[KLUG Members] New SCSI card, new issues

[Peter Buxton]

Hey ho. I just bought, or CARES did, an Adaptec 29160 and a 20GB DAT
drive. It works fine, I tested it when I installed it, but I have a boot
issue. The HP 8660C (I think that number is correct) server sees the
card with an Expansion ROM module and gags, asking to press F1 to go to
BIOS setup or F2 to continue booting. Obviously, the latter works fine,
but that dumb question hangs the boot process until someone wanders into
the server closet and punches F2.

I'm guessing, based on my experience with the 2940, that the Expansion
ROM is either a boot utility or a mini-card BIOS that tells you the
state of the drives upon power-up. (I don't see any Adaptec or SCSI info
upon boot, either.) Perhaps the motherboard doesn't do BBS (BIOS Boot
Specification), though it has a Select Boot Device Order option.
(Though, obviously, I don't want anything booting off the SCSI card.)

The Ethernet card also has a disabled Expansion ROM, but that has never
halted the boot process. I read the 29160 User's Reference but that
didn't mention the Expansion ROM.

1. How do I tell the card not to, how do I say this, advertise the
   Expansion ROM?

Or,

2. How do I get the motherboard to play nice with the Adaptec Expansion
   ROM? Or just ignore it? Must the card be in a different slot? (BTW,
   this is a 64-bit PCI card in a 32-bit slot, which is all our server
   has.)

As I said, this is not much of a problem, as this system has massive
uptimes, but I don't want to be on vacation in the middle of nowhere
when the UPS finally runs out of power during an outage leaving everyone
in the building too scared to push a button. And telling people how to
handle it simply guarantees those people won't be there that day. ;-)

TIA!

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