Re: Focus or RAMfast?

[Rubywand <rubywand@swbell.net>]

TWS writes ...
> 
> I have heard of putting 800 megabyte and larger drives on the Focus Card.  It
> only has support for one drive mechanism.
> 
> For the Ramfast, You just need to give the Drive a SCSI ID, and either turn on
> the DRIVE termination, or the RAMFAST termination (there is a jumper on the
> RAMFAST card that allows you to turn term power ON/OFF)
> 
> I *have*  the following problems with my Focus:
> 
> When you press control-apple-reset to REboot, the Drive mechanism turns off
> (drive motor loses power, you can hear it lose speed)
> 
> This makes the computer hang when trying to SOFT boot.  I guess the drive is not
> ready when the computer accesses the card, and the computer is frozen.
>

     You mentioned these problems once before. Your Focus does not seem
to be working correctly-- the one on our GS does not have any problems
with hanging up on reboots.

     I do not remember whether or not you have a ROM-03 and 8MB board.
If you do, the hang-up could be related to the weird double start up
mentioned by Mitch.

     Have you tried removing the modified RamFAST card to see whether
this helps? (The RamFAST could be messing things up.)  If pulling the
RamFAST does not fix your Focus problems, you might seriously consider
calling Alltech and setting up a a swap for a Focus that works
correctly. 


 
> With RAMFast I have the following problems:
> 
> I cannot eject from the finder,
> Installing the RAMfast DRIVER makes the computer freeze on startup.
> I have not been able to get a CD ROM drive to work.
> 
> The RAMfast problems may have resulted from the fact that I originally bought it
> for my IIE.  When I got the card, it did not work in the IIe, So I called Seq.
> Sys. and told them my problem.  They said "someone told you it would work in a
> IIe?"
> 
> I told them yes, because their web page/ Printed information fliers say "Scsi
> card for apple IIe/GS"
> 
> I sent my RAMfast back, and they sent me a new one that they said "Was modified
> for use in a IIe"

     My RamFAST manual talks about using the card with a IIgs and
enhanced IIe. There does not seem to be any special warning about
needing a modification. Now that you have a GS, Sequential should be
able to tell you how to un-modify it. (Or you could look at the board
and see if there is some obvious mod, like a cut trace to a card
connector and some wired-on jumper. But, first, call or email
Sequential.)

     One thing that does repeatedly crop up in the RamFAST manual is
that, if you have a TransWarp, the DMA option (set via Ramfast.system)
should to be set to No and TransWarp should be set Yes. It is not clear
from the manual that setting TransWarp to Yes automatically defeats DMA
access-- evidently, it should because the manual makes it clear that,
with a TransWarp, DMA needs to be turned OFF. That is something you can
ask Sequential about.

     The concern would be that your RamFAST might be 'waking up' with
default settings which end up turning ON DMA. If you have no attached
SCSI device to write to-- like a hard disk or Zip Drive-- your desired
setting changes may never be saved (at least on a RamFAST 3.01f) and you
would be stuck with the defaults.

     The bottom line is that getting your RamFAST straightened out could
fix a lot of problems.



Rubywand