Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!unix.cis.pitt.edu!dsinc!bagate!cbmvax!jesup
From: jesup@cbmvax.commodore.com (Randell Jesup)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware
Subject: Re: Hardrives and the A3000
Message-ID: <20245@cbmvax.commodore.com>
Date: 2 Apr 91 04:40:58 GMT
References: <8088@crash.cts.com>
Reply-To: jesup@cbmvax.commodore.com (Randell Jesup)
Organization: Commodore, West Chester, PA
Lines: 47

In article <8088@crash.cts.com> denny@pnet01.cts.com (Dennis Anderson) writes:
>Commodore has had this problem with 2 SCSI drives since the 2091 controller
>and the 590 on the A500. They have not owned up to the problem for a couple of
>years so don't expect them to face the music now. They just keep repeating the
>same old bunk about be sure to have reseltion turned off on both drives and
>that this is difficult to do so YOU must be doing something wrong and all your
>problems are therefore user caused. There have been so many problems reported
>about these controllers that the problems CANNOT be all user error. Good luck
>and if you find out any REAL info let the rest of us know.

	I think if you read my (and other C= peoples') posts you'll find that
you're exaggerating the situation.  I understand that you're frustrated by
the situation (suprise, so am I), but that's no reason to misrepresent our
statements.

	To repeat: most problems with the WD 'a' chip (-04/-08) are due
to a change in the WD part (the non-'a' chip is no longer available).  Most
of the problems resulting from this are fixed by turning off reselection; for
many users all the problems are solved this way.  Various users have reported
here that turning off reselection solved their problems or greatly reduced
them in intensity.  The remaining problems require a software revision (and
are most frequent in expanded systems that have interrupt drivers in the
device drivers for the other expansion boards, like serial boards).  You
should be hearing something about the software revision _really_ soon now
(I advise counting hours or days instead of weeks while waiting ;-).  (Not
an official statement, of course.)

	There is a separate issue, which the person you replied to was talking
about.  Certain drives, particularily Seagates (such as the ST 157N), are
notoriously slow at booting, at responding to selections while busy (they
push the spec to the very limit), etc.  These issues are addressed by a
jumper on the 2091, a dip switch on the 590, and a NVRAM bit in the clock
on the 3000.  This lengthens the timeout well beyond spec, and is often
referred to as the "seagate bit".  This is an (arguable) bug in the Seagate
SCSI implementation, but since Seagates are common we have to deal with 
them.  If you're running a 3000, no program has been released by commodore
yet to play with the bit; as I sent in mail to the original poster some
time ago there is a PD utility for setting these bits.  For A590/A2901, see
your manual.

-- 
Randell Jesup, Keeper of AmigaDos, Commodore Engineering.
{uunet|rutgers}!cbmvax!jesup, jesup@cbmvax.commodore.com  BIX: rjesup  
Disclaimer: Nothing I say is in anything other than my personal opinion.
Thus spake the Master Ninjei: "To program a million-line operating system
is easy, to change a man's temperament is more difficult."
(From "The Zen of Programming")  ;-)