*BSD News Article 8478


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From: bjork@telebit.com (Steven Bjork)
Subject: Bad Motherboard, was Re: Adaptec 1542b "hangs"
Message-ID: <1992Dec2.183254.29548@telebit.com>
Sender: news@telebit.com
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Organization: Telebit Corporation; Sunnyvale, CA, USA
References: <8438@salyko.cubenet.sub.org> <1992Dec2.001427.587@rtsg.mot.com> <Byn6uL.2oM@ra.nrl.navy.mil>
Date: Wed, 2 Dec 1992 18:32:54 GMT
Lines: 33

In article <Byn6uL.2oM@ra.nrl.navy.mil> eric@tantalus.nrl.navy.mil (Eric Youngdale) writes:

[someone else's hang problems described below]

>>] I have a problem with my Adaptec 1542b SCSI hostadapter and Fujitsu
>>] M2614SA SCSI HD.
>>]
>>] When Linux is writing to the HD quite a lot (e.g. during installation),
>>] the controller gets "hung" (indicated by the red LED shining brightly)
>>] and nothing but hitting the reset-button will bring my computer back to
>>] life.

>Perhaps they know something about an incompatibility between your motherboard,
>your disk drive and the Adaptec.  Since the system hangs with both 386bsd and
>linux, the chances of this being a kernel bug are fairly small.

I have a 1542b that would sort of work under 386BSD. I found and
fixed one bug in the 386BSD driver for the SCSI tape combo I was
using (Emulex MT02 and Archive 5???) but still was having hangs as well.

So, I noticed that the controller *would not* pass the dc00:9 DMA
test on my motherboard, but *did* pass on one at work. 

Yes, it looks like my motherboard is flakey in some manner. It
runs the 386BSD code fine until I ask for heavy DMA access by
the SCSI controller. Exact same "total lockup" problem you report.

Solution: Replace your motherboard :(.

Mine is a C&T 33Mhz 386DX, 64k cache with 8meg ram. Runs ide stuff
fine, just locks with the heavy DMA the Adaptec does.

--Steven