Ultra 12C can access BIOS but doesn't see drives

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Posted by John Felczak on August 15, 1997 at 18:55:53:

Kudos to Falco and friends for putting up this discussion forum! Thanks guys, you're the best!

I'm posting this one in hope that someone out there may be able to give me some ideas now that I've
finally run out of them. About a year ago a former co-worker sold me an Ultra 12C and manual for $40,
and I've been trying unsuccessfully to get it to work ever since.

Symptom: No matter what SIMM configuration I use or how I jumper the card, the behavior is the same:
Upon power-up I get an "HDC Controller Failure" message and hit {F1} to continue. At this point I can
boot from boot floppy attached to the 12C and use DEBUG to get into the BIOS utilities, but the
UltraStor Bios Setup Menu shows no drives attached. System not hung, and I can navigate through the
menus, but it doesn't see any drives.

I've verified that the drives I tested with were 15 MHz ESDI drives, which the controller should support.
I know the drives are good because they work fine on my other ESDI controllers. I even went so far as
to hunt down two 100 nanosecond 9-chip 30-pin SIMMS for the cache RAM slots on the 12C, since the
manual says that's the kind it needs and I thought maybe it didn't like the 70ns and 80ns I was initially
trying to use it with. (The SIMMs are good according to the SIMM tester I checked them with).

About the only thing I haven't tried yet is installing the card in a real bona-fide original IBM PC-AT
instead of the 386s and 486s I've tried it in so far, although I'll be trying that soon now that my employer
has given me an original IBM 286 AT that they don't want anymore.

The only reason I haven't written the card off as dead (aside from the fact that it cost me forty dollars)
is that if it were I wouldn't expect to be able to get into the UltraStor BIOS utilities with DEBUG.

Anybody else got any ideas on other things I might try to get this controller to work?

Thanks in advance,

John Felczak
behemoth@ni.net

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Comments: : Kudos to Falco and friends for putting up this discussion forum! Thanks guys, you're the best! : I'm posting this one in hope that someone out there may be able to give me some ideas now that I've : finally run out of them. About a year ago a former co-worker sold me an Ultra 12C and manual for $40, : and I've been trying unsuccessfully to get it to work ever since. : Symptom: No matter what SIMM configuration I use or how I jumper the card, the behavior is the same: : Upon power-up I get an "HDC Controller Failure" message and hit {F1} to continue. At this point I can : boot from boot floppy attached to the 12C and use DEBUG to get into the BIOS utilities, but the : UltraStor Bios Setup Menu shows no drives attached. System not hung, and I can navigate through the : menus, but it doesn't see any drives. : I've verified that the drives I tested with were 15 MHz ESDI drives, which the controller should support. : I know the drives are good because they work fine on my other ESDI controllers. I even went so far as : to hunt down two 100 nanosecond 9-chip 30-pin SIMMS for the cache RAM slots on the 12C, since the : manual says that's the kind it needs and I thought maybe it didn't like the 70ns and 80ns I was initially : trying to use it with. (The SIMMs are good according to the SIMM tester I checked them with). : About the only thing I haven't tried yet is installing the card in a real bona-fide original IBM PC-AT : instead of the 386s and 486s I've tried it in so far, although I'll be trying that soon now that my employer : has given me an original IBM 286 AT that they don't want anymore. : The only reason I haven't written the card off as dead (aside from the fact that it cost me forty dollars) : is that if it were I wouldn't expect to be able to get into the UltraStor BIOS utilities with DEBUG. : Anybody else got any ideas on other things I might try to get this controller to work? : Thanks in advance, : John Felczak : behemoth@ni.net
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