Maxtor XT8000 series SCSI Hard Disks

Maxtor XT-8380S and XT-8760S hard disks (350MB and 650MB full height) under certain circumstances can hang the SCSI bus. The symptoms of the fault are the HD LED on the front panel of the FTs is permanently on, a hard disk activity LED may also be on, the system will hang with no error messages reported - either immediately (if the root disk has hung) or as soon as the disk in question is accessed by the operating system.

The problem is rare, and is more likely in multiple drive systems. The firmware on the drive should be replaced with version B7B. This is the 8 pin by 8 pin gold-coloured socketed chip located towards the SCSI connector on the drive's main circuit board. Technical Support can supply the B7B firmware for the usual nominal ROM charges, however we do require the old firmware back to allow reprogramming of the EPROMs to take place.

At the same time ensure that the drive bay SCSI distribution board has correctly configured terminator resistors (see IPB 4069). This will ensure that SCSI bus problems relating to incorrect termination do not occur.

----------oOo----------