tgl@zog.cs.cmu.edu (Tom Lane) (10/31/89)
A while back there was some discussion of difficulties in putting ESDI hard disk controller cards on '386 motherboards, specifically the Micronics 33 mHz motherboard. A friend of mine has just run into precisely this problem: he is getting very flaky behavior from an Adaptec ESDI controller. (Needless to say he is not too happy with the "systems integrator" that sold him the combination.) Are there any ESDI controller cards that are KNOWN to work with the Micronics motherboard? Reports of first-hand experience would be preferred. (If you can name names of other brands that don't work, that would be useful too.) He's using a Maxtor 650Mb drive, if that makes any difference. -- tom lane Internet: tgl@cs.cmu.edu UUCP: <your favorite internet/arpanet gateway>!cs.cmu.edu!tgl BITNET: tgl%cs.cmu.edu@cmuccvma CompuServe: >internet:tgl@cs.cmu.edu
caf@omen.UUCP (Chuck Forsberg WA7KGX) (11/01/89)
In article <6763@pt.cs.cmu.edu> tgl@zog.cs.cmu.edu (Tom Lane) writes:
:
: A while back there was some discussion of difficulties in putting
:ESDI hard disk controller cards on '386 motherboards, specifically
:the Micronics 33 mHz motherboard. A friend of mine has just run
:into precisely this problem: he is getting very flaky behavior from
:an Adaptec ESDI controller. (Needless to say he is not too happy
:with the "systems integrator" that sold him the combination.)
: Are there any ESDI controller cards that are KNOWN to work with
:the Micronics motherboard? Reports of first-hand experience would
:be preferred. (If you can name names of other brands that don't work,
:that would be useful too.)
I have a Micronics 33 mHz motherboard and it isn't too kind with marginally
fast I/O boards, even at slower bus speed. Casualties include: AST 4-Port
(in Xenix mode), Everex Tape controller, and Adaptec 2322 (marginal).
The AST won't work at all in the Micronics. The Everex seems
to work if the Micronics is slowed to "AT 8 mHz" speed, and
sometimes works at full speed. The Adaptec doesn't like to
format Hd's on the Micronics, but SCO Unix seems to like it
just fine. When I first tried the 2322 had difficulty writing
to HD with DOS, but with the current arrangement of boards DOS
seems to be OK. Several other boards work OK at the slow bus
speed. The Micronics' 11 mHz bus speed spazzes just about
everything, don't bother to try it.
Maybe the Micronics 33 mHz really wants EISA boards.
Chuck Forsberg WA7KGX ...!tektronix!reed!omen!caf
Author of YMODEM, ZMODEM, Professional-YAM, ZCOMM, and DSZ
Omen Technology Inc "The High Reliability Software"
17505-V NW Sauvie IS RD Portland OR 97231 503-621-3406
TeleGodzilla:621-3746 FAX:621-3735 CIS:70007,2304 Genie:CAFburton@mitisft.Convergent.COM (Philip Burton) (11/03/89)
Chuck, Doesn't the Micronics 33 MHz board have an option to run the bus at 8 MHz, while still running the CPU at 33 MHz? Have you tried your setup with other 33 MHz motherboards, such as Mylex or AMI? Phil Burton Unisys (nee Convergent) 408 435 3791