bobd@hpuxa.ircc.ohio-state.edu (Bob DeBula) (08/03/89)
Is there nay way to disable the onboard floppy controller on the AT&T 6386 WGS motherboard (16Mhz)? I seem to be having flakey problems with it and the WD1007-WA2 ESDI controller (with floppy controller) in my 6386 (I've already played around with jumpers on the WD1007 without much luck). The problem seems to come in when I have the floppy drives hooked to the motherboard controller & then try to install something like WINDOWS 386 or Concurrent DOS 386 (rel. 2.0). Everything goes along fine until it requests that you change floppies (i.e. load the next floppy in the install series). At that point it hangs and insists no matter what you do that that *isn't* "floppy n of nn". Anyway, one (hopefully) sure way to cure this would be to disable the motherboard floppy controller. Is there any jumper for this on the motherboard (or even better something to make it think it's got control of floppy device 3 & 4 instead of 1 & 2)? Of course, of you know of some way to make the WD1007-WA2 think it has floppy 3&4 instead of 1&2, I'd like to know about that also. If I can't get an answer for this soon, I may get drastic & sell off my WD1007-WA2 & get a WD1007-WAH (or even an Adaptec floppyless controller). **FLAME ON*** BTW why are the jumper settings for AT&T's 6386 kept a deep dark secret (same goes for WD hard disk controllers, etc....)? I would really appreciate (as would numerous others I'm sure) if hardware vendors INCLUDED some documentation for their products. Similarly, I would really *like* to know how to set the DIP switches on my 6386s 32-bit memory board just in case I would like to do something absurd like add some more memory to it. I don't think there is any excuse not to provide this information free of charge (or at least with a nominal fee) with the hardware (or at least put in a "if you want to know this send $2.50 to cover shipping" type of notice in with the machine/hardware. Are any vendors listening (AT&T -- hint,hint)? I really don't want to spend a couple hundred on the technical manual just so I can change a few jumpers to make my machine/hardware do reasonable things. (I also don't want circuit diagrams & resistance ratings and a bunch of other obscure facts which mean nothing to me since I'm not an electronics wizard & don't want to become one). ***Flame OFF*** If anyone knows the magic DIP settings for the memory board & would be willing to send them to me, I's appreciate it much. Thanks for listening, I've got to go take some asprin now........... -=- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bob DeBula | Internet: bobd@hpuxa.ircc.ohio-state.edu The Ohio State University | Disclaimer: These are my views, not the U's
smp@mtunf.ATT.COM (Scott Pazur) (08/04/89)
>Is there nay way to disable the onboard floppy controller on the AT&T >6386 WGS motherboard (16Mhz)? Yes, you can disable the internal floppy disk controller by monkeying around with a PAL on the motherboard. I don't recall the exact chip or location, but it was simply a matter of re-inserting the chip with pin #1 bent out. I've never tried to do this, just picked it up along my travels. Perhaps the hotline can offer you more assistance on that matter. >hangs and insists no matter what you do that that *isn't* "floppy n of nn" I have had that happen with only two packages - Windows/386 and Pagemaker. If you reboot with a clean system (no autoexec or config.sys) I bet it fixes the problem. It did for me. I never did spend the time to figure out what caused that to happen, but once I was able to complete the installation, I really didn't care. > Why are the jumper settings for AT&T's 6386 kept a deep dark secret > how to set the DIP switches on my 6386s 32-bit memory board I got an installation guide when I upgraded the memory on my 6386. It has what appears to be a linear algebra problem near the end of the guide to help determine the proper switch settings for the memory board. Another thing that may help you is a file posted on the AT&T NSSC BBS (201-769-6397) called SIMMS.ZIP. It is a menu-driven program, again, to help determine the proper switch settings. Hope some of this helps, somehow...