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1988 (?) Packard Bell 386

Joined
Nov 23, 2007
Messages
9
Hi,
Found this site while running a search on Google for some info on the Seagate
ST225 HDD I've got. I've been trying to resurrect this machine for a couple of days and while I've gotton the 5.25 floppy to boot I can't get the HDD recognized even though it's listed correctly as a Type 2 drive on my setup screen. One problem though, my CMOS battery is dead so I've been getting a message each time I boot to hit F1 to continue or F2 for setup.(clock stopped) But I wouldn't think that this would matter in tearms of drive recognition once booted. When I try the FDisk command it says no fixed disks......
HDD is lit and spinning, both controller and data cables seem to be intact so I'm guesssing its a jumper issue??
On my WD controller card there are actually two sets of jumpers. The ones in front of the Drive 0 pins for the data cablemarked W1 with 1 on the left bottom and 7 on the right bottom are blocked at 1-2 (to sel drive 0 ?) (or more correctlly i guess SEL Drive 1 which would be drive 0 as marked on the card??)
I'm completely lost here, could anyone give me an idea of what to try?
Thanks,
Franci
 
.. it's listed correctly as a Type 2 drive on my setup screen. One problem though, my CMOS battery is dead ... But I wouldn't think that this would matter in tearms of drive recognition once booted.
Correct

HDD is lit
On constantly, only when FDISK attempts to access the HDD?

On my WD controller card there are actually two sets of jumpers ...
What's the model number (starts with "WD").

I'm completely lost here, could anyone give me an idea of what to try?
1. On the ST225, try both the first and second 'drive select' jumper positions. It won't damage anything.
2. Verify that the cables are plugged in correctly to the HDD controller - if not keyed, wrong orientation is a possibility.
3. It's possible that you have an XT class controller in an AT class machine. The model number of the controller will tell us that.
3. Is a low level format of the drive successful?
 
The Seagate is lit when I first turn the machine on, then goes out.
The controller card is a WD1006 v-MM2.
I tried both drive select 1 and 2 on the jumpers on the SR225-I think...?
pins 15-16 shorted would be drive 1?
13-14 would be drive 2?
Low level format is not even attempted, Fdisk status returns message, "no Fixed Disks..."
The machine is a Packard Bell 386 SX
On the WD 1006v there are pins labeld W1 currently they are shorted at pins 1-2 ..according to WD specs this means Winchester is in non latched mode. which means??
 
I'm playing with the same combination of controller and drive on a 486DX2-80 board and I'll be working on it again tomorrow, and there is a "not WD100x compatible" jumper I'm going to try changing at that time.

The drive works fine on a WD27x 8-bit controller though, so, I know the bubble is good.

I'll let you know what happens.
 
The Seagate is lit when I first turn the machine on, then goes out.
That will be the ST225 initialising (a good sign).

The controller card is a WD1006
Okay. An AT controller.

I tried both drive select 1 and 2 on the jumpers on the SR225-I think...?
pins 15-16 shorted would be drive 1? 13-14 would be drive 2?
If pins 12-16 are the ones closest to the 20 pin data connector, then yes. On an AT, use the first drive select position (15-16) if you are using a stright-through control cable, and use the second drive select position (13-14) if you are using a twisted control cable.

Something else to check. Verify that the data cable is going to J2 on the WD1006. For both the control and data cables, verify that pin on the controller is going to pin 1 on the ST225.

Something else to check. Verify that the board on the ST225 has a terminator.

according to WD specs this means Winchester is in non latched mode. which means??
Latched mode is discussed at the bottom of http://www.alasir.com/books/hards/027-029.html (taken from Mueller's 'Upgrading & Repairing PCs')

Note the description of W2. That accounts for one of the other changes to the ST412/506 inteface that was made over the years. Basically, at some time, the 'reduced write current' signal from the controller (which had become redundant) became used as an extra 'head select' signal.

Low level format is not even attempted, Fdisk status returns message, "no Fixed Disks..."
There's no point in trying an FDISK if there's a low-level format compatibility problem between the controller and the drive. Try low-level formatting the drive. If successful, then try FDISK.

I forgot to mention, the ST225 would stay lit if i reversed the controller cable but I don't wan't to do that do I?
You see that behaviour with diskette drives, but I don't ever recall seeing it with MFM/RLL (ST412/506 interface) drives. But yes, never a good idea to reverse cables like that.
 
uh oh. You lost me with "J2 on the WD1006" The Floppy cable goes to J1- The Controller cable from ST225 goes to J5 then there's J4 which is Drive 0, J3 Drive 1 and J6 for an LED connection-
The board on the ST225 does have terminator-
re:latched non-latched, thanks understand now
Will try the low level format in A.M. even as OC as I am, still need a little nap now and then-(2:30 here on east coast)
Thank you and I'll let you know,
Franci
 
Well ,looks like either the disk is bad or I do need to get a CMOS battery-
Ran Seagates diag. and DM but keep getting the message "Unable to reset"
"Do you want to change CMOS setup" If I change it from within DM , I then have to reboot which puts me right back in the same situation, If i change info from my setup get the same message when I run DM, so...apparently the HDD is gone...as all the cabling and jumpers seem to be right-and Dm correctly reads CMOS as using a Type 2 Drive as 1st Hard Drive
I have an old Miniscribe and Adaptec controller that I might attempt .
Wonder if they'll work in this machine? I seem to vaguely remember something about differences in power needs to run the miniscribe ,I'll have to check....
 
I've had a couple of boards where, although you could get into the CMOS and set it, the act of it rebooting after putting in the parameters would flush the parameters, so, until you put a good CMOS backup battery in the sucker, you just kept going round and round.

The battery is (usually) a cheap acquisition and it may just do the trick.

Never did get the that computer with the WD1006 today. Well, maybe tomorrow.
 
Real Time Clock

Real Time Clock

Sorry for not updating earlier...

Here's where I'm at.
While trying to track down a replacement for the failed Dallas Ds1287 clock/battery, I came across this on the Maxim site

Unfortunately, replacing your clock module, even with the exact part number, does not guarantee that the PC will work afterwards. Here are some of the issues:
The DS1287 is obsolete. In many cases, a DS12887 will replace it. However, on some systems, the BIOS or chip set will access the wrong address partition in the DS12887. In those cases, the system will not work.



I'm not sure what they mean by "work" Currently the system runs. Floppies, Video etc...it just doesn't recognize the hard drive. As I said, I can't run DM (Disk Manager) to access the drive because of the failed battery because DM wants to reset the CMOS but once it reboots the system of couse the info is lost again.

Now what?
 
Yikes!!!!

Yikes!!!!

Think I'll work on the other 386 for a while.... Its a Css Labs Motherboard and I think it had the Miniscribe 6085 hard drive in it. I'm not sure what ever happened to the orig. controller card but the WD 1006 MM2 should work shouldnt it?
The drive is MFM...8 heads....
The other problem I'm going to run into is the keyboard port...it's the large kind and I guess I'll have to track one down...or can it be changed?
Hope fully I can daisy chain the seagate and the miniscribe for a 2 drive system. The full size card I mentioned earlier was in a 286 system I think and if so, has nothing to do with the miniscribe....
3 systems all in parts........
 
Think I'll work on the other 386 for a while.... Its a Css Labs Motherboard and I think it had the Miniscribe 6085 hard drive in it. I'm not sure what ever happened to the orig. controller card but the WD 1006 MM2 should work shouldnt it?
The drive is MFM...8 heads....
The other problem I'm going to run into is the keyboard port...it's the large kind and I guess I'll have to track one down...or can it be changed?
Hope fully I can daisy chain the seagate and the miniscribe for a 2 drive system. The full size card I mentioned earlier was in a 286 system I think and if so, has nothing to do with the miniscribe....
3 systems all in parts........

The large keyboard port should not be a problem, there are adapters availible that allow one to convert a modern PS/2 keyboard to an AT style keyboard jack, I use them all the time on my KVM for my 286 and 486 machines.

I'd be careful about those twin cable drives though, one might be MFM and one might be RLL, which could cause a myriad of problems (I know, because I somehow got an MFM AND RLL drive to work on an RLL controller once, it was very shaky to say the least, if I ran the XT longer than 20 minutes, the C drive was no longer readable until I rebooted the machine).
 
Thanx

Thanx

I didn't know that, (re the adaptors)
As far as I know, Both the Seagate ST225 and the Miniscribe are MFM-
BTW, thats not my IP...:D
 
I didn't know that, (re the adaptors)
As far as I know, Both the Seagate ST225 and the Miniscribe are MFM-
BTW, thats not my IP...:D

It's a danasoft sig, it just shows the IP that you get from the proxy server/ISP/whatever it can get back, it's not necessarily going to be right. Nobody else can see your IP but you. Right now it's telling me I'm using Verizon under Windows 2000 Professional, which is correct...now I'd love to see that thing work on my 286, lol.
 
I didn't know that, (re the adaptors)

Examples of keyboard adaptors at http://members.dodo.com.au/~slappanel555/misc/keyboard_adaptor.jpg

As far as I know, Both the Seagate ST225 and the Miniscribe are MFM-

If you have abreviated "ST225" from ST225R, then note that the ST225R is the RLL version of the ST225.
But RLL drives connected to your WD1006V-MM2 controller is not an issue anyway because the WD1006V-MM2 is an MFM controller (the RLL drives get formatted/used at the lower MFM spec).
 
re:

re:

Mike, Too cool! and it's only wrong because I use an anon. proxy...
Modem- Thanx for the link. and nope no abbrivation, it's just an ST225-
ran into 2 more problems now that ive got the parts sorted out, need to replace the vga card because when I powered it up the power supply died after arc'ing the card.......i just about hit the cieling when it arc'd...hope nothing else fried....it might be a long night......
 
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