os9 Freezing and SCSI problems

[chacabuco]

Hi

 I have some old very capable scanners that can only be run via OS9 and have been having alot of trouble with my current g4 and os9. 

I kept having crashes, freezing during the boot process or soon thereafter. I thought it might be the drive beginning to fail.  I had a spare PCI SATA card so I managed to hook up a couple of 120GB SSDs, dragging over files from the original boot drive and making what seemed to be a fully functioning copy of the original drive.  Unfortunately, that did not solve the problem and I am still experiencing frequent freezes and crashes. 

I've swapped RAM sticks, changed the battery, reseated the PCI cards, rebuilt the desktop, zapped the PRAM, booted with extensions off and tried to turn off any unneeded extensions. Still getting the crashes. 

To add insult to injury, the scanner that used to show up via the SCSI connection no longer shows up.  At this point I'd probably prefer to have a computer that crashed intermittently but still allowed me to scan than a non-crashing computer but no scanner. As it stands I have neither!  I'm wondering if the graphics card can cause issues. I had 2 copies of the Adaptec SCSI card (and cables) and swapping them didn't make a difference.

Any ideas on next steps?

Thanks in advance!

[FBz]

It’s not commonly referred to as “SCSI voodoo” for nothing.

Run Apple Hardware Test for your specific G4. Disconnect all
unnecessary cards and peripherals and run AHT to eliminate
basic hardware problems and “build-back” & test from there.

Have you recently changed / added anything - prior to the crashes?
(i.e. software, hardware, etc.) Or did this begin just out of the blue?
If you’ve not recently changed anything… RUN AHT.

“Old very capable scanner(s)”. Is more than one attached
at any given time, or do you swap them out with each other
as needed? All the same make, model & manufacturer? Given
that most scanners require their own individual software &
drivers… perhaps you’ve a conflict with one or the other? Of
course, depending upon which specific extensions need be
loaded for the individual scanners.

(*Although you have booted with all extensions off.)

Have you checked the (normally selectable) SCSI IDs to see
if maybe one might have been inadvertently “bumped” or
changed from its’ original setting?

Might also check the Adaptec SCSI drivers & reload / renew.

I’ve an old Agfa Arcus II flatbed scanner attached to a 9500 running
System 8.6. It’s rock solid stable so I’ve never upgraded it to OS 9.
It’s a standalone scan station. There’s also a Nikon Coolscan attached
to a Quicksilver with OS 9.2.2 for 35mm film. (Great to have the
luxury of separate & stable.)

Best of luck. Hope it’s something simple and easily remedied.

Crash w/ no scanner attached? And-or w/ the Adaptec removed?

[DieHard]

To add insult to injury, the scanner that used to show up via the SCSI connection no longer shows up.  At this point I'd probably prefer to have a computer that crashed intermittently but still allowed me to scan than a non-crashing computer but no scanner. As it stands I have neither!  I'm wondering if the graphics card can cause issues. I had 2 copies of the Adaptec SCSI card (and cables) and swapping them didn't make a difference.

Definitely follow the rules for external SCSI devices as far as TERMINATION, when devices don't show up and you have the correct Adaptec extensions loaded, this is usually the case.

READ HERE:
http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/topic,1712.msg13907.html#msg13907

[IIO]

i know that this does not answer the question, but some years ago i aquired a top notch photo scanner with USB connection for 1 euro off ebay. and the last time i have used anything with SCSI that was around Mac OS 7.5.5 times.