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From: ljg@ecosoft.uucp (Lowell J. Gray)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.xenix.sco
Subject: Re: badtrk,awk,df all hang a 386SX system.
Message-ID: <1990Oct24.150558.2360@ecosoft.uucp>
Date: 24 Oct 90 15:05:58 GMT
References: <11320001@hpwin052.HP.COM> <336@infopro.UUCP> <11203@scorn.sco.COM>
Reply-To: ljg@ecosoft.UUCP (Lowell J. Gray)
Organization: EcoSoft, Inc.
Lines: 23

I've had the badtrk hang problem on my 386SX running XENIX/286 v2.2.3,
and I figured out the solution. It was due to my cheap Taiwanese HD
controller which was adequate for DOS, but not XENIX. To fix the problem
you can do one of two things:

1) increase your interleave factor (say, 1:1 -> 3:1) to reduce the 
throughput demand on your controller
2) buy a decent caching HD controller

If you get a better controller, you get the advantage of higher performance
too. I went from a cheapo MFM to a nice RLL for $135. It increased my
disk capacity by 50%, speeded things up and my machine hasn't crashed since.
(But don't go RLL unless your disk is RLL vendor-certified.)

I hope this works for you.

- Lowell

-- 
Lowell J. Gray				UUCP: {cfi.com,uunet}!ecosoft!ljg
EcoSoft, Inc.				tel: +1 508 651 8722
13 Priscilla Path, Wayland, MA  01778 USA
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