SCSI Issues

[Jofus]

Hi Guys,
I've finally purchased my new system but I am having difficulties setting it all up. My system comprises of the following:
- Asus CUSL2-C Motherboard;
- 60 gig IDE Hard Drive;
- 18 gig Seagate Barracuda (ST318436LW) SCSI Hard Drive for Audio (not connected yet);
- Sony (CRX-160S) SCSI CD-R/RW (not connected yet);
- Iwill SIDE 2936UW Ultra Wide SCSI card;
- Sound Blaster Live;
- Windows 98 SE;
- 32 mb Nvidia Video card;
- Tascam US-428 (not connected yet);
- Cubase VST (not installed yet);

The problem:
In Device Manager, a yellow exclamation mark appears next to the SCSI card. The error message reads: "This device is using an IRQ resource that is in use by another device and connot be shared. You must change the conflicting setting or remove the real-mode driver causing the conflict. (code 30)" I've tried re-installing the drivers...nothing.
I've tried moving the SCSI card to another PCI slot. Also tried disabling the PCI Steering...this caused other conflicts. I've disabled the secondary controller to free up another IRQ. This didn't help either. I've removed the SB Live card from my system......this seems to work. This is not ideal because now I have no sound whatsoever. There must be another way. I'm pretty sure it's something to do with the IRQ's.

I'm going crazy...please, please, please does anyone have any suggestions?

signing off,
Jofus (IRQ's are not my friends!)

 

[Opus2000]

Couple things to try here...
One..disable all serial ports and if you're not using the printer port diables that too in the BIOS. This will free up some IRQ's for you. Also in the BIOS make sure the Plug and Play OS is turned off. Next thing to do is to remove all cards except the video card(I'm assuming that it's an AGP and not a PCI card). Boot system up and let it configure itself with no cards or US428 attached. Turn system off and add SCSI card on the second PCI slot..whenever I can I like to leave the first PCI slot empty for Video card reasons..boot system up and see what happens..if it's sharing an IRQ still then try a different slot..once you got the SCSI card installed with no conflicts try the Soundblaster card..you have 6 PCI slots to work with so that should help out a little bit!
Also do you have the optional on board audio feature? If so disable that completely in the BIOS if present. That can cause issues as well.
Good luck and let me know

Opus

 

[Jofus]

Fantastic! Thanks Opus

I worked through every step that you suggested and finally have no conflicts. The system recognises the SCSI CD burner & SCSI HDD. Yipee!I've also disabled the Secondary controller in Device Manager because I'm not using it. Now, should I enable the serial ports and printer port on the Bios? I need 1 of the serial ports for the modem. I rarly use the printer, but it would be good if I could connect that too. I suppose it's just trial & error. What I'll do is enable the serial ports first and see if I get any conflicts....if I don't then I'll enable the printer port. What do you think?

Jofus is jumping for joy! Thanks again Opus!

 

[Opus2000]

Why do you need the serial port for the modem? That makes absolutely no sense unless you are so archaic you are using a 14.4 modem!!!! or even worse a 2600 Baud modem!!! If you're using a PCI card you dont need the serial port..trust me..I've had dial ups and NIC cards installed and working fine without any serial port activated! Also if you are using Cubase your printer port "has" to be enabled for the key protection unless you have a cracked version..there's also issues with putting a printer on top of the dongle(key protec) and having it work properly...printing and parellel port dongles dont mix..it's like that old saying..Freinds dont let Freinds use Dongles and Printers....lol
I'm glad to have helped out..one thing I hate is to see a creative person about to blow something up!!
Opus

 

[Opus2000]

Quick little tip for ya jofus....Soundblaster..in the device manager there's a setting for it that says "allow LPT interrupt sharing"...find that and make sure it is UNCHECKED!!! This will avoid any conflicts in the future if you do this now!!! I'm not sure where the setting is exactly for it but if you look in the device manager usually under Sound Video and Game Controllers..Sometimes there's a different entry for the soundblaster and it's called creative misc devices...if that heading exists in t he device manager than it's in there under one of the sub categories...look around and you'll see it..but very important to disable that feature..
Opus

 

[Jofus]

Hey Opus,
The modem i have is a Netcomm Roadster II Ultra - a serial modem. Does this not use a serial port (com 1)? I have it connected to com1 - isn't that a serial port?

Anyway, i've located the LPT interrupt sharing and made sure that is is not checked.

Thanks again Opus!

 

[Opus2000]

Is that a dial up type of modem? Most people go with NIC cards or a regular PCI modem...what type of internet connection do you have?
Glad you got the LPT resource sharing turned off...I found that issue out for MOTU and their MIDI devices...it was causing such a headache for me when I did tech support for Sweetwater!!
Opus

 

[Jofus]

Yep, it is a dial-up modem. I dial the ISP and they connect me @ 56 bps. I'm not sure what it's like in the States, but here in Australia there is pretty much 2 types of connections....dial-up or cable. Cable is too expensive....for now anyway!

Opus, I have another question....my SCSI card has 3 connectors:
- 50-pin external High-density, Single-ended Ultra SCSI connector;
- 68-pin internal High-density, Single-ended Ultra Wide SCSI connector; &
- 50-pin internal Single-ended Ultra SCSI connector.

This particular SCSI card will only allow me to use 2 of the connectors at the one time. I have my burner on the 68-pin internal and the 2nd HDD on the 50-pin internal. So, now I can't use the 50-pin external connector. This is my problem. I want to use the external connector for my sampler (Akai S2000).

I've bought an adapter (68-pin to 50-pin), connected the HDD and burner to the one cable (50-pin internal) using the adapter on the HDD). The burner is the last device on the SCSI chain and has been terminated via a jumper.

When I boot the system the message from the SCSI adapter reads:
ID #0 Seagate ST318436LW
ID #6 Seagate ST318436LW - Not Ready
ID #7 Advansys SCSI Adapter

When I connect the 2 devices with their own separate SCSI cable, everything is fine. I'm not sure why having the 2 devices on the one cable via a cable adapter is a problem and why when I have the devices on the one cable ID #6 should read the Sony SCSI burner not the Seagate HDD again. Most confusing!

I hope I'm making sense!
Any advice Opus will be much appreciated.
Cheers

 

[Opus2000]

Sounds like you need to go into the SCSI utility for the card and tweak the settings...what you need to tweak at this point I'm not sure..you need to change either the ID or model that you are hooking up to it..once you are in the SCSI BIOS it should be pretty clear what you need to do...
Anyone else have any suggestions for our friend down under?
Opus

 

[Jofus]

Thanks Opus, I figured it out....had to tweak some of the settings in the SCSI Bios like you said. So now I have both the HDD & Burner on the one SCSI cable. I hooked up my sampler on the external SCSI connection....when I booted, the SCSI adapter acknowledged all devices on the SCSI chain including the sampler (Akai S2000)....I was jumping for joy.....but then the system just hangs. What's a boy to do? I tried tweaking the settings in the SCSI Bios with no luck. I'm not too sure what to do now. I'm pretty sure it's something to do with the SCSI Adapter or the sampler. When I unplug the sampler from the SCSI connection and re-boot, everything is fine again.


Jofus

 

[Opus2000]

Hmm...I was wondering if this was going to work ok or not...generally a sampler with a SCSI interface will want to take hold of the card for itself and not let any other device use it anymore..when you power the computer on is the sampler on or off? Another thing to try is to remove the heard drives from the card and boot up with just the sampler and see if it hangs there as well..if it hangs you know you have to tweak the SCSI Bios some more..
Opus

 

[Jofus]

You're right Opus....I unplugged the SCSI drives and only hooked up the sampler. The system booted with no problems. My sampler is a "SCSI HOG". The Akai S2000 needs to be booted up before I boot up the system, otherwise the system won't recognise the sampler. I guess I'll be sending samples to the sampler via midi, which is a lot slower....but hey, you can't have everything!

Thanks again Opus!