Improper termination or faulty cable detected, please rectify. Bad drive or incompatibility? \ VOGONS

Improper termination or faulty cable detected, please rectify. Bad drive or incompatibility?

Topic actions

First post, by digicube

Posted on 2021-01-08, 05:08

digicube Offline

Rank Newbie

Rank: Newbie
Posts: 83
Joined: 2020-10-09, 18:21

I got this error message when I connect a Syquest SQ105 SCSI drive to Adaptec AHA-2940U2W using a SCSI3 to SCSI2 cable. I don't get this error message when I connect a Tandberg SLR4 tape drive using the same SCSI ID, cable and terminator. Is the Syquest drive defective or is it a matter of incompatibility? Syquest recommends Adaptec 1520 series ISA SCSI card, will getting it solve this problem?
Attached are the disks that came with it. Windows 98 will not load when the SCSI.sys is installed. I will install Windows 95 after I get this error message resolved.

Reply 1 of 1, by Horun

Posted on 2021-01-08, 06:46

Horun Offline

Rank l33t++

Rank: l33t++
Posts: 6334
Joined: 2019-09-19, 02:19
Location: USA

Not sure if this helps but back in the late 90's did a lot of work around SCSI gear. One thing that was a pain was if you had passive terminated device working with active termination devices. That applied to the adapter too.
Many 1520 adapters used passive (resistor packs) and I know the 2940 series all used active termination which could create a problem.
Another thing is the scsi bus speed. Did you go into the Adaptec BIOS (Ctrl+A) and set the speed for the ID of the Syquest to like 5Mbit ?
The 2940U2W uses ASPI8U2.SYS iirc not sure what driver SCSI.SYS is for. added: Been a long work day so am going by memory and not checking my old notes.

Hate posting a reply and then have to edit it because it made no sense 😁 First computer was an IBM 3270 workstation with CGA monitor. Stuff: https://archive.org/details/@horun

Go to top of page Go to top of page

Back to General Old Hardware