Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!cbmvax!jesup From: jesup@cbmvax.commodore.com (Randell Jesup) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc Subject: Re: Repost - warranty servicing question Message-ID: <21008@cbmvax.commodore.com> Date: 27 Apr 91 23:37:37 GMT References: <11908@jarthur.Claremont.EDU> <11922@jarthur.Claremont.EDU> <11926@jarthur.Claremont.EDU> Reply-To: jesup@cbmvax.commodore.com (Randell Jesup) Distribution: na Organization: Commodore, West Chester, PA Lines: 85 In article <11926@jarthur.Claremont.EDU> rolee@jarthur.Claremont.EDU (Profess'nal Agitator) writes: >System Diagnostic >Problem Tracing >Configure Dual SCSI Drives What does this mean? setting them to different addresses? >Hard Disk Configuration >Hard Disk Prep Those two (I assume) simply means he ran hdtoolbox. >Low-Level Format Drive #1 under KS 2.0 >Low-Level Format Drive #2 under KS 2.0 Wow, he can click on buttons in hdtoolbox (BTW, I can't think what would require that this be done, unless you've been using a bulk-eraser on your drives - low level formats are rarely needed). How much does two mouse clicks cost? (And if these were Qauntum drives, quantums totally ignore low-level format requests, though he might not know this.) >Configure Terminal Resistors If you didn't do this, it does need to be done, which means unmounting the HD from the 2091, yanking 3 removable RP's, and putting it back (say 15 minutes if he's slow and the machine is all buttoned up). Note: I've only rarely seen small 2-drive setups have problems with over-termination, though it should be set up correctly for peace of mind (and over-termination may theoretically slightly shorten the life of the bus drivers on the drives). >Prepare Correct Matrix Tables What is a "matrix table"? I wrote HDToolbox, and _I_ never heard of one. >Add/Update File System under KS 2.0 >Partition All Drives under KS 2.0 >Set Drive Reselect #1 to "Off" >Set Drive Reselect #2 to "On" All fairly simple, all part of hdtoolbox (and explained in the manual), with the exception of turning reselection off, which is simple if you know to do it. Since you didn't explain your original problems, I don't know if this was the problem, but if you were experiencing random lockups (i.e. they were usable, but locked up occasionally when both drives were in use at the same time) then it was reselection, and that was the _only_ thing that needed to be done. (See extensive discussions in the past here on how to do it properly.) Max 1/2 hour with coffee break. >With the exception of "Problem Tracing," which he claims to have taken up >the main brunt of the twenty hours, the rest of the work sounds as if it >could be done in under two hours. I'm told service centers were notified quite a while ago of how to handle reselection problems with 2091's (i.e. turn it off). How far did you get before bringing it to him? >Several of you have said that the "Matrix Tables" are a red herring. He >claims that these tables need to be reset on each SCSI device whenever a new >one is added to a chain, which sounds like a load of bull to me also. The only thing I can even think of is that when you add a new drive, as it says in the manual, you may have to run hdtoolbox and click on the "save changes to drive" for your original drive (it will come up as changed - hdtoolbox figures out that a drive was added and adjusts the "last in chain" flags, but won't save them unless you tell it to). Sorry if I was a bit sarcastic, but a bill of that size to add a HD that costs less than the bill brand new is pretty bizarre. Personally, I would expect a repairman who exceeded the initial estimate to call and get authorization before going beyond it (or at most a little beyond, not several hundred percent beyond). Please note (as usual): these are my _private_ opinions, and are NOT in any way a statement of Commodore or anyone else but myself. Please be circumspect in how you describe them to any others, and do not represent them as anything but personal opinions. -- Randell Jesup, Keeper of AmigaDos, Commodore Engineering. {uunet|rutgers}!cbmvax!jesup, jesup@cbmvax.commodore.com BIX: rjesup Disclaimer: Nothing I say is 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") ;-)