[Tfug] Adaptec 29160

[Bexley Hall]

Hi,

Just an observation that folks might want to
file away for future reference:

I have an Adaptec 29160 that has always given
me problems.  I.e., I have never been able to
get it working in any of my systems.

While tinkering with the VWS320, I *had* to use
the 29160 for my HBA (the IDE subsystem in the
VWS320 is just nowhere near fast enough to keep
up with raw video) -- I don't have any other
3V PCI HBA's *besides* the 29160!  :>

So, I was quite motivated to solve this problem
(Necessity, Invention, Mother of).

Symptoms:  PC would hang when the HBA's BIOS ran.

Well, not quite!  I could use the SCSISelect
panel and diddle with adapter settings as much
as I wanted.  *But*, once the HBA went looking
at the SCSI bus, the machine would lock up *hard*!

This would happen if I used the utilities within
the SCSISelect BIOS *or* if I just let the card
do its thing as part of the normal boot sequence.

With nothing else to lose, I threw a terminator
on the external (wide) connector (I hadn't had
*anything* connected to the SCSI bus until I could
verify that the card was operational).

Voila!  Fixed!

This is puzzling.  The card had been configured
for "automatic" termination.  But, apparently,
this card does things differently (?) than other
Adaptec HBA's I've used (1542, 2940 family, etc.).

I had assumed it would time-out when probe()-ing
each (non-existent) SCSI device.  But, if it *does*,
it must be an outrageously long timeout (minutes?).

<shrug>  Oh, well... just remember the terminator
(*especially* if you have nothing on the bus) to
avoid problems!

FWIW,
--don


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