[ale] OT: boot from SCSI CD-ROM

[Keith R. Watson]

At 12:05 8/24/2004 +0000, you wrote:
>I can't boot from a CD-ROM.
>
>System board is Aopen AX-63.  BIOS is Award 60, flashed to most recent
>available version (1.31).  Processor is Intel Pentium III, 450 MHz.
>Sysetm memory is 512 Mb.  SCSI controller is Adaptec 2940AU (bougjht
>used, and therefore suspect).
>
>There are four devices on the SCSI chain:  1.) an external Castlewood
>Orb drive.  2.) an internal Iomega Zip-100 drive.  3.) a Plextor
>PlexWriter 12/10/32S, 4.) a Plextor Ultraplex 40.  The Ultraplex is
>the last physical device on the internal chain; it is configured to
>be logical device 0.
>
>The adaptec controller card recognizes all the devices on boot.  It is
>configured to boot from device 0.  The system reports that the
>Plextor drives are PNP and autoconfigured.
>
>When I attempt to boot from CD, the system hangs just before the boot
>loader (LILO) screen appears.  A reset is necessary.
>
>Can anyone offer any suggestions?  They !will!! be appreciated.
>
>Zeb Morgan

Zeb,

As I recall one of the older versions of the BIOS for the 2940AU had 
problems booting from CD. If the card is labeled 2940AU then it came from 
Adaptec if it is a 2940U then it is an OEM version. OEM cards are not 
supported by Adaptec and the BIOS available on the Adaptec web site will 
not work with them.

The 2940AU doesn't have a flash BIOS so to upgrade it you have to download 
the latest binary and burn it to an EPROM.

http://www.adaptec.com/worldwide/support/driverdetail.jsp?sess=no&language=English+US&filekey=2940cat.exe

keith

-------------

Keith R. Watson                        GTRI/ISD
Systems Support Specialist III         Georgia Tech Research Institute
keith.watson at gtri.gatech.edu           Atlanta, GA  30332-0816
404-894-0836