Re: Sick IIGS - CMS SCSI Card Combo

[Slick <paySlick_RCBD@hotmail.com>]

Sounds like even an Apple SCSI card reversion C (low speed) would be an
improvement. I'm very content with the performance I get from it. When I
bought my hard drive, the low speed card was $60 (used) and the high
speed was $220 (new). For the record, my hard drive is 327 MB, with one
HFS partition and six ProDOS partitions.

Supertimer wrote:
> 
> r_obenauf@mindspring.com (Rayni Obenauf) wrote:
> 
> >   I recently received a donated IIGS, ROM 01, pretty much stripped, no
> >software, and thanks to Nathan Mates outstanding FAQ pages, pretty much
> >figured out how to get it running ProDOS, GS/OS, downloaded software, etc.
> >I purchased a Sirius RAM GS card and a CMS SCSI card from Alltech Elec. so
> >I could run GS/OS without having to swap floppies. Unfortunately, the CMS
> >card came with nothing but the static shield, no documentation, no
> >software. After much grief, I downloaded the software from Alltech's web
> >site, and succeeded in formatting the hard drive, loading 6.0.1 OS, and
> >some apps, getting everything to work.
> >   The problem arises from the fact that the combo will work fine for a
> >few power-up boots, then refuse to work for the length of my patience.
> >When it works, it always works fine till I shut the power off (i.e.,
> >through a three fingered salute restart or GS/OS software restart), then
> >at next power-up, won't recognize the hard drive. Several hours or days
> >later, I come back and it boots from the hard drive again.
> >   The configuration is ROM 01, 3.5 800K floppy, Sirius RAM GS w/ 2 meg in
> >256K simms, the CMS card (ver. 3.0, I think), and a Micropolis 1747 SCSI
> >II drive with term power enabled and parity disabled. I've tried the CMS
> >card out in all the slots, I've tried out all SCSI addresses, I've even
> >tried out a bunch of combos of jumpers on the card, even though tech
> >support at Alltech said only one set actually controls anything (Boot
> >delay). The problem doesn't seem to be heat related because it is still
> >there long after the components have cooled. Another clue is when it is
> >working, the CMS formatting software recognizes the card, when it isn't
> >working, the software doesn't. I also returned the first card to Alltech
> >in exchange for another, which shows the exact same symptoms.
> >   Has anyone else had the same problems? Can anyone give me a clue where
> >to look?
> 
> The CMS card is very old, creaky, and slow technology.  The CMS
> SCSI card is also not capable of running CD-ROM drives and many
> removable media.  There is also no way to break the 32MB barrier
> imposed by ProDOS and use HFS.  On most other controllers, you
> can go beyond 32MB in each partition if you use HFS.  On the CMS,
> because you use jumpers to set partition size and because these
> jumpers have a maximum setting of 32MB for each partition, you are
> stuck!
> 
> Since the CMS SCSI gives you none of the benefits of a normal
> SCSI card (like CD-ROM support and expansion), you might as
> well return the CMS card to Alltech and trade it in for a Focus drive.
> Or, if you want, try to get an Apple High Speed SCSI card or the
> Ramfast card from Sequential Systems (www.sequential.com).
> Both of these cards are DMA capable with the Ramfast supporting
> this with 8MB systems.  Both cards can use CD-ROM drives and
> both can partition drives beyond 32MB using the HFS file system.

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