Installing non-Pnp ISA legacy device: SCSI host

[TUS 373]

I am putting some old components together to build a spare PC. I have a ISA type SCSI host controller card, an Adaptec AVA-1502 that came with a SCSI Zip drive many years ago. That Zip drive is long dead now, but I figured I could use it with a SCSI CD/RW drive.

Two problems.

1. I have installed the card in an ISA slot, but on booting the machine does not seem to be able to see it. I figured that I could set the BIOS to non-PnP legacy device and have tried IRQs 9 and 10, but it still does not seem to see the card.

2. The drivers I have for this are pre-Windows XP pro. A google reveals that I may be able to sub a more modern driver from a similae SCSI card to make it operative. But if it is non-PnP and cannot be seen by the PC, I'm a bit scuppered - so any suggestions on how to do this please?

TIA,
Bryan

[jimmyjimjim]

Guess what? I had the exact same idea a couple of years back. Never got the blooming thing to work at all. Exactly the same symptoms as you, tried changing the interupt manually, just like you, and....nothing.
Even ended up contacting iomega support, and still got no-where.
Ended up using another spare SCSI card instead.
Sorry not to be more helpful, but I'd advise moving on!
The adaptec 2904 card is only about £25 - I'd try that instead.

[TUS 373]

Thanks Jimmy, I'm not alone then.

I was trying to use some PC bangernomics with this to build a machine but without buying anything new to do it. The bits machine has an old CD ROM drive in it - and I figured that if I was to sell this machine on, it would at least need to have a CDRW drive in it. So...

Thought about donating the (very good) SCSI CDRW out of my 'good' PC - that cost me about £200 4 years ago! Then for £50 or so, buying myself a DVD RW to replace it with. This would 'save' me spending £20 or so on a new ide CD RW for the bits machine. The caveat to making all this work tho' was using my old isa SCSI card, but looks like that's a pipe dream. Financially its not worth spending £25 on a SCSI card to get the CD RW working, when a new ide one can be had for less. Looks like I will be selling this machine on with a very old but trusty vanilla CD ROM after all.

[Mikey G]

When you go into Device manager do you get the question mark? as if to say something is there but it doesnt know what?
I had a similair problem with an old PC and an ISA modem, i had a hard drive fail and so after i replaced the drive it couldnt find the modem, but i could see it was there
What i did was somehow change the I/O Range for the device manually to match the IRQ of the driver!
Was way back when on a Win95 system and a bit of a numpty back then with computers and have never needed to do it since

Mike

[squirrelz]

I don't think Windows XP supports ISA devices whatsoever.

[TUS 373]

Device Manager cannot see the device at all - no question mark, nothing. I put an ISA based modem in the slot instead and that works perfectly - so Windows XP must have some, albeit limited, support for ISA devices - but finding compatible drivers looks like the big stumbling block.

Reckon I'll have to give up and put the SCSI card back in the drawer from whence it came.

[squirrelz]

Ok, had a google for more info, and apparently XP does support ISA cards, but only if they are ISA Plug'n'Play compatible.

[annodomini2]

Had search for you on google, looks like adaptec haven't supported this card for a long time.

Apparently one does exist but the guy that
had found the link wouldn't posted it, just his email address and said he wanted cash for the link, because it took him so long to find the driver.

[squirrelz]

And how much are you after for his email address? :runsandhides:

[jimmyjimjim]

TUS 373 said:

Device Manager cannot see the device at all - no question mark, nothing.

Same for me on W2K.
I was also building a bits machine and wanted to use my old (2-speed!) SCSI burner in that.
In my case I was fortunate enough to have another card to use instead (a 2940 I bought before I went U160).

I also had a very feeble ISA SCSI card that came with a scanner, and W2K couldn't find that either.

Might be worth a quick ebay to see if there's anything out there for a couple of quid.

[pdV6]

Will this one do?

http://members.driverguide.com/driver/detail.php?driverid=135372

[annodomini2]

looks like someones found it, try that may work

[TUS 373]

annodomini2 said:

Had search for you on google, looks like adaptec haven't supported this card for a long time. Apparently one does exist but the guy that had found the link wouldn't posted it, just his email address and said he wanted cash for the link, because it took him so long to find the driver.

Yeah, saw that myself!!! LOL! It was so long ago that either he will have forgotten about it, or be a multi-millionaire by now.

[TUS 373]

pdV6 said:

Will this one do? http://members.driverguide.com/driver/detail.php?driverid=135372

Think I may have tried that one already, but just incase, I'll give it a go. Thanks for looking and posting .

[TUS 373]

Yep, tried it already and didn't work

Thanks for trying though.