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PC-6300 and a Future Domain TMC-850M SCSI Controller, locking up the system

Can you try verifying a couple of files on the HD, just to make sure it's not just a freak symptom where the FAT appears to read/write ok, but actual files might not ?
patscc
 
When I used fdisk I made sure the partition was primary, beginning of the disk and active. For format I let the MS-DOS installer format the drive. For MS-DOS 3.30 I used a 30 MB partition (it was complaining about 32 MB) and for MS-DOS 6.22 I did a simple fdisk to delete the partition, make a new one using the entire disk, set as active then I did "sys C:". Tomorrow I'll try out format /s, I've never tried that before.
 
This one has 640 KB, as well as an 8087.

As for what it does, when I remove the SCSI controller and no floppy is in the drive I get the Bootstrap Error message. With the controller in and no floppy in the drive it checks the floppy drive for a disk and sits at the "Floppy Disk (A:)_" and doesn't go any further, but Control-Alt-Delete does restart and I can boot from a floppy.

One thing I'm wondering now is if I have a bad hard drive.
 
I know that there have been issues reported with the 8.2 BIOS and the PC XT, If all else fails and OT can't shed any light, you might try an 8.0 BIOS.

ISTR that for the 1.43 BIOS upgrade, a PAL replacement was also involved. Did you do that?
 
ISTR that for the 1.43 BIOS upgrade, a PAL replacement was also involved. Did you do that?
Click to expand...

All I sent him was the updated ROMs. I didn't change any such thing on mine either, though... I wasn't even aware of such a step. Although that's a pretty good indication that the PAL chip is not responsible for the particular issues here, it's got me curious now... any idea which PAL it is, or what it does?

Considering that Compgeke's card won't boot from the HD in a 486 either, I think it's probably safe to assume the problem lies somewhere in the SCSI chain itself rather than anything specific about the PC6300. I'll have to dig into my machine and see exactly how everything is configured. He seems to have covered most of the bases, but there's obviously something different about his setup. I think what I might do, rather than attempting to eliminate all the numerous possibilities, is to try a few things and see if I can somehow reproduce the problem.
 
As of right now I'm able to boot the SCSI drive with MS-DOS 6.22 after format /s on the 486, however the PC-6300 still stays at the Floppy Disk (A: )_.
 
I've posted this in my blog, but I'll post it here as well:

I've located the booklet--actually about 20 pages (AT&T pub 999-300-3091S) that gives instructions for upgrading to the 1.43 BIOS. It came with 2 EPROMs and 1 PAL, identified as "PAL 90" and as a "memory decoder PAL". It replaces PAL49 at position 2P on the motherboard.

There's some additional information regarding switches and disks in the booklet as well. In particular, the DIP switch 1 at location 7W. Switch 3 should be off to enable external hard disk code. It should only be set on if you have the DTC MFM controller for the 6300.

I should probably scan the booklet and pass it to Al K.
 
I got back to playing with this tonight after doing a clean install of Compaq DOS 3.31 on the drive, as it has support for more than 32ish MB partitions. Still a no go. Tried flipping switch 3 at location 7W to on just for the heck of it, still no go. Also tried the slot the network card was in, different ROM location settings, IRQ switch, terminator on/off and wait state switch, still a no go.

Currently it's configured for CA00:000, 0 wait states disabled and terminator power on. Still getting stuck at "Floppy (A:) _" and not going to the "Primary Boot Strap" screen it would normally go to without the card. Here's a picture of where it hangs, this here DOES have the switch 3 on, but it doesn't go past the same point with that on or off, just doesn't have the Fixed Disk message with the switch off:
http://goput.it/aqp.jpg
 
Just an update, I finally got the system to boot from the SCSI drive! The fix is as random as throwing a blank floppy into the A drive so it detects the floppy as "Not Ready". For some reason whenever don't have a floppy in the drive though it never times out saying the floppy isn't bootable, but this only happens with the SCSI card in.

I guess this is better than having to floppy boot all the time, also a lot faster.
 
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