MISCELLANEOUS
Q. How can I show my appreciation for all the help you and your pages have provided?
A. Buy something off my wish list and send it to me.
IN-2000
Q. What are the switch settings of this card?
A. I just completed converting the "Quick Installation Guide" to HTML format. Check it out!
Q. Does the IN-2000 work with Windows 95, and where can I find the driver?
A.
Yes, it does, HOWEVER the Firmware revision of the card must be 2.7,
and the BIOS should be either 1-03 or 887-01.x. The one and only
IN-2000 driver for Win95 is included with the Windows 95 operating
system.
Q. Why is the IN-2000 working in "MS-DOS Compatibility Mode" in Windows 95?
or
Q. Why is the IN-2000 working so slowly in Windows 95?
or
Q. Why is there a yellow exclamation mark (or red "X") next to the IN-2000 driver in the hardware control panel in Windows 95?
A. See previous question. Your IN-2000 has a firmware chip that is 2.5 or below, or has a 3.xx BIOS revision level.
Q. Does the IN-2000 work with Windows NT, and where can I find the driver?
A.
Yes, it does, HOWEVER the Firmware revision of the card must be 2.7,
and the BIOS should be either 1-03 or 887-01.x. The driver is included
as part of the NT 3.5x operating system. If installing NT 4.xx, you'll
find the driver on the NT4 installation CD-ROM in
"\DRVLIB\STORAGE\RETIRED\X86". Check out the README.TXT file in that
directory for further information on how to install these drivers.
Q. What do I do with these BIOS/Firmware files I downloaded?
A.
You didn't pay attention to the "You must know what you are doing
before downloading these files" statement on the previous page, did
you? You need an EPROM programmer, necessary chips and software. Of
course, knowledge in what to do with all that stuff would be a big
bonus as well!
Q. What kind of solid state devices are the BIOS/Firmware?
A.
The BIOS is a standard AMD, or compatible, 256KiloBit device, but I
have used 512KiloBit chips in the past. The Firmware is, well, I'll let
Mr. Mike Coates give you the info on that chip:
"For
your information (in case anybody else asks). The firmware has to be
programmed into a new Xilinx 1736 Serial Prom (they cannot be erased
once written) Currently, the only ones available are series D which
also have programmable reset polarity. To make one of these compatible
with a series A (as on the always card) the polarity must be set high."
A Mr. Owen Mann has provided the following handy links pertaining to the firmware chip:
http://www.xilinx.com/partinfo/notify/pcn9510b.htm - Serial PROM availability
http://www.digikey.com - Digi-Key Corporation (A place to buy the firmware chip)
Q. Why can I only see two drive letters?
A.
In the "good-ole-days", without further help, DOS could only see two
physical hard drives at once. Things have long progressed past those
days, but some folks still have older hardware. Those with IN-2000's
with a firmware version of 887-01.x will not have this problem. If you
have an older version, some switches may need to be changed. For 1-03
revision BIOS's, switch 8 must be ON for >2 drive support. For 1-02
BIOS revisions, you must turn switches 5-7 OFF. This disables the IRQ
on the card, it may not even solve the problem and may make your system
unstable. If you have a 3.xx BIOS revision, forget it. Without a BIOS
upgrade, there is NO way to see more than 2 hard drives in your system.
Q. I have internal and external devices, how do I disable on-board termination?
A.
It was discovered early-on that the IN-2000 worked BEST when the
on-board termination resistors were left in-place. This is why the
later-model boards had the terminators permanently SOLDERED to the
card. This was also done due to people improperly re-inserting the
terminator resistors after intially removing them (yes, they not only
go in a certain direction, but also in a SPECIAL ORDER!).
Q. I heard those terminating resistors are inserted in a certain way on this card, is that correct?
A.
You betcha! Now, while some of the newer revision IN-2000's have
soldered-in terminator resistors, many of the older ones do not. If you
happen to take them out and not notice how they went in, you must make
sure you put them back in place in the proper order and orientation.
The IN-2000 has four packs of terminating resistors, two are labeled
"221" and two are labeled "331". The ones labeled "331" are inserted
into the sockets closest to the SCSI connector, with the ones labeled
"221" inserted into the sockets furthest away from the SCSI connector.
As far as orientation is concerned, each resistor should have a dot or
stripe on one end. That end is to face towards the bottom of the card
(where it plugs into the ISA bus). (Props to Keith Smith on asking this
question)
Q.
I have a 3-COM ethernet adapter in my machine, and either it or my SCSI
card will not function when they are in the machine at the same time.
What's the deal?
A.
Don't use I/O port 110. 3-COM cards, no matter _WHAT_ their I/O port is
set to, always use port 110 as a sort of "window" to communicate with
the card.
Al-7xxx (AL-7000, AL-7048)
Q. What are the switch settings of this card?
A. I just completed converting the "Quick Installation Guide" to HTML format. Check it out!
Q. Hey, what do I _really_ have, the AL-7000 or the AL-7048?
A.
The original plan was to have many different VL-type SCSI host adapters
available. There was to be a SCSI-only, a SCSI-IDE combo and a
SCSI-Wide with or without a combo. For you trivia buffs out there, the
SCSI chip on the AL-7048 (NCR 53C710/720) is actually a SCSI-WIDE chip.
Well, only the SCSI-combo card ever panned out. The SCSI-WIDE version,
which was to be released as a "daughterboard" upgrade, never made it
past the prototype stage. I saw one once, it didn't work. ;)
Q. Does the AL-7xxx work with Windows 95, and where can I find the driver?
A.
Okay, this can be complicated. The IDE/IO portion of the card will work
as any other IDE/IO card (in 32-bit mode with the included Win95
drivers). The SCSI portion of the card, however, will only function in
16-bit mode because there is no Win95 driver for it. You can use the
DOS ASPI manager (AL7ASPI.SYS) for it, however the driver must be dated
at least 9-94. Anything earlier will lockup the system.
Q. What is this crap? I thought the AL-7048 was a 32-bit card, why can't I get 32-bit support in Windows 95?
A.
You are confusing 32-bit HARDWARE transfers with 32-bit SOFTWARE
transfers. The AL-7048 transfers data (only the SCSI portion of the
card) to the computer, via HARDWARE, 32-bits at at time, no matter
what. The "32-bit" that Windows 95 talks about is the SOFTWARE drivers
that are used to control the host adapter. Without a special Windows 95
device driver (*.MPD), all transfers WITHIN THE OPERATING SYSTEM will
be 16-bits at a time.
Q. What do I do with these BIOS/Firmware files I downloaded?
A.
You didn't pay attention to the "You must know what you are doing
before downloading these files" statement on the previous page, did
you? You need an EPROM programmer, necessary chips and software. Of
course, knowledge in what to do with all that stuff would be a big
bonus as well!
Q.
I have a 3-COM ethernet adapter in my machine, and either it or my SCSI
card will not function when they are in the machine at the same time.
What's the deal?
A.
Don't use I/O port 110. 3-COM cards, no matter _WHAT_ their I/O port is
set to, always use port 110 as a sort of "window" to communicate with
the card.
AL-1000xx
Al-1000
Al-1000E
Q. Where can I get updated drivers?
A.
I know the driver diskettes I have available on my site are old, but
they are all I got. In order to check for current drivers, you need to
contact Shuttle Technology (who seem to have gone out of business).
Why? Always Technology did not manufacture this device. They purchased
it from Shuttle Technology and put their name on it. I don't know the
Shuttle model number for the AL-1000. The AL-1000E is the EPSA and the
AL-1000E2 is the EPSA2. From what I can determine, Shuttle only
supports the EPSA2 now.
Q. Does the AL-1000 work with Windows 95/NT?
A.
Sorry, but the original version of the AL-1000 will only work under
DOS/Windows 3.xx configurations. Only the AL-1000E and AL-1000E2 work
under Windows 95/NT.
Q. How do I determine if I have the AL-1000, AL-1000E or AL-1000E2?
A. I'll try to get snapshots of these units, but in the meantime, I'll do my best to describe each:
The
AL-1000 is a black rectangular box. It has one cable permanently
attached, that connects directly to the computer's parallel port. The
other two cables can be detached and they are for connecting to the
SCSI device and the printer (LPT pass-through). [See above]
The AL-1000E is an off-white square box that is approximately 3" square. It has no permanently attached cables. [See above]
The
AL-1000E2 is basically a long cable with a small rectangular box in the
middle. One end of the cable connects to your computer and the other
end connects to the SCSI device. There is a pass-through parallel port
connector in the middle of the rectangular box.
AL-500
Al-500
Thanks goes out to Mr. Robert
Hanlon for the AL-500 screen shot and copy of the manual, both of which
got me off my ass to finally make this section! ;>
Q. What's with this card?
A.
The AL-500 was a simple, stupid little 8-bit card which was most often
sold with HP and/or Panasonic scanners. It's been known as the
LF-S008AT, or the LS-2000. The card was originally designed and built
by Corel Corporation
and eventually sold to Always Technology when they decided they no
longer wanted to be in the hardware business. Always then changed the
name and sold it to various third parties for use as a cheap SCSI card.
Q. What can I do with this card?
A.
Honestly? Dump it. It's waaaaay old and drivers are hard to come
buy. You may be able to get it to work in DOS and/or Linux, but I
wouldn't count on anything past that. The card was considered to be
barely passable as a SCSI solution back when it was being sold, so you
can just guess what it's considered by today's standard.
Q. What are the jumper settings?
A.
Until I extract, analyze and re-design the AL-500 manual, you can
obtain the information you need from the following 4 pictures:
