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SCSI in Tandy 1000 TL/2

So I received my shiny new Trantor T130B card today. First attempted to see if I could get the BOOT ROM to work... but no dice as expected. So I downloaded ma13b.sys driver, disabled the BOOT ROM on the card and tried to boot off my floppy. The driver gives me this message:

--- For the T130B SCSI Host Adapter ---

SCSI host adapter detected at address 350h.

Device 0, Unable to read device status.
Warning: No devices respond
on this SCSI host adapter.


1 host adapter found.


I've tried various IO addresses available, BIOS ROM addresses, BIOS ROM disabled, hard drive jumper settings, termination methods (terminated at drive, terminated with a physical terminator on the cable), terminator power enabled on the drive, disabled, etc. I've tried two different hard drives and a CDROM drive. It always has the same error BUT it seems to detect the SCSI ID correctly. If I change the drive ID to 1 or 2, the error changes accordingly. It also can tell when two devices are connected, but both devices give the same error.

This is really driving me bonkers. Unfortunately I don't have another machine with an ISA slot to test, so seem to be stuck at the moment!!
 
Did you set the IRQ to 5 and make certain that nothing else is using that interrupt?

If you'd like, I'll try the same on one of mine.

Termination with the T130B is a little strange--there should be termination resistor packs installed on the board, near the 50 pin header, but note that the adapter does not provide termination power on the cable (it's possible to change this). So if you use a terminator, the device itself must provide termination power. Otherwise, leave the terminator off.
 
I did have the card set to IRQ 5. The Tandy has two jumpers on it's motherboard:

http://support.radioshack.com/support_computer/doc1/1222.htm

I tried with both jumpers removed and with E6 - E7 and E8 - E9 jumped with no difference. I removed the SCSI card and ran MSD, it freezes when I hit Q to view the IRQ Status so I don't know what's going on.

The machine is totally stock except for a Trident TVGA8900D-R set to work in an 8-bit slot.

I have the resistor packs installed on the Trantor. The hard drive has two jumpers for termination, one labeled "Term" and the other "Power". I've currently got both jumped, but I also tried just having the Power on and a physical terminator at the end of the cable.
 
mikem said:
I did have the card set to IRQ 5. The Tandy has two jumpers on it's motherboard:

http://support.radioshack.com/support_computer/doc1/1222.htm

I tried with both jumpers removed and with E6 - E7 and E8 - E9 jumped with no difference. I removed the SCSI card and ran MSD, it freezes when I hit Q to view the IRQ Status so I don't know what's going on.

The machine is totally stock except for a Trident TVGA8900D-R set to work in an 8-bit slot.

I have the resistor packs installed on the Trantor. The hard drive has two jumpers for termination, one labeled "Term" and the other "Power". I've currently got both jumped, but I also tried just having the Power on and a physical terminator at the end of the cable.
Click to expand...

If you are seeing an IRQ conflict while running MSD it may be time to get this project back to square one. What you may want to try is to remove your SCSI HD and controller, audio card, etc., boot off a floppy, then run MSD and see if you still have the IRQ conlict. If so, you're going to have to take a good look at mobo jumper settings. If that test flies, I might start to suspect the HD. Let us know how it goes.
 
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The machine was totally bare when I did that test. The only card installed was the video card. The mobo jumpers are to assign IRQ 2 and IRQ 5. These are the options:

E6 - E7 Not jumped connects IRQ5 to the Expansion Bus.
E6 - E7 Jumped connects VSYNC to IRQ5 (default).

E7 - E8 Jumped connects IDE IRQ to IRQ5.

E8 - E9 Jumped connects IDE IRQ to IRQ2 (default).
E8 - E9 Not jumped connects IRQ2 to the Expansion Bus.

I've tried having E6-E7 jumped & not jumped, and also tried E8-E9 jumped & not jumped. Neither seemed to make any difference.
 
Chuck(G) said:
Did you try E6-E7 off, E7-E8 off and E8-E9 jumped? Maybe you did, but it isn't clear.
Click to expand...

Alright, I tried the following & ran MSD after each attempt. Every time I ran MSD and hit Q for an IRQ Status, it froze:

E6-E7 only
E7-E8 only
E8-E9 only

I also pulled the VGA card and connected an RGB monitor. Then did the same tests & got the same result. I'm curious if MSD does the same thing on every TL/2, or do I have a messed up machine?
 
mikem said:
Alright, I tried the following & ran MSD after each attempt. Every time I ran MSD and hit Q for an IRQ Status, it froze:

E6-E7 only
E7-E8 only
E8-E9 only

I also pulled the VGA card and connected an RGB monitor. Then did the same tests & got the same result. I'm curious if MSD does the same thing on every TL/2, or do I have a messed up machine?
Click to expand...

I don't think MSD is your problem. I've used it successfully on every type of processor up to the Pentium. If you can run MS-DOS then you should be able to use MSD. I don't understand why MSD is 'locking up'. Try that particular 'MSD.EXE' file on different setup if possible, and we can eliminate it as problem source. Also, do you have documentation for your Tandy? If not, let us know and I can forward the maintenance manual to you.
 
mikem said:
I'm curious if MSD does the same thing on every TL/2, or do I have a messed up machine?
Click to expand...

The MSD problem is likely an unrelated boondoggle. I'm not sure if the same applies to the pre-SL/TL systems, but every single PSSJ-bearing Tandy system I've used (including my own TL/2) has hung during the IRQ test, regardless of whether the system was stock or not.

Per Trantor/NEC documentation, unless you plan to run an OS other than DOS, the T-130B does not need to use an IRQ, and can be left unjumpered.
 
Cloudschatze said:
The MSD problem is likely an unrelated boondoggle. I'm not sure if the same applies to the pre-SL/TL systems, but every single PSSJ-bearing Tandy system I've used (including my own TL/2) has hung during the IRQ test, regardless of whether the system was stock or not.

Per Trantor/NEC documentation, unless you plan to run an OS other than DOS, the T-130B does not need to use an IRQ, and can be left unjumpered.
Click to expand...

It would be interesting to hear from more Tandy fans about how MSD runs on their systems. It does run okay on the SX (mine at least) with no known problems including the IRQ check.

Late edit: To be fair, my SX is running a V20-10. Don't know what the overall effects are, but I do remember running MSD when it had a 8088 installed and I can't say it was problematic.
 
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Per an old Usenet post by Jeffrey Hayes (aka, TVDog):

>
> I have MSD and whenever I try to run the IRQ check it just stops and
> says working....
> I was wondering, how long does it take for it to return the info or is
> it locking up? I've waited up to 2mins on an 8088. Too long? Not long enough?

No, that is way too long; it is locking up. On some 1000-series models,
you have to specify the /I option with MSD to get it to work. /I keeps
MSD from doing some of its more "dangerous" checks on your hardware.
The early 1000-series not being completely IBM PC-compatible, the checks
mess up the system.
Click to expand...

I assume this applies to the later versions of MSD.
 
Since I don't have a 1000TL/2, can anyone point me to a document that calls out the differences between that and a standard IBM-compatible PC? We might be able to get to the bottom of this issue.
 
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