ndeng@EULER.BERKELEY.EDU (Nan Deng) (09/13/89)
Recently I bought a 25 MHz 386 and encountered a weird problem about the hard disk. The mother board is made by MICRONICS with PHOENIX 386 BIOS PLUS ver 1.10 10. The hard disk is CONNOR C3104 (104 MB) partitioned into 3 logical disks. The problem is: when I use the "Turbo" mode (i.e. memory cache is on), sometimes I get a message saying "disk C is not ready. Abort, Retry, Ignore?" (Like I am unpacking some archives, especially for large files). But when I turn off the cache, then I have no problem at all. Is there anything wrong in my setup or the hardware? Has anybody in the net experienced similar problems? Any pointer would be greatly appreciated. (Especially the ones from the manufacturer or people have experience with CONNOR hard disks). BTW, the hard disk controller comes with the disk. CORETEST 2.7 test showes the throughput is around 850KByte/Sec. Does the result make any sense? Nan Deng ndeng@euler.berkeley.edu
harper@rigel.uucp (David Harper) (09/14/89)
In article <8909130841.AA14701@euler.Berkeley.EDU> ndeng@EULER.BERKELEY.EDU (Nan Deng) writes: > > >Recently I bought a 25 MHz 386 and encountered a weird problem about the >hard disk. The mother board is made by MICRONICS with PHOENIX 386 BIOS >PLUS ver 1.10 10. The hard disk is CONNOR C3104 (104 MB) partitioned into >3 logical disks. The problem is: when I use the "Turbo" mode (i.e. memory >cache is on), sometimes I get a message saying "disk C is not ready. Abort, >Retry, Ignore?" (Like I am unpacking some archives, especially for large >files). But when I turn off the cache, then I have no problem at all. Is >there anything wrong in my setup or the hardware? Has anybody in the net >experienced similar problems? Any pointer would be greatly appreciated. >(Especially the ones from the manufacturer or people have experience with >CONNOR hard disks). I too have a similar problem with the Micronics 25 MHz motherboard and the Phoenix BIOS. Although my main disk controller works okay (Adaptek 2372), I suddenly developed the same symptoms as you have described with all drives attached to my CompatiCard (ie: 360K-5.25, 720K-3.5, 1.44-3.5). As with you, these problems go away when I drop out of turbo mode. Since I don't use these drives all that much, I haven't really addressed the problem yet. I would be curious to find out what you hear on this. BTW, I should mention that this problem only appeared when I installed the new motherboard - prior to that I never had a hint of problems with the CompatiCard. Dave Harper - Convex Computer Corp. E-mail address: 3000 Waterview Pky. Richardson, TX 75081 harper@convex.COM (214) 497-4525 (W) (214) 727-4206 (H)
panders@hubcap.clemson.edu (paul f anderson) (09/15/89)
From article <1743@convex.UUCP>, by harper@rigel.uucp (David Harper): > In article <8909130841.AA14701@euler.Berkeley.EDU> ndeng@EULER.BERKELEY.EDU (Nan Deng) writes: >> >> >>Recently I bought a 25 MHz 386 and encountered a weird problem about the >>hard disk. The mother board is made by MICRONICS with PHOENIX 386 BIOS >>PLUS ver 1.10 10. The hard disk is CONNOR C3104 (104 MB) partitioned into >>3 logical disks. The problem is: when I use the "Turbo" mode (i.e. memory >>cache is on), sometimes I get a message saying "disk C is not ready. Abort, > > I too have a similar problem with the Micronics 25 MHz motherboard and the > Phoenix BIOS. Although my main disk controller works okay (Adaptek 2372), > I suddenly developed the same symptoms as you have described with all drives > attached to my CompatiCard (ie: 360K-5.25, 720K-3.5, 1.44-3.5). As with you, I believe that the problems that you are experienceing are a result of the BIOS in your machines NOT being modified by the manufacturer to handle the higher speed of the new CPU/Motherboard. Somewhere down in the bios there is a CONSTANT that is used to determine how many times to spin in aloop waiting for the controller to repond. Of course the faster the CPU the larger this Constant needs to be. This is because the faster CPU executes the less time it takes to do n trips through the timing loop. Solution to your problem may be to get a BIOS upgrade. Of course it could be . . . or . . . . P. F. Anderson