NIOA VS-880 TIP 350-0003:

SCSI ID Conflict: PC, Controller, Adaptec, BIOS

Bob Hoffman [crh3@rga.com] asked: I've just installed an adaptec 2940W SCSI adapter on my IBM Aptiva and cabled it to my VS-880. When I boot the SCSI probe indicates the VS-880 to be responding to all device numbers 0-15 (except for 7)... and the machine just hangs... Did this happen to anyone out there? (When I cable the SCSI adapter to just my jaz disk it works fine.. boots/mounts... but including the jaz between the 880 and the computer doesn't help)...

Bob, I had a similar condition, the VS-880 showed up as several ID's. It occurred because the VS-880 and the host adapter had the same ID (7). Don't forget that the host adapter has an ID even though it doesn't show during boot up! The ID of the VS-880 can be easily changed to something else.

Editor note: see 100-0011 How to change VS SCSI ID#

Also, on my system, I couldn't make the VS-880 show up in Windows 95 as a device unless I had disabled the BIOS in the Adaptec BIOS setting. (using a 2940uw)

If the Adaptec BIOS is enabled, the boot messages all look great - device ID's, etc. (including the VS-880), but the VS-880 doesn't show up at all in Windows 95, and, of course, is not recognized by VSCopy.

If the Adaptec BIOS is disabled, there are no boot messages, but the VS-880 performs as described in the VSCopy documentation. ie: tries to install a driver the first time, and is OK every consecutive time.

So ... I find I needed to iterate between having the BIOS enabled to see that the SCSI chain is working, then ... disable the BIOS to make the VS-880 show up within Windows 95.

George Webb

20 Feb 1998

1998/03


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