Date: Thu, 16 Jan 1997 11:48:08 -0800 (PST) From: "Rodney W. Grimes" <rgrimes@GndRsh.aac.dev.com> To: ulf@Alameda.net (Ulf Zimmermann) Cc: mike@sentex.net, fpollet@relay.perceval.net, freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: ASUS T2P4 and Adaptec 2940AU Message-ID: <199701161948.LAA22585@GndRsh.aac.dev.com> In-Reply-To: <3.0.32.19970116103648.006dac24@Gatekeeper-3.Lamb.net> from Ulf Zimmermann at "Jan 16, 97 10:36:49 am"
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> At 08:37 AM 1/16/97 -0500, Mike Tancsa wrote: > >At 12:42 PM 1/16/97 +0100, Francois Pollet wrote: > >> > >>Troubles in reboot with 2.1.6-RELEASE > >> > >>ASUS P55T2P4 bios 1.08 > >>AHA2940AU bios 1.21 > >>Seagate ST32155N 2.1Gb firmware 0532 with a FreeBSD only partition and > >>standard MBR > >> > >>No problems during installation, geometry used is the geometry reported > >>by a DOS fdisk (261/255/63), no errors reported during installation > >> > >>Everything works perfectly after a power on > >> > >>2940AU hangs and fails to detect SCSI devices after a soft or a hard reboot > >>A real power on is always required to restart the machine I have seen these ``hangs'' and failure to find SCSI devices on 2940AU's in both ASUS PCI/I-P55T2P4's and PCI/I-P6NP5's. The problem seems worse on the Pentium PRO (8 out of 10 times from power on it fails to find disks, and 1 out of 10 times it hangs, leaving 1 in 10 boots :-(). I opened a trouble report with Adaptec who said it must be my termination or something with the devices on the chain (yea, right, swap the card for a real 2940U and the boot works in all 4 systems 10 out of 10 times, try again Adaptec). It also bothered me that the card reports version 1.21 of the bios, there was a 2940/2940U 1.21 version of the BIOS that also had some hang problems, but again, adaptec says the 1.21 is the latest and greatest :-(. I ended up returning all 2940AU cards to the supplier and found a batch of real 2940U's, which will probably be the last Adaptec 2940X products I sell, since Adaptec has denied the problem, and says there is no more 2940U production. Also given the fact that the AIC7860 chip is a joke compared to the AIC7880 due to reduced SCB memory space (3 vs 16) and the 2940AU card is greatly simplified without lowering the cost (even at the OEM level) I am once again becoming an NCR 53C810 only shop. > >> > >>First I thought it was a compatibility problem between the T2P4 and the > >2940AU > >>but it seems to work fine with a DOS only partition Try cold power on's, repeatedly, I beat that 1 in 10 or 15 times it fails to find your SCSI devices. > >> > >>Can somebody help ? > > > > > >I am sure its not what you wanted to hear, but I had the exact same problem > >with the above mentioned card on an ECS Pentium motherboard... I ended up > >bugging my distributor to find me a generic 2940.... I am very suprised > >that someone said they got that particular card working with 2.1.5. I > >could not even get 2.1.5 to recognize the card for what it was. Thanks! More evidence that this is really a generic 2940AU problem, now we all need to go beat on Adaptec tech AND sales support teams saying they should really give us back the 2940U and/or FIX the 2940AU AND lower the price since they have cut the cost of production in major ways. > > ---Mike > > I use a 2940U in a 2.1.5 system. It gives me sometimes at reboot the > problem, that it lists all scsi devices found, but then never comes back > with the Bios installed message, reset or power cycle helps mostly. Does your 2940U happen to have the older 1.21 BIOS? The latest version I have seen is 1.23 and I have never seen this problem on that version. -- Rod Grimes rgrimes@gndrsh.aac.dev.com Accurate Automation, Inc. Reliable computers for FreeBSD
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