From: bob@consult.UUCP (Bob Willey CDP)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.xenix.sco
Subject: Re: SCO Xenix compatability & Systems
Keywords: Xenix compatability
Date: 10 Nov 92 15:02:01 GMT
Reply-To: bob@consult.UUCP (Bob Willey CDP )
Organization: CCS Enterprises, Inc. - Easton, MD

In article <BxGn8t.AMq@acsu.buffalo.edu> v505pda4@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu (Jerome J Schentag) writes:
>In article <1228@consult.UUCP>, bob@consult.UUCP (Bob Willey CDP) writes...
#>We have recently been doing some testing for several clients
#>about running SCO Xenix 386 v2.3.4 on various machines.
#>I know that most of the major names have been listed in the SCO
#>compatability list, but...  What about all the rest of the machines
#>that seem to be popping up everywhere?
#> 
#>We have seen problems on several machines (486/33 & 486/50) where it
#>has problems booting the N1 diskette.  Comes up with a string of "EEEE"'s.
#>The number of EEE's will vary. Sometimes it will come to the Boot:
#>prompt and many times it will not???
#> 
#>The machines have AMI BIOS, and various controllers.
>>>.. Bob Willey, CDP          ..  |  ..  uunet!consult!bob  bob@ccs.com   ..<
>
>We had the same problem when we decided to upgrade our Xenix system to a 486-33
>from a 384-40.  I discovered that when I turned off the internal and external 
>486 cache (which the AMI bios I had allowed) The system would boot normally
>but was slower than the 386 (bummer 8-( .)  After a call to tech support
>for the hardware suggested turning on one wait state for the cache everything
>worked fine.  It was amazing, first time I actually got a correct answer to a
>problem in less than 30 seconds.  Seems that the machine works fine with
>0 wait state cache under dos, but needs 1 wait state in cache for Xenix.

Here is a little further information on the problem.  We have tried adding
wait states to memory and also slowing down the motherboard clock speed
to no avail.  Several people had mentioned that the "EEEEE"'s were documented
in the SCO manuals, so I spent a few hours looking and found 1 reference
to them, in the SCO Xenix Installation Guide.  It mentions to verify diskette,
and the N1 will boot on another system, making sure the diskette is inserted
correctly (It has not been that bad a day, yet..), Verify that the door
is completely closed, and it is; it also mentions to tap the edge of the
floppy ??
It concludes that is error messages EEEE still persists, call your provider
to get a new floppy.  We have replaced the floppy, and the ide controller.

A 2nd machine was getting the same errors when booting from floppy (EEEEEE)
and if you were persistent and kept trying it would eventually work, booting
from the HD has been without a failure (2 days now). It was just booting
from the floppy that gave problems.

Several people have mentioned that AMI/BIOS should work fine.  It is using
the Symphony chipset.  Both are 486's.  (33 & 50).  Not DX2's.

-- 
>.. Bob Willey, CDP          ..  |  ..  uunet!consult!bob  bob@ccs.com   ..<
>.. CCS Enterprises, Inc.    ..  |  ..   Office: (410) 820-4670          ..<
>.. P.O. Drawer 1690         ..  |  ..      FAX: (410) 476-5261          ..<
>.. Easton, Maryland 21601 ......|......... BBS: (410) 476-5098 ...........<