The termination on drives of that type is likely PASSIVE termination.
Thanks for such a good list of suggestions; I certainly appreciate your assistance. Some of what you listed I have already tried. I probably could have put the following into the first post, but it was getting pretty long & I still wanted someone to read it :)
>>If you use the OLD OS you had that worked prior, it still hangs???
Yes. Regardless of the OS I boot to on floppy, the Emax crashes whenever any hard disk functionality comes into play, including just choosing certain menu options.
>>a. the drive (you have 2 different drives which show the same behavior, correct?)
Correct. I would agree with you that it isn't likely both drives failed on the same day. Possible, but not very probable.
>>b. The cable - if you are using the same cable, could be a bad cable. Do you have another cable to try?
I tried 3 different cables and, FYI I'm only using 1 internal drive. 2 of the cables are single-device cables (2 connectors) like the factory cable. The other cable supports 2 devices (3 connectors), but the last connector on that cable has a hardware terminator I've added to it. FWIW, I seem to recall using the 2-device cable w/ the added terminator on it was behaving strangely. I can't recall details, but I want to say there were more freezes & crashes w/ this configuration.
>>c. Termination - verify the termination is correct.
>>- make sure the terminators (resistor networks) are properly seated on the drive controller boards.
Good point. The drives should have resistors in place. I will double-check & verify they are all seated properly.
>>- not double terminated on the chain, etc.
hmmm... not sure if my 2-device cable w/ 1 drive connected, its own terminating resistors, and a physical terminator on the last connector counts as double termination or not since there's no 2nd drive. Perhaps it does, and that might explain why that combo was flaky. Unless you suggest removing the terminating resistors on the drive and relying on the cable termination as a unique and/or worthwhile test, I will just abandon testing w/ that cable & configuration since there is only ever 1 drive & I think I have ruled out other cables as a cause.
>>d. Make sure no external cables / drives are hooked while you are doing this internal cable / drive testing to eliminate any SCSI chain reflection or termination issues.
No external drives are in use. That will be the ultimate goal, but so far I'm not there yet so this isn't a factor.
Looks like I have some valuable homework to do tonight. I will let you know how it goes & am in your debt.
Thank you,
Jim