Emax

With the type of configuration you have, have you:
checked for termination jumpers on the drives?

Since you are using a terminator (w/green light), no drives should  
have termination.
It should go:
emax ----- conner (id#) ---- next SCSI ID #--- TERM.

But if term power is on for any of the drives it will mess up the chain.
also- is that an active or passive terminator?
how long are the cables?

Regards,
Ted

On Oct 27, 2009, at 1:08 PM, thenewyorkcowboy wrote:

Greetings All,

I have an EMAX II 4mb (2212) with the original factory installed  
external SCSI connector (black and to the rear and left of the volume  
slider.) I am using OS 2.14 and the floppy works fine. I also have an  
external SCSI Conner drive CP-30540 'hard set' to SCSI 1 and actively  
terminated with a terminator that has the green light on it when  
working properly. I have been able to format and use this Conner drive  
fine without ever any problems.

My problem is every other device I own. I have two different SCSI Zip  
Drives (1 external with the ID 5/6 switch, and 1 internal set to ID 5  
mounted in a dual external case with the Conner drive, and a pretty  
hefty power supply.) I just purchased an external SCSI NOMAI 750.C and  
two 540mb cartridges, this device has the 25pin SCSI cable exactly  
equal to the EMAX II connector. It can also be set to ID 1 or 5. I  
also have 4 different 25-25 cables, as well as probably a dozen  
25-50cn cables I have tried out on all the various setups. I also have  
several different 50pin SCSI CD Roms I have tried as well with a EMXP  
formatted CD. Just throwing this info in as I can be certain it is NOT  
the connecting cable in any fashion, as I've tried like 10 different  
cables in all various arrangements and I am frustrated.

I power up the external devices and wait until they go through their  
initialization before I turn on the Emax II. Here's my problem:

ONLY SPORADICALLY will the Emax II ever identify the 'type' of drive I  
am using, such as IOMEGA ZIP 100, and NOMAI 750 MCD. USUALLY the Emax  
II displays SCSI # NOT FOUND, and occasionally as well will display  
NOT EMAXII DRIVE.

On the rare times I can get the drive to be at least 'named', I go  
ahead and try to FORMAT it and have even tried to simply COPY SOFTWARE  
to the drive as I read in other literature (EII, EIII) that ZIP drives  
require a special way of 'formatting' by just copying over the  
software. In short I have tried everything I know and even the  
diagnostics (3629) to find out what is going on with these drives but  
no joy. I ALWAYS GET "SCSI HARDWARE ERROR" flashing along with the  
ENTER light flashing.

Basically the Conner works fine but my Emax II does not like any other  
device I own, no matter how I hook it up, select the ID, or do  
anything with them, and I know that many combinations of hardware  
cannot be 'bad' to give "SCSI HARDWARE ERROR" all the time.

My 'only' thought on this matter is that the ZIP cartridges and the  
NOMAI cartridges since they are formatted to MAC/PC respectively among  
them have some kind of file system error that will not allow the EMAX  
II to do it's format job on them.

If I couldn't get the Conner to work either I would swear it is  
definitely something wrong inside the EMAX II like the SCSI CHIP, but  
the fact that the Conner works fine but nothing else does is what is  
throwing me. Any help out there?

Kirk






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