Conference giadev::decstation

Here are some more details and a few more observations:

During startup, the AHA-2940AU identifies itself as running BIOS V1.21 and then
scans the SCSI bus with the following results (output shortened):

ID 0   DEC RZ25     Drive D: 81h
ID 1   DEC RZ25     Drive 82h
ID 5   TOSHIBA 3xxx               (a 4x drive from the 3000 series)

int 13H active for Drive(s) D: 82h   (is this a list or a contradiction ?)

Int 13H routed through ASPI Manager

Later on, when ASPI8DOS.SYS is loaded, it confirms that the card is sitting in
PCI slot 0C (hex) or 0B, depending which of the two slots I use, and that it is
using IRQ 9 (the same as I find in Win95)

SCSIselect also reports that the card is configured for IRQ 9 (I can't change
this, probably the assignement is done automatically by the PCI configuration
stuff). The PCI slot number is also the same as shown by ASPI8DOS.

Next thing I tried was invoke the ICU. I was surprised that it showed IRQ 15
used by the AHA-2940 !  (I have the secondary IDE channel disabled in BIOS).
So I tried to force it to IRQ 9 by reenabling IDE1. This time, the ICU only told
me 
	"Can't read Plug & Play ISA resource information" 
and aborted.

Next step: put AHA-2940 into the lower PCI slot. Same behaviour as above. Put
AHA-2940 back into upper PCI slot. Now I get the "Can't read" information
regardless whether IDE 1 is enabled or disabled.

I found a new PnP ICU utility on the PCBU homepage - V1.23b. It says it is only
for the FX models but it behaves exactly like the V1.23 copy that came with the
PC.

There are two ISA cards in the system: a DE205 Ethernet card and a Terratec
32/96 sound card.

All devices, including the AHA-2940AU, work fine under Win95 and Win NT 3.51.
The SCSI CD-ROM also works fine under DOS. But the RZ25s are not seen at the DOS
level.

Any help is highly appreciated !

Thanks,
Hans.

Forgot to say - I upgraded the system BIOS from V2.01 to V2.02 yesterday without
any affect (but I hope it stops the occasional CMOS checksum corruptions).

Hans.

    re: HANSBC::BACHNER
    
    Do you really intend to triple boot the machine into DOS, Windows 95
    and Windows NT environments?
    
    If I remember correctly, BIOS settings for DOS and Windows NT use the
    non-Plug and Play OS setting, whereas Windows 95 uses the Plug and Play
    OS setting.
    
    Anytime you switch then, you potentially have to clear the ESCD (non
    volatile Plug and Play information) using CMOS setup.  I suppose this
    is only if you need the full use of Plug and Play under DOS using the
    ICU.  My understanding is that the DOS ICU does Plug and Play
    differently than Windows 95.  It's been a long time since I touched ICU
    or cared about ICU.
    
    Contortions under DOS ICU may be necessary.  Since you have ISA cards
    in use, you need to register those cards and resources under ICU. 
    Then, the Plug and Play DOS driver can take care of the rest.
    
    Have you written down the settings used by Windows 95 and Windows NT
    that allow the machine to function properly with all of the cards in
    the system?  Try to set up DOS ICU to assign the same resources.
    
    This is all I can think of...  Good luck.
    
    /Bill

�    Do you really intend to triple boot the machine into DOS, Windows 95
�    and Windows NT environments?

Yes, I do. Windows 95 as the main operating system, Windows NT for trying/
testing NT stuff on my home LAN (when I need more than one NT system; it's set
up as a backup domain controller currently), and DOS for a few games the kids
like which I didn't manage to run under Windows 95 DOS mode yet.

I have enabled 'Plug and Play OS' in the BIOS and never had problems with it
before (i.e. with the NCR based SCSI controller) on any of the three operating
systems - except for the hang at Windows 95 shutdown/reboot.

�    Contortions under DOS ICU may be necessary.  Since you have ISA cards
�    in use, you need to register those cards and resources under ICU. 
�    Then, the Plug and Play DOS driver can take care of the rest.

Please bear with me - is there another word for 'contortions' ?  English is my
second language, and I don't have (and seldom need) a dictionary handy...

The two ISA cards are registered under ICU with the same IRQ-I/O-memory settings
as I see them in the Windows 95 device manager. Well, they have been
registered... I can't check any longer because the ICU only gives me the error
message (mentioned in .1) instead of starting up properly.

And even if you let aside Windows NT, the Windows 95 startup menu does
officially support dual booting with the 'previous version of DOS', so I do
believe it should work. After all, it actually did work before I swapped the
SC-200 for the AHA-2940AU - at least I could see and use all the devices.

What does the 'Plug and Play OS' setting in the BIOS actually do ?  And I
thought that the DOS Plug and Play driver - together with the ICU - would act
similar to Windows 95 in this respect.

I guess the basic question is - what would DOS inhibit from seeing the SCSI
disks, while giving access to the SCSI CD-ROM ?  And does it all come down to an
ICU issue, if SCSIselect and ASPI8DOS both see the host adapter using IRQ 9,
while ICU saw it (at long as it at least could see something) at IRQ 15 ?

Thanks,
Hans.

    re: .4 by HANSBC::BACHNER
    
    Contortions usually refer to unusual or abnormal movements and twists
    of one's body, such as the actions of some gymnasts and circus acts.
    re: English as a second language...  You could have fooled me.
    
    I'll have to think about the rest later.
    
    Bill