• Please review our updated Terms and Rules here

IBM 1501492 HDD controller and dual ST-412s

S

SteveMarg

Experienced Member
Joined
Apr 30, 2012
Messages
56
Location
Los Angeles, California
Hi there.

I have an IBM 5161 Expansion Unit. I am trying to use an IBM 1501492 HDD controller with 2 ST-412s and I am unable to low level format either drive. Sometimes, the controller only sees one HD.

There are no switches or settings on the card, but is there something I should be setting on the HDs? Is there something I could be doing wrong with the cabling?

I have tried both the SpeedStor and Advanced Diagnostics methods to low level format, and have been unsuccessful.

I would appreciate any help. I'm still new to vintage computers (up until a few months ago, vintage for me was 2001) :D

Thanks,
Steve
 
Steve, it depends on two things mainly.

1) What you are using for a HD cable. Does it have a twist between the two Hard Drive connectors. If so, the twist must between the correct wires and they are *not* the same wires as the twist in the Floppy Drive ribbon.

2) What the Drive Select jumper is set on each of the two Hard Drives and this differs depending on whether or not you are using a control cable as described in 1, above, or it's a control cable that has no twist int it.

IOW, it ain't simple. :)
 
Last edited:
Stone,

I checked the cable. It appears to be a legitimate HD cable.

As for the drives, I guess they use a shunt block. Can you tell me how I should set these?

Also, if there is any documentation for this, I will certainly read it.

Thanks,
Steve
 
SteveMarg said:
I checked the cable. It appears to be a legitimate HD cable.
Click to expand...
What is a "legitimate" HD cable?

As for the drives, I guess they use a shunt block. Can you tell me how I should set these?
Click to expand...
As Stone pointed out in #2, it depends on what that "legitimate" cable looks like.

Also, the data cables have to be connected to the appropriate connectors to match the cable/location/Drive select settings.
 
Thank you everyone. Everything is set correctly. I am beginning to think the problem is a bad controller card.
I'll have to see if i have another one to try.
 
Last edited:
SpeedStor perform controller diagnostics. Run it again.

Another thought... try one drive at a time. Use the staight thru section of the cable -- ignore the twisted section -- set drive to DS1.
 
Just wanted to check whether DMA channel 3 is being used by anything else (especially, anything in the main system unit).
 
Modem7 - Hmmmm. It appears that I may have a terminator on both drives. I will remove the terminator from Drive 0 and see if that helps.

I think the chip marked T-RES in the picture is the terminator:

a.jpg
 
This is just bizarre.
I removed the terminator from the first disk, and I get a 1701 error. I put it back and the error goes away.
I'm back to thinking there is something wrong with the controller card.
 
At the risk of sounding like an echo, I'll repeat what I said in a previous post in this thread.

1) Run the controller diagnostics on SpeedStor.

2) Try ONE drive at a time.

It's far easier to diagnose a problem with fewer variables.
 
SteveMarg said:
This is just bizarre.
I removed the terminator from the first disk, and I get a 1701 error. I put it back and the error goes away.
I'm back to thinking there is something wrong with the controller card.
Click to expand...
FWIW, the first disk is the one nearest to the controller, not the one on the end, after the twist, unlike the A:, B: configuration on the floppy ribbon cable.
 
Stone said:
FWIW, the first disk is the one nearest to the controller, not the one on the end, after the twist, unlike the A:, B: configuration on the floppy ribbon cable.
Click to expand...
Also unlike the floppy configuration (and contrary to what someone ;-) said in post #7), both drives are set to DS1 (or DS0 if they're labelled 0 to 3).
 
I repeat - BIZARRE.
Speedstor shows the controller as fine.
I have tried it as single drive and dual drive.
Cable is correct
Drive select is correct.
First drive has no terminator

I plugged in an ST11 controller and two ST-251 drives and it formatted them just fine. :(
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top