duck@engin.umich.edu (Ho Han Chyi Howard) (12/31/90)
I just got my upgrade from an old GVP SCSI to the new SCSI+RAM controller.
There were several problems with the installation that plagued the entire
recourse; (Not to forget the mix-up in mailing addresses!) although I must
admit that my setup is different from the norm.
Well, I have a base 2000+A2286+VGA+PC SCSI controller+Mircon 2MB(<-problem).
And I have 2 HDs in my machine, an Amiga 40M Quantum and a PC 200M Conner,
which I wanted to switch around.
That was not the problem and neither was the FaastPrep utility (sweet) that
GVP provided. The problem was that the machine kept crashing for no reason.
(GURU med's of illegal address, instruction, etc.) That kept me puzzuled
for a day or 2. GVP tech support didn't do much 'cause I think they were out
for the X'mas season. (Can't blame them!)
The soln (read: work around) was to only use CHIP for the buffers, as I
later discovered, after reading the "programmer's info" section of the
sparse GVP documentation. There was a little burp that hinted of the
possiblity of incompatiblity with some memory devices (Micron board?)
After switching the default of (E)ither CHIP or FAST to (C)hip only and
resetting the mask to 0x1FFFFF in the RDB, things became a whole lot more
stable. They also slowed down quite a bit. (yeach!)
I hope that is reason why it really crashes. If any GVP people read this,
please email me. I suspect that GVP's own fast RAM expansion should work
with it's own card.
Now I am waiting for my 4MB of SIMMs, which I hope will solve my problems.
That also means that I am selling my Mircon board (2MB populated). I need
the speed (that's why I upgraded) and at this rate I am getting no advantage.
Adios,
Howard Ho
BTW: I'm selling my 2MB Micron Board and my flicker fixer - offer me a price!
No unreaasonable offers refused, email duck@caen.engin.umich.edu
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*******************************************************************************rbabel@babylon.rmt.sub.org (Ralph Babel) (01/06/91)
In article <1990Dec30.231131.7723@engin.umich.edu> duck@engin.umich.edu (Ho Han Chyi Howard) writes: > Well, I have a base 2000+A2286+VGA+PC SCSI > controller+Mircon 2MB(<-problem). > > [...] > > After switching the default of (E)ither CHIP or FAST to > (C)hip only and resetting the mask to 0x1FFFFF in the RDB, > things became a whole lot more stable. Restricting DMA to chip memory is usually not required if the memory expansion supports DMA (and _all_ Zorro-II expansion cards are supposed to support it. Btw: The mask value should really be 0x1FFFFE - at least with the V3.7 driver you probably have. > I suspect that GVP's own fast RAM expansion should work > with it's own card. Guess so. In fact, all well-designed RAM expansions should work just fine with DMA. Ralph