mull@sparc26.hri.com (Chris Mullendore) (02/26/91)
I'm in the middle of upgrading my XT clone with a 286/20 NEAT motherboard with Phoenix BIOS. But, my XT RLL HD controller (Adaptec ACB-2072) doesn't seem to work. I admit I put it in a 16 bit slot, but that shouldn't matter, should it? Then I started looking at some documentation, and noticed that the AT Bus has the hard disk interrupt request at IRQ14 where it was IRQ5 on the XT bus. Is there any chance that hacking my HD controller board to use IRQ14 might work? If so, could somebody please tell me how to locate IRQ5 and IRQ14 on the AT I/O card connector? Or are there other changes in the way an AT handles an HD controller such as trying to do 16 bit transfers that would screw me up? I really don't care about performance. 8 bit transfers would be fine for now. My M/C's at the limit and a new AT RLL controller doesn't seem cheap. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Chris Mullendore (mull@hri.com)
jdb@reef.cis.ufl.edu (Brian K. W. Hook) (02/28/91)
Since the AT has native support for a fixed disk in ROM and the XT didn't,
the XT had the extensive ROM BIOS supprt on the card. Thus, I believe that
you need to do one of two things, I forgot which:
A. Disable the ROM BIOS on the card and set the drive type in the AT's
drive table....
B. ooorrrr.....tell your AT that you have no fixed disk installed and use
the ROM BIOS on your XT card.
Brian
PS I noticed you menitioned that you didn't have the money for a new card,
but if there is ANY way you could scrounge and get a new adapter I would
since when and if you change the adapter to a 16-bit a reformat (low level)
will more than likely be required, causing a huge hassle. Try
misc.forsale.computers, there usually a lot of things like that for sale there.