Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!zephyr.ens.tek.com!uw-beaver!milton!sumax!thebes!camco!bill
From: bill@camco.Celestial.COM (Bill Campbell)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: Problems with Mylex 486 Motherboard
Message-ID: <1073@camco.Celestial.COM>
Date: 3 Jun 91 15:51:13 GMT
References: <1991Jun02.201725.355@avatar.com>
Organization: Celestial Software, Mercer Island, WA
Lines: 28

In <1991Jun02.201725.355@avatar.com> kory@avatar.com (Kory Hamzeh) writes:

:I recently purchased the Mylex MAE486 33 Mhz EISA motherboard. I have
:16MB of memory using 4 4MBx9 NEC 70ns SIMMs. The hard disk controller
:is the Adaptec ACB2322B. The tape controller is the Archive 499R and
:I have a Orchid Prodesigner II VGA card.

:The problem that I seem to be having is that when I write to my floppy
:drive or tape drive, I get either fatal parity error or the system
:hangs. This happens both under dos and sco unix. I can, however, read
:from the floppy and tape drive. I can read and write to the hard disk
:without any problems.

I had a similar problem about a year ago with a 386-33 system
where I wasn't able to write to floppies reliably.  It turned out
that the problem was related to the 16-bit vga board (Paradise).
I moved the 16-bit Paradise card to an 8-bit slot and the problem
went away.

I was told (I can dig up the reference if necessary) that there
were problems using 16-bit VGA on UNIX or other OSs that use the
protected modes on the 386 (and I assume also the 486).  I've seen
other references to problems with 16-bit VGA under Xenix/UNIX and
have avoided using them.
-- 
INTERNET:  bill@Celestial.COM   Bill Campbell; Celestial Software
UUCP:   ...!thebes!camco!bill   6641 East Mercer Way
             uunet!camco!bill   Mercer Island, WA 98040; (206) 947-5591