Xenix-Digiboard Problems

[John C. Archambeau]

cliffb at cjbsys.bdb.com (cliff bedore) writes:
>In article <1991May27.061616.5588 at crash.cts.com> jca at pnet01.cts.com (John C. Archambeau) writes:
>>tomj at pnet16.cts.com (Tom Jenkins) writes:
>>>
>>> [ Stuff deleted ]
>>>
>>>DTK 80386 at 25Mhz with 64K cache, 4M Ram
>>>330M Imprimus EDSI, 1.2M Floppy
>>>PC/Xe Digiboard 8 Port Serial I/O (7 ea PM2400SA Practical Perhipherals)
>>>                                  (1 ea T2500 Telebit Trailblazer)
>>>Archive 60M Tape Drive
>>>Relisys VGA with ATI WonderCard
>>>NO printer
>>>
>>>Anyone have any other hints?
>>
>>I personally think it's the DTK motherboard.  There's a documented problem
>>with the DTK motherboard in running it under Novell Netware.  Deals with the
>>386 going in and out of protected mode along with possibly V86 mode.  I have
>>no great love for DTK.  Any motherboard that requires a Novell certified patch
>>to run Netware makes me very suspicious and dubious about running Unix or
>>Xenix under it.
>>
>>Have you tried a non-DTK motherboard?  Such as an AMI or Micronics?  It
>>doesn't have to be a name brand, just non-DTK.  A generic 386 board with an
>>Intel or C&T chip set may do the job for you.  Just avoid those that don't use
>>the AMI or Phoenix BIOS.
>>
>>If somebody is running VP/ix, it would not surprise me one bit if your DTK
>>motherboard is locking up on you.
>> */
>
>I have 3 machines running on DTK boards (2 20MHZ 1 25MHZ) and they run XENIX
>just fine.  You do need to get the slow boot mod but everything else works fine
>(including VPIX what little we use it)

Doesn't matter what your experience is.  Novell has acknowledged the problem
and you had to apply a modification to get Xenix to run.  Supposedly Novell
Netware runs just as well with the patch, but the problem is that it has to be
patched just for a DTK motherboard.  What other problems will one encounter? 
Will certain cards not work with it because of it being a bit off from the ISA
spec?

Since I'm the head of tech support where I work, I can make certain decisions
regarding what we will and will not support, and DTK products are HIGH on the
list.

Other problems I've had with DTK.  I put a guinine DTK floppy drive controller
in a 386SX machine and the video card wouldn't work.  I know it's not the
video card because of the fact that the same video card was used with the
floppy drive controller in my ancient 286.  Pull out the DTK floppy and the
display comes back.
 
To be fair, I tried the DTK floppy drive controller in another machine, sure
enough, it worked.  The 386SX motherboard had an Intel/Zymos chip set, nothing
unusual.

DTK products have given me nothing but problems and I certainly will not buy a
DTK product nor will I support them in the field.

     // JCA

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