-
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by Consultor:
<strong>
Maybe to comply with FAT32, I needed a 32bit controller for this machine.
After a little fight against its jumpers, this board started to run correctly and the drive was perfectly identified, partitioned and, finally, formatted, with all its 1.2Gb of space. :D
But I still have a little problem... :( I believe it happens because of its configuration jumpers, that are very complicated: when I connect the serial mouse of this machine, the machine doesn't start (the video doesn't initialize !!!). I've tried all jumpers settings but I'm unable to do this work. Without the mouse, the machine runs perfectly.
Thanks for everyone!</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Ok I dont thing the 16 or 32 bit interface makes a difference on how information is written to the drive. Fat sizes ie. Fat16 Fat32 is cluster size.
Now the mouse thing is odd. I am inclined to say you have a conflict but since the com port is always on I would look at the mouse as being the culprit.
-
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by Larommi:
Ok I dont thing the 16 or 32 bit interface makes a difference on how information is written to the drive.
Now the mouse thing is odd. I am inclined to say you have a conflict but since the com port is always on I would look at the mouse as being the culprit.</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">I concur with 16/32 bit not relating to FAT32, that's true. The problem was almost certainly due to the design of the old I/O controller. The VLB controller could be a bit faster too.
If the mouse works on another system, I'd think the most likely cause of the non-booting would be a faulty COM port. Serial I/O controllers are a bit fragile, that might be why the board was "available". If so, :(
However, if you haven't already tried it, disable the COM ports on the VLB board completely, if the system boots OK, disable everything except the COM ports on the ISA board, fit that as well, and see if it works. If it does, it'll be a bit messy but you'll be able to use it fine like that.
And NooNoo, you're right, it could have had a jumper to set 504M compatability. I think they mostly appeared on 540/560 and 620M drives though, it's a real waste chopping back a 1.2G that much, and they were pricey then.
-
Sounds like you are having major irq problems consultor, try looking in the bios for alternative serial port configurations.
-
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by Consultor:
the HDD controller board (multi I/O), that was an ISA-16bit standard.
</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">If this was the only I/O in the system, that is, no I/O on the motherboard, there won't be any adjustable settings in the BIOS, at the POST it will simply report the jumper settings on the card.
As NooNoo suggests though, it is one thing to check, Consultor. Most cards won't let you set conflicting IRQ's, but if yours has a complicated jumper set that you've struggled with, as you said, then it's possible.
When the system boots up without the mouse, see what the settings are for COM1 and COM2.
The standard settings are IRQ4 Port 03F8 for COM1 and IRQ3 Port 02F8 for COM2. If the card has let you set, for example, the same IRQ for both, it could cause trouble like this.
-
Just curious if you have tried getting the system to run now without the VESA I/O controller card. Now that you have the HDD problem fixed and installed, try plugging back in to the onboard port and see if this solves your mouse problem.
I had something very similar years ago and had to go through many of these same steps and problems.
-
Once you've got a system working properly with LBA, avoid doing anything that would cause it to revert to non-LBA (regular CHS) operation. A drive can be corrupted under these circumstances.
