Problems with AHA1542B (DAMN BIOS !) and ISC 2.2 (won't boot !)

[Mark W. Snitily]

In article <1yyJu4w163w at bluemoon.uucp> grant at bluemoon.uucp (Grant DeLorean) writes:
>nbladt at aut.autelca.ascom.ch (Norbert Bladt) writes:
>
>> I am trying to install ISC 2.2 on the following system:
>> 
>> 	386 Motherboard 33 Mhz, 8 MB RAM

You may also want to check the rev of your 80386/33 CPU.  Quoting from
an article posted back in early July '90:

   ...

   Today I spoke with an engineer with Transcomputer who has *solved*
   the mysterious ISC 2.2 install disk hang problem.  Evidently the
   new 2.2 release enables instruction pipelining in the 386 processor,
   something which ISC neglected to tell us poor souls.  Check your
   386 processor, just below the i386 logo should be the processor
   version.  If the chip is the SX211 version, you're in trouble
   because there is a bug in processor regarding instruction pipelining
   (don't confuse SX211 with the 386SX chip!  we're talking about the
   processor revision number here!).  The solution is to replace the
   chip with the "SX219" version, the hang problem will vanish completely.
   I indeed checked my processor and I have the faulty 386 chip.

           intel
           i386
           A80386DX-33  IV
           SX211                   <== There it is!
           L9310437
           INTEL (m)(c) '85

   I advise everyone to check their processor version before upgrading or
   purchasing 2.2, this problem will most likely affect *any* machine with
   the SX211 version chip.
   --
   Arthur W. Neilson III           | ARPA: art at pilikia.pegasus.com
   Bank of Hawaii Tech Support     | UUCP: uunet!ucsd!nosc!pegasus!pilikia!art


Happy Holidays.

-- Mark

Mark W. Snitily                 Consulting Services:
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