🚀 go-pugleaf

I have just had a most frustrating day with SCSI controllers and drives whilst 
trying to add a Plextor quad-speed internal CD ROM to a VLB file NetWare v3.12 
server and wonder if there are any SCSI experts out there who can shed some 
light on why and how I can avoid the problems next time I attempt this task.

The server is VLB 486DX2/66 , has AMI BIOS (dated mid-'93), 32 MB RAM, an 
Olicom 4/16 mbps Token ring card (configured for 4mbps) and a BusLogic BT445S 
fast SCSI adapter connected to floppy disk and Seagate 2400I SCSI hard drive. 
The Buslogic card is configured to all defaults except the IO port address 
which is 230h-233h. They are SCSI ID=7, Parity enabled, DOS space > 1 GB 
disabled, Synchronous negotiation disabled, max synchronous data rate=5MBps, 
VL bus clock speed=486DX2/66, I/O port=330h, host BIOS address=DC00h, int=11.

First Problem.

I tried to add a second SCSI card (Adaptec 2842A). It was configured to 
defaults initially - the only "conflict" I could see was in the SCSI ID (both 
7) but the Adaptec manual said that this did not matter. Everything else (eg. 
IOBA, int etc) was different. Whatever switch settings I tried, the system 
failed to recognise the adapter. I removed the Buslogic adapter and the 
Adaptec was recognised at boot time - however I could not run the Adaptec 
configuration utility - no matter what settings I tried. The machine just hung 
whilst booting. Any ideas?

Second problem.

I decided to try both SCSI devices running off the Buslogic card. I removed 
the terminating resistors from the Plextor drive and set its SCSI ID to 0 (the 
Seagate HD is ID 1). During my testing, I also tried the CD Rom as ID's 2 and 
4. I connected it "upstream" on the SCSI cable and both devices (HD and CD 
Rom) were recognised when the machine booted. I have the patches from 312PT6 
and CDUP2 loaded and, when I loaded CDROM.NLM, the server hung whilst 
auto-loading NWPA.NLM. I eventually fired up the server without the patches 
loaded (ie 3.12 as shipped) and CDROM.NLM loaded but although "CD List 
Devices" recognised the CD Rom drive, it did not show anything in the CD Rom 
drive although there was a disk present. I tried several different disks in 
case one was faulty - but to no avail.

An even stranger thing happened. I tried to LOAD INSTALL and the server hung 
(with and without CDROM.NLM loaded). LOAD EDIT also hung the server. When I 
removed the CD Rom drive from the server, all worked properly. I had to back 
out so it was a totally lost Sunday :-(

Anyone got any ideas about what may have caused any of these problems? I have 
little further documentation on the server as it was set up by a cowboy who 
stuck it all together and then disappeared into the sunset with his money...

TIA,

Peter Dwyer
Continuum, Australia