Cannot boot-up into DOS with my SCSI card inserted.

[gba]

I have a brand new Adaptec dual channel PCI SCSI card... When trying to boot into DOS from a CD or floppy, the boot process freezes at "Scanning PCI bus..." I have used several versions of DOS including Win 98 boot disk, my old standby... I have tried removing all cards, which does allow me to boot successfully, then when I insert SCSI card with or without HD attached, I cannot boot. I have also tried disabling all peripherals in the BIOS... I am stuck

THX in advance for any and all ideas of what to try next...

gary

 

[GrammatonJP]

That is weird..

is there a scsi bios on the card? if card is retail.. call up adaptec...

 

[gba]

Oh yeah... The card works in Windows... I am actually thinking the card is prolly OEM, but not sure... I will check to see if it has the latest BIOS installed though, good idea THX...

gary

 

[PingSpike]

I'd try adaptec's site...I had good luck solving some of my problems there in the past. Everything works in windows? Maybe its a IRQ problem or something?

 

[gba]

It does have the latest BIOS... Will call Adaptec...

 

[PingSpike]

Have you tried a different PCI slot for the card?

 

[Hardlin]

If you need to use DOS then you might want to change the Plug and Pray OS setting in your BIOS to no. That should force the BIOS to work out the IRQ issues before you start to boot DOS.

 

[gba]

THX PingSpike... Yes, I have tried all available slots...
THX Hardin... Great idea, will try that now...

gary

 

[gba]

Hardin... Changing PnP setting in BIOS to "no" did not solve problem... Yeah, I boot into DOS to create back ups and to restore Windows 2000 with Norton Ghost. I must be able to boot into DOS... grrrrr

 

[mharrison]

This does really sound like an IRQ problem.

 

[gba]

Originally posted by: mharrison
This does really sound like an IRQ problem.

I agree. I just do not know what else to do to free up IRQ's though

 

[0roo0roo]

your dos disc has scsi drivers?

 

[OSX]

Which one is it?

 

[gba]

I have tried several... Win98 is my standby... I know it has worked with my ASUS A7N8X Deluxe Motherboard and my old LSI U 160 SCSI Controller.

 

[Arcanedeath]

Make sure nothing else is sharing an IRQ w/ the Scsi card and ensure the boot disket you are using has the proper Scsi card support / drivers, if the dos boot disk your using doesn't have a proper driver for your card you may get what your describing.

The card you listed most likely has a Scsi bios, you need to enable in your motherboard bios and the scsi cards bios the ability to boot from the card and / or with the card. Also make sure the PCI busmaster setting is enabled in your bios (if you have this setting) and try setting the PCI latency timer to 64 and see if this makes a difference.

edit: its also a good idea to check if the card is compatible w/ your motherboard, I know in some cases, some motherboards won't boot or load an OS properly w/ some add in cards.

 

[gba]

Originally posted by: Arcanedeath
Make sure nothing else is sharing an IRQ w/ the Scsi card and ensure the boot disket you are using has the proper Scsi card support / drivers, if the dos boot disk your using doesn't have a proper driver for your card you may get what your describing.

The card you listed most likely has a Scsi bios, you need to enable in your motherboard bios and the scsi cards bios the ability to boot from the card and / or with the card. Also make sure the PCI busmaster setting is enabled in your bios (if you have this setting) and try setting the PCI latency timer to 64 and see if this makes a difference.

edit: its also a good idea to check if the card is compatible w/ your motherboard, I know in some cases, some motherboards won't boot or load an OS properly w/ some add in cards.

THX Arcanedeath for taking the time to write such a thorough reply. I should have mentioned that I have already successfully installed Win2000. I need to boot into DOS mainly so I can use Norton Ghost. I will check re: the latency timer...

 

[Arcanedeath]

Ghost Will hang while booting into dos if you do not have the proper dos drivers for your SCSI card and its not a card ghost has built in support for. For example Ghost works fine w/ an LSI ultra 160 card or a promise ata 100 controler card but will not work w/ my onboard Sil 3114 raid controler and just locks up like your describing.

 

[gba]

Yeah, I do not see either of these controls in my MB bios:

"Also make sure the PCI busmaster setting is enabled in your bios (if you have this setting) and try setting the PCI latency timer to 64 and see if this makes a difference."

 

[gba]

Hey everybody, I got it I tried selecting the option to boot without CD ROM support and that did it.... Perhaps it had something to do with my most awesome vintage Plextor 50 pin SCSI CD ROM connected to the opposite channel form my 68pin Hard drives? Thanks to all who scratched their heads...

gary

 

[Arcanedeath]

If your 50pin SCSI cd-rom was not setup as a bootable device in the SCSI bios of your controler card you can get what your describing, w/ most adapatec cards its like Ctrl F to enter the scsi bios, its when it detects your scsi drives fyi, and there is normaly an option you can set to make devices on the add in card bootable.

edit: glad you solved it by just bypassing the problem

 

[gba]

I have indeed been into the SCSI BIOS... and have just gone back in and found out that the CD ROM was not set as bootable. I then set it as bootable and the problem, plus the aforementioned solution, persisted... Since I have the Ghost executable and my restore images located on a FAT 32 partition, I have no need to access the SCSI CD ROM, since I have IDE CD ROM drives, as well. I create the occasional bootable restore disk with ghost... I imagine I will need to do that a bit more often, unless I figure this thing out.... but my problem is no longer a fatal one...

Thanks again for all of the help...