I built my system roughly 5 years ago and six to seven months ago began to have a problem with my SCSI Drives. I have tried replacing the SCSI card, SCSI cable, removing the ribbon cable from each SCSI drive (one at a time) while being careful to make sure one of the remaining drives was correctly terminated. A few weeks ago I did a clean install and after completing all of the Windows XP Updates and Device Driver Updates my SCSI Drives ceased to function correctly again. Here are my system specs:
ASUS P3V4X Motherboard
Pentium III 1GHz 133Mhz CPU
512 MB ECC SDRAM (Kingston)
ATI Radeon 7000 64MB AGP Video
SoundBlaster PCI512 Sound
Adaptec AHA-2930CU PCI SCSI
SupraExpress 56i SP V.90 ISA Modem
3COM 3C905C-TX PCI Ethernet
NEC USB 2.0 PCI Card
Western Digital WB600BB (C Drive) IDE
Western Digital WB300BB (D Drive) IDE
Iomega ZIP100 IDE Drive
Seagate SST20000A IDE Tape Drive
Toshiba XM-6201TA SCSI CD ROM
Hewlett Packard 9200 SCSI CD-Writer+
Pioneer DVD305 SCSI DVD ROM
Mitsumi 3.5" Floppy Drive
Camedia Media Reader (SM, CF)
KDS 17" Visual Sensations VS-7i Monitor
Logitech Mouseman+ (PS-2)
Mitsumi 101 Keyboard (PS-2)
Hewlett Packard LaserJet 1320
Hewlett Packard ScanJet 4100C
3COM HomeConnect Net Cam
Windows XP Home Edition SP2 with All Available Updates
MS Office XP Professional
MS FrontPage 2002
Norton SystemWorks 2004 Professional
Norton Firewall 2004
Easy Media Creator 7
Backup Exec Desktop Edition
WinDVD 4.0
Printmaster 15
Plus! for Windows XP
MS Streets & Trips 2005
Tweaki...for Power Users
FTP Navigator 7.43
WinZip 9.0 SR1
Acrobat Reader 6.0.3
Webshots
Weatherbug 4.0
Quicktime
Realplayer
MusicMatch Jukebox
Ad-Aware SE
SpyBoy Search & Destroy

This list includes most of the programs that I have installed on my system. I have downloaded and installed all available updates for all of these programs. After my clean install, windows updates and driver updates, I had to install all of my CD software using a networked system's CD ROM drive.
I welcome any ideas or suggestions. I have exhausted every possibility that I can think of. I have read everything I could find on SCSI issues on Microsoft's Knowledgebase site. I do not know anyone using SCSI that can assist me.
Thank you for anything you can offer.
Martin

In the Windows XP Forum I was asked the following questions:
When you boot up and see the scsi card announce itself and list the devices connected to it, does this happen?

All devices listed?

What are the scsi ids for the cd's and dvd?
Terminated by a drive or a active terminator installed at the end of the cable?
Can you get into the scsi bios?
Below is my reply to those questions.

The Adaptec Bios announces itself in the POST process giving its bios version and listing the devices attached.
Adaptec AHA-2930CU SCSI Bios
Bios V1.34.1
Toshiba XM-6201TA SCSI CD ROM - ID 0
Hewlett Packard 9200 SCSI CD-Writer+ - ID 1
Pioneer DVD305 SCSI DVD ROM - ID 2
The chain is terminated at the DVD drive. I use no external SCSI devices so no external termination is required.
I have used the SCSI Device Utility but have not attempted to alter or update the BIOS. I have not found an updated BIOS for this card or I would flash the card's BIOS.
When I did the recent clean install, I used the DVD drive for the Windows XP setup and was able to access and use all three SCSI drives when the setup was finished. I began to lose function during the process of updating device drivers and installing the USB devices.
When any disc is inserted in any SCSI drive, the drives go through a cycling process that repeats several times. Occassionally the drive will show that a disc is present with its icon. If I try to launch a disc the system cycles and then locks up, requiring a re-set switch reboot.

The two devices at the ends of the SCSI chain should be terminated. I am assuming your controller is at one end of the cable and the DVD drive at the other. Your controller card may be automatically terminated. Your DVD drive also needs termination. External termination does not mean an external drive. Your DVD may have a switch or jumper to turn on internal termination. Does your SCSI cable physically end at the DVD drive?

I am fairly certain that the Adaptec SCSI card is automatically terminated. The DVD drive is terminated using the jumper. I am fairly certain that the number of connectors on the SCSI ribbon cable should not matter if both end devices are terminated. The system worked fine for nearly 4 years. I have suspected a windows problem, perhaps is SP2 but could not find anything about SCSI issues at Microsoft or anywhere else for that matter. This is the fourth tech forum that I have posted this problem in. I am hopeful that sooner or later someone will have encountered this problem and was able to find the solution. Thanks!

Martin,

The 2930 card does NOT automatically terminate any attached devices. Your best option is to purchase a end of cable terminator and add the CD R/W, CD-R and DVD accordingly.

Have used SCSI components that 'supposedly' had built in terminators in the components, always had problems with them. Have not found one that works better than and end of cable terminator it is the absolute fix for terminating. For the price of them (inexpensive) eliminating that problem is well worth it.

Make sure each of SCSI units are jumpered to a different ID. In the Adaptec setup screen make sure that there is no setting for an active boot drive on any of the devices you install. In setup, allow the card to post boot up information, that way you will see each component recogonized by the card.

Also this card is an Ultra series so it will have individual settings (read speeds, DMA etc) for each of the components your using, you might have to reset some of those, as most Adaptec cards are defaulted to hard drives and not optical drives.

Let us know how it works out. SCSI's are almost an art form to setup properly.

Cheers
~OS~

"Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body...but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaming 'That was fun !'

I just received the active scsi terminator (internal) that I ordered. I connected the terminator onto the connector at the end of the scsi cable (5 connector cable), then I connected each optic drive (3) in sequence with the adapter end of the cable connector to the connector. When I booted the system there was no change. The SCSI drives are listed in the post after the adaptor information appears. I tried inserting a new SCSI adapter and that did not help. I have no external scsi devices, so do I still need to buy a HD50 terminator and attach it to the adapter?

Martin,

Sorry for the delay, been away. OK you have a Adeptec 2930CU. I have 2920's here (3) and a 2940 so am bit unsure about your card. Never have heard of any Adeptec card requiring a terminator on the card.

You said this worked properly prior to the SP2 install of XP?

My bet is that you have something misconfigured on the card. Some suggestions you might try ?

See if the card Bios is up to date ? Is it compatable with XP ?

Remove all items off the cable, with and without the terminator. Does the machine boot up properly ? Add one device to the cable ? with and without terminator ?

As I re-read your earlier post, you have a ton of stuff on this machine. First thing I would try is dropping out the Zip Drive and/or the Tape drive. How are they hooked into the system ? The drivers for these XP compliant ?

I have had problems in the past with a file server here that had an old Colorado Tape drive in it and about 5 SCSI HD drives and 4 SCSI CD-ROMS. That was a 2940 Ultra card, and it finally started working properly when I dropped out the Colorado Tape of the machine. That was under NT 3.51, not sure if it helps, but it was an odd solution to a SCSI problem. . . .

Cheers
~OS~

When I die, I want to die like my grandfather--who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car. --Author Unknown