Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!purdue!ames!sun-barr!texsun!convex!rigel!harper
From: harper@rigel.uucp (David Harper)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Help Wanted: Hard Disk Not Ready?
Message-ID: <1743@convex.UUCP>
Date: 13 Sep 89 17:20:35 GMT
References: <8909130841.AA14701@euler.Berkeley.EDU>
Sender: usenet@convex.UUCP
Reply-To: harper@rigel.UUCP (David Harper)
Organization: Convex Computer Corporation, Richardson, Tx.
Lines: 29

In article <8909130841.AA14701@euler.Berkeley.EDU> ndeng@EULER.BERKELEY.EDU (Nan Deng) writes:
>
>
>Recently I bought a 25 MHz 386 and encountered a weird problem about the 
>hard disk. The mother board is made by MICRONICS with PHOENIX 386 BIOS
>PLUS ver 1.10 10. The hard disk is CONNOR C3104 (104 MB) partitioned into
>3 logical disks. The problem is: when I use the "Turbo" mode (i.e.  memory
>cache is on), sometimes I get a message saying "disk C is not ready. Abort,
>Retry, Ignore?" (Like I am unpacking some archives, especially for large
>files). But when I turn off the cache, then I have no problem at all. Is 
>there anything wrong in my setup or the hardware? Has anybody in the net
>experienced similar problems? Any pointer would be greatly appreciated.
>(Especially the ones from the manufacturer or people have experience with
>CONNOR hard disks).


I too have a similar problem with the Micronics 25 MHz motherboard and the
Phoenix BIOS.  Although my main disk controller works okay (Adaptek 2372),
I suddenly developed the same symptoms as you have described with all drives
attached to my CompatiCard (ie: 360K-5.25, 720K-3.5, 1.44-3.5).  As with you,
these problems go away when I drop out of turbo mode.  Since I don't use these
drives all that much, I haven't really addressed the problem yet.  I would be
curious to find out what you hear on this.  BTW, I should mention that this
problem only appeared when I installed the new motherboard - prior to that I
never had a hint of problems with the CompatiCard.

Dave Harper    -     Convex Computer Corp.            E-mail address:
3000 Waterview Pky.  Richardson, TX 75081             harper@convex.COM
(214) 497-4525 (W)   (214) 727-4206 (H)