cambler@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU (Fubar's Carbonated Hormones) (12/29/90)
I am having some trouble, I hope some hardware guru can help. The symptoms: I am running a generic 10MHz XT, with a Western Digital WD-GEN-2-PLUS controller card and a miniscribe 3425 21 meg HH hard drive. The cable is NON twisted, and the drive is the only drive in the system. I called miniscribe/maxtor and made sure that the sip switches are correct. I then called WD and made sure that the jumpers on the card are correct. Now, my manual for the drive says that it's a 615 cyl. drive, while WD told me to format it as 612. They also said NOT to jumper the controller with the jumpers for a 612 cyl. drive. Ok... In any case, I've tried it both jumpered and unjumpered, and as 612 and 615 cyls, and nothing works. It's formatted once, and i put the case on, and it died. I took the case off, and now can't get it to format again. MORE INTERESTING SYMPTOMS: when i turn the machine on, the drive resets, and then the LED comes back on and stays on. I run debug, g=c800:5, and it seems to format ok, but the drive doesn't DO anything except light the LED. Intersting that it stays lit until the formatter asks me if i'm virtually configuring the drive. at that point, the light goes off when I say no, then goes on when the formatting starts. But the drive makes no noise. When it formatted before, the drive clicked audibly. So I then run fdisk, and it always says no fixed drives. All diagnostics reset the drive, but report seek errors, which makes sense seeing what format is doing. I'm sure all cables are correctly pinned, and configured, the card is jumpered, and the drive is jumpered correctly. ANYTHING I OVERLOOKED? Argph! -- ++Christopher(); --- cambler@polyslo.calpoly.edu --- chris@erotica.fubarsys.com --- A feature is a bug with seniority.
cgordon@vpnet.chi.il.us (Crash Gordon) (12/31/90)
/* Hard drive doesn't work right in XT */ You might try loosening the mounting screws, placing some insulating substance under the drive, and/or attaching a "real" ground from the drive frame to the PC frame. What makes me suspicious is the fact that it came up once, but quit "when the case was put on." There's also a reasonable possibility that the power supply isn't up to the task. Check DC voltages, (+5 and +12). Also check for ripple on the DC supplies. Sometimes a laboring power supply will read OK on a DC test, but the ripple will be phenomenonal! My qualifications: I've put a _lot_ of hard drives in XTs... :-) ----------------------------------------------------- Gordon S. Hlavenka cgordon@vpnet.chi.il.us Disclaimer: Yeah, I said it. So what?
millard@eos.arc.nasa.gov (Millard Edgerton) (01/01/91)
Try WD's BBS..........1-714-753-1234. Good Luck *************************************************************************** * Intelligent people talk about ideas. | Standard disclaimer(s) * * Average people talk about things. | Millard J. Edgerton, WA6VZZ * * Small people talk about other people. | millard@eos.arc.nasa.gov * *************************************************************************** * Fax 415-604-6475 | Voice 415-604-3480 * * Employed by Sterling Software at NASA Ames Research Center. * ***************************************************************************