AHA-3940/3940W Common Questions and Answers Doc. # 39155 Q: Why wouldn't the host adapter be recognized and why wouldn't the BIOS banner be displayed when installing the AHA-3940? A: The computer must be PCI REV. 2.0 compliant and motherboard BIOS must support PCI to PCI Bridges (PPB). Doc. #21130 on the Interactive Fax or BRDGCOMP.TXT on the BBS has a listing of systems which have been tested to work with AHA-3940/3940W. However, we recommend to confirm with the manufacturer of the Motherboard for PPB support. For more information on PCI bridge chipset issues, consult Doc # 21140 on the Interactive Fax. Q: My system is listed as being PCI 2.0 compliant, yet the host adapter is still not recognized or it hangs at the BIOS banner. A: Even though the hardware support for PCI to PCI Bridge is present, the version of the BIOS may not be supported. Contact the motherboard manufacturer for an upgraded BIOS. Q: The BIOS has been updated, yet the host adapter is still not recognized. A: Either the board is not in a bus mastering slot or the PCI slot is not enabled for bus mastering. Check your motherboard manual to find out if the slot is bus mastering or how to enable bus mastering for that slot. It may be a jumper setting on the motherboard or an option in the CMOS setup. Q: On boot-up I get the error message "Host Adapter Configuration Error." A: In CMOS setup, enable the IRQ for the PCI slot. Alternatively, you can mark one of the IRQs as free or available. Be aware that there may be an IRQ conflict with a built-in controller on the motherboard. For CMOS settings, refer to your PC users manual. Q: My PCI video card which is installed with my AHA-3940 either shows no video or it causes intermittent hangs during boot. A: Multiple PCI cards in a system may cause a resource conflict. There are no known compatibility issues with any PCI video card. Check the PCI slot configuration in the CMOS setup for possible conflicts. Q: EZ-SCSI installation hangs on installing the AIC-7870.DLL driver. A: Update to EZ-SCSI version 3.11 or later Q: EZ-SCSI 3.x fails to recognize the Host Adapter when running the install program. A: To install drivers, insert disk #2 into you floppy drive and type DOSINST /PCI from that drive. This should allow EZ-SCSI to find the PCI Host Adapter. Then if necessary, run the EZ-SCSI install from Windows 3.x by running SETUP NOSCAN from the program manager. Once this is done EZ-SCSI drivers should be completely installed to your hard drive. Manually edit the config.sys and autoexec.bat to load the appropriate drivers if necessary. Q: When loading ASPI8DOS.SYS the system hangs, and then displays the error message: "Read BIOS Parameter Failed." A: Update ASPI8DOS.SYS manager to version 1.10 (EZ-SCSI 3.03) or later. Q: Can I use a SCSI 2 drive with 3940W since it does not have any SCSI 2 connector. A: Adaptec has 68 pin to 50 pin internal and external adapters available through sales which may be used to install SCSI 2 devices. The external adapter changes the entire external bus to 8-bit SCSI and must only be connected to the external port of the host adapter. No external wide devices should be daisy-chained if this adapter is used. The internal adapter, however, does not convert the entire internal bus to 8 bit SCSI. This is used to convert one connector on a 68 pin internal ribbon cable to 50 pin. The internal connector must only be used for the middle connectors. No SCSI 2 device may be placed at the end of the daisy chain and a wide terminator or wide device is required at the end of the chain to properly terminate the bus. Q: Can I use the external connector as channel A? A: The external connector is hardwired for channel A only. Q: How can I boot from channel B? A: The AHA-3940 will boot from channel B as long as no hard drive is connected to channel A. If a hard drive is connected to channel A and the BIOS version is 1.12, then the host adapter can be configured to boot from channel B. To configure the host adapter, go to the Device Configuration Table in SCSI Select setup and change "Include in BIOS scan" option to "no". This option has been eliminated from BIOS version 1.13 and will not allow booting from channel B if a hard drive is connected to channel A. There is no solution at this time to boot to channel B if the BIOS version is 1.13 and a hard drive is connected to channel A. Q: I am able to access channel A, but unable to access channel B. A: This is a system resource allocation problem. A possible work around solution is as follows, but it is recommend that the customer contact the system manufacturer for an BIOS upgrade. The solution is to leave the slot next to the AHA-3940W adapter vacant and also assign an IRQ to that particular slot. For example; If an AHA-3940W is installed in slot 1, assign an IRQ to slot 1 and assign an IRQ to slot 2. There are some systems that have PCI IRQ sharing which slots 1 and 2 had to be assigned the same IRQ. Note: The adjacent slot must remain vacant for this solution to work. Q: Where can I get the latest NetWare drivers for AHA-3940 and which driver should I load? A: The latest NetWare drivers can be downloaded from Adaptec's BBS and internet sites (ftp.adaptec.com, www.adaptec.com). Drivers for NetWare 3.1x are in a file called NW31X.EXE and drivers for NetWare 4.X are in NW4X.EXE. These are self extracting files which contain the NetWare drivers for all of Adaptec's host adapters. The driver for the AHA-3940 is AIC7870.DSK. Q: NetWare only sees one channel after loading the driver and there is no problem in DOS. A: The drivers must be loaded for each channel individually. If both channels A and B are used, load the driver twice. Q: NetWare does not recognize the CD-ROM. What driver do I need to load. A: To be able to access a CD-ROM, load the following drivers: :Load AIC7870.DSK (ASPITRAN.DSK will autoload) :Load ASPICD.DSK :Load NPA312.NLM (for NetWare 3.12 only) :Load NWPA.NLM (for NetWare 4.xx only) :Load CDROM.NLM WIN NT Q: I'm running Windows NT and recently upgraded from a previous SCSI Host Adapter to an AHA-3940 PCI adapter and the 78xx.SYS driver. When I removed the old adapter from the system, I connected the hard drive to the AHA-3940 and re-booted. Now the system will not boot. What's wrong? A: A possible solution is that when the new driver was added to the NTBOOTDD.SYS, the old driver was also there, and was configured to be activated at BOOTUP time. The new driver must be set to start at BOOTUP. This can be done in the Device section of the Control Panel. The old driver needs to be deleted from the NTBOOTDD.SYS if the card is no longer in the system. If the old card is still in the system but is not controlling the boot device, choose the Service section in the Control Panel and select the original driver to be started at SYSTEM time not BOOTUP. Q: I'm getting corrupted files mirroring drives using Windows NT Workstation or Server. A: The hard drives being used may have Write Cache enabled by default. File corruption can occur when mirroring drives with this feature. CHKDSK can sometimes fix the problem temporarily, however, upon reboot, file corruption usually starts again. Contact the hard drive manufacturer for instructions to disable Write Cache. NOVELL Q: If I have two cards installed, how do I determine which AHA-3940 is the primary card, if I am duplexing under Novell? A: During boot-up, check the LED on the AHA-3940 cards to see which one illuminates first. Revised on 4/1/96