At 08:22 3/21/99 -0800, Brad Loomis wrote:
>I got an HP HD50 to 50 Centronics cable and a Granite Active terminator for
>my 4C Scanjet. I have an Adaptec 2940UW that runs my UW HD on the 68 pin.
>Off the 50 pin internal connector, isa Zip drive, then out a int-ext converter
>to the scanner. Total length of cables is about 6.5 feet. In the Adaptec
>bios, Ver 1.34.3, Host is id#7, Drive is 0(boot), zip is id#4, and scanner
>is id#2, Parity checking is enabled, Host termination is Low off/High on.
>Under device settings for id#2, scanner, it is set as follows:
>Sync negotiation = no
>Max. Transfer rate = 10
>Enable disconnection = no
>Initiate Wide Negotiation = no
>
>I power up the scanner, wait 1-2 minutes, then boot up. The scanner is not
>recognized at the scsi scan on initial boot. Some time into the boot process
>the carriage will move about two inches, and then I can go into device
manager,
>refresh and there it is. It will be found upon any reboots. Device manager
>reports that it is working properly. On to the test in control panel under HP
>Scanjet, after about 30-45 seconds it reports "communication problem, check
>cables, termination and rerun test" The Desk scan program proceeds to hang
>some of the time. Other times it will close, followed by a message "An error
>occurred while Windows was working in the control panel file
>C:\Windows\system\HPSCNMGR.dll"        <some material trimmed>


Hi Brad

I have an HP 4C controlled by a 2940UW and the scanner is detected as an
HP C2520A at boot by the SCSI BIOS. (I have to turn the scanner about 5
seconds before I power up the computer.) During this 5 seconds the
scanner makes a couple of wirring noises. Something is of course wrong
with your setup or something is malfunctioning.

Maybe your external cable is not passing termpower through to the terminator.
Is the green diagnostic LED (TRM) lit on your Granite terminator? Does
the scanner provide termpower? (Green LED lit when computer is off.)
(Also check the other LEDs: REQ, ACK, and SEL. Check page 9 of the Granite
pamphlet for explanations.) Are you sure that the scanner's built in
termination is disabled? (You don't want two working terminators at one
end of the bus.) I gather you are not using a Granite Digital external
cable. I would expect a faulty cable if it's not from Granite. Is this
the 6 foot cable that came with the scanner? (If so, your way over length
for Ultra SCSI.)

I would turn off Ultra speed in the SCSI Select utility and see if that
helps. (Your present settings make sense...but try 20 MB/sec for your
hard drive. Also don't have your controller searching for the other 12
SCSI IDs at boot.)

Can you lower the speed (in SCSI Select) for the scanner down to 5 MB/sec?
I can do this in my SCSI Select...BIOS Ver 1.34.3.) I have never even tried
the scanner at 10 MB/sec.

The following may help me get a better idea of your setup. Right now I'm
a bit confused.

For starters, my external cable connects to the back of an internal-external
converter...although I have no hard disk on the 2940UW...just a CDROM, a PD
drive, and a CDRW. (My hard drives are on another Adaptec controller.)
My 3' Granite external cable is high density 50 at one end and 25 pin
(Apple standard) at the other end.

The HP 4C scanner has both 25 pin and 50 pin Centronics sockets. Does your
Granite active terminator plug into the 25 pin socket of the scanner? (I
wasn't aware that Granite made a 25 pin active terminator.) I ask this
because you said your external cable has 50 pins at both ends...
and one of the two sockets on our scanners is a 25 pin.

I assume you have your hard drive connected to the 68 pin connector of the
2940UW by an 18" cable, then your narrow ribbon cable is 24" (or even 36"
long), then your external cable is 18", 36", or 72" long. That all adds up
to from 6 feet all the way to 10.5 feet. The scanner might reasonably be
expected to add another 6" to 12" due to internal circuitry. (Scanners are
"noisy" devices.) This is way over length for Ultra SCSI cabling. Does your
hard drive work okay right now? Have you benchmarked it to see if it is
running well...without time outs and retries?

Have you downloaded the latest scanner drivers from Hewlett-Packard?
HP Deskscan 2.7 is much better than what came with my HP 4C.
http://www.hp.com/cposupport/swindexes/sj4cpc_swen.html
(Old drivers wouldn't explain the lack of detection by the controller
at boot, but they might help later on.)

Regards,
Bill

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