Proliant 2500 DVD decoder and SCSI issues

I have a operational 2500. Win2k. EISA Utils on the drives.

I am having problems getting the Sigma Designs Hollywood plus DVD decoder
card to actually start in windows, the driver get installed and the device
just wont start.

Also I have 2 9.1g and 2 18g drives that all seem to work, but I just got a
4g drive (barracuda) and when I have it installed in alongside the two 18,s
on the controller built into the MOBO.

The problem occurs when I start up the machine, it detects no drives with
the 4g in and asks for operating system, but with that drive out everything
seems to star up fine.

Any ideas?

Is your decoder SCSI or IDE?

Your other problems sound like SCSI ID Issues... Have you worked with SCSI
much? Are your drives hotplug or not ?

LC

"nobody" wrote in message
t...
I have a operational 2500. Win2k. EISA Utils on the drives.

I am having problems getting the Sigma Designs Hollywood plus DVD decoder
card to actually start in windows, the driver get installed and the device
just wont start.

Also I have 2 9.1g and 2 18g drives that all seem to work, but I just got
a
4g drive (barracuda) and when I have it installed in alongside the two
18,s
on the controller built into the MOBO.

The problem occurs when I start up the machine, it detects no drives with
the 4g in and asks for operating system, but with that drive out
everything
seems to star up fine.

Any ideas?

I agree sounds like a SCSI ID issue.

The post said the drives were attached to the controller on the motherboard
so its safe assume that its not a hot plug drive.

The SCSI IDs are set using jumpers on the back of the drive. Odds are the 4
gig drive you added has the same ID as the controller or one of the other
drives. Your best bet is to go to the manufacturers web site to determine
how they set SCSI ID and adjust the ID of the 4 gig drive to one that is
unused.

The utilities in the system partition will tell you which SCSI ID's are in
use.

VinceV

"NuT CrAcKeR" wrote in message
...
Is your decoder SCSI or IDE?

Your other problems sound like SCSI ID Issues... Have you worked with SCSI
much? Are your drives hotplug or not ?

LC

"nobody" wrote in message
t...
I have a operational 2500. Win2k. EISA Utils on the drives.

I am having problems getting the Sigma Designs Hollywood plus DVD
decoder
card to actually start in windows, the driver get installed and the
device
just wont start.

Also I have 2 9.1g and 2 18g drives that all seem to work, but I just
got
a
4g drive (barracuda) and when I have it installed in alongside the two
18,s
on the controller built into the MOBO.

The problem occurs when I start up the machine, it detects no drives
with
the 4g in and asks for operating system, but with that drive out
everything
seems to star up fine.

Any ideas?

True... but the fact that he is using the onboard controller does not mean
he isnt using pluggable drives. Infact, I dont think I have ever seen a 2500
without a pluggable cage... 1200/800, yes. I have seen those with a manual
cage.

If a pluggable cage is being used, then no drive should have a static ID
set, as this is done by the backplane of the cage. If the 4GB drive is
causing conflicts it may be because this drive has an explicit ID. This is
not un heard of when people take drives from one place, and put them in
trays for use with the servers. I have been doing this for years, and
occasionally I get tagged with this problem because I overlooked the ID
jumpers on the drive.

Cheers,

LC

"VinceV" wrote in message ...
I agree sounds like a SCSI ID issue.

The post said the drives were attached to the controller on the
motherboard
so its safe assume that its not a hot plug drive.

The SCSI IDs are set using jumpers on the back of the drive. Odds are the
4
gig drive you added has the same ID as the controller or one of the other
drives. Your best bet is to go to the manufacturers web site to determine
how they set SCSI ID and adjust the ID of the 4 gig drive to one that is
unused.

The utilities in the system partition will tell you which SCSI ID's are in
use.

VinceV

"NuT CrAcKeR" wrote in message
...
Is your decoder SCSI or IDE?

Your other problems sound like SCSI ID Issues... Have you worked with
SCSI
much? Are your drives hotplug or not ?

LC

"nobody" wrote in message
t...
I have a operational 2500. Win2k. EISA Utils on the drives.

I am having problems getting the Sigma Designs Hollywood plus DVD
decoder
card to actually start in windows, the driver get installed and the
device
just wont start.

Also I have 2 9.1g and 2 18g drives that all seem to work, but I just
got
a
4g drive (barracuda) and when I have it installed in alongside the two
18,s
on the controller built into the MOBO.

The problem occurs when I start up the machine, it detects no drives
with
the 4g in and asks for operating system, but with that drive out
everything
seems to star up fine.

Any ideas?

"NuT CrAcKeR" wrote in message ...
True... but the fact that he is using the onboard controller does not mean
he isnt using pluggable drives. Infact, I dont think I have ever seen a 2500
without a pluggable cage... 1200/800, yes. I have seen those with a manual
cage.

I have a 2500 that uses a non-plugable cage. Finding the green drive
rails was a PITA! It had a ribbon connector that ran off the main
SCSI Controller. I had to manually set each SCSI ID.

I also have a couple 2500s that use plugable cages. These are much
easier to use as the tray/cage combo controls the SCSI ID of each
device. I use SCA drives and trays. Its my understanding that the
non SCA drive trays have a connector that plugs into the SCSI ID block
and is used to set the SCSI ID.

snipped plugable drive advice

VinceV

"VinceV" wrote in message
om...
"NuT CrAcKeR" wrote in message
...
True... but the fact that he is using the onboard controller does not
mean
he isnt using pluggable drives. Infact, I dont think I have ever seen a
2500
without a pluggable cage... 1200/800, yes. I have seen those with a
manual
cage.

I have a 2500 that uses a non-plugable cage. Finding the green drive
rails was a PITA! It had a ribbon connector that ran off the main
SCSI Controller. I had to manually set each SCSI ID.

Good to know. Just stating that I had never seen one. And... I have a TON of
those little green things too.

I also have a couple 2500s that use plugable cages. These are much
easier to use as the tray/cage combo controls the SCSI ID of each
device. I use SCA drives and trays. Its my understanding that the
non SCA drive trays have a connector that plugs into the SCSI ID block
and is used to set the SCSI ID.

Yes, but it was still the backplane that assigned the ID... via the tray,
thought the ribbon to the ID Block on the drive.


snipped plugable drive advice

VinceV

Thanks so much, I haven't even tried to look at the ID problem as an issue.
Its a hot-pluggable version and I have just installed another drive that I
got as separate and it works with the other two.

Thanks for the suggestions but keep it coming if you want, ill check out
that id thing.

I did work with scsi years ago on some macs but that was some old stuff and
am not all to familiar with it.






"nut cracker" wrote in message
...

"VinceV" wrote in message
om...
"NuT CrAcKeR" wrote in message
...
True... but the fact that he is using the onboard controller does not
mean
he isnt using pluggable drives. Infact, I dont think I have ever seen
a
2500
without a pluggable cage... 1200/800, yes. I have seen those with a
manual
cage.

I have a 2500 that uses a non-plugable cage. Finding the green drive
rails was a PITA! It had a ribbon connector that ran off the main
SCSI Controller. I had to manually set each SCSI ID.

Good to know. Just stating that I had never seen one. And... I have a TON
of
those little green things too.

I also have a couple 2500s that use plugable cages. These are much
easier to use as the tray/cage combo controls the SCSI ID of each
device. I use SCA drives and trays. Its my understanding that the
non SCA drive trays have a connector that plugs into the SCSI ID block
and is used to set the SCSI ID.

Yes, but it was still the backplane that assigned the ID... via the tray,
thought the ribbon to the ID Block on the drive.


snipped plugable drive advice

VinceV

The decoder is PCI

"NuT CrAcKeR" wrote in message
...
Is your decoder SCSI or IDE?

Your other problems sound like SCSI ID Issues... Have you worked with SCSI
much? Are your drives hotplug or not ?

LC

"nobody" wrote in message
t...
I have a operational 2500. Win2k. EISA Utils on the drives.

I am having problems getting the Sigma Designs Hollywood plus DVD
decoder
card to actually start in windows, the driver get installed and the
device
just wont start.

Also I have 2 9.1g and 2 18g drives that all seem to work, but I just
got
a
4g drive (barracuda) and when I have it installed in alongside the two
18,s
on the controller built into the MOBO.

The problem occurs when I start up the machine, it detects no drives
with
the 4g in and asks for operating system, but with that drive out
everything
seems to star up fine.

Any ideas?

The server wasnt really designed with PCI IDE devices in mind....

Be sure to run the System Configuration Utility (SCU). Provided you have an
EISA Patrition (system utililites, also known as the F10 Partition), they
will be on the first HDD.

However, by the sounds of things, I would wager that you dont have one.
Do you have a smart start CD? If not, you really need to get one. This CD
can create the partition that the beginning of the drive with the lowest ID.
Typically 0.

Back to the SCU. Once you get there, you will want to save the settings.
This is where the NVRAM (kinda like a bios) stores all the info about the
system, its cards, and how to map its resources. This might be one of the
reasons you are having problems. For all intents and purposes, the system
doent know it has a new card. I would bet you $2000 that there is no .cfg
file for that card. This is typically how older EISA systems tell the SCU
what resources they expect. You might be able to get away with a .cfg file
for a generic IDE Disk controller, but I highly doubt it.

If you can afford it, check ebay for a Smart 2SL, Smart 2DH, or smart 221
Array controller. It will make your life much easier. For raid sets, its
best to use drives of the same capacity for volumes. Seriously.. you can pic
one up for less than $20 US and its totally worth it.

You really are trying to do something with this box that it was not meant to
do, and as such your results, if any, may quite well be disappointing.

Just a fair warning...

LC


"nobody" wrote in message
t...
The decoder is PCI

"NuT CrAcKeR" wrote in message
...
Is your decoder SCSI or IDE?

Your other problems sound like SCSI ID Issues... Have you worked with
SCSI
much? Are your drives hotplug or not ?

LC

"nobody" wrote in message
t...
I have a operational 2500. Win2k. EISA Utils on the drives.

I am having problems getting the Sigma Designs Hollywood plus DVD
decoder
card to actually start in windows, the driver get installed and the
device
just wont start.

Also I have 2 9.1g and 2 18g drives that all seem to work, but I just
got
a
4g drive (barracuda) and when I have it installed in alongside the two
18,s
on the controller built into the MOBO.

The problem occurs when I start up the machine, it detects no drives
with
the 4g in and asks for operating system, but with that drive out
everything
seems to star up fine.

Any ideas?