Kevin Brosius on Wed, 16 May 2001 11:55:37 -0400


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Re: [PLUG] Curious hardware? issue


Eric Allan Lucas wrote:
> 
> I know this is only 1/2 Linux related but there is a great deal of expertise on this list and I hope someone has an idea about this very curious problem:
> 
> I've got a Win98 machine:  SuperMicro mini ATX MoBo with Intel 810 chipset (integrated video) 64MB memory, 9 gig HD, ViewSonic A90 monitor, Lexmark Z52 printer.  Plain Vanilla PC in other words.
> Works fine with Win98 (as well as any Win98 machine can)
> 
> Now, I install a second hard drive (ide 0 slave) 2Gig Maxtor (out of my "hardware drawer" - off line for about 1 year) and install Red Hat 7.1 on it.  It works!  Everything is fine in the Linux department (well, so far it has to boot Linux with a floppy but I can live with that).
> 
> Now, when the machine is booted into Win98, it "locks up" after a few minutes of use.  By "lock up" I mean the computer stops responding to either the mouse and/or keyboard.  Sometimes, it fixes itself (starts responding) after some brief period of time, other times it must be powered off.
> 
> Here is the curious part... when I disconnect the 2 Gig drive... Win98 boots and runs fine!
> 
> Has anybody run into a similar issue on a dual boot PC before?
> 
> Any ideas about how to fix this (other than trash Win98... cannot do that yet) are welcome.
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> Eric

I've seen a lot of crazy IDE issues when drives are on the same
interface.  Sometimes mixing manufacturers will cause trouble, although
I'd suspect this only with older drives or mobo's.  I haven't seen a
case like yours, although if Win98 and your mobo BIOS support UDMA it
doesn't surprise me a whole lot.  Disabling hard drive options like UDMA
in the BIOS might fix the lockup but cost you performance...

Do you have four ide ports available?  (ie ide0 Master/Slave and ide1
Master/Slave)  If so, moving the new drive to ide1 Master may resolve
the problem.  You can get the already install system to run, but you'll
need to but with a rescue disk, modify lilo.conf, rerun lilo, and modify
/etc/fstab to show the actual partition locations.  (Did I miss
anything?)

-- 
Kevin Brosius


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