to it that time.
I tried the same Adaptec card with the 80-pin SCA HDD in a different computer. Same result. I didn't connect the CD-ROM drive to it that time.
Chuck(G)
25k Member
So, probably the card?
Maybe the card. That seems the most likely cause at this point, other than being 0 for 2 on SCSI HDDs. I don't have another SCSI card like this to swap. If/when I get another SCSI HDD I will keep trying.
Well, at the least, I have both IDE HDD channels full working. For now, I have a CF card adaptor on one, and this gives me the ability to examine and copy off lots of vintage IDE HDDs that I recently got. If I find any Prodigy cache files, I will send them to Benj Edwards for his Prodigy resurrection project.
Well, at the least, I have both IDE HDD channels full working. For now, I have a CF card adaptor on one, and this gives me the ability to examine and copy off lots of vintage IDE HDDs that I recently got. If I find any Prodigy cache files, I will send them to Benj Edwards for his Prodigy resurrection project.