jackv@turnkey.tcc.com (Jack F. Vogel) (02/06/91)
I am having a problem that I hope someone else out there has seen and solved. I have a 25Mhz Atronics 386 system, I just purchased an Adaptec 1542B and Maxtor 200Meg drive. When the system boots the Adaptec bios correctly finds LUN 0 Target 0 and says its installed as C:, however running the onboard diagnostics all commands are getting a TIMEOUT failure, it doesn't get drive information, won't verify or format. Initially I thought there was a problem with the drive and had it replaced, no go, the new drive had the same problem. Then I put the adaptor and drive into a 10Mhz 286 system and it worked fine! So there must be something relating to the speed of the 386 system that is causing the failure. In case it matters the bus is already throttled to 8Mhz. Is there any magic with jumpers or otherwise that I can do to get around the problem?? Any help or suggestions appreciated!! -- Jack F. Vogel jackv@locus.com AIX370 Technical Support - or - Locus Computing Corp. jackv@turnkey.TCC.COM
alun@sunatb.UUCP (Alun Saunders) (02/12/91)
jackv@turnkey.tcc.com (Jack F. Vogel) writes: >I am having a problem that I hope someone else out there has seen and solved. >I have a 25Mhz Atronics 386 system, I just purchased an Adaptec 1542B and >Maxtor 200Meg drive. When the system boots the Adaptec bios correctly finds >LUN 0 Target 0 and says its installed as C:, however running the onboard >diagnostics all commands are getting a TIMEOUT failure, it doesn't get >drive information, won't verify or format. Initially I thought there was >a problem with the drive and had it replaced, no go, the new drive had the >same problem. Then I put the adaptor and drive into a 10Mhz 286 system and >it worked fine! So there must be something relating to the speed of the >386 system that is causing the failure. In case it matters the bus is already >throttled to 8Mhz. Is there any magic with jumpers or otherwise that I can >do to get around the problem?? I don't know about the Adaptec controller, but I know people who have had problems with all sorts of cards that have add-in ROMS in combination with 386 machines and shadow ROM. Disabling the shadow ROM and thus forcing the code in the ROM to actually execute in the ROM over the bus seems to do the trick. You'll probably also find that you will have to keep the bus at 8 MHz. I have a cheapo Taiwanese adapter (Longshine LCS286N) which refuses to run on an AT clone with a 10 MHz bus. Hope this helps, Alun Saunders