{bold}The Question{nobold}
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Hello Paul,
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My system:
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A4000 PPC 200MHz 060 50MHz, CVPPC, 128MB RAM. (Power tower){p}
9.4gb IDE HDD (4GB UWSCSI HDD that don't work on my PPC){p}
Plextor 12x4x32x SCSI[2] CD burner using BurnIt (registered of course){p}
DVD Pioneer 6x32x (I think it's that speed, don't remember){p}
Zip drive (100MB), IOBlix + Ethernet, Mustek scanner, 56kbps modem.{p}
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My system is rebooting often and often doesn't want to start so I have to move some of my cards
a little to make it work. I think it has to do with when I tried to install some fans on my
[accelerator] card. Perhaps too much [heatsink compound] or something. I have often cleaned it
up and it looks like it has to do with my 060 processor as most of the [heatsink compound] was
around it. Today I removed it once again and the system goes without problems for a couple of
hours now but I have to test it more as it's not the first time I have cleaned up my computer and
got it to work some day [only to play up again]. I have a friend that [damaged] his PPC ... his
system often froze like mine.
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I have also a 4GB UWSCSI that doesn't work with my PPC SCSI [host adapter]. (Western Digital)
Before I had an Apollo 040 with SCSI2 and it worked as it should. Now I don't know if i
damaged my HDD or maybe it [just] doesn't work with my PPC?
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My cable:
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-ActiveTerm -> PPC(SCSI) -> UWSCSI cable -> UWSCSI_2_SCSI2 Converter -> CD-RW ->DVD(Term){p}
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                                                    ActiveTerm
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My computer won't boot if I move my UWSCSI HDD on the UWSCSI cable. I hope I haven't
damaged my HDD. So now I use my IDE HDD until I find another good UWSCSI HDD. Now to
my real problem. I used Powerflyer IDE card on my A4000 but sold it as my computer was 
unstable that time. When I bought my Power tower I had a lot of problems with Powerflyer,
maybe I damaged something or the tower has problems, dunno. With the Powerflyer there was a 
good CDROM filesystem called Allegro. Allegro only works if you have the card in the computer.
It's too bad as I would like to register for only the program as I sold my Powerflyer with my 
other A4000 that I had.
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... [even with Allegro CDFS running] ... with my Plextor burner I can read PSX CDs without
problem. So I try to read them on my Pioneer DVD but it shows errors when trying to read some
files. The same is when I try to read DVD movies. With Amiga and PC CDROMs its no problem.
Only with PSX and DVDs. The strange thing is that PSX CDs work with my burner. And I use
allegro for them both for testing. Can it have to do with the different regions, different blocks or 
the filesystem that is wrong. But I don't know [what is happening] as I use Allegro on both
devices.
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Do you know if there is users out there that uses DVD on their Amigas and it works to show
movies, read them etc. I know frogger have the function to show DVDs but it cant read as errors
come up or nothing at all. Maybe my DVD is [playing up]?
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I wrote to the Powerflyer support but didn't get any reply. I just hate that. Sometimes I got reply
when I had other problems but not this time. So if you know anything about this please help me.
... {p}
Waiting for mediator PCI ports for my A4000 [so] then I don't have [any] need of my Zorro
cards. Would be a relief to sell them and buy PCI stuff :). Better stuff, faster, smaller etc. I just
love that Elbox started this thing as it makes us Amigans still going on. The bad thing is that I
bought an expensive network card even [though] I don't have my ADSL broadband yet, as [when]
Mediator for A4000 comes soon I could buy a cheap PCI network card, [but I'll] have to sell my
unused Zorro ethernet card and get very little for it when selling it, [that is] if anybody buys it,
[because] they could buy mediator instead :')
...{p}
Oh, trying to check my SCSI units and [I] get an Unit1:Driver:Unexpected Disconnect [error].
Opened up my computer and replugged the SCSI cable and it works again :)
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Do you recommend I buy a 50pin(SCSI2) HDD to use with my DVD and burner that is also 50
pin or to buy a 68pin(UWSCSI) and use it with the rest of 50pin peripherals? I hope this time my
computer works as I [have] had no resets so far. But [I'll have to see] if it fails again some other
day :')
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Take care !
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...{p}
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I hope more people get back to Amiga with those PCI ports etc. ... I'm an Amigan and i hope to
be an forever :)
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- Krister S. Skritc
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{bold}Krister later writes:{nobold}
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... My UWSCSI was fault because of something weird going on on my PPC card. I removed it for
the xxxth (I don't remember how many times I have removed it) and this time I removed the 060
from the PPC card and removed every [trace of heatsink compound] that I put there when I tried
to install the thing [heatsink] and over the processor. I used [heatsink compound] and it seems
like it spread here and there.
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So my computer works for 5 days without problems :))))) That's a record for many months now.
But the sixth day it troubled again so I just moved the card a little bit and it works now again. It
looks like there could be some [heatsink compound] on it where I couldn't reach. But it works
good now and if it is going to make more trouble I'm going to make a very deep clean to
remove all my problems :) So this one you don't have to mind. I found the thing that made it
wrong. Thanks for the help :)
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... {p}
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I don't know which region my Pioneer [DVD] is on but the firmware [version is 1.10]. There is a
v2.00 but that one freezes the region so you can't change. I think I will do that and freeze it to
region 1. But I would like to look on region 2 movies too (Europe I think). If I would buy a
movie it would be a R1 but when we loan movies in our video stores they are R2.
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I can go to a Computer store and update it as I don't know PC users with SCSI. Anyway, I have
seen some DVDs that are region free but I don't know if they are good? Do you recommend
another DVD or Pioneer ? I like Pioneer because it have SLOT [loading mechanism] :)
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... [in regards to whether the 4GB UWSCSI HDD has worked before in his machine] I used it with
my old Amiga with Apollo 040 with SCSI2 using a converter UWSCSI->SCSI2 and it worked. I will
check the drive on other computers.
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... [in regards to the PPC SCSI host adapter having onboard termination]
It doesn't have onboard termination.
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{bold}The Answer{nobold}
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Hello Krister,
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Wow, that's a fair few problems your having there. ;)
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Let me just clarify what problems you have:
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1. Computer rebooting{p}
2. DVD not working with PSX/DVD ROMs{p}
3. UWSCSI HDD not working{p}
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It seems that perhaps you are on the right track in fixing the rebooting problems. Going
overboard when applying heatsink compound can make a mess.. you only need a tiny amount,
even for the warmest processors. Also check if your Power tower is causing problems, i.e..
shorting out motherboard pins or something. Can you make the machine reboot if you give it a
Good-Kick(tm)? ;^) One other thing that could definitely cause problems is the PSU. Try
exchanging the power supply for another that is known to be good. Dirty supplies can really ruin
your day.
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Now, for reading PSX CDs in DVD ROM drives, this can cause troubles at the best of times. A
mate of mine also has a Pioneer DVD in his Wintel PC, and his DVD drive doesn't seem to read
even some normal CDs and audio CDs. I would say that PSX CDs failing to read in a DVD drive is
not uncommon. The problem is that DVD drives use very different technologies for reading CDs
than normal CD readers; different wavelength laser, focusing mechanisms etc. I would say the
likely cause is your DVD doesn't like the unusual implementation of CRC checksums that the PSX
uses- you may notice that PSX CDs can store up to 720MB (I think) rather than the 650MB most
CDs can store. The standards CDROMs are supposed to follow are referred to by strange names
like 'orange book' and 'blue book'. If I remember correctly, the extra storage is achieved by
simplifying or removing the CRC checksum data. I think this was also supposed to help stop
piracy of PSX CDs in the early days, when CD burners did not have DAO (Disk At Once) copying
capabilities. Either way, DVDs are supposed to read PSX CDs, but if your drive is an older one
(perhaps 8x or slower) then I would say your problem is not unusual.
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One way to check if it's the Amiga's fault it is to try your DVD ROM in a Wintel PC. I guess the
reason you bought a DVD, was to watch DVD movies =). To watch any DVD movie, you must
have your DVD drive set to the correct region that was intended for the movie. Otherwise, you
get a blank screen. Have you updated the firmware on your DVD drive to be able to do this?
What region is your DVD set to? What region is the movie you are watching? Unfortunately, I 
don't think there is any region disabling patches for the Amiga. You will have to put your DVD
drive in a Winter PC, and apply the firmware update to disable the region encoding, or set it to 
region 1, which is the US region, and is what most import DVDs are. Then you can put your DVD
back in your Amiga and it should work (I think ;). The good news is, Pioneer DVDs are very 
popular, and I know there are lots of firmware patches you can use to 'upgrade' your drive to set
it to region 1 or 'disable' region encoding totally. You need to gain access to a Wintel PC to do
this, as well as a patch that was made for your EXACT model DVD drive. Perhaps you have a
friend who is a Wintel PC owner?
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As for your UWSCSI HD, perhaps you should get a 50 pin SCSI2 HD, if you know that will work,
rather than risking the purchase of a second UWSCSI HD that wont work with your system. Again,
I think it would be very wise to check if the Western Digital UWSCSI HD works in another
machine with a known working UWSCSI bus, such as another Amiga or a Wintel PC or Mac etc.
Has this drive ever worked with your Amiga? Have you ever had any UWSCSI devices working in
your Amiga?
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These days, modern IDE drives are so damn fast it's hardly worth getting a SCSI drive any more.
Obviously, Amigas don't have ATA 100 either, but I just thought it would be worth reminding
you that unless you work your hard drive extremely hard, it's probably best just stick with your
IDE drive, rather than purchasing a SCSI one if your HD/host adapter proves faulty.
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Although I am unfamiliar with UWSCSI, it's probably worth mentioning that the SCSI 2 standards
say there should be no stubs/branches or termination in the middle of the cable, and termination
should only be on the ends.
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I see that the UWSCSI_2_SCSI2 converter has an active terminator 'branching off it'. This would
make sense, if the converter is acting as another host adapter to the SCSI2 chain. Otherwise the
termination should be removed and left to the ends of the cables.
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One thing you could try is leaving the converter off all together. Just have the UW HD all by
itself on the SCSI bus. That reminds me - I have heard that using a UWSCSI_2_SCSI2 converter
actually disables/impairs the UW devices. Maybe I'm dreaming, but It's worth a try. If this is the
problem, then you need a different SCSI host for your SCSI2 devices - i.e.. you can't use
SCSI2/UWSCSI devices on the same bus. Try this:
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ActiveTerm - > PPC(SCSI) -> UWSCSI cable -> UWSCSI HD(term)
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If this works, then it means you can't use your UW HD and SCSI2 drives at the same time on the
same bus.
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An incorrect SCSI configuration can make a system unstable and prevent it from booting, which
can be very frustrating. Also double check what unit number ID you have each device set to, and
make sure none are doubling up.
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I hope some of this helps! I urge our readers to contact either myself or Krister if there is a
solution I haven't thought of.
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Good luck!
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- Paul Harvey
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