OT: Mylex problems

From: Tothwolf <tothwolf_at_concentric.net>
Date: Sun Feb 3 12:21:12 2002

On Sun, 3 Feb 2002, Richard Erlacher wrote:

> A friend has come to me with a problem I don't seem to be able to
> solve. He's got a couple of Seagate ST32550W drives and a Mylex
> DAC960PD PCI controller, a single-channel type, that just doesn't want
> to "see" the drives attached to it. I've verified that the drives
> work using a different controller, and the diagnostic software from
> Mylex seems to suggest that the board itself thinks it works OK, up to
> the point at which it is supposed to "see" attached drives. That's
> where things fall apart.

Use high quality cables and active terminators. I had problem after
problem with many Mylex/BusLogic boards till I started using active
terminators on the end of the chain.

> He wants to run this thing under Windows95 and I've found him a set of
> what appears to be the appropriate set of drivers, but the plug-n-play
> operation doesn't seem to go well. His machine is an HP PC-Clone, a
> "Pavillion" with a 2GB ide drive and about 64 MB of RAM. The computer
> is remarkably solid, from what I've seen, having no particularly
> noticable problems aside from those associated with the Mylex
> controller.

Some of these controllers are also quite picky about sharing an IRQ with
another PCI card. You might have to play with the BIOS settings of the
motherboard to allow the card exclusive use of an IRQ. Of course, if that
does not cure the problem, change the settings back :)

> Have any of you guys had experience with the MYLEX SCSI adapter
> involved here, to the extent that you can suggest ways to make the
> plug-n-play features work to fit the system?

Double check the cables, use active or forced perfect termination, and
check the IRQ the board wants to use.

> Please let me know, as, having had some experience with MYLEX
> products, I think this is potentially a really good product for him to
> use.

Has Mylex discontinued this board? A couple years ago they discontinued
nearly all of their SCSI products.

-Toth
Received on Sun Feb 03 2002 - 12:21:12 GMT