At 21:34 +0100 07/18/2002, Tim Fenton wrote: >Jeff asked what is the PCI card arrangement, so from the top (as they say): > >Slot1 empty >Slot2 Formac GA6 video card >Slot3 empty >Slot4 Formac Fast SCSI PowerRaid >Slot5 Empty >Slot6 FireWire make unknown
Nothing really leaps to mind. I've never heard of or seen a problem with your symptoms. Am I correct in assuming that you can boot from a CDROM okay? The only advice I can give is of a general nature. When faced with a mystery problem like yours and after trying a few things that I hope will fix it quickly, I usually reduce the system to the simplest configuration that might still have problems. So in your case, I'd pull the SCSI card and firewire card. Also, disconnect any drives on your internal SCSI bus(ses). Then just connect your CDROM drive at the end of one SCSI cable (be sure to enable termination) and connect that SCSI cable to one of the internal SCSI busses. Now boot from a CDROM. Everything okay? If not, then I would suspect either you have a CDROM with a specialized install (like some of the ones that shipped with iMacs) or if it's a valid commercial OS release CDROM, then I would guess that you have a hardware problem somewhere. If you appear to have a hardware problem I would guess your video card is the problem. I think that Formac has released firmware updates for their video cards (I know they did for the Proformance III). Is it possible that your card does not have up to date firmware which is compatible with OS 9? I would check Formac's web site to see what the situation is with the GA6 and OS9. If everything is okay with the reduced configuration, then I'd add in one hard drive. If you have a drive that you're not using currently and can afford to erase I'd start with that. Preferably a narrow drive you can put on one of the internal busses. Then be sure to format it with an up to date formatting utility. I think someone mentioned that OS 9.1 broke some of the hard disk formatters. I don't remember if you addressed that issue. If not, out of date disk drivers could be your problem. Then I'd install the OS on that drive and see if it works. Anyway, I'd build the system up one drive at a time and a PCI card at a time, until I either have a working system, or the problems come back. If you find some threshold that brings back your problems, then it's usually fairly simple to go back and forth over that threshold until you figure out what the specific cause is. The problem with the above is that it is tedious and time consuming. It helps to have something vaguely interesting on TV that doesn't require a lot of attention while you work on it. Darn them for cancelling Cleopatra 2525. Jeff Walther -- SuperMacs is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | Service & Replacement Parts [EMAIL PROTECTED] | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> SuperMacs list info: <http://lowendmac.com/supermacs/list.shtml> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/supermacs%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Mac? Free email & more at Applelinks! http://www.applelinks.com
