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SCSI settings and devices

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SCSI configuration

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If you have or you are contemplating allowing the PC card to have access to SCSI devices then upgrade to PCPro3 and ensure you are using the latest version. The reason is simply and that is the ASPI driver with PCPro3 is 32bit and you get fewer problems accessing SCSI devices.

Do not use a DOS formatted SCSI hard drive as drive C:. All the reasons are coverd in Disc setup pages. For access to a DOS formatted SCSI use ASPI.

RISC OS systems that BOOT from a SCSI hard drive may find that they have problems due to !PCconfig SCSI setting required to make a device work and that !Boot is needed by the PC card to function. It is less problomatical if RISC OS Boots from an IDE hard drive. The reasons for this will be coverd in the SCSI configuration section on "Reserve" and "Reserve Forced".

Where at all possible keep all working partitions or RISC OS software required for the PC card to operate on an IDE hard drive. Only use a RISC OS formatted SCSI for partition backups and RISC OS software that is NOT required for the PC card to function. Again reasons for this will be coverd in the SCSI configuration section on "Reserve" and "Reserve Forced.

All SCSI devices should be powerd up before you start to use the PC card even if the device is not going to be used by the PC card. Many devices will not communicate correctly regardless of the configuration settings causing other devices in the SCSI chain to fail.

Any removable drives should not contain a RISC OS formatted disc unless the SCSI settings are set to "Ignore" for the drive unit.

You must ensure that the a SCSI terminators are only at the ends of the SCSI chain. I personally use a SCSI terminator block at the ends of my SCSI chain.

SCSI configuration

Setting

The most important thing to remember here is that the settings for the SCSI card or host which is normally device 7, will override all other settings. It is best not to have any of the host setting selected at first and only change them to make a SCSI device work correctly.

Ignore

Setting any device to Ignore will mean that the PC card will not be able to see or have access to the device. All RISC OS formatted fixed hard drives should be set to "Ignore".
If this was set for the host then NO SCSI device could be used as the SCSI card that controls and communicates with the devices is not available to the PC card.

Reserve

This makes a device only available to the PC card while !PC from PCPro3 all versions, remains on the icon bar. Only when !PC is quit will the device be released to RISC OS. Again this includes the host, if this is set, NO devices will be available to RISC OS even if a device is set to "Ignore". This can cause problems if a RISC OS hard drive has software that is required for the PC card to function but is contrioled by RISC OS which because of this setting has just lost contact with the device. All SCSI devices that normally show on the RISC OS icon bar may be grayed out to show that it is unavailable.

Reserve Forced

This is the same as "Reserve" but it gives the device a little kick to make it function. Many SCSI scanners need this set.

No Settings

In theory at least this means that the device should be able to be used by RISC OS or the PC card while the PC card is running, so that you could go back and forth between using the device for RISC OS or the PC card without the need to quit !PC. In practice this can fail to function with a device or that we tend to use a device for RISC OS or the PC card but not both.

Setting Guidence

Fixed RISC OS formatted SCSI hard drives should be set to "Ignore"
Fixed DOS formatted SCSI hard drives should be set to "Reserve"
Devices that you wish to use with the PC card should be set to "Reserve" as it stops any ambiguity between RISC OS and the PC card.
Only use "Force Reserve" as a last resort.

Installing the Windows 95 / 98 SCSI (ASPI) driver

You will need to install the ASPI driver under Windows to be able to use SCSI devices. ASPI stands for ‘Advanced SCSI Programming Interface’ and is the de facto standard for talking to SCSI devices under Windows 95/98, Windows 3 or DOS. To install it:

Open the start menu, and choose Control Panel off the Settings menu.
Double-click on the Add new hardware icon.
Answer No when Windows offers to search for your new hardware.
Select SCSI controllers from the list that appears.
Click Have disk…

When it’s asking you where to copy the files from, type A:\Win95\ASPI into the box and press OK.

Click OK to install the HPC SCSI Miniport driver and let Windows restart itself when it finishes the installation.

If you’ve done this successfully, you will be able to use your SCSI devices from Windows 95 applications; you will also see any SCSI CD-ROM drives appear in ‘My Computer’.

ASPI with DOS

After installing the ASPI DOS driver to use a device in DOS you must load a DOS ASPI device driver. For example 'ASPICD.SYS' as a driver for SCSI 2 CD ROM devices and 'ASPIDISK.SYS' as a driver for SCSI hard discs were part of Adaptec's EZ SCSI software.

SCSI cards

Alsystem Power Tec cards and upgrade ROMS
Fault Description.

Quit !PC with an error message:

Error

Application may have gone wrong, etc.
Describe:
Internal error: abort on data transfer at &038096Ce

This provokes the inability to initialize all other programs, giving the same message. Only solution: switch off computer.

The culprit:
Installation of PowerTec's Power ATAPI CDFS driver.
You must ensure that the configuration is correct and that you are using the correct ATAPI driver. The PowerRom upgraded for Acorn SCSI card with the Acorn ATAPI in use ensures that !PC quits correctly.

Scanners

From: Lionel Smith Subject: Umax - Win95 and PC Pro3.02

The Umax Astra 1200S scanner Rev. 2.9 works with Win95 (OSR2) and PCPro 3.02 on a CJE 586 133 512 card using 32bit ASPI (Miniport) drivers with Win Umax drivers found on Umax Astra Scanners (SCSI) CD version 1.14, but NOT with Umax Scanner CD version 1.08.

From: Philip Draper Subject: Epson scanner GT9000

After ensuring that Philip had PCPro 3 and the latest 32 bit ARMASPI dated 10th Dec 1998 he also downloaded the latest TWAIN and Epson scanner driver from their Web site.

Andreas Walter suggested adding the External Buffer from PCConfig. Hey Presto - everything now works smoothly.

This is normally the default.

Last Updated: 2005.11.07

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