jkg@pyr.gatech.EDU (Jim Greenlee) (07/22/87)
Well, I finally got around to ordering my ROM BIOS 1.43 upgrade. It came
today and I raced home with baited breath to install it. For those who
missed my previous posting, I am interested in adding other enhancements
to my PC 6300, and some folks (mainly Russ Sharples and George Wilkin)
convinced me that upgrading the BIOS was a necessity (in all fairness to
Russ and George, I was considering doing it anyway, and I hope neither of
them takes this posting as an affront to their judgement :-).
I installed the chips and diddled with the DIP switches, but my computer
didn't boot on the first try. I got the initial diagnostics messages - the
BIOS correctly "diagnosed" my 8087 - but the thing got hung trying to
read the ROM on my hard disk controller. After much gnashing of teeth (and
more DIP switch diddling) I got it to boot by setting switch 3 of bank 1
to OFF, in clear violation of both my User's Guide and the BIOS installation
instructions, which claim that ON is the "standard" setting.
I have a Western Digital controller and an ST 225 hard disk, but no jumpers
were installed on the HDC to indicate which disk I had. I tried adding some
shorting blocks across the jumpers that selected an ST 225 (according to the
1.43 installation guide), but no arrangement of jumpers would make the com-
puter boot as long as that DIP switch was OFF. The diagnostics program would
show "Fixed Disk 1 Disk(s) Ready" and wander off into the ROM at C800:0000.
Changing the jumpers did not appear to effect the boot process as long as I
had the DIPs configured "correctly", so I just left them all off.
Does the ROM BIOS directly support the hard disks listed, and if so, how do
I disable the expansion ROM? There is one other jumper on my HDC right next
to the ROM (labeled W6 and shorted 1-2) - if that doesn't disable the ROM,
what does? I have my heart set on an ST 251 hard disk and have already found
a friend who wants to purchase my old disk (which I foolishly agreed to install
for him :-). Am I making this process harder than it is? I have a EE degree
but don't know the specifics about a lot of PC-compatible hardware. If any-
body can explain how to get a hard disk up and running on a PC 6300, I would
appreciate it - make it as technical as you dare :-).
I am also interested in the STB Multi-Res EGA card. I called STB today and
asked for some info on the Multi-Res and the Atta-Byte cards. Unless some-
body can convince me otherwise, I will probably buy one in the next couple
of weeks - I'll post details once (should I say if? :-) I get it working.
Any and all { suggestions | comments | criticisms | flames } are welcome.
Jim Greenlee
--
The Shadow...!{allegra,amd,hplabs,ihnp4,seismo,ut-ngp}!gatech!gitpyr!jkg
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oebxr vg, qvqa'g lbh?!tick@acf4.UUCP (leo tick) (07/22/87)
as i read some of these notes I begin to feel left out of the good thing in (PC) life. I installed 1.43 in three 63's all had different controllers some wd some not all had st225 one had expanded(extended?) ram and ALL had no trouble. I followed the instructions . Was I doing some thing wrong.