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From: ogus@crystal.berkeley.edu (Arthur E. Ogus)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hardware
Subject: Re: Summary: Syquest and removable drives
Summary: IIfx SCSI questions again
Keywords: hard disk, Syquest, removable, storage
Message-ID: <1990Dec20.052953.7352@agate.berkeley.edu>
Date: 20 Dec 90 05:29:53 GMT
References: <5117@husc6.harvard.edu>
Sender: Arthur Ogus (ogus@math.berkeley.edu)
Organization: U.C. Berkeley Math. Department.
Lines: 44

I know that it has been discussed over and over, but I am having
serious problems and am desperately seeking information.  I have a PLI
Infinity Turbo Drive (i.e. a Syquest removable cartridge system) and
have been using it without serious difficulty with my Mac IIfx for
several months.  The PLI has switches so that you can turn off the
internal termination, which is very convenient, and with the black
SCSI fx terminator inserted in the SCSI chain (either between the
cable and the PLI drive or in the other SCSI port of the PLI drive)
everything has been working fine.  However, the new cartridges I have
purchased in the last month or so refuse to be recognized by the
drive---they spin up and then down again, and never appear on the
desktop.  I never get a chance to format them.  This happens with
every cartridge I buy.  If I take the cartridges to the store, they
are fine on the drives there.  One person told me that Syquest has
changed the cartridges, and that the new ones are distinguished from
the old ones by the presence of an arrow embossed in the plastic case,
in the corner opposite the red write protection button.  He knew of
someone with a drive that accepted only the old style cartridges.
Sure enough, when I got home, I found that my old cartridges, which
still work fine, do not have the arrow, and the new ones, which don't,
do not.  In desperation, I took my drive and a troublesome cartridge
down to PLI, and after two days they called me back to say that it
worked fine on their IIfx.  

Anyway, I find myself in the nightmare situation in which each vendor
says its the other vendor's fault.  It finally occured to me to look
again at Macintosh Technicol Note number 273, which describes SCSI	
termination for the IIfx.  In particular, it mentions, something
called the "Internal SCSI Filter" which provides "termination
capacitance for internal Macintosh IIfx hard drives that shipped
prior to March 19, 1990."  It is not clear to me what this means, or
if I am supposed to have one.  I am beginning to suspect that I am
supposed to have something (is it the mysterious grey T-shaped thing?)
inserted between the SCSI cable and the internal hard drive that is
not there.  I have talked to Apple, to my dealer, and to PLI, and have
no clear answer.  Worst of all, I am leaving the country in 5 days and
have to have this cleared up before Christmas!

If anyone can help, I will be immensely grateful.

Arthur Ogus
Department of Mathematics
University of California
Berkeley, California