[u3b.tech] 3B2 Drives

eric@sactoh0.SAC.CA.US (Eric J. Nihill) (11/01/90)

I am attempting to use a few Maxtor XT-1065 drives on a
AT&T 3B2/400.
I can get the drive to write the defect table and to format.
When I attempt to write the sanity pattern, however, I get
the following message:

GETPHYS:  Could not initialize disk 0


If I attempt to write the sanity pattern for the second time,
the hard disk lets out a howl and then writes the pattern ok.
The drive seems to be very noisy. As it is formatting and 
verifing, the drive makes a serirs of regular clicks. Also, upon
first power-up, the drive will let out a howl.

After writing the pattern, I can start loading the core. However,
when I get to the point that the system tries to restart itself
from hard disk, (first core disk), I get the following:

SELF-CHECK

FW ERROR 1-02: DISK SANITY FAILURE
               EXECUTION HALTED

SYSTEM FAILURE: CONSULT YOUR SYSTEM ADMINISTRATION UTILITES GUIDE


This is not isolated to one drive. Several model XT-1065's
and XT-1140's are doing on several different 3B2/310 and
3B2/400's.
The drives have been deemed good by a service facility.

Is there a hardware incompatability between Maxtor drives and
AT&T 3B2's?

I am using idtools and also connected to the mother board.

Can anyone shed any light on this?

					Eric
					eric@sactoh0.SAC.CA.US


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woods@eci386.uucp (Greg A. Woods) (11/06/90)

In article <4263@sactoh0.SAC.CA.US> eric@sactoh0.SAC.CA.US (Eric J. Nihill) writes:
> I am attempting to use a few Maxtor XT-1065 drives on a
> AT&T 3B2/400.
> I can get the drive to write the defect table and to format.
> When I attempt to write the sanity pattern, however, I get
> the following message:
> 
> GETPHYS:  Could not initialize disk 0
>
> If I attempt to write the sanity pattern for the second time,
> the hard disk lets out a howl and then writes the pattern ok.

It sounds (no pun intended) like you might have either the wrong
geometry for the drives, or a bad motherboard.

I assume since you said "idtools", you mean the most recent version,
not what was known as "devtools".  You need idtools for the larger
disks (>8 heads, I think).

The 1140's should be 15 heads, 17 sectors/track, 512 bytes/sector, and
918 cylinders.  You can format most 1140's to 1024 cylinders.

Some people say that you can run them right out to 1224 cyl., as long
as you aren't booting off them.  I never tried it.

> The drive seems to be very noisy. As it is formatting and 
> verifing, the drive makes a serirs of regular clicks. Also, upon
> first power-up, the drive will let out a howl.

Most Maxtor drives are noisy, and most howl when doing a re-cal.

> Is there a hardware incompatability between Maxtor drives and
> AT&T 3B2's?

Nope.  I use them all the time!  Actually I had 2 Maxtor-1140's on a
3B2/400, running 1024 cyl., before the lightning hit it!
-- 
						Greg A. Woods

woods@{eci386,gate,robohack,ontmoh,tmsoft}.UUCP
+1-416-443-1734 [h]  +1-416-595-5425 [w]    VE3-TCP	Toronto, Ontario CANADA

eric@sactoh0.SAC.CA.US (Eric J. Nihill) (12/13/90)

 There has been a few questions about Configuration of Drives
for a 3B2/300-310-400, so here is a summary of the information
that I have to date:

Type			Configuration Variable		
	Drive	# of 		# of tracks	# of sectors	# of bytes
	ID	cylinders	/cylinder	/track		/sector

CDC
WREN	3	697		5		18		512

Seagate
10 MB	2	306		4		18		512

CDC
WRENII	5	929		9		18		512

Fujitsu
72 MB	8	754		11		18		512

Mini-
Scribe
6085	4	940		8		18		512

Maxtor
XT-1140 9	918/1024	9		17		512

For more info on using a MAXTOR:
->From: woods@eci386.uucp (Greg A. Woods)
->Subject: Re: 3B2 Drives
->The 1140's should be 15 heads, 17 sectors/track, 512 bytes/sector, and
->918 cylinders.  You can format most 1140's to 1024 cylinders.
->Some people say that you can run them right out to 1224 cyl., as long
->as you aren't booting off them.  I never tried it.

(and)
->
->From: woods%eci386@uunet.UU.NET (Greg A. Woods)
->Subject: Re: Maxtor Drives
->
->[ On Tue Nov 20 12:37 (Re: "Maxtor Drives"), you wrote: ]
->>   It seems that there is a hardware configuration problem
->> between a 3B2 and a XT series Maxtor. This problem of being
->> able to read the defect table one minute and not the next
->> seems to be common with several XT series Maxtors on several
->> 3B2's. 
->Nope, it's a driver bug.
->>   Are there any options on the drive that should be set to
->> make it work with the 3B2? Jumper pins? Cut traces??
->Yup, there's a patch (sorry I don't have the actual patch, since my
->machine is down and out [lightning strike], but you should be able to
->get the fix from AT&T).
->I found this patch did not fully correct the problem, but only reduce
->the hangs to a very short (1-5 secs.) time.  The drive(s) will always
->re-cal. though, and yes if you get a bad-block when this happens, it
->can start thrashing.
->The only real fix would be to re-write the id interrupt handler, and
->or speed up the machine.
->
->Here's the readme3b2/3.1/README.id_hang:
->Some 3B2's with two integral disk drives occasionally "hang" for anywhere
->between 10 seconds and a few hours.  Then, for no obvious reason, the hang
->will clear itself up.
->Closer inspection reveals that processes are hung on one of the integral
->disk drives, usually the second one.  Not all processes are hung,
->though it usually seems like it to the users.
->A patch to the integral disk driver accompanies this README.
->This is the second published patch for this problem.
->The original patch would not eliminate the hangs entirely, but would
->reduce their duration to at most 20 seconds.
->THIS patch prevents the hangs entirely.
->This patch is for UNIX System V Release 3.1 on a 3B2.
->It includes one file besides the README.
->$ ls -l
->-rwxrwxr-x   1 rbc      ucs        36248 Oct 27 17:21 idisk.o
->$ sum -r idisk.o
->05778    71 idisk.o
->To install:
->Login as root.
->Save a copy of the original driver and /unix (Hopefully you have room):
->	# mv /boot/IDISK /
->	# cp /unix /unix.old
->Note: Do NOT save a copy of IDISK under a different name in the /boot directory!
->Use mkboot to format the idisk.o file into the /boot directory.
->	# mkboot idisk.o
->Reboot the system in a way to make a new /unix.
->	# touch /etc/system
->	# shutdown -g0 -i6 -y
->
->That should do it.  To monitor use:
-> # /etc/crash
-> > od idscancnt 2
-> 40253824: 00000002 00000001
->                  ^--------^- This shows 2 resets on drive 0 and 1 reset
->                              on drive 1.  If no patch is in, idscancnt
->			      will not exist.  If the old patch is in,
->			      these numbers show the number of hangs
->			      that were noticed and reset within 20
->			      seconds.  If this (the new) patch is in,
->			      these numbers should always be 0 unless
->			      there is a hardware problem.

I called AT&T, but their tech support was not quite sure what
I was referring to about a patch, then told me I should not 
need it since I was using R3.2.

Hope this info helps. Feel free to add to it and repost additional
information.
					Eric
-- 
     Some do, some don't.           |       eric@sactoh0.SAC.CA.US
    Some will, some won't.          |      ames!pacbell!sactoh0!eric
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