Wait... SCSI Problems

Technical questions for the MPC2000xl and the MPC2000
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Wait... SCSI Problems

By Oddjob Tue Apr 06, 2010 7:38 am
New to the forums, been using an MPC for a while. Used to use a 2000XL, had to sell to pay rent, recently got my hands on a 2000 classic for a good price, turned out to be in pretty bad shape internally. Replaced some sh*t, got everything working except for one thing...

My floppy drive can't read certain disks, because it corrupts them every once in a while instead of saving my programs and sounds. So I looked into a SCSI drive, and ended up getting scammed on eBay (instead of receiving a 250mb SCSI drive, I received a 100mb parallel drive). But I'm pretty sure there is another problem. Whenever I go Shift --> Disk and try to select a SCSI device (even when nothing is plugged in) the MPC orders me to wait and gets stuck. It stays on that screen forever. No buttons will exit or wake it from its trance. I find it hard to believe this is normal. Does anybody know what is going on with my machine? I have poured hours and hours and dollars and dollars into getting this thing working again, and am REALLY close, but somehow I always end up getting screwed. Help please?
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Re: Wait... SCSI Problems

By mr_debauch Tue Apr 06, 2010 7:42 am
how is it set up with the device? are you using a device which requires a scsi terminator at the end of the chain?

you should mention how exactly and what exactly you have set up etc..


good luck.
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Re: Wait... SCSI Problems

By Oddjob Tue Apr 06, 2010 8:12 am
Well I don't currently have a SCSI device. I accidentally hit the jog wheel while saving to a floppy and discovered the problem. I was wondering if I have that problem because I have nothing plugged in or if it's a problem with the board. It's my understanding that the MPC should report that there is no SCSI device or at least that it is not ready, not freeze while telling me to wait. I plan on buying an external SCSI device, I just want to know if having this problem means the port is busted and an external device would be a waste of money.
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Re: Wait... SCSI Problems

By The Grublet Tue Apr 06, 2010 8:29 am
so your saying that you cant even keep rotating the jog wheel all the way back around to the floppy or F-rom instead of scsi?

or can you still use cursor, jog etc
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Re: Wait... SCSI Problems

By Oddjob Tue Apr 06, 2010 8:51 am
I can select F Drive, but once I move the cursor to where a SCSI drive would normally be, it freezes up.

So, no I can't keep turning the jog wheel back to f-rom once i see the wait message.
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Re: Wait... SCSI Problems

By The Grublet Tue Apr 06, 2010 9:06 am
it freezes to the point you have to reboot?
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Re: Wait... SCSI Problems

By Oddjob Tue Apr 06, 2010 9:08 am
Yea... All functions stop working. Have to re-boot every time.
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Re: Wait... SCSI Problems

By The Grublet Tue Apr 06, 2010 9:10 am
which os are you running?
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Re: Wait... SCSI Problems

By The Grublet Tue Apr 06, 2010 9:26 am
have you double checked that the scsi cable on the inside is plugged in correctly? did you ever have anything hooked up to the cable like a external iomega with selectable channel and termination?
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Re: Wait... SCSI Problems

By Oddjob Tue Apr 06, 2010 9:32 am
Yea I looked inside and the connections looked solid, although they are kinda hard to see. I recently came up on this machine, so I haven't had a chance to hook up any sort of SCSI device to it... But I don't want to waste the money on a SCSI device that's not going to be recognized by my demon MPC.

I'm thinking about getting one of those CF readers from scisiforsamplers.com to replace the floppy drive. That way I wouldn't have to worry about SCSI at all. It would be nice to get it working though. I'm guessing you've never come across a problem like this?
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Re: Wait... SCSI Problems

By The Grublet Tue Apr 06, 2010 9:37 am
well, I dont know the insides of the classic.


I would guess that it has an issue with the scsi cable, or port... it shouldnt freeze when you go past the from or floppy. now, if your saying the floppy drive messes up a lot, i think that could be considered a trigger to problems too.

even when you scroll thru the save locations thing, the only thing i have ever seen that would make it say "wait..." is when a cable is connected backwards, or when you have a dead drive of some kind hooked up


look at the connections as closely as you can to see if anything looks bad or hacked.
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Re: Wait... SCSI Problems

By Oddjob Tue Apr 06, 2010 9:43 am
Yea I have an in-depth dissection planned tomorrow, but the fact that it tells me to wait when there is absolutely nothing plugged in to the SCSI port in the back is still disconcerting. Yea the bad floppy drive is a concern and I'm wondering if I just have a bad startup disk... I'm not sure this whole thing is really frustrating. I just wanna be able to save my beats! My floppy drive is so inconsistent that it's not even worth it to work on anything because the disk will inevitably be rendered unreadable... *sigh*

Perhaps ordering a new floppy drive and startup disk is the first step? After all, this whole setup (including startup disk) was secondhand, and I can tell it wasn't exactly babied by the owner...
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Re: Wait... SCSI Problems

By The Grublet Tue Apr 06, 2010 10:00 am
i believe any floppy will do, as long as you set the jumpers the same... dont you have an old floppy in a pc laying around to try?

im guessing the floppy could be tweaking out right when you unselect it and it freezes it up.

theres no reason nothing attached to the scsi would do that.

try formatting f-rom

but swap that floppy asap.

also, remove the floppy power cable and boot up.


what happens>?
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Re: Wait... SCSI Problems

By mr_debauch Tue Apr 06, 2010 5:38 pm
Oddjob wrote:Yea I looked inside and the connections looked solid, although they are kinda hard to see. I recently came up on this machine, so I haven't had a chance to hook up any sort of SCSI device to it... But I don't want to waste the money on a SCSI device that's not going to be recognized by my demon MPC.

I'm thinking about getting one of those CF readers from scisiforsamplers.com to replace the floppy drive. That way I wouldn't have to worry about SCSI at all. It would be nice to get it working though. I'm guessing you've never come across a problem like this?



dont get an atapi or IDE card reader... I dontbelieve the 2000 classic has an IDE port on the mother board like the 2000xl does.

for the classic I believe you are stuck with the scsi card readers.




also when you use the jog in the drive select screen.. when you go to scsi the machine is checking if something is on the selected channel. when it freezes, how long have you allowed it to unfreeze before rebooting? even on the xl it took 2 or 3 seconds.
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