I am having a problem with my SCSI HP CD Writer+ series 9200 drive. Afer
moving around some equipments, I had to unplug the drive and replug it.
It worked nicely before this. After that I got a red flashing light on
front of the drive. I decided to unplug again and noticed a pin was
folded and probably in contact with another one on the external connector
(the drive has been installed in an external box with its own power
supply). So, I unfolded the pin and straighten it and replugged the scsi
cable. The red light is still flashing (implicitly understand I shutdown
and rebooted while performing all these plug/unplug operations)

The SCSI controller is using the kernel module aic7xxx. My kernel is
2.4.20 on this server. The server is itself an IBM Netfinity 5000 with
on-board SCSI and a ServeRAID adapter.

When booting, the CD Writer is identified by the BIOS. The aic7xxx module
is not automatically loaded at boot time. When loading the module, I am
getting the following in the syslog:

Jan 14 11:29:01 einstein kernel: scsi1 : Adaptec AIC7XXX EISA/VLB/PCI SCSI HBA DRIVER, Rev 6.2.8
Jan 14 11:29:01 einstein kernel: <Adaptec aic7895 Ultra SCSI adapter>
Jan 14 11:29:01 einstein kernel: aic7895C: Ultra Wide Channel B, SCSI Id=7, 32/253 SCBs
Jan 14 11:29:01 einstein kernel:
Jan 14 11:29:01 einstein kernel: scsi2 : Adaptec AIC7XXX EISA/VLB/PCI SCSI HBA DRIVER, Rev 6.2.8
Jan 14 11:29:01 einstein kernel: <Adaptec aic7895 Ultra SCSI adapter>
Jan 14 11:29:01 einstein kernel: aic7895C: Ultra Wide Channel A, SCSI Id=7, 32/253 SCBs
Jan 14 11:29:01 einstein kernel:
Jan 14 11:29:21 einstein kernel: Vendor: HP Model: CD-Writer+ 9200 Rev: 1.0c
Jan 14 11:29:21 einstein kernel: Type: CD-ROM ANSI SCSI revision: 04
Jan 14 11:29:21 einstein kernel: (scsi2:A:3): 5.813MB/s transfers (5.813MHz, offset 15)
Jan 14 11:30:08 einstein kernel: Attached scsi generic sg1 at scsi0, channel 0, id 15, lun 0, type 3
Jan 14 11:30:08 einstein kernel: Attached scsi generic sg3 at scsi0, channel 1, id 14, lun 0, type 3
Jan 14 11:30:08 einstein modprobe: modprobe: Can't locate module char-major-97
Jan 14 11:30:08 einstein last message repeated 3 times

So, obviously, the CD Writer is identified also by the kernel.

When doing a cdrecord -scanbus, I am getting the following:

Cdrecord 1.9 (i686-pc-linux-gnu) Copyright (C) 1995-2000 Jörg Schilling
Linux sg driver version: 3.1.24
cdrecord: Warning Linux Bus mapping botch.
cdrecord: Warning Linux Bus mapping botch.
Using libscg version 'schily-0.1'
scsibus0:
0,0,0 0) 'IBM ' 'SERVERAID ' '1.00' Disk
0,1,0 1) *
0,2,0 2) *
0,3,0 3) 'Seagate ' 'STT20000N ' '7.11' Removable Tape
0,4,0 4) *
0,5,0 5) *
0,6,0 6) *
0,7,0 7) *
0,14,0 14) 'SDR ' 'GEM200 ' '2 ' Processor
0,15,0 15) 'IBM ' 'SERVERAID ' '1.00' Processor
scsibus2:
2,0,0 200) *
2,1,0 201) *
2,2,0 202) *
2,3,0 203) 'HP ' 'CD-Writer+ 9200 ' '1.0c' Removable CD-ROM
2,4,0 204) *
2,5,0 205) *
2,6,0 206) *
2,7,0 207) *


Again, the CD-Writer+ is properly identified.

The problem is during all this time, the red light is always flashing,
this is not documented and I cannot find any useful troubleshooting guide
on HP's web site. In the documentation, only very obvious errors are
documented and the red light is never ever mentionned in the
documentation.

So, when trying to burn a CD with cdrecord with the following command:

cdrecord -v -dev=2,3,0 my_image.iso

I am getting the following output:

Cdrecord 1.9 (i686-pc-linux-gnu) Copyright (C) 1995-2000 Jörg Schilling
TOC Type: 1 = CD-ROM
scsidev: '2,3,0'
scsibus: 2 target: 3 lun: 0
Linux sg driver version: 3.1.24
cdrecord: Warning Linux Bus mapping botch.
cdrecord: Warning Linux Bus mapping botch.
Using libscg version 'schily-0.1'
atapi: 0
Device type : Removable CD-ROM
Version : 4
Response Format: 2
Capabilities : SYNC
Vendor_info : 'HP '
Identifikation : 'CD-Writer+ 9200 '
Revision : '1.0c'
Device seems to be: Generic mmc CD-RW.
Using generic SCSI-3/mmc CD-R driver (mmc_cdr).
Driver flags : SWABAUDIO
Drive buf size : 4183808 = 4085 KB
FIFO size : 4194304 = 4096 KB
Track 01: data 80 MB
Total size: 92 MB (09:08.21) = 41116 sectors
Lout start: 92 MB (09:10/16) = 41116 sectors
cdrecord: Erreur d'entr?e/sortie. test unit ready: scsi sendcmd: retryable error
CDB: 00 00 00 00 00 00
status: 0x2 (CHECK CONDITION)
Sense Bytes: 70 00 02 00 00 00 00 12 00 00 00 00 30 00 00 00
Sense Key: 0x2 Not Ready, Segment 0
Sense Code: 0x30 Qual 0x00 (incompatible medium installed) Fru 0x0
Sense flags: Blk 0 (not valid)
cdrecord: No disk / Wrong disk!


What is going wrong? Any hints? Someone is having some decent
documentation on this HP drive?

Regards,

Daniel

On Fri, 14 Jan 2005 12:31:51 -0500, Daniel Savard wrote:

> I am having a problem with my SCSI HP CD Writer+ series 9200 drive. Afer
> moving around some equipments, I had to unplug the drive and replug it.
> It worked nicely before this. After that I got a red flashing light on
> front of the drive.

Not a good sign...

<snip>

> 0x2 Not Ready, Segment 0
> Sense Code: 0x30 Qual 0x00 (incompatible medium installed) Fru 0x0 Sense
> flags: Blk 0 (not valid)
> cdrecord: No disk / Wrong disk!

Another bad sign.....


> What is going wrong? Any hints? Someone is having some decent
> documentation on this HP drive?

The constant 'red light always flashing' is a good sign that the unit is
toast, most HP writers (and other manufacturers also) use the status/power
LED to indicate drive problems.

You can try turning off the HP CD Writer+ 9200 then unplug the SCSI cable
and then turn the unit on, if the status LED continues to flash 'red'
constantly then it may be time to replace it or have it repaired (choose
the option that is cheaper).

If the status LED switches to a constant solid color (green, blue or
whatever) then try replacing the SCSI cable first and try the writer on
the system.

Since IBM Netfinity 5000 has a on-board SCSI interface you might need to
purchase/install a SCSI (add-on) card, the external SCSI interface might
be the problem (vary rare).



--
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." -- B. Franklin, 1759

Ok, I already tried the device with another server with the same result.

Unplugged, the device's green light is flashing for a while and finally
turn red forever. Same behavior as plugged.

So, I guess it is actually dead and need to be serviced. ;-(


On Fri, 14 Jan 2005 14:34:49 -0500, % wrote :

> On Fri, 14 Jan 2005 12:31:51 -0500, Daniel Savard wrote:
>
>> I am having a problem with my SCSI HP CD Writer+ series 9200 drive.
>> Afer moving around some equipments, I had to unplug the drive and
>> replug it. It worked nicely before this. After that I got a red
>> flashing light on front of the drive.
>
> Not a good sign...
>
> <snip>
>
>> 0x2 Not Ready, Segment 0
>> Sense Code: 0x30 Qual 0x00 (incompatible medium installed) Fru 0x0
>> Sense flags: Blk 0 (not valid)
>> cdrecord: No disk / Wrong disk!
>
> Another bad sign.....
>
>
>> What is going wrong? Any hints? Someone is having some decent
>> documentation on this HP drive?
>
> The constant 'red light always flashing' is a good sign that the unit is
> toast, most HP writers (and other manufacturers also) use the
> status/power LED to indicate drive problems.
>
> You can try turning off the HP CD Writer+ 9200 then unplug the SCSI
> cable and then turn the unit on, if the status LED continues to flash
> 'red' constantly then it may be time to replace it or have it repaired
> (choose the option that is cheaper).
>
> If the status LED switches to a constant solid color (green, blue or
> whatever) then try replacing the SCSI cable first and try the writer on
> the system.
>
> Since IBM Netfinity 5000 has a on-board SCSI interface you might need to
> purchase/install a SCSI (add-on) card, the external SCSI interface might
> be the problem (vary rare).
>
>
>