Hi All,
I recently got my PC 5150 back out after storing it for approximately one year, and am having a problem getting it completely working. The current setup is as follows:
I'm reaching out for help on this one, as I haven't seen a setup like this in the past, and am not sure where to go with troubleshooting. The system originally booted off of the floppy drive, and is configured to run a driver for the hard disk subsystem. The hard drive and QIC tape drive are connected to the PC 5150 via two ribbon cables, one going to the tape controller card, and the other connecting to the external connector of the floppy disk controller card.
Anyway, getting down to it, the PC 5150 works fine (no error codes on boot), and boots off of the floppy drive with no issues. However, the disk subsystem fails to initialize, and the following error is displayed:
Great Lakes Computer Peripherals - Hard Disk Subsystem Driver
(c) Copyright Olin-Mills Ltd. 1984 Version 1.2
TIMEOUT ERROR TRYING TO COMMUNICATE
WITH THE HARD DISK CONTROLLER
MAKE SURE THAT ALL BOARD AND CABLES
ARE SECURE, AND THAT THE HARD DISK COMPLETED ITS INTERNAL POWER ON SEQUENCE.
PLEASE REFER TO THE REFERENCE MANUAL IF
THIS ERROR OCCURS AGAIN.
PRESS ANY KEY TO FINISH BOOTING UP
Anyway, I went ahead and re-seated all of the cards in the PC 5150, and have also tried rearranging them into different slots, with no effect. I can also confirm that the hard drive spins up, and appears to complete its self-test correctly (access light on when powered on, then off after hearing the hard drive initialization sounds). I've also re-seated all of the cables for the hard disk and its controller. I've also tried removing the memory cards (PC displays the expected errors) and the tape controller card (no change).
I've also dug around on the boot disk for this machine, but didn't find any logfiles, etc. I'm curious if anyone might have some thoughts about how I might dig into the issue (Debug commands?).
I recently got my PC 5150 back out after storing it for approximately one year, and am having a problem getting it completely working. The current setup is as follows:
- IBM 64-256k Motherboard
- Persyst Color Graphics Display Adapter (CGA)
- Quadram Quadboard (fully populated and battery removed)
- ATD, Inc M117 memory board (fully populated)
- Unknown Floppy / Hard Disk Controller (unmarked, but looks exactly like an IBM 6181682 I found a picture of on eBay)
- Great Lakes Comp. PN 3000001 Rev B Tape Drive Controller
- Dual 360k full height floppy drives
- External expansion chassis (note: NOT IBM brand, and somewhat homemade looking) containing: Wang Quarter Inch Tape drive (labelled Great Lakes Quartermaster Tape Backup) and Quantum Q540 full height hard disk.
- The expansion chassis also contains an Adaptec ACB4000 card, connected to the hard disk drive. Please note that this is not an ISA card, but connects to the floppy controller via ribbon cable.
I'm reaching out for help on this one, as I haven't seen a setup like this in the past, and am not sure where to go with troubleshooting. The system originally booted off of the floppy drive, and is configured to run a driver for the hard disk subsystem. The hard drive and QIC tape drive are connected to the PC 5150 via two ribbon cables, one going to the tape controller card, and the other connecting to the external connector of the floppy disk controller card.
Anyway, getting down to it, the PC 5150 works fine (no error codes on boot), and boots off of the floppy drive with no issues. However, the disk subsystem fails to initialize, and the following error is displayed:
Great Lakes Computer Peripherals - Hard Disk Subsystem Driver
(c) Copyright Olin-Mills Ltd. 1984 Version 1.2
TIMEOUT ERROR TRYING TO COMMUNICATE
WITH THE HARD DISK CONTROLLER
MAKE SURE THAT ALL BOARD AND CABLES
ARE SECURE, AND THAT THE HARD DISK COMPLETED ITS INTERNAL POWER ON SEQUENCE.
PLEASE REFER TO THE REFERENCE MANUAL IF
THIS ERROR OCCURS AGAIN.
PRESS ANY KEY TO FINISH BOOTING UP
Anyway, I went ahead and re-seated all of the cards in the PC 5150, and have also tried rearranging them into different slots, with no effect. I can also confirm that the hard drive spins up, and appears to complete its self-test correctly (access light on when powered on, then off after hearing the hard drive initialization sounds). I've also re-seated all of the cables for the hard disk and its controller. I've also tried removing the memory cards (PC displays the expected errors) and the tape controller card (no change).
I've also dug around on the boot disk for this machine, but didn't find any logfiles, etc. I'm curious if anyone might have some thoughts about how I might dig into the issue (Debug commands?).