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WD MFM Controller not working

M

Marty

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 26, 2009
Messages
3,141
Location
Boulder , Colorado USA
Hi All;
I have a some WD MFM Controller, and one of them I bout a little over a year ago, because I was having trouble with the other two controllers that I have..
Now, I can't get any of them to work..
Some of the drives, that come ready, do not respond when issuing any commands to the drive..
I have tried all three controllers, and different cables, and no luck at getting anything to work..
A year ago I got one of the Drives to format and copied MS Dos to it..
So, I don't know what to do next..
Also, IS there any SoftWare that I can use to check out my WD controller(s)..
The controllers I have are the following --
WD 1003 WAH
WD 1003 WA2
WD 1006V-MM1 (This is the one I bought about a year ago..)
I am running these on a 486 PC Computer..

THANK YOU Marty
 
Have you performed a low level format? The drives will need to be low level formatted to match the controllers.

I'm also assuming you know how to cable them up correctly?
Did you set the drive type correctly in the BIOS?

(Also why are you using these in a 486? You'd usually find that tech in a 286 or early 386)
 
Usually, those old WD MFM controllers are very reliable. I find it hard to believe that they're all bad.

Does your 486 include IDE support on the motherboard? If so, have you disabled it? (If you can, that is).
 
Hi All;
Spider, Thank You for Your Answer, Yes, I know about Low Level Formating.. "" Did you set the drive type correctly in the BIOS? "" Yes, the ones that have a match in the Bios..
Chuck, Thank You for Your Answer.. "" Does your 486 include IDE support on the motherboard? If so, have you disabled it? (If you can, that is). It does have IDE Support, but I have not attached a Drive to it, nor have I disabled it..
"" Usually, those old WD MFM controllers are very reliable. I find it hard to believe that they're all bad. "" I do to, which is why I am asking, what I might be doing wrong or some software to test them with, that will rule out the controller as being at fault..

THANK YOU Marty
 
I'd first of all go with Chuck's suggestion of disabling the onboard IDE, if you can. Failing that, have you got access to another PC you can test the cards in?
 
Hi All;
Thank You, Steve, Yes, I plan on looking into doing as Chuck has suggested, come Monday morning.. I don't know If I can dis-able the IDE or not, at this point..
I Think I have some Old MotherBoards, I'LL have to see If any of them work, 286-386, I will need to Borrow the Supply from my 486, to test them.. Hopefully, I can find something workable..
THANK YOU Marty
 
Hi All;
I have the 486 motherboard out of the Box.. It is a chinese no name board.. I cannot find any IDC dis-able jumper.. It has everything else on it, multiple cpu voltages, dual type power supply, sound, modem and Lan jumpers..
THANK YOU Marty
 
Hi, Marty.
You'll disable IDE and Hard Drives in the BIOS Configuration screen.
Do you know how to access this?

It will typically tell you to press F1, F2, or ESC during boot up to access the BIOS.
If we know what brand of BIOS, you may be able to be stepped-through the process, if needed.
.
 
Hi All;
Luvit, Thank You, I thought It was a jumper I was looking for.. Yes, I know how to access the Bios in this board.. I had taken a picture of it, but I had lost my cable to connect the phone to the computer.. I found my picture, so I can display it.. The Biois is AmiBios..

04212014032.jpg

THANK YOU Marty
 
Hi All;
It could be, I used to have a Pachard Bell 486, but it went Bad.. This is an AMD K6-2 266.. Don't know what this is..
THANK YOU Marty
 
Hi All;
I have gotten it to see and format a Drive, Now the drive might be still Bad.. But, at least it is showing up..
THANK YOU to everyone for Your Help..
THANK YOU Marty
 
A K6 board is pretty late in PC history to work with an old ISA MFM controller. Not by any means impossible, but less likely than, say, a 486 or earlier board. Remember that the heyday of ISA MFM/RLL controllers was during the 286 and early 386 time period. They were getting pretty rare on 486 boards and pretty much gone by the time the P1 came out.
 
The ISA slot, while important, isn't the whole story. Later chipsets can be very quirky in their support of ISA devices. I've got a couple of boards with 2 ISA slots that don't support legacy 8-bit DMA, for example. The rule of thumb is that the further (more distant in time) that you go from a device's time period, the more uncertain support can be. And anything much after the Intel P3 440BX chipset can be a real roll of the dice.
 
Hi All;
Thank You Chuck, According to the AMI Diag disk, this is a 486 DX.. I have been able to do a Low level Format on two different Drives, one is a ST-238 and the other is a CDC 94155-86.. But, even after doing the Low Level Format, it still can't Read or set up the partition Table, nor do a Dos format.. I have some 286 and 386 Mother Boards, but I will need to take the Power Supply out of the 486 and find a Video card that will work, and then see If any of them have the means or are compatible with either drive..
So, before taking the 486 all apart, Does anyone have any suggestions ???
This 486 will take either Power Supply early or late, so I can put a later power supply in it, (I think)..
Also the book says that this WD controller is for 16 bit set up, its a WD 1006V-MM1..
THANK YOU marty
 
Stone's got it. A K6 CPU is a Super Socket 7 AMD improvement over the original Pentium 1 design. No 486DX board ever ran at 233 MHz. While some late ones had some PCI 1.0 slots, they were dominated by ISA and VLB.

You can get K6 CPUs up to about 550 MHz if memory serves. They tend to benchmark quite favorably against Intel P2/P3 systems.
 
Hi All;
Stone and Chuck, Thanks for Your reply.. Thanks for settling what CPU it has..
"" Then put an IDE drive in it and save yourself a lot of work. "" I know I could, but, I want to have my old MFM drive(s), and make them work..
THANK YOU Marty
 
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