skipl@adaptex.UUCP (12/22/89)
>* Written 7:44 pm Sep 17, 1989 by wpi.UUCP!jwhitson in adaptex:comp.sy.ibm.pc */ >* ---------- "Hard Disk Problems II" ---------- */ > > Help! once again. The following problem: > > 12 MHZ IBM AT Compatible, AT-339 motherboard. > Western Digital WD1002-WA2 disk controller board / Miniscribe 3425 hard disk (20 Meg, 615 cyl 4 heads) / Award BIOS 3.01B (80286 support) / / What happens is when it is powered up, the drive spins up, / and I get ERROR INITIALIZING HARD DISK 0 after about 20 seconds / of waiting with the select light on. The drive is perfectly fine / on other machines. / / Two questions: / 1 -On the drive, what are the meanings of the 8 dip / switch settings? / 2 - In the CMOS configuation RAM, is the drive type 2 or type / 6?? Difference is in "compensation" value (300 vs FFFF) / / Other than that, if anyone knows of an archive of hardware diagnostic / software, I would really appreciate it if you could tell me where. / /hanks ... / // -- /-------------------------------------------------------------------------- /ohn Whitson: Internet: jwhitson@wpi.wpi.edu Bitnet: jwhitson@wpi.bitnet / UUCP: {...}!decvax!wpi.wpi.edu!jwhitson /* End of text from adaptex:comp.sy.ibm.pc */ / John, I don't have a definitive answer for you , however I had the identical experience with a Panasonic hard drive I used to sell. Knowing that drive it appears that the BIOS has a timeout in it at around 20 seconds and the drive should be at cylinder 000 by then. If not an error is posted. Simply executing a soft boot will then allow it to work ok. I think the Pasasonic drive was bulletproof, however it had a closed loop servo which was the slowest thing I've ever seen. For a 20 meg drive! Iv'e been living with this for two years and have had no problems other than executing a soft boot immediately after a power up.