6.0

Troubleshooting
76
conflicts with each other, despite the fact that each on its
own is working perfectly, and within the PCI specifica-
tions. PCI problems like this can cause seemingly random
system crashes.
– Check whether the same problem persists after you
have removed the PCI card. Of course, you need this
card to work, but try to work on the machine for several
hours without the card—if the problems have gone
away, you have found the culprit. If the problems
persists however, you can safely rule out PCI problems
as being the cause.
– Try to use the PCI card in another slot. It is quite
possible to solve conflicts by simply swapping slots.
SCSI and IDE Faults
Faults in the SCSI or IDE chain can have a variety of con-
sequences. SCSI, SCSI2 and IDE are parallel interfaces,
and can be used to connect hard and removable drives, CD
burners, and other drives, as well as scanners to your com-
puter. Always take care with the following:
– The total length of all cables must be as short as
humanly possible, and the cables should be of the best
quality.
– The connectors must sit securely in their sockets, i. e.
securely screwed or clipped into place.
– Each SCSI ID (a number from 0—7) must be allocated
only once per SCSI bus.
– The last device in a SCSI chain must usually be termi-
nated with a resistor block. Some devices have internal
termination, that can be switched in/out. If no termina-
tion is available, you will need an external terminator
(which looks like a single connector). This will be
connected to the last device’s output. Although this
may seem to contradict with the previous statements, it
has been known for a SCSI chain to work better without
termination. If you suffer from seemingly random
system failures, without an obvious cause, you may well
experiment with different device order combinations.
Also experiment with, and without termination for the
last device in the chain.
Faulty Cables
Cable faults are a common problem, which can cause all
manner of problems.
The use of the right monitor cable is important—simply
having the correct connector at either end is not sufficient.
Before you assume an unrelated hardware fault, please