lampi@polari.UUCP (Michael Lampi) (08/28/90)
I have a couple of Maxtor XT8760E disk drives connected to a DN-3500, and
have run into a couple of problems:
1. INVOL reports that the disks have 650 megabytes of storage available
(instead of 697, as expected).
2. Power-on diagnostics fail at the first disk test:
Self test failed
Test #1
Expected 00000000 actual=00000011 addr=01001000 pc=00007B24
3. Mnemonic Debugger commands attempting to access the drive(s) fail,
but DEX works perfectly and reports no problems.
I've tried 2 Western Digital controllers and two different disk drives. (A
third Western Digital controller was D.O.A., and didn't see any disks.)
As usual, Customer Support had no clues, and so far I've had no word from
R & D.
Any suggestions?
Michael Lampilampi@polari.UUCP (Michael Lampi) (08/28/90)
In article <2437@polari.UUCP> lampi@polari.UUCP (Michael Lampi) writes: >I have a couple of Maxtor XT8760E disk drives connected to a DN-3500, and >have run into a couple of problems: Please ignore the following point: > 1. INVOL reports that the disks have 650 megabytes of storage available However, please examine the following points: > 2. Power-on diagnostics fail at the first disk test: > Self test failed > Test #1 > Expected 00000000 actual=00000011 addr=01001000 pc=00007B24 > 3. Mnemonic Debugger commands attempting to access the drive(s) fail, > but DEX works perfectly and reports no problems. That is, using the WIN.DEX diagnostic loaded from a partner node and operating on the local disk. > >I've tried 2 Western Digital controllers and two different disk drives. (A > >Any suggestions? Add the following information: 4. CPU motherboard revision is 6. 5. O.S. is 10.2 6. When booted from a partner we have no problems accessing the drive. Sounds like a motherboard rev problem to me, but HP Service wants $ to replace the motherboard so it will work with the HP-supplied WD controller, even though the 3500 is under maintenance. Any other ideas before the money is spent? Michael Lampi >
thompson@PAN.SSEC.HONEYWELL.COM (John Thompson) (08/28/90)
> I have a couple of Maxtor XT8760E disk drives connected to a DN-3500, and > have run into a couple of problems: > 1. INVOL reports that the disks have 650 megabytes of storage available > (instead of 697, as expected). You should only have about 650MB. Regardless of what HP/Apollo says, you do not get 155MB, 348MB, nor 697MB of 'formatted capacity' on their disks. I believe the discrepancy is in the VTOC and other overhead areas. On our network, instead of 155/348/697MB, we see 146/329/659MB, which happens to be 94% of the stated capacity in each case. Hmmmm... methinks Apollo uses about 6% of the formatted disk. > 2. Power-on diagnostics fail at the first disk test: > Self test failed > Test #1 > Expected 00000000 actual=00000011 addr=01001000 pc=00007B24 If the disks are 3rd party, you may need to run INVOL option 7 (initialize physical badspot list). HP/Apollo does that for you as part of their burn-in/test/setup. > 3. Mnemonic Debugger commands attempting to access the drive(s) fail, > but DEX works perfectly and reports no problems. Probably same as (2) above -- even if my solution isn't right. John Thompson (jt) Honeywell, SSEC Plymouth, MN 55441 thompson@pan.ssec.honeywell.com As ever, my opinions do not necessarily agree with Honeywell's or reality's. (Honeywell's do not necessarily agree with mine or reality's, either)
krowitz@RICHTER.MIT.EDU (David Krowitz) (08/28/90)
If DEX is running ok, then the drive/controller/CPU combination is probably ok. (assuming you ran the WIN test on the full drive with writes enabled -- the default is read-only). If a full DEX WIN test succeeds, then run EX FBS (find bad spots), which will not only create a new bad spot list on the disk (ala INVOL option 7), but it also exercise the drive and enter the location of any bad blocks it finds in the bad spot list. If you have the manufacturer's bad block list, you can enter it by hand in addition to (or instead of) running FBS. If all this (DEX, FBS, INVOL) work ok and the self-test still fails, then I would look to an out of date boot PROM on the CPU motherboard. -- David Krowitz krowitz@richter.mit.edu (18.83.0.109) krowitz%richter.mit.edu@eddie.mit.edu krowitz%richter.mit.edu@mitvma.bitnet (in order of decreasing preference)
thompson@PAN.SSEC.HONEYWELL.COM (John Thompson) (08/28/90)
> In article <2437@polari.UUCP> lampi@polari.UUCP (Michael Lampi) writes: > >I have a couple of Maxtor XT8760E disk drives connected to a DN-3500, and > >have run into a couple of problems: > Please ignore the following point: > . > . > . > > Add the following information: > 4. CPU motherboard revision is 6. To use the WD controller, according to my little spec sheet, you need CPU motherboard rev 9. > 5. O.S. is 10.2 > 6. When booted from a partner we have no problems accessing the drive. That's weird. > Sounds like a motherboard rev problem to me, but HP Service wants $ to > replace the motherboard so it will work with the HP-supplied WD controller, > even though the 3500 is under maintenance. > > Any other ideas before the money is spent? If it is indeed the motherboard (I'd tend to agree), you have 2 choices: 1) spend the bucks. 2) throw the controller and disk away. Although the system is under maintenance, Apollo policy as I understand it is to not pay for CPU up-revs unless you buy an upgrade from them that requires it (even then I'm not sure). The explanation I heard is that there's nothing _wrong_ with the machine itself -- it just can't handle a particular piece of hardware added to it. I don't know that I agree with them, but I can certainly understand and sympathize. John Thompson (jt) Honeywell, SSEC Plymouth, MN 55441 thompson@pan.ssec.honeywell.com As ever, my opinions do not necessarily agree with Honeywell's or reality's. (Honeywell's do not necessarily agree with mine or reality's, either)
lampi@polari.UUCP (Michael Lampi) (08/29/90)
Michael Lampi (lampi@polari.uucp) writes: >> I have a couple of Maxtor XT8760E disk drives connected to a DN-3500, and [problems deleted - ran into self test errors at power-on] The problems have been diagnosed as having to do with the age of the cpu motherboard. Turns out that it was boot prom (rev. 1.6 from the MD banner), and the earliest version that supports the WD controller is 3 (or maybe 4). Anyway, the current rev is 7, and includes some different PALs, microcode and wiring changes--not just a simple PROM swap. Sigh.... Thanks for all the help from HP/Apollo R&D! Michael Lampi
dbfunk@ICAEN.UIOWA.EDU (David B Funk) (08/29/90)
> In article <2437@polari.UUCP> lampi@polari.UUCP (Michael Lampi) writes: > >I have a couple of Maxtor XT8760E disk drives connected to a DN-3500, and > >have run into a couple of problems: > > 2. Power-on diagnostics fail at the first disk test: > Self test failed > Test #1 > Expected 00000000 actual=00000011 addr=01001000 pc=00007B24 > 3. Mnemonic Debugger commands attempting to access the drive(s) fail, > but DEX works perfectly and reports no problems. > That is, using the WIN.DEX diagnostic loaded from a partner node and > operating on the local disk. > . > > Add the following information: > 4. CPU motherboard revision is 6. > 5. O.S. is 10.2 > 6. When booted from a partner we have no problems accessing the drive. > > Sounds like a motherboard rev problem to me, but HP Service wants $ to > replace the motherboard so it will work with the HP-supplied WD controller, > even though the 3500 is under maintenance. > > Any other ideas before the money is spent? My bet would be a mother board problem, either a real failure or just a boot ROM compatability problem. If I'm reading your symptoms right, the ONLY time there's a problem is when you ask the MD (boot ROM monitor) to talk to the disk. Software loaded into the node (DEX, the OS, INVOL, SALVOL, etc) like it & have no problems. So it just looks like the boot ROM isn't a happy camper. Here's one easy check: There are TWO different kinds of DN3500 mother boards, the original with a part number of 011858 and a newer layout with a part number of 015652. (Rumor has it that the engineers figured out how to reduce the number of layers needed and came up with a new layout that was cheaper to produce). The WD7000 controller will NOT work with early versions of either board, there are minimum board revision numbers for use with the WD controller. According to the references that I've seen they are: CPU # minimum rev # 011858 rev 09 015652 rev 04 So if your CPU is part # 011858, then your revision 6 is too old to understand the WD controller. The only guaranteed fix would be to get the board up-reved (replaced). One trick that might get you by: if you can find a DN3500 with a 011858 rev 9 CPU board, you might be able to clone its boot ROM & use it in your machine. Dave Funk