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A-8
Appendix A
Frequently Asked Questions
7- Driver Issues
Q: How do I install the onboard SCSI drivers for WinNT 4.0?
A: When trying to install Windows NT 4.0 from the bootable CD-ROM you will
encounter a blue screen with the message “Inaccessable_boot_device”.
Root Cause: The Tyan S1952DLU uses the Adaptec AIC-7896 SCSI chip.
Windows NT 4.0 was created before the Adaptec AIC-7896 chip was
available, thus it doesn’t natively support the chip. The installation failed
because the NT installation process detects the AIC-7896 chip as an older
version of the Adaptec controller. This incorrect hardware detection will
lead NT into installing an older driver, which is not compatible with the AIC-
7896 thus causing the blue screen error. Even if you manually tell NT to use
the driver on the floppy disk provided by Tyan, NT will still use the older
driver from the CD-ROM. At this time there is no solution which can correct
the CD-ROM boot install of NT 4.0. But there is another solution....
Work Around: You must use the three floppies that come with NT 4.0 in
order to install NT correctly with the AIC-7896. Once the second floppy
disk has finished loading, NT will ask if you want it to scan for a mass
storage device. At this point, you can have NT install the Adaptec driver
from the disk provided by Tyan. This method will force NT to use the
correct driver for the AIC-7896 and will allow you to complete the installa-
tion from the CD-ROM.
8 - Miscellaneous Issues
Q: My system will not turn off . Why?
A: The power button is designed to turn off the system ONLY when you press
or hold down the power button for more than 5 seconds. New BIOS
versions will provide an option for instant power-off.
Q: I can’t get my com ports to work.
A: To ensure that the motherboard is recognizing and initializing the com ports,
boot up the system and review the POST screen (Power-On Self-Test).
There you will find a section for I/O ports and if it is working
properly, you should see the interrupts the com ports are using (i.e.. 2F8,
3F8, etc.). If the motherboard shows these as active, it’s probably not a bad
motherboard, but rather a bad or incompatible cable, or you have an IRQ
conflict with another communications device such as an internal modem.