IBM / WD WDS-3160 SCSI drive termination \ VOGONS

IBM / WD WDS-3160 SCSI drive termination

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First post, by Swiego

Posted on 2020-04-17, 06:28

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Does anyone have leads on a manual or reference for this drive? I am trying to understand if it has a termination block of any kind... I can’t see one nor have I been able to find definitive information. I can’t get the drive recognized and am trying to understand if I have a jumper, termination or other issue e.g. bad PCB.

BTW this is a 160MB SCSI drive; branded IBM but I think a WD? I’m not certain but think it may have been an OEM drive on higher end PS/2 systems at some point.

Reply 1 of 6, by PC Hoarder Patrol

Posted on 2020-04-17, 07:35

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Are there a set of tabbed terminator packs installed in one corner near the SCSI connector?

EDIT: Plus the manual of sorts https://web.archive.org/web/20081120002548/ww … 60/wds31tek.htm

Reply 2 of 6, by Swiego

Posted on 2020-04-17, 07:58

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No, there are no packs at the red circled location on the PCB. Is that where the terminator would go?

Btw I did find that jumper link; unfortunately it said little about termination.

Reply 3 of 6, by Vynix

Posted on 2020-04-17, 13:02

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If your SCSI cable has another connector, you could put the terminator on the connector after the hard drive, I have not yet tried this so YMMV.

Proud owner of a Shuttle HOT-555A 430VX motherboard and two wonderful retro laptops, namely a Compaq Armada 1700 [nonfunctional] and a HP Omnibook XE3-GC [fully working :p]

Reply 4 of 6, by PC Hoarder Patrol

Posted on 2020-04-17, 17:11

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^This, or you'd need the correct 8-pin SIL resistor packs. Lots of these old drives will have had them pulled (at lost!) back in the day if they were mid-chain.

Reply 5 of 6, by Swiego

Posted on 2020-04-17, 18:41

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Thanks!

I have a 50 pin cable (came from an old Compaq) with 3 connectors and a large black brick at the end which I assume to be a terminator... I have not had success with it... the drive seems to spin up perfectly normally, makes some normal sounding seek noises... but the PC doesn't see it when scanning the bus... only the controller. (Adaptec HW & EZ-SCSI 5.0.)

I've ordered some SIL 8-pin resistors off eBay and a 50-pin termination block off Amazon... will see if either help.

Reply 6 of 6, by Swiego

Posted on 2020-04-21, 06:35

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I received a new 50 pin cable and 50 pin termination block. With these two, a 540MB SCSI drive I thought was good finally began to work against my PC. So, the computer, cables and adapter are all good. When I try this IBM drive, unfortunately, the Adaptec simply does not recognize it. I’m guessing the drive has bad electronics 🙁

I’m not super knowledgeable in these areas but I have a pretty solid oscilloscope and DMM... If anyone has ideas on debugging, let me know. The drive definitely is spinning up.

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