Adaptec AHA-1542CF Installation Guide

Installation Guide

AHA-1540CF/1542CF

High-Performance Bus Master
ISA-to-SCSI Host Adapter
with SCSISelect

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1 Getting Started

This guide provides th e steps requi red for basic in­stallation of the AHA- 154 0CF and AH A-15 42CF
ISA-to-SCSI Ho st Adap te rs. Proc edure s ar e the
same for bot h adapters except when regarding the
AHA-1542CF on-boar d flopp y con tr olle r.

Installation Of Your Host Adapter Includes:

1. Installing the AH A (Ada ptec H ost Adap ter ) bo ard
in your comp ut er

2. Installing your SCSI cable(s) and SCSI peripherals

3. Terminating th e SCSI cabli ng bus

4. Using the built-in S CS I Se lect utilit y to ad jus t
host adapte r confi gura tio n sett ings if necess ar y

5. Loading software if necess ar y

Turn OFF and disconnect power to the system and exter­nal equipment. Always refer to your personal computer’s
documentation for instructions on opening the system
cover and adding option boards.

You May Not Need To Change Your Host
Adapter Settings

Your host adapt er is already co nfi gure d for the ma ­jority of ISA (AT com pat ibl e) or EISA cla ss comp ut ­ers. Read Sec tions , and to dete rm ine
whether to alter the adap te r’s defa ult settings.

A table identifyi ng the adap ter boa rd switch

•

block settin gs c an be found in Section at the
end of this Instal lat ion G ui de.

You May Not Need To Load Any Software

Your host adapt er comes equipp ed with an on ­board BIOS that allo ws you to use up to seven
SCSI disk dr ives without additional software under
MS-DOS
for your specific softw ar e req uir em ent s.

For those installing Flopt ical
plies spec ial ut ili ty pr ogr am s to pr ovid e fun ct ions
not provided by DO S and W ind ows . Refer to Sec­tion for more information.

®

version 5.0 and above . Refer to Sect ion

5

Caution

2 3 4

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drives, Adap tec sup-

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2 Installing the Host Adapter

Board Installation

1. Turn OFF and disconnect power to the system
and external equi pment . Follo w yo ur ISA (or
EISA) personal com put er ’s ins tr uc tio n ma nual
to remove the syst em cover and expose the
expansion slots and external access covers.

2. Locate an unused expa ns ion slot . Any standard
ISA or EISA expansion slot will wor k.

3. Remove the corresp ond ing exp ans io n boar d
access cover on t he co mputer chassis.

4. Align and insert the ISA I/O bus connector on the
bottom of the AHA-154 0CF/ 154 2CF int o th e
chosen slot . Use the scr ew fr om the removed
expansion slot cover t o secur e th e AHA-15 40CF/
1542CF bracke t to your ISA sys tem ch as sis.

5. Do not replace the syste m cover or recon nec t
power yet !

When to Set the Switches

In most cases, you w ill never have to change the
switch blo ck s ett ings. There are, h ow ever, certain
options wh ich do requir e ad jus tment to the switch
block on the ad apt er boar d.

The switch block is on the upper left-hand corner of
the host adap ter boar d.

A table identifyi ng the switch bloc k settings can

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be found in Sect ion at the end of this Ins tal la­tion Guide.

Here are some cases in which the switch block set­tings should be changed:

Controlling Floppy Drives

If your floppy disket te drive s are alr ead y run -

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ning und er a n ot h er c ontroller, use t he s w itc h to
disabl e the AH A-15 42CF f loppy co ntr oll er.

If you want to use the AHA- 154 2CF fl oppy con -

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troller you mu st disab le your exis ti ng one; refer
to your computer or floppy co ntr oll er user docu­mentation.

(You do not need to disable the existing P C
floppy contr olle r if you only p lan t o us e Flopti cal
drives connec te d to the SCSI bus cab le, and are

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not connectin g flop pi es to an AHA- 1542 CF hos t
adapter floppy connector.)

SW5 on the AHA-1540CF must remain in the

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On/Closed po sitio n, even th ough there is no
floppy controller on that host adapter.

Multiple Host Adapters

Select a diff ere nt I/ O port address for ea ch h ost

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adapter installed. You must know the port ad­dress of ea ch i n st a ll ed h o st adapter in ord er t o
adjust it’s s ett ings with the SCS ISelect utility.

Make sure that each host adapter is set to a

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separate BIOS address. Or, disable the BIOS on
all but one of the ho st ada pt ers .

Not Controlling SCSI Disk Drives

If you do not want to use the host ad apt er to con-

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trol hard dis k dr ives, disab li ng the BIOS may
save up to 60 second s of boot- up t ime. This
would be useful when ru nnin g only SCSI tape or
CD-ROMs , for example.

3 Connecting Peripherals

Setting SCSI IDs

Each SCSI device connec ted to a host adapt er mus t
be set to a separate SCSI ID.

Your SCSI peripher al m anu factu rer ’s inst ruc ti ons
should contain di rec tions on how to check and ad­just the SCSI IDs of thos e device s.

1. Make sure each devic e to be connected to the hos t
adapter is set to a separate SCSI ID.

2. The AHA-1540CF/ 1542 CF is set to ID 7 by
default. This can eas il y be cha nged with the
SCSISelect utility, as de sc ri bed in Sec ti on .

3. Your first two SCSI h ard disk dr ives are bes t set
to SCSI ID 0 and ID 1.

Connecting Cables

SCSI devices are cabled toget her in a single c on­tinuous daisy-cha in of devices, ca lled the SCSI bus.
The bus may ha ve no br anc hes , and m us t run fr om
device-to-devic e in a cont inuo us series . The ho st
adapter need not be at the end of the SCSI bus, un­less only one other devic e is on the bus.

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Only Single-Ended SCSI devi ces are supported

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by the AHA-1540CF/1542CF. Di ffer ential SCSI
devices may be dam aged if connect ed to the
AHA-1540CF/1542CF bus. Consult your SCSI
peripheral user documentat ion .

If your system conf igur at ion in clu des bot h int er nal
and external SCS I devic es, the hos t adap ter will be
at the junction between the internal and externa l
peripher als .

1. Lay out your cables and find the pin-1 ele ment of
each cable an d pe rip her al c onne ct or. On in ter -
nal cables, pin 1 is usually dist inguished by a
contrasti ng col or on one ed ge of the ribbon cabl e.
External cable conn ector s can onl y be plu gged- in
one way, s o pi n-1 orientation is aut o ma tic .

2. Attach the SCSI cable( s) to the host adap ter and
the peripher als, using either the inter nal and/ or
external connec to r( s).

3. Make sure that pin-1 or ient at ion is maint ain ed
throughout the bus. The AH A-1540CF/1542C F
uses a 50-pin Centronics style external connec­tor, and a standard 50-pin internal connector.

How to Terminate Your SCSI Bus Cable

What is termination?

The first and last physi cal SCSI device s on the
ends of the SCSI bus must have a set of resistors
called terminators. Al l other SCSI devices must
have terminat ors removed/disabled.

The AHA-1540CF/1542CF and most SCS I p eripher­als come equip ped wit h buil t-in te rm ina tors that
can be enabled or dis able d. E x a c tly two de v i ces
must be ter minated on the SCSI bu s, one at each end.

Terminating the Host Adapter

The factor y ins ta lled bus ter m inat or s on the AH A­1540CF/1542CF ar e ena bled by default. Hos t adap t-
er terminat ion sh ou ld be disabled if you atta ch
SCSI devices to both inter nal and external connec­tors, sin ce t he hos t adap te r woul d th en be in the
middle of the SCSI bus.

The following t able descr ibe s the th ree poss ible
SCSI device and hos t adap ter (AHA) conf igur a­tions. Host ada pt er termination should be adjus ted
to suit .

Devices Connected To Host Adapter:

Internal devic es only (AHA at end of cable): On/Enabled
External devices only (AHA at end of cable): On/Enabled
Internal and External Devices ( AHA in betwee n ): Off/Disabled

If you need to disab le termination on the
AHA-1540CF/1 542CF , do the following:

1. Complete this phys ic al in st all ati on sect ion.

2. Disable Host Adapte r SCSI T ermin ati on by fo l­lowing the instructions in Section , Configur-
ing the Host Adapter.

Terminating Other SCSI Peripherals

1. Check the manufacturer’s literatu re to deter mine
how to enable or disable SCSI bus termin ati on
on your SCSI periph era l devi ce( s).

2. Install/enable ter minat ion on SCSI devices on the
ends of the SCSI bus (cable).

3. Make sure that termi nat ion is disa bled / disc on­nected on devic es in bet ween t hos e at the en ds
of the SCSI bus.

4. Check SCSI cable conne ctions , the y may ha ve
been loosen ed if ter m inat ing y ou r pe rip her als
involved physic ally m ani pul ati ng the m.

AHA Termination

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Reassembling the System

Follow your pers onal computer and SCSI perip h­eral installa tion ma nual ins truct ion s to:

1. Replace the system cover.

2. Make sure al l pow er switches are in th e O FF posi­tion, then con nec t syst em and periph era l powe r
cables.

Starting the System

After you have com ple ted ins ta llin g and c onne ct ing
the host adap ter :

1. Turn on perip her al a n d pe rso na l com p ute r sys­tem power.

2. The host adapter BIOS sign- on m ess age w ill
appear on you r comp ut er dis pla y. Th e si gn-o n
includes a listi ng of install ed S CSI devi ces and
should end with a BIOS statu s mes s age.

3. In most cases your personal c om put er , host adapt ­er, and SCSI periph era ls are now ready to use.

4 Configuring the Host Adapter

Your host adapt er incl ude s a built-in, menu-drive n
SCSISelect program. SCSI Select allows you to
change most of the opt ion set tin gs of the host
adapter witho ut op eni ng the cas e of your c om put er
or handling the boa rd .

You may never need to reco nfi gure the host ada pt ­er. If you do, howeve r, the foll owing in st ru ct ions
tell you how to access the program .

Use SCSISelect to:

Change software cont rolled host adapter op-

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tions, su ch as interrupt chann el.
Install new SCS I devic es; you ma y need to low-

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level format their medi a, or change ho st adapt er
terminati on; to enable Flop tic al or Fas t SC SI
suppor t.

Run Host Adapter Diagno stics.

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Running SCSISelect

There are several w ays to run th e SCSISelect
utility:

Press Ctrl-A when prompted at boot time.

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Using DOS D EBUG : -g=xxx x:6

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where xxxx = host adapter BIOS addr ess in Hex;

DC00:6 is a typical exa mp le.

Pres sing F6 w hile in the SCSISe lect

ure/View Host Adapter Settings

host adapte r to the origin al sett ings . F rom any
menu, press Esc to return to the previous menu. Use
the arrow (↑↓) and Enter keys to make selections.

Host Adapter Selection

The Host Adapter Port Ad dres s screen is the first
screen to appear in the SCSISelect utility.

1. Select the
figured. You ma y reconfigure any installe d AHA­1540CF/1542CF. (Refer to M ulti pl e Hos t
Adapters , in Section .)

2. Press Enter to select the addres s and aut om at -
ically move to the mai n menu s cr een.

Port Address of the adapter to be rec on -

2

Config-

menus resets the

456

Main Menu Options

Configure/View Host Adapter Settings
Configuration Screen: Selecting Configure/View Host

Adapter Settings

ware configu rab le optio ns . Th ese option s ar e used
to reconcile I/ O conflic ts , cha nge tr ans f er rate s, and
set Host Ad apter Termi nation. The hos t adapter
BIOS Base Address is als o displaye d.

SCSI Device Configuration and Advanced Configura­tion Options:

Configurat ion scr een descr ibe d above. The AH A­1540CF/1542CF of fers a number of options for ad­vanced applications. Fast SCSI, Fl optical supp ort,
and an altern ate f loppy controller address are en ­abled here.

To protect you from data loss, the host adapter will sus­pend operation if it dete cts old softw are. Certain advance d
features are incompatible with early SCSI driver software
versions.

SCSI Disk Utilities

Select SCSI Disk Utilities from the main opti ons
menu. SCSI IDs 0 through 7 are then dis pla yed,
showing SCSI de vice s inst all ed at eac h addre ss , in­cluding non- disk d evic es. S elec ting one of the in­stalled devic es cause s the ut ilities menu to appear.

Format Disk accesses the Adaptec SCSI Low-Level

Format utility. Most SCSI d evices are pre-format­ted, and do not need re-formattin g.

Verify Disk Media scans the select ed devic e’s m edi a

for defec ts. If bad bloc k s are enc ou n ter ed , a p rom p t
will ask if you w ant the block re-assigned; if you se-

Yes, that block will no longer be used.

lect

Host Adapter Diagnostics

Not all ISA class systems are 100% IBM compat­ible and may not properly support bus master
DMA trans fers , necess ar y for runn ing m ult i-tas k­ing OS/2

Host Adapter Diagnostics will do a bus master DMA

®

test to memory. T h ere should be no de vice drivers
or TSR (Term in ate and S tay Res id ent ) progr am s
loaded when t he te st is run. If th e test fail s, try
lowering the D M A tr ans fer ra te to a lower sett in g
from the

Configure/View Host Adapter Settings menu.

gives you access to the basic soft-

These scr eens ar e acc es sed f rom the

Note

, Windows, UNIX®, and others.

5 Loading the I/O

Operating Environment Software

DOS/Windows

Under MS®-DOS 5.0 or higher, up to seven SCSI
hard disk drives can be conn ected to the AHA ­1540CF/1542CF without additional software. (Older
versions of D O S support up to tw o h ard disk drives. )

The host adapter treats remo vable media d rive s as
hard disk drives provided you enable

able Disks Under BIOS as Fixed Disks
figuration Options

, and do not remove th e media

while your com pu ter sys tem power is on.
Additional softw are is required if you desire to do

the follow in g:

Remove and inser t CD -RO M, remo vable hard

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disks, and oth er la rge m edia cartridges while
your computer is runnin g.

Support more than t w o hard disk drive s un der

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versions of DO S prior to MS-D O S 5.0.
Use devices othe r than har d dis k dri ves such as

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SCSI tape, CD-ROM , scanne rs , etc.
Use the Adaptec Fl opt ic al ut ility program to for-

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mat high-density floptic al di ske tt es .

Floptical drives are only supported under DOS and Win­dows at the time of this document’s publication.

Note

Novell NetWare

NetWare® 4.x includes the Adapt ec I/O Operat­ing Envi ro nme nt and does not require addi­tional sof tware.

To load softwar e for Novell® NetWare 286 2.x

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and 386 3.x, follow the instructions included in
the ASW-1 440 s oftw ar e pa ckag e .

OS/2

IBM® OS/2 2.0 and Microsoft® OS/2 1.30.1 include
the Adaptec I/O Op era tin g Enviro nm ent and do not
require addit ion al s oftw ar e.

To use the AHA-1540CF/1542CF under MS or

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IBM OS/2 1.3, follow the instructions in the
ASW-1220 /1 420 ver sion 1. 3 sof twar e pr oduct .

Treat Remov-

in Advanced Con-

UNIX

Major version s of UNIX includ e th e Adapte c I/O
Operating Environ me nt and suppor t the AH A­1540CF/1542CF w it hout addit iona l softw are . Cur-

®

rent versions of SCO

UNIX, US L  UNIX, and
Sunsoft Interactive U NIX suppo rt the AHA-
1540CF/1542CF di rectl y.

6 Troubleshooting

If Your Computer Will Not Boot From a SCSI Disk Drive

If both SCSI and non-S CSI disk drive s are in­stalled, then t he non -SCSI dis k dr ive is alw a ys th e
boot device. If ther e is no non- SCS I dis k dr ive:

1. Make sure your co mp ut er sys tem ’s CM O S Setu p

is set to
SCSI host adapters.

2. Try enabling

Devices

of the SCSISelect utility. S ee Sectio n .

3. Make sure the hard disk SCSI ID is set to ID 0.

The SCSI ID is normally set with jump er s or
switches on t he dr ive. All SCSI devices s houl d
be set to unique SCSI IDs, ran ging from 0 to 7.

4. Make sure the SCS I termination is set c orr ec tly.

(See Section , Connecting Peri phe rals, for inf or -
mation on SCSI ter m inat ion .)

5. A low-level format of the SCS I hard disk may be

necessary. Be sure t o back up f irst , then r un th e

Format

Similar utilities for removable media devices are
included in Adaptec’s DOS I/O Operating En vi­ronment Software, or via the BBS. See Section .

6. Make su re sw5 on the AHA-154 0CF is in the

On/Closed posit ion . It must r emain in that posi­tion, even though ther e is no flopp y con trolle r on
that host adapter.

Conflicts With Other Option Cards

Your host adapt er and all oth er devic es may not
use or occupy ove rla pp ing mem ory a n d I/O
addresse s. If you exp er ienc e confl ict s :

1. IRQ and DMA Channels may be altered with the

SCSISelect utility.

No Drives Installed, as is required for

Dynamically Scan SCSI Bus for BIOS

in the Advanced Configuration Options area

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3

utility through the S CSI Se lect ut ility.

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789

2. Port ad dresses a n d B IOS addr es ses for the host

AHA-1540CF/1542CF

High-Performance Bus Master
ISA-to-SCSI Host Adapter
with SCSISelect



adapter may be view ed with t he SC S ISelect util-
ity and changed with the switch block on the
adapter board.

Data Miscompare Error

If your computer disp lays Data Miscompare errors:

1. Check all your exte rnal SCSI cable connections;
make sure ter mi nat ion is corr ectly implem ent ed
(see Section ).

3

2. If you have used SCSISelect to change the

Sync Nego tia tio n

option sett ings to Yes, use
only high qualit y SCSI ca bles to create yo ur
SCSI bus. This is especi ally imp ort ant if you
have installed mul tiple ext ernal S CSI devi ces .

7 Switch Block Settings

Settings con trolle d by th e swi tch bloc k on the up­per left-han d co rne r of the host adapt er bo ard are
as follows:

On Termination Installed

sw1

Off

Software Controlled

sw2 sw3 sw4 I/O Port sw6 sw7 sw8 BIOS Address

Off Off Off
On Off Off 334–337h On Off Off D8000h
Off On Off 230–233h Off On Off D4000h
On On Off 234–237h On On Off D0000h
Off Off On 130–133h Off Off On CC000h
On Off On 134–137h On Off On C8000h
Off On On Reserved Off On On Reserved
On On On Reserved On On On BIOS Disable

Off = Open

330–333h

*

On Disable Floppy

sw5

Off

*

Off Off Off

Enable Floppy

DC000h

* Standard setting: Standard settings on your host

adapter may be different; Adaptec custom configures
for proprietary customers and resellers.

✢

Standard on AHA-1540CF.

A table and text explaini ng hos t ad ap ter ter mina­tion can be fo und in Sec ti ons and .

2 3

If switch sw1 is switched to On (or Closed), host adapter
termination will always b e enabled regardless of the set­ting in the SCSISelect utility.

Note

Enable

✢

*

*

8 Adaptec Customer Support

The Adaptec Electronic Bulletin Board Service (BBS):

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information on upgrades, new releases, advice, and more. The
BBS can be reached at: [phone], 1200/2400/9600/14400
baud, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit, no parity.

The Adaptec Technical Support Hot Line can be reached at

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(800) 959-SCSI (7274), or [phone].
The Adaptec Interactive FAX line [phone].

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Adaptec Software Sales (800) 442-SCSI (7274).

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Additional documentation for Adaptec products can be re-

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quested by calling [phone].

FCC Compliance Statement

NOTE: This equipment has been tested and found to comply
with the limits for a Class B digital device, pursuant to Part 15
of the FCC rules. These limits are designed to provide reason­able protection against harmful interference in residential in­stallations. This equipment generates, use s, and can radiat e
radio frequency energy, and if not installed and used in accord­ance with the instructions, may cause harmful interference to
radio communications. However, there is no guarantee that in­terference will not occur in a particular installation.

If this equipment does cause interference to radio or television
equipment reception, which can be dete rmined by turning the
equipment off and on, the user is encouraged to try to correct
the interference by one or more of the following measures:

Reorient or relocate the receiving antenna

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Move the equipment away from the receiver

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Plug the equipment into an outlet on a circuit different from

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that to which the receiver is powered
If necessary, the user should consult the dealer or an experi-

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enced radio/television technician for additional suggestions

CAUTION: Only e qu ipm e nt c e rt if ie d t o co mpl y wi t h Cl as s B
(computer i np ut/o ut put de vic es, ter minal s, pr in ters, etc.)
should be attached to this equipment, and must have shielded
interface cables.

Finally, any change or modifications to the equipment by the
user not expressly approved by the grantee or manufacturer
could void the user’s authority to operate such equipment.

Each AHA-1540CF/1542CF is equipped with an FCC compli­ance label which shows only the FCC Identification number.
The full text of the associated label follows:

This device complies with part 15 of the FCC rules. Operation
is subject to the following two conditions: (1) this device may
not ca us e h arm fu l i nte rf er e nce a nd ( 2) t hi s d ev i ce mu st a cc ep t
any interference received, including interference that may
cause undesired operation.

691 South Milpitas Blvd., Milpitas, California 95035
Copyright © 1993,1994 Adaptec, Inc. All rights reserved.

Adaptec and the Adaptec logo are registered trademarks,
and AHA and SCSISelect are trademarks of Adaptec, Inc.

Printed in Singapor e
Stock No.: 510382-00 Rev. B CL 6/94
Information subject to change without notice.

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