novak@intvax.UUCP (James L. Novak) (02/21/90)
A good friend has an early AT&T PC6300 (XT-clone) and wants to finally join the real world and add a hard drive. The problem is that everyone he calls (mail order places) won't guarantee that an add-on drive/adapter will work. I know I used such a machine with a hard drive in school, but don't remember anything about incompatibility problems. Can anyone enlighten me about problems and controllers/disks that will work. Give it to me techincal-I can translate for my MBA friend.
peters@interlan.Interlan.COM (Chris Peters) (02/22/90)
| A good friend has an early AT&T PC6300 (XT-clone) and wants to finally | join the real world and add a hard drive. I have an old AT&T PC-6300 and I added a Plus Hard Card 20 by simply putting it into an expansion slot. Real easy. -- Chris Peters E-Mail: peters@interlan.interlan.com
scherer@dtrc.dt.navy.mil (Scherer) (02/22/90)
In article <2587@intvax.UUCP> novak@intvax.UUCP (James L. Novak) writes: >A good friend has an early AT&T PC6300 (XT-clone) and wants to finally >join the real world and add a hard drive. The problem is that everyone >he calls (mail order places) won't guarantee that an add-on drive/adapter >will work. I know I used such a machine with a hard drive in school, but >don't remember anything about incompatibility problems. Can anyone >enlighten me about problems and controllers/disks that will work. Give it >to me techincal-I can translate for my MBA friend. James, Western digital XT disk card (WD1004A WX1) and I believe XTGEN are not compatible with the main ROM Bios in AT&T 6300 and AT&T 6300T machines but can be altered to work. To make it compatible you need to disable the Bios on the disk controller by placing jumper resistor at R23 and check that integrated circuits U7 and U8 are NOT installed. When you do a low level format follow the directions AT&T gives you not the western digital as the controller will no longer respond to DEBUG. I got this info from a Western Digital Tech. manual and have not tried this myself. If anyone else hasaanymore input please post.
panisset@mcgill-vision.uucp (Jean-Francois Panisset) (02/23/90)
In article <1075@nems.dt.navy.mil> scherer@dtrc.dt.navy.mil (Doug Scherer) writes: >In article <2587@intvax.UUCP> novak@intvax.UUCP (James L. Novak) writes: >>A good friend has an early AT&T PC6300 (XT-clone) and wants to finally >>join the real world and add a hard drive. The problem is that everyone >>he calls (mail order places) won't guarantee that an add-on drive/adapter >>will work. I know I used such a machine with a hard drive in school, but >>don't remember anything about incompatibility problems. Can anyone >>enlighten me about problems and controllers/disks that will work. Give it >>to me techincal-I can translate for my MBA friend. > James, > Western digital XT disk card (WD1004A WX1) and I believe XTGEN >are not compatible with the main ROM Bios in AT&T 6300 and AT&T 6300T >machines but can be altered to work. To make it compatible you need >to disable the Bios on the disk controller by placing jumper resistor >at R23 and check that integrated circuits U7 and U8 are NOT installed. >When you do a low level format follow the directions AT&T gives you >not the western digital as the controller will no longer respond to >DEBUG. > > I got this info from a Western Digital Tech. manual and have not >tried this myself. > > If anyone else hasaanymore input please post. I used to have an Olivetti M-24, and since the AT&T 6300 was an Olivetti with an AT&T logo on it, what I will be saying should apply (actually, the BIOS in the 6300 still had the Olivetti name in it...). The point is that you should first upgrade your BIOS ROM to version 1.43, if that's not already done. Among other goodies, this will let you upgrade to EGA/VGA with less pain (still a lot involved, though). The point is that the Olivetti BIOS has the HD control code built in. Fortunately, version 1.43 defines one of the dip-switches to let you disable this code. You can then use ANY XT-compatible HD controller with a built-in BIOS without a conflict with the Olivetti BIOS. I was able to install an Adaptec RLL controller in this way: the documentation for the Adaptec tells which switch to flick. The BIOS upgrade to 1.43 is available from AT&T: it involves swapping a couple of EPROMs. If anyone is interested in further details, send me direct e-mail since I don't usually read c.s.i.p... I also have a PD program to display the switch settings (with meanings) of your AT&T: I could mail it to anyone who asks for it... -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jean-Francois Panisset "Oui Allo!" INET: panisset@larry.mcrcim.mcgill.edu Madame Brossard, 1988 UUCP: ...!mcgill-vision!panisset
eichi@forty2.UUCP (Stefan Eichenberger) (02/23/90)
In article <2587@intvax.UUCP> novak@intvax.UUCP (James L. Novak) writes: >A good friend has an early AT&T PC6300 (XT-clone) and wants to finally >join the real world and add a hard drive. The problem is that everyone >he calls (mail order places) won't guarantee that an add-on drive/adapter >will work. I know I used such a machine with a hard drive in school, but >don't remember anything about incompatibility problems. Can anyone >enlighten me about problems and controllers/disks that will work. Give it >to me techincal-I can translate for my MBA friend. I've a HardCard Plus / 40 MByte running in my AT&T 6300 together with a Datacard 21, which I have to use as a primary Hard Disk, since only the HArdCard allows to select different ROM addresses. The whole 60 MBytes run just fine, I notice a speed difference between the 80ms DataCard access time and the 40 ms Hard Card access time - so I'm not yet limited by the bus bandwidth as I'd probably be in a XT environment. The Cards have the advantage that I've still my two floppies available since the disk sits right on the controller card. Installation is no problem altough you've to inform the BIOS about its luck to have a HD awailable now by setting some disk switches. -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- UUCP: ...mcvax!cernvax!forty2!eichi Stefan Eichenberger BITNET: K807817@CZHRZU1A University of Zurich ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
chris@hpspdra.HP.COM (Chris Bostak) (03/02/90)
I have an AT&T 6300 with a Western Digital controller and a 30 MByte Seagate hard disk. (Sorry, I don't know the model numbers) I also am using BIOS version 1.43. There has never been a stitch of trouble from them. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The opinions expressed here do not necessarily represent those of any sentient life form. Chris Bostak chris@hpspd.hp.com