[comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc] Problems with TP386/33 & transferring data among drives

steveskr@blake.u.washington.edu (Steve Skrzyniarz) (01/28/91)

I recently replaced my 286/20 motherboard with a new TP386/33 [Technology Power
Enterprises] and am now having problems transfering data between my floppy and
hard drives.

My system consists of the TP386/33 with a 64k cache and 8Mb of 80ns memory on
the motherboard; an Adlib card; a Microsoft InPort mouse card; a generic I/O
(serial/parallel) card; a Microtek scanner card; a Paradise 512k VGA card; a
monochrome (secondary monitor card); and a generic Western Digital RLL
controller.  My drives are: 1.2Mb, 1.44Mb and a 65Mb Mitsubishi MR535.

I have no problems reading from the hard drive, but when I try to copy stuff
from one of the floppy drives to the hard drive, some of the copied data
becomes corrupt.  This only seems to occur in files > 10k, and happens most
often with binary files.  I occasionally experience strange problems running
programs from the floppies as well (e.g. system hangs while installing Windows
or such), but these two problems probably have the same cause.

I have run Checkit on my system, which reports no DMA problem.  Sleuth
indicates that I have no conflicting interrupts..  I have swapped out the hard
drive controller with another generic RLL card, and with an Adaptec 2372 card,
with the same problems [each time, reformatting my hard drive].  I've also
swapped out my floppy and hard drive cables, and have switched floppy drives
as well.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

As a side note, should I be using 80ns memory?  The dealer who sold me the
machine didn't have any 70ns ram, and told me that there wouldn't be any
noticable difference anyway...  Should I return the ram and get 70ns?

Thanks,

Steve Skrzyniarz  (steveskr@blake.u.washington.edu)