Problem with SCSI scanner and beige G3..

tigerwoods99tigerwoods99
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
My scanner is a pretty old SCSI one, so I have it hooked up to the G3. It's always worked fine, but right not I need to scan a drawing in & it's messed up. When I plugged in the scanner the screen wouldn't do anything on boot up. It just sat there balnk. As soon as I unplugged it the happy mac came up and the computer booted fine. So then I plugged the scanner back in. The computer was fine and didnt freeze. I opened up the scanner software and told it to scan, and the whole computer froze. Booted it up again and checked system profiler and that froze while searching for devices. Anybody know what could be going on?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 7
    thinkingdifferentthinkingdifferent Posts: 1,604member
    Did you make any changes on the scanner? Such as it's id or buss termination?
  • Reply 2 of 7
    chychchych Posts: 860member
    Definetely sounds like an ID/termination conflict to me...
  • Reply 3 of 7
    tigerwoods99tigerwoods99 Posts: 2,633member
    I don't even knokw what that means. As far as I know I didn't change anything....please explain it to me.
  • Reply 4 of 7
    josephgjosephg Posts: 111member
    Every SCSI device needs a unique SCSI ID number. This includes internal SCSI devices too (like Zip drives). You set the ID with a little dial or number counter on the back of the device.



    You can check what SCSI devices are connected to your Mac, and their respective IDs, through the System Profiler.



    Also, the last device on the SCSI chain (I think only on external devices) needs to be terminated, either with a terminator (which plugs into and caps the open SCSI port on the back of the scanner) or with a terminator switch on the back of the device (I've only seen switches on CD-R drives).



    When our scanner stopped working, it turned out someone removed the terminator and forgot to reattach it.
  • Reply 5 of 7
    josephgjosephg Posts: 111member
    Also, since SCSI isn't hot-pluggable, I've been told to always turn the SCSI device on before turning on the computer. Once the scanner is ready (no blinking lights, etc), then it's safe to boot up.
  • Reply 6 of 7
    tigerwoods99tigerwoods99 Posts: 2,633member
    Well, I can't check anything because when I have the scanner plugged in now it just locks up the entire computer, so I can't get System Profiler to load up. I dunno what I can do...I have to unplug it to get it booting up and it'll lock up when I try to use the scanner software too. This sucks.
  • Reply 7 of 7
    josephgjosephg Posts: 111member
    You can still troubleshoot to some extent without the scanner plugged into the Mac.



    First, make sure it's not a termination issue. Is a terminator plugged into the back of the scanner (or if there's a terminator switch, is it in the "on" position)?



    Second, check ID conflicts. Run System Profiler w/o the scanner hooked up and check to see if there are any other SCSI devices (like internal HDs or Zip drives), and if so, note their ID numbers. Then check the ID on the scanner, which should be on a dial or counter on the back. Everything needs a unique ID, so change the scanner's if its number is the same as another SCSI device.
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