jrs2p@amsun20.apma.Virginia.EDU (02/01/90)
Hi Folks, I have a tape drive question, but first a little background... Last week I received the 386 system I ordered from Gateway. Everything appeared to be fine, with the one exception that the HD controller in the machine was an "Ultrastor Ultra 12(F)" caching controller, and the one listed on the invoice and packing slip was a Western Digital WD1007. A call to Gateway revealed that they didn't have any WD1007's in stock currently, and that I could switch when they did get them. So that seems ok. I plan to run unix (probably ESIX) on the machine, and wanted to install a tape drive which could interchange DC600 tapes written (with tar?) on the SUN 3/260's used around here. Has anyone done this? To make a long story short, I got a tape drive and can't seem to get it working. Can anyone help??? The System: Gateway 2000 386DX-25 Micronics 64K cache Motherboard 8 Meg of 80 ns RAM 80387DX-25 Ultrastor Ultra 12(F) ESDI hard disk controller Microscience 152 Meg ESDI hard drive 1.2 5.25 inch floppy drive 1.44 3.5 inch floppy drive Everex 2400 baud internal modem (COM1) Logitech C9 serial mouse (COM2) Unused serial port (COM3) Parallel port (LPT1) Game port w/joystick ATI Wonder VGA (512k) NEC 3D In case you're interested, the above cost $4670.00 including 2 day air shipping, not including the modem, gameport/joystick, Logitech mouse and 80387. The Tape Drive: Archive ST600 60 Meg tape drive (FasTape) SC499-R controller FasTape software for MS-DOS I've tried everything I can think of, everything Archive's technical support can think of, and at least the first round of suggestions from Gateway's tech's. This includes: 1. Changing the base port address to 220h (from 200h) so that it doesn't interfer with the game port. 2. Changing IRQ to 5 (from 3) so that it doesn't interfer with COM2 (mouse) 3. Disable caching in Ultra 12(F) HD controller 4. Slowing the system down to 6 MHz. 5. Every imaginable combination of 1-4. I even tried turning off the motherboard caching. I sometimes get a message "Tape board or software not addresses properly" (or something like that) and then the DOS prompt, or sometimes I don't get any message and the system just hangs. --------- Please e-mail to me and I will post the solution if one is found. ========================================================================== Jonathan R. Senning, Graduate Student jrs2p@Virginia.EDU Department of Applied Mathematics (804) 924-4580 University of Virginia Charlottesville, VA
caf@omen.UUCP (WA7KGX) (02/03/90)
I know from experience that an Orchid Pro Designer+ VGA bollixes an Everex cartridge tape drive. Replacing the VGA with a $33 Monochrome board makes the system well (and it even runs at 11 mHz I/O speed!). Generalization: a VGA may interfere with the tape drive. 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:CAF