🚀 go-pugleaf

/ hpcnof:net.micro.pc / ees@vax135.UUCP (Gene Sampieri) /  5:53 am  Sep 17, 1986 /
I have upgraded a PC-6300 to a 20 meg Tandon hard disk with a WDC 1002A
WX2 short controller board. Everything seems to work fine except at boot
time. At the spot it usually test for the hard disk, a message is displayed
"Optional Rom at ... ".  It hangs at this point for 18 to 20 seconds befor
going on to normall operation, booting from the hard disk and all else is
fine.

What if anything can be done to fix the extra long time delay??

Also when running Nortons Disk Sort, I now get a message saying "out of
memory". This does not happen on a plus with a 20 meg unit. Chkdsk indicates
there is well over 500K left after boot.

Thanks...

Gene Sampieri
AT&T Bell Labs
vax135!ees
----------


   Gene,

     When I upgraded my 6300 to a 20Meg (Microscience brand w/WD short
controller card) a 1.5 years ago, I experienced the exact same things you
describe.

     As for the 18 to 20 second delay time, I believe that the HD 
initialization code (in the optional ROM) is waiting for the drive
to come up to speed before accessing it.  If this is indeed the case,
there is nothing that you can do.  On a warm boot, do you still 
experience the delay?  (If so, it is not due to the drive coming up to speed).

    As for the 'out of memory' error with Norton's, I actually saw that
message when running the 'nu' program.  I do not remember what I did
to fix it (I already had 640K RAM), but it no longer does it (sorry,
I can't help you here).

Tom Hjellming
...!ihnp4!hpfcla!thj
Colorado Networks Division
Hewlett-Packard

(normal disclaimers)

>I have upgraded a PC-6300 to a 20 meg Tandon hard disk with a WDC 1002A
>WX2 short controller board. Everything seems to work fine except at boot
>time. At the spot it usually test for the hard disk, a message is displayed
>"Optional Rom at ... ".  It hangs at this point for 18 to 20 seconds befor
>going on to normall operation, booting from the hard disk and all else is
>fine.
>
>What if anything can be done to fix the extra long time delay??
[ ... ]
>Gene Sampieri

I have the same problem.I don't think it has to do with the disk comming to
speed since it does the same thing on warm boot.

Can this have something to do with the ROM BIOS. I have the old one and I hear
it does not recognize a lot of hard disks. Whould anyone know if installing
the 1.43 ROM help?
-- 
----------------
Thomas Rosenfeld 
		@ AT&T Information Systems Labs, Middletown, NJ
		(201) 957-5867
		
		UUCP:		{harpo,ihnp4,burl,akgua}!mtgzz!rosen

Disclaimer: I don't claim anything.

> 
> >What if anything can be done to fix the extra long time delay??
> 
> Can this have something to do with the ROM BIOS. I have the old one and I hear
> it does not recognize a lot of hard disks. Whould anyone know if installing
> the 1.43 ROM help?

I recently purchased ROM BIOS 1.43 and yes, it does solve this problem.
The reason is that the new ROM has all the HDU code in the ROM and
does not use the code in the ROM on the controller board.  I now get
no startup delay and the message "Fixed disk 1: (ready)" rather than
"Optional ROM at..."