gvp impact series ii a500 hd8

caver99 · 21 January 2021, 15:18

i have an gvp impact series ii a500 hd8 and need to r3eplace the hard drive as its died.
i have bought a 68pin ibm ultrastar 18.2gb and i know it wont use all the drive but im not worried about it.
its a 68 pin ultra3 drive and i have the 68 pin to 50 pin adapter.
i have set the jumper to auto start and termination power and the force se jumper to make it 8bit
but when i power on the amiga the drive starts up and the led lights then goes out but the a500 wont boot off floppy or anything just sat at grey scree, if i flick the game switch then it boots fine
im lost now as to whats going on.

Jope · 21 January 2021, 16:54

The drive is not compatible with the GVP controller.

You could try to update the GVP's firmware if not already done, but I suspect the drive is hanging the SCSI bus.

Which exact model of drive is it, perhaps we can figure out some more jumper settings to try.

caver99 · 22 January 2021, 09:10

i have upped the firmware to the last one 4.15 before i did the drive and the new drive is ibm ultrastar ddys-t18350 p/n 07n3210 its a scsi lvd/se drive

caver99 · 22 January 2021, 09:19

just reading round the net looks like it needs termination

Jope · 22 January 2021, 09:25

Yeah, that's a good next step.

Seems that exact drive is a 80 pin SCA drive, not a 68pin wide drive? Those will not have termination on board, as it is the backplane's responsibility.

Term power should already come from the A590, so it should be disabled on the drive.

caver99 · 22 January 2021, 17:25

nope its definitely as 68 pin as i also have an 80 pin one that's dead and the adapter for it and i had to get a different adapter for this drive.
this one is a 68 pin and has the 4 pin molex for power and it says on the label
68p ultra3 scsi drive.

and its not an a590 its the gvp impact series ii

Jope · 23 January 2021, 09:48

Ah ok, my experience so far was that SCA drives had a bespoke model number. One is never too old to learn something new.

Sorry, the A590 was a slip of the mind. Just imagine GVP Impact Series II in its place and the sentence is valid for your application.

Found the manual for the drive, seems there is not very much to configure and indeed these 160 drives tend to want external termination.

So ok, auto spinup and force mode definitely should be jumpered. Term power you should measure separately using a multimeter whether your GVP still provides this. If not, only then should the drive provide term power to the bus.

One thing you could try is to jumper disable unit attention. The old HBA might get confused because of this.

caver99 · 25 January 2021, 09:06

thanks Jope, will give that a try later.

thebajaguy · 23 February 2021, 08:32

Any drive you connect will need the following:

Must be compatible with SE (Single Ended) SCSI. LVD/SE drives exist, and some may need a jumper set to support.

SCA drives need an adapter, and 80-pin implies a 68-pin normal connector, and 16-bit SCSI. Make sure the drive supports 8-bit SCSI.

Converting 16-bit down to 8-bit involves adapters that can work, but termination and termination power become a problem. The controller does not provide term power (long story short - cables burn out one wire in the middle when two devices put power on the cable). A 16-bit bus also needs all lines terminated, but be aware the controller has 8-bit termination - and that's going to cause an issue. Newer drives, particularly the 16-bit family, prefer active termination (it's more stable, really, than terminaton packs). You will need to sort that, too.

A SCSI2SD will be cheaper and perform just a well, more than likely, and run cooler in the system.

21 January 2021, 15:18	#1
caver99 Registered User Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Ellesmere Port / UK Posts: 146	gvp impact series ii a500 hd8 i have an gvp impact series ii a500 hd8 and need to r3eplace the hard drive as its died. i have bought a 68pin ibm ultrastar 18.2gb and i know it wont use all the drive but im not worried about it. its a 68 pin ultra3 drive and i have the 68 pin to 50 pin adapter. i have set the jumper to auto start and termination power and the force se jumper to make it 8bit but when i power on the amiga the drive starts up and the led lights then goes out but the a500 wont boot off floppy or anything just sat at grey scree, if i flick the game switch then it boots fine im lost now as to whats going on.

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21 January 2021, 16:54	#2
Jope - Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Helsinki / Finland Age: 43 Posts: 9,861	The drive is not compatible with the GVP controller. You could try to update the GVP's firmware if not already done, but I suspect the drive is hanging the SCSI bus. Which exact model of drive is it, perhaps we can figure out some more jumper settings to try.

22 January 2021, 09:10	#3
caver99 Registered User Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Ellesmere Port / UK Posts: 146	i have upped the firmware to the last one 4.15 before i did the drive and the new drive is ibm ultrastar ddys-t18350 p/n 07n3210 its a scsi lvd/se drive

22 January 2021, 09:19	#4
caver99 Registered User Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Ellesmere Port / UK Posts: 146	just reading round the net looks like it needs termination

22 January 2021, 09:25	#5
Jope - Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Helsinki / Finland Age: 43 Posts: 9,861	Yeah, that's a good next step. Seems that exact drive is a 80 pin SCA drive, not a 68pin wide drive? Those will not have termination on board, as it is the backplane's responsibility. Term power should already come from the A590, so it should be disabled on the drive.

22 January 2021, 17:25	#6
caver99 Registered User Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Ellesmere Port / UK Posts: 146	nope its definitely as 68 pin as i also have an 80 pin one that's dead and the adapter for it and i had to get a different adapter for this drive. this one is a 68 pin and has the 4 pin molex for power and it says on the label 68p ultra3 scsi drive. and its not an a590 its the gvp impact series ii

23 January 2021, 09:48	#7
Jope - Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Helsinki / Finland Age: 43 Posts: 9,861	Ah ok, my experience so far was that SCA drives had a bespoke model number. One is never too old to learn something new. Sorry, the A590 was a slip of the mind. Just imagine GVP Impact Series II in its place and the sentence is valid for your application. Found the manual for the drive, seems there is not very much to configure and indeed these 160 drives tend to want external termination. So ok, auto spinup and force mode definitely should be jumpered. Term power you should measure separately using a multimeter whether your GVP still provides this. If not, only then should the drive provide term power to the bus. One thing you could try is to jumper disable unit attention. The old HBA might get confused because of this.

25 January 2021, 09:06	#8
caver99 Registered User Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Ellesmere Port / UK Posts: 146	thanks Jope, will give that a try later.

23 February 2021, 08:32	#9
thebajaguy Registered User Join Date: Mar 2017 Location: Rhode Island / United States Posts: 201	Any drive you connect will need the following: Must be compatible with SE (Single Ended) SCSI. LVD/SE drives exist, and some may need a jumper set to support. SCA drives need an adapter, and 80-pin implies a 68-pin normal connector, and 16-bit SCSI. Make sure the drive supports 8-bit SCSI. Converting 16-bit down to 8-bit involves adapters that can work, but termination and termination power become a problem. The controller does not provide term power (long story short - cables burn out one wire in the middle when two devices put power on the cable). A 16-bit bus also needs all lines terminated, but be aware the controller has 8-bit termination - and that's going to cause an issue. Newer drives, particularly the 16-bit family, prefer active termination (it's more stable, really, than terminaton packs). You will need to sort that, too. A SCSI2SD will be cheaper and perform just a well, more than likely, and run cooler in the system.

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