Xref: utzoo comp.sys.ibm.pc:33235 comp.periphs:2025
Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!att!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!cornell!uw-beaver!fluke!blew
From: blew@tc.fluke.COM (Bob Lewandowski)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc,comp.periphs
Subject: Help !! Problem with SCSI hard drive in Everex STEP.
Keywords: SCSI, Everex, Adaptec, help!
Message-ID: <10388@fluke.COM>
Date: 15 Aug 89 18:34:19 GMT
Sender: news@tc.fluke.COM
Distribution: na
Organization: John Fluke Mfg. Co., Inc., Everett, WA
Lines: 58

Hi!

I am having major problems putting an Everex STEP 386/20
system together using a Imprimis/CDC SCSI interface hard drive
and an Adaptec SCSI controller. The drive is a Wren V half-height,
Model 94221-190 (s/n 3007861) which is spec'ed to be 190 Mbytes
formatted (209 Mbytes unformatted). I am using an Adaptec 1542A
(date code ? 8923 ) controller. The bios chip on the Adaptec is
labeled 420-403-00A and the firmware encoder chip is 420-504-00C
E7BC. The problems occur during formatting, if the hard disk
is formatted in the Everex machine everything seems to proceed
OK, except that it formats out to about 177 Mbytes instead of 190.
DIR appears to be correct, but CHKDSK indicates more than 180 lost
clusters and the number of lost clusters increases if you re-run
CHKDSK. If CHKDSK is allowed to 'fixup' the disk it produces 177
Mbytes of trash files.  Writes or reads to the disk don't work at
all. The system won't boot from the hard disk either.

If the drive and the controller are put in a 286 AT clone the drive
can be formatted correctly but only to 177 Mbytes again. It works OK
in the 286 and can be moved to the Everex 386 where it will boot the
system and seems to function normally. Attempting to re-format in the
Everex produces the same result as described above.

Another curious thing about the drive is that CoreTest indicates that
the average access time is about 22 mS and the track-to-track is about
8 mS. The 94221 is supposed to be 18 mS and 4 mS. This is the second
CDC drive in this fiasco, the first one would spin up but wouldn't
respond at all. Is this a problem with CoreTest and a SCSI drive or 
is it the real performance ?

All the particpating manufacturers point to the others and say: "It's
their problem !" Right now it's my problem and its now into the third 
month! 
 
Anyone out there been through this ??  How about ANY suggestions ??
Is there perchance a SCSI controller the has good speed and actually
works in an Everex ?  CDC was chosen for it's legendary reliability,
and a SCSI interface and the Adaptec controller were chosen in the
hope of achiving high performance !  Right about now I would almost
settle for ANY performance! Was SCSI (the wave of the future) the
wrong choice ?  Is there hope for this mess or should I try to find
a buyer for the whole pile ?!?   B-)

One last binder, the video card is a Video-7 VRAM. Am I in for more
surprises when and if I get the whole thing screwed together and try
to shadow bios and video ?  How about disk caching utilities ??
Will they work in this system ?

Any and all suggestions gratefully accepted !!  Many thanks in advance.

                               ------Bob
-- 
            Bob Lewandowski
    Domain: blew@tc.fluke.COM
     Voice: (206) 347-6100, Ext. 5368
      UUCP: {microsof,sun}!fluke!blew
  U S nail: John Fluke Mfg. Co. / P.O. Box C9090 / MS 273G / Everett WA  98206