Mac OS 10.4.1 Tiger incompatible with SCSI external drive

If anyone out there can help me with this problem I would greatly appreciate it (please bear with me, for this is the first time I am posting to this discussion board).
I am having a problem with an external Syquest EZ135 drive that I have connected to a used G4 that I recently purchased from an Apple authorized dealer (If you need the computer specs, they are as follows: G4, 933 MHz, 512 MB RAM, 60 GB hard drive). The computer came with OS X 10.2.6 and OS 9.2.2 (Classic) installed. I purchased an Adaptec SCSI card from the dealer (who installed the card, and knew that I intended to upgrade to OS X 10.4 –but probably was not aware of any problems), as the Syquest drive required a SCSI connection.
Everything was working fine, until I decided to upgrade to OS X 10.4. After installation, I connected the Syquest drive via the SCSI cable to the G4, but on startup, a screen came up (what the Apple technician I later talked to said was a "kernel panic"), telling me to restart the computer by pressing and holding the button on the G4, or the restart button. After trying different things to see what the problem was, I found that the G4 would recognize the SCSI drive on startup (most of the time) when an EZ disk was inserted before startup and the EZ drive was turned on –but, if there was no EZ disk inserted before startup and the EZ drive was turned on, it would go into kernel panic. And, even if it did recognize the disk if I started up with an EZ disk inserted and the EZ drive on, the G4 would not recognize any other EZ disks –only the first disk on startup (meaning that I have to restart the computer every time I want to change to a different EZ disk).
I called the dealer (from whom I purchased the computer), who suggested I search for either a Syquest or third party driver online as this was most likely a driver issue –but the Syquest company is no longer in business (I don't know if they were bought over by another company) and I couldn't find any other SCSI drivers available (I should add that I did not have to install any driver(s) for the EZ drive with OS X 10.2.6 –I just plugged it in and started it up, and everything worked fine). I tried a SCSI probe utility (pre OS 9 version) that didn't work at all, I then called Apple to speak to an Apple technician (on two occasions), and was told to search for drivers, try upgrading to 10.4.1 (which didn't work –see below), or try partitioning the drive (so that I could run OS X 10.2.6 on one part, and OS X 10.4 on the other –I tried this, but didn't like having to start in OS X 10.4 on the first partition, restart the computer on the second partition in OS X 10.2.6 when I wanted to insert an EZ disk, copy the files to the first partition, and then restart in OS X 10.4 on the first partition again!) I then read on the Apple website that there was an update to OS X 10.4.1, and that some third party issues were said to be resolved with this update. I then upgraded to OS X 10.4.1, hoping that the Syquest drive would work with the computer, but there was no change at all –I still had the same problem. (Also, after starting up with the EZ drive and disk inserted (and it was recognized), I later during the same session on my computer, received a kernel panic during typing this e-mail, and had to reboot.)
Is there any way that I can resolve this problem, so that I don't have to restart the computer every time that I want to insert a new EZ disk? I have a lot of files on EZ disks, and family members that still use these disks also –otherwise, I would not be so concerned (and I do not want to have to buy a different external drive! ) Perhaps there is a driver that can resolve this issue, or perhaps a fix could be added to a later update of OS X 10.4. Maybe an item from the OS X 10.2.6 system folder could be put into the OS X 10.4.1 system folder (as I did an archive and install to save the the OS X 10.2.6 system folder in the previous system folder on the G4) –I really don't know. If anyone

Posted on Jul 16, 2005 12:46 AM

Reply
22 replies

Sep 8, 2005 10:15 AM in response to frazzled macuser

I just got off the phone with Apple Care. The word is "it will work, but it's not supported by Apple," so no help is coming from them.

I've also talked to Adaptec and Iomega (I have/had an ancient zip SCSI drive on an internal 2906 SCSI card) and they put the blame on Apple. Iomega says they have had NO reports of this problem (how can that be?). So no one is talking, no one is taking responsibility and no one is helping.

Time to stop marrying the vintage with the postmodern I suppose. Grrr.

Sep 20, 2005 1:02 AM in response to frazzled macuser

The right name is Capture Data. And it is free. It is made by AppleCare to troubleshoot Mac issues.

You must get in touch with Apple to get Capture Data 7.0.3 (or later) for them to fix the issue.

The problem is caused by a bad-outdated "/System/Library/Extensions/Adaptec290X-2930.kext"

The application Capture Data does not fix the issue, but gives feedback to Apple engineers so that they can fix it.

The problem seems to arise only with some external SCSI devices. Since the Adaptec SCSI card was supplied by Apple (OEM), they (Apple) must fix it. But for that we all must send them the feedback generated by Capture Data. They told me that there is no other way.

Check out the following thread:

Home > Mac OS X > Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger > Installation & Setup > Mac OS 10.4.1 Tiger incompatible with SCSI external drive

Oct 23, 2005 3:02 PM in response to frazzled macuser

I've found a workaround that works for me, hope it will help someone else with this frustrating problem. I first removed the following items:

system>library>extensions>
Adaptec290X-2930.kext
Adaptec29160x.kext
Adaptec39160.kext

This left me with only the Adaptec78XXSCSI.kext.

I then repaired permissions and did a restart. Once booted, I turned off my Syquest and then turned it back on. Now, not only can I load and unload cartridges without kernel panics, but the scanner I have chained to the Syquest works perfectly (using VueScan software).

Hope this works for someone else.

Mendette

Oct 24, 2005 1:45 AM in response to Mendette

Mendette,

Thanks for the feedback.

In my case, it does not help, since then the Mac does not see the external CD-R. Each Adaptec extension is used for different Adaptec cards and in my case the Adaptec290X-2930.kext is required, yet the current version (not updated since year 2002) causes a kernel panic, thus requiring being updated for Mac OS X 10.4.2.

What Adaptec card are you using? Surely it is not the Adaptec 2930 Ultra SCSI card (AHA-2930**).

For further information, please check out the following thread on this Discussion Forum:

Home > Mac OS X > Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger > Installation & Setup > No luck getting Adaptec 2906 SCSI card to work

This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

Mac OS 10.4.1 Tiger incompatible with SCSI external drive

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.