Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware
Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!cbnewsj!paulm
From: paulm@cbnewsj.att.com (paul.j.maioriello)
Subject: Re: DiskFailure
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Date: Mon, 15 Oct 90 16:03:29 GMT
Message-ID: <1990Oct15.160329.28974@cbnewsj.att.com>
Summary: anybody else having 2090 problems??
References: <1990Oct15.114329.18125@cbnewsi.att.com>
Lines: 47

In article <1990Oct15.114329.18125@cbnewsi.att.com>, pfmnews@cbnewsi.att.com (peter.f.meng) writes:
> 
> 	I believe I am having problems with my 2090 controller. I have

Welcome to the club!! I never had any problems with my 2090 in over a
year of use in an A2000.  I used the controller to drive a 10 meg shugart
and an 86 meg wren (I could only use 8 heads and 809 cylinders even though
the drive had more).  I have not been able to get this to work
reliably in an A3000.
> 	a ST-251 disk (non-SCSI) that I have been using for over a year.
> 	Just recently I am trying to recover from file system problems.
> 	I am trying to format the disk (FFS) and I keep getting guru'd
> 	before the format completes. The Guru is typically a 3 or a 4
> 	(addressing or memory error) and is inconsistent.
> 
> 	Also, the one time I did get thru the format and tried to do a restore
> 	from backup floppies (Quarterback) I repeatedly get Guru'd before
> 	the restore completes (also incosistent).
> 
> 	Any advice?? Upgrade to the 2090A controller??

My theory is that there is nothing wrong with the controller hardware,
but rather with the device driver itself.  After all the hddisk file
was distributed with thee 2090 quite some time ago.  When I first got it, I
was still running 1.2 on the Amiga.  Now I'm running 2.0.  Given all the
work that has been done in AmigaDos (including the exorcism of the BCPL
stuff), it seems as if an update to hddisk might be in order.  Is this
really a problem or are we both suffering from some hardware problems
or incompatabilities?  One of CBM's top priorities in evolving the Amiga
line was to keep expansion cards backwards compatible.  Given this as I
goal, and the fact that I can get the 2090 to work half-heartedly
(I was able to recover all my files onto the SCSI drive in the A3000),
I think what we have here is a software problem.  What I would like to
know is if anybody has gotten a 2090 to work reliably on a 3000.  If
so, I would sure like to hear how they did it.
> 
> 					Thanks in advance,
> 					Peter Meng
> 					att!hotlf!pfm


Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

Regards,

Paul M.
lzatt!pjm