Mike Whalen <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Hey folks,
>
> I think I have a SCSI related issue, but I don't really know.
>
> The short question:
> In Windows (9x or NT/XP), how does one know whether their disk drive
> is using SCSI rather than some other interface? Is this purely
> hardware? Or do Windows drivers play a role?
>
>
> The background:
> I work at a company that, for quite a while, used an Intel server
> board for their products. NT4 was installed on this box solely. No 9x
> stuff. HDD is SCSI off of a Symbios adapter.
>
> Well, this week I put WinME on one of these machines. I had a few
> issues but was able to resolve them all.
>
> The one that took the longest to resolve, however, was the integrated
> SCSI host adapters. WinME detected them, but could not activate them.
> One error given was that the IRQ Holder for PCI Steering was not
> operating properly.
>
> I disabled IRQ Steering. Windows them reinstalled the ACPI support
> and .. boom .. the SCSI Host Adapters are now "working."
>
> (For what it's worth, I wish I understood why PCI Steering isn't
> working. Suffice it to say that LSILogic (Symbios) says that there is
> a known Win9x issue regarding PCI Steering and some of their "older"
> host adapters. They give the instructions for some BIOS-area fixes,
> but PhoenixBIOS, which is in this particular PC, is the one LSI
> singled out as un-fixable.)
>
> But I kind of expected the disk drive to somehow show up as a SCSI
> disk. It's not. So, how do I really know that I'm using the fastest
> rate I can on the HDD? Do I need to force Windows to redetect the
> SCSI disk now that the adapters are working? Or is it SCSI by virtue
> of the fact that the HDD is on a SCSI chain and hardware knows what's
> on the SCSI chain vs. the IDE chain.
Mike,
SCSI is a hardware standard. If the controller is a SCSI controller, you can
only attach SCSI disks to it.
The issue with PCI steering is related to the way Windows 9x used APM for power
and interrupt management. This was a method where multiple PCI cards could share
one of the few IRQ's that are available in the PC architecture.
The newer OS's (including XP and WIndows 2000) use ACPI for power and interrupt
management. This is a much better architecture than APM and PCI steering. The
only "anomaly" that people may see is that device manager may show seemingly
impossible IRQ's (above 15), but this is just the way ACPI creates virtual
IRQ's. In order for ACPI to work, the BIOS must be compliant, older BIOS's
tended to have problems. Perhaps one of the reasons why W2K and XP tend not to
run well on older machines.
Anyway, back to SCSI, you should be able to find your answers in device manager.
If it shows a properly working Symbios SCSI controller device, and your SCSI
disks are connected to it, then everything should be fine. Also check out the
performance dialog, and see if all disks are running in 32bit mode.
--
Russ Poffenberger Engineering Specialist
Schlumberger Technologies ATE DOMAIN: [log in to unmask]
150 Baytech Drive
San Jose, Ca. 95134 Voice: (408)586-6718 FAX: (408)586-4675
PCBUILD's List Owners:
Bob Wright<[log in to unmask]>
Drew Dunn<[log in to unmask]>
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