Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ames!oliveb!amdahl!kim From: kim@uts.amdahl.com (Kim DeVaughn) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: strange hard disk behavior (2090A w/Quantum 80S) Summary: some days you eat the bear ... some days the bear eats you ... Message-ID: Date: 10 Jan 89 17:27:11 GMT References: Organization: Amdahl Corporation, Sunnyvale, CA 94086 Lines: 65 In article , bader+@andrew.cmu.edu (Miles Bader) writes: > Hi, lately, either my hard disk (q80s) or my controller (2090a) has > been acting very strangely: If I reboot, the reboot succeeds to the > point where the hard disk normally takes over (just after > binddrivers). But at that point, the drive light will turn on and > stay on, with seemingly no disk activity (that I can hear), and the > system hangs at that point [I've waited up to 15 mins. for something > to happen]. If I reboot with C-A-A at this point, it boots just fine. > But if I get a guru, the cycle starts over again.... Three of us here at Amdahl got 2090A/Quantum 80S combos over the Holidays, and are all experiencing slightly different behavior on COLD starts (i.e., power-on boot). I *always* end up getting the good ol' "Insert WB v1.3" hand holding up a floppy requester. Kevin gets behavior similar to yours ... part way thru the s-s (or just a solid white screen), followed by a hang. Vern's autoboots all the way up quite nicely (or has thus far ... ). Quantum specs the 40S/80S drives as having a typical spin-up time of 13 sec, with a nominal max of 15 sec, and a worst case max of 18 sec. My *SPECULATION* is that one of these is real close to the timeout that's built into the hddisk driver code (or is that a 2090A h/w timeout ?), and that your drive and Kevin's are right on the edge. My drive is a little on the slow side WRT spin-up, and Vern's is on the faster side. I'd really like to know what delay value is used by "hddisk" if that is in the driver PROM, and *where* it is so I can burn a new PROM with an increased value. Also, I'd like to encourage CBM to up the timeout value a bit when/if they rev this code ... to maybe 30 sec (?). It *is* rather irritating as is! Also, as Kevin has mentioned in another article, the LED does not work when hooked up to either J4 or J5 on the 2090A. Works fine from the two pins on the 80S itself, but that won't do me much good when I add a 2nd drive (also Kevin's and Vern's drive came with a faceplate attached to the drive, and a LED soldered to the drive's pins). Any chance this problem can also be addressed with a new rev of the ROM'd driver code? Aside from these two problems, I'm VERY pleased with this combination. It's *VERY* fast, and so quiet that you seldom know it's there! Turns Amy into a whole new machine!!! Many kudos to whoever it was that did the 2090A board, the driver code, and Steve for the FFS (and anyone from Quantum whose out there). /kim -- UUCP: kim@amdahl.amdahl.com or: {sun,decwrl,hplabs,pyramid,uunet,oliveb,ames}!amdahl!kim DDD: 408-746-8462 USPS: Amdahl Corp. M/S 249, 1250 E. Arques Av, Sunnyvale, CA 94086 BIX: kdevaughn GEnie: K.DEVAUGHN CIS: 76535,25