Apricot Qi

[MCAJim]

Please! I need a SCSI harddrive that will work in an Apricot Qi. I believe that it must be "block" formatted. Any infromation, including manuals will be greatly appreciated. If anyone knows how to convert an IBM SCSI harddrive to "block" format, that might be helpful. I would also like to get a matching monitor with the Apricot label.

Jim.

 

[mbbrutman]

All hard drives speak in blocks. And SCSI is a fairly standard interface, across many different computers. Have you just tried cabling and testing a SCSI hard disk?

(You will need to be familiar with SCSI IDs and termination at a minimum before trying.)

 

[MCAJim]

Apricot Qi

I do not consider myself an expert, but I have several microchannel machines and many SCSI harddrives and have installed, formatted and done the usual procedures for getting them going. My problem is that I cannot get my Apricot to recognize that a SCSI has been installed. I asked Peter Wendt, the real expert, what I should do. If I am understanding his response correctly, I believe he told me that the usual IBM microchannel SCSI format is in cylinders and sectors, but that Apricot SCSI's may be different (block sectoring). I do not want to misquote him. And I am not even sure if there is not another problem that I have missed. All that I am sure of is that my Apricot boots and runs with a DOS diskette, and will boot with an Apricot reference diskette, but will not recognize any SCSI harddrive that I have attempted to install. I do know how all of my SCSI's are formatted and I have read that there is another type of formatting (block) that I can visuallize, but I have not found a way to reformat my SCSI's this way so that I can try one.

At the time that I acquired my Apricot Qi, the SCSI had been removed supposedly for security reasons. I was given the name of a person that had two, one complete and operating, but I have lost his name and email. Perhaps if I could reloacate him he could help me straighten out my problem. This is the first site that I have visited that has even offered a response. and I appreciate that very, very much.

Jim

 

[mbbrutman]

Which SCSI chipset is the Apricot Qi using? It is Adaptec, FutureDomain, Buslogic, etc. ? You'll have to open it up and see, and maybe look for some messages from the adapter during bootup.

Are there different model numbers of the Qi, or are they all the same?

 

[IBMMuseum]

...I was given the name of a person that had two, one complete and operating, but I have lost his name and email. Perhaps if I could reloacate him he could help me straighten out my problem. This is the first site that I have visited that has even offered a response. and I appreciate that very, very much...

That person *may* have been me, as I have two Apricot Qi's; I might even have both working at this point. The SCSI is a bit different, and hopefully I haven't forgot how to set it up. I've got to get to a point where I'm not having to schedule sneezes, then might be able to see what I can do.

 

[IBMMuseum]

Which SCSI chipset is the Apricot Qi using? It is Adaptec, FutureDomain, Buslogic, etc. ? You'll have to open it up and see, and maybe look for some messages from the adapter during bootup.

Are there different model numbers of the Qi, or are they all the same?

SCSI is *very* unusual on the Qi, and I think I remember it to be an implementation that is just able to use one or two devices. Looking mine over, both have fairly standard Quantum drives in place, and I think I remember I got both working. Of course the SCSI controller is in a microchannel slot, so the thought is (with the correct ADF, and an Apricot reference diskette) that the controller could be swapped out for a more common one.

A good starting point would be the setup files for the Apricot, which I have at http://www.IBMMuseum.com/Apricot/

For the uninitiated, the Apricot Qi is a microchannel system, four 16-bit slots. The CPU is a 386SX-16, with some very odd memory modules. VGA and Ethernet (10B2 & AUI, so I use a transceiver) are on the system planar. Don't lose the security key that should be on a label on the inside, or you are screwed from running the configuration.

 

[IBMMuseum]

Ok, a little more information. Indeed both of my Apricot Qi's work, but I didn't fire them up to find out. Instead I looked to my posts on the comp.sys.ibm.ps2.hardware newsgroup to find out almost three years ago I used the reference diskette to get the hard drive working on my second Qi.

Another tidbit I wrote is that the SCSI ID must be set to 0 on the hard drive...

Take a swing at that Jim, and call for any further help I can offer...

Thank God for Google caching newsgroups, because my memory is long shot if it is even a matter of weeks...