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Date: Mon, 8 Apr 1996 10:02:31 -0400 (EDT)
From: Michael Newell <mnewell@kaizen.net>
To: Michael Smith <msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au>
cc: cau@cc.gatech.edu, mc7953@mclink.it, questions@freebsd.org
Subject: Re: Asus PVI486SP3 and Adaptec 2940 compatibility
In-Reply-To: <199604081417.XAA09869@genesis.atrad.adelaide.edu.au>
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On Mon, 8 Apr 1996, Michael Smith wrote:

> The P55TP4N has _nothing_ whatsoever to do with the PVI486SP3.  One is a
> Triton-based Pentium motherboard, the other is a SiS496/497-based
> '486 motherboard.

Yes, I know that.  My point was (a) they may have similar BIOSen (in which
case they MAY have something, albeit not much, to do with each other), and
(b) it's my [possibly flawed] understanding that some legacy boards DO
interfere in situations where you have mixed PCI and ISA busses.  ;-)  The
advice I was giving was "try telling the BIOS about all IRQs in use by ISA
boards".  Sorry about obfuscating it by mentioning my board type.

> Bus termination doesn't help much when the chipset or board implementation
> don't correctly handle busmaster DMS 8)

But it DOES cause SCSI errors, unterminated file transfers, corrupted
data, etc. which is what the originator was complaining about.  I've
personally experienced cases where a device at the end of a SCSI chain
will act up, but the other devices work (most of the time).  Or where I've
had a terminator with a single bad resistor and REALLY odd things have
happened.  Whenever I have SCSI problems I always replace the terminators;
that way (1) if one is missing I find out REALLY fast, and (2) if I've got
a bad terminator it gets fixed.  :-)!!

Plus BOTH my 2940's work just fine; apparently they have the "good BIOS".
Lucky me!! :-)!!