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Date:	Sun, 14 Sep 2003 16:56:22 PDT7
From:	"J. R. Fox" <jr_fox@pacbell.net >
Reply-To:	scoug-help@scoug.com
To:	scoug-help@scoug.com
Subject:	SCOUG-Help: Re: started out well, went downhill fast

Content Type: text/plain

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Steven replied:

> You need to fix the line wrap settings on your WinXX Netscape setup. A
> message half-full of lines with one or two words is hard on these old
> eyes.

I haven't booted Win in many weeks, which is typical for me. The only mail client I've ever used
is the one in NS 4.61. It annoys me a lot _too_ when the lines come out this way. I've tried all
sorts of correctives, but none of them is very reliable.

> >it had never been unpacked. The old one was a boot h/d, and I'm pretty
> >sure it was set as HD-0, though I still need to confirm that.
>
> Yes, you do.

I have no external reference or docs for the IBM drives I've always used (which came packaged as
bare drives, with nothing), that show you how the drive is ID'd. You could look at the small
pinblock and know right away, but I don't. In contrast, the Seagate I bought but haven't taken out
of its plastic shell came with a very informative data sheet with instructions and diagrams.

> >ASPI8U2.SYS and ASPI8DOS.SYS. (On their website, Adaptec has a U160DOS
>
> For reference, here's what worked last time I booted DOS on this box:
>
> config.sys has:
>
> device=c:\ezscsi\aspi8u2.sys /d
> device=c:\ezscsi\aspi8dos.sys /d
>
> which corresponds to:
>
> 9-16-99 3:03 37,984 0 ASPI8DOS.SYS
> 12-06-99 10:11 44,872 0 ASPI8U2.SYS

I'll compare those to what I have.

> > were among the ones I tried.) What's weird is that if I boot DOS off of a floppy, *without
> ANY* of the ASPI files, I can see the DOS C:, > even run some programs on it.
>
> Sure. What else would you expect to happen? You are using the same SCSI
> BIOS that allows you to boot the C: partition (if you had it working).
> Since it's only a 9GB drive, you can probably access all the visible
> partitions with just the BIOS IO routines.

I didn't know (or recall) that they would be sufficient to operate the drive. Anyway, after trying
umpteen BIOS settings permutations, drivers, driver lines etc., I got past that first roadblock.
It was something so elemental and so dumb I really hestitate to admit it here. It had been quite
some time since I FDISK'd or Partition Magic'd anything. (In this case, PM.) I assumed that if
you created and set up your first partition, by default PM would have set it as Active. After that
first one would come the question of what's going to be Active. Wrong, Wrong, Wrong. O.K., so I
can now boot the C: DOS test partition. The next issue will be getting ASPI8DOS accepted, and
ASPICD, if that is necessary. After a stroll on the 'Net, I found a driver for the Sony DVD I
temporarily put in. So far, tt is bombing out with:

"No Drives are Attached, or Drives are Powered Down. The Device Driver is Not Installed." "Device
Driver Not Found 'MSCD000.' No Valid CDRom device driver selected."

That is preferable to the earlier "Disk Boot Failure" problem, but I'll still need to get this --
or some other CD drive -- online.

> >One thing I noticed right away was that, at boot time, the drive "signs on" only with its make
> and model #, **not** with anything like the _additional_ >"ULTRA-2 LVD" I'm used to seeing flash
> by on my U2W-based desktop system. A cabling issue ? I dunno,
>
> Cabling would be my first suspect and and termination. You need to get
> into the SCSI BIOS and look at this stuff when it's not flashing by.

I did. Everything looked O.K. to me. The one change I made was to the HA setting for the LVD/SE
connector, going from 'Auto' to 'Enabled.' After that, instead of giving the IBM model
designation, followed by an "80" near the right of that line, it now gives the model and says
"160." Progress ? Maybe the drive sign-on with this card no longer says 'Ultra-3 LVD' or whatever
the name for the current standard would be ?

> >ID ahead of time, but the on-the-HA utilities pick it up as factory set at ID-6, so I set it to
> that for booting purposes.
>
> That's probably not the best for booting DOS.

O.K., but it is booting -- now. I'd change it at the first opportunity, though this may be
academic, for other reasons.

> Rule one when assembling a new system. Don't bolt together anything that
> doesn't require it until you are sure everyone wants to play nice
> together. If it was me, the hard drive would be sitting next to the case
> on a piece of cardboard until it was functioning correctly with the rest
> of the hardware.

Good point. More items for the 'Things I Should Have Known' file.

> >or OS/2 is going to be viable on the drive either, under these
> >circumstances.
>
> I wouldn't conclude that. I would try a proper set of DOS boot diskettes
> and a proper set of OS/2 boot diskettes and I would spent some time with
> dfsee to understand the drive characteristics.

O.K. I had already tried one set of BOOTOS2 diskettes, which hung on the 2nd. disk, but that was
before I fixed the partition setting.

> >no way I can see to get extra cooling in there. I don't even have the
> >cover on yet, so it's only going to get hotter.
>
> This may be a problem. Blade servers are designed to keep the SCSI drives
> cool. It appears that your box was designed for IDE.

This is what's probably going to be the deal-killer for SCSI in this box. (The Tech. Dept. at the
Co. I purchased the drive from said something to the effect that the Seagate probably runs cooler
than the IBMs I have used previously, but I'm skeptical this is going to make enough of a
difference, even if it turned out to be true. Especially since the Seagate is a 15K.) That
frequent thermal recal sound, which I recognize only too well, is bad news for sure. The thing is,
I really wanted to put a fast drive in there. Had I known this wasn't going to be viable -- and
Shuttle indicated to me that it should be -- I probably would not have bought their unit at all.

The small drive cage is sort of a three-step affair: 1/2 ht. on top of floppy-size tier directly on
top of the hard drive. It is aluminum, with some holes cut in the bottom. Still, not the best for
anything that runs hot. (Are IDE drives really that much cooler ?) The standard Adaptec cable is
much too long here, so the excess is coiled underneath the drive cage. A much shorter cable would
allow more clearance underneath. Probably not enough of a cooling difference though, I'm afraid.

> At this point, I'm not so sure that you don't have a MB issue.

It's not the identical model or motherboard -- there are quite a few different Shuttle models --
but Greg tells me he got everything in his Shuttle working fine with OS/2.

Jordan

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