286 2.2.* Cannot be Installed

[Toby A David]

This is my second cry for help, from you SCO 2.2.* users.
I have been running Xenix286 2.2.1 for 2 years on the following hardware
with no problems.
A 286 10 mhz 1 wait state clone with an AWARD bios.
3 meg of ram (1 on Mother Board, 2 on a card).
A Miniscribe 6085 28ms 71meg drive, with 1024 Cylinders, 8 Heads, 17 sec
512 precomp, landing zone 1023.
A Western Digital WD1003 2:1 controller, and later a WD1006 1:1. Both
worked fine.
I have reinstalled the package on the same box many times, since the
CMOS tables had no entry for the Drive, I used a Speedstore Diagnostics
and Formatting Program, which always reported Cyl 938 Track 7 as bad.
So did the Xenix Scan, given the above parameters. These diagnostics
were the same with both controllers.
After a resent file system damage, (fsck failed), when attempting to
reinstall the same old 2.2.1. The following happened..

A.. Parameters were entered, Partitions Created, Start the Bad track
scan, proceed about 10%, system hangs, and Drive led is still on.

B.. When bypassing the scan, Starts to make the file system, goes
on for 30 or so seconds, and hangs.


The same Hardware works perfectly, with Dos 3.3 (All partitions), as
well as a subset of Sys 7 called Minix. IBM diagnostics diskette is
happy. All Dos Diagnostics programs are happy. I however am extremely
miserable.

The above attempts to install XENIX were tried at least 10 times, with 
the following checks and variations.

	1. A new copy of the distribution disks.
	2. Release 2.2.3
	3. Alternate between Controllers..
	4. Recheck/Reformat Drive
	5. Check memory, including removal of extended 2meg card.
	6. Change BIOS to latest Phoenix..
	7. Attempt to install Xenix on various Cylinders, including the
	   whole drive.
	8. Removed all cards (serial, extended mem, etc).
    9. Called SCO, They blame the controller.
	10. Called Miniscribe, They cannot figure it out.
	11. Called Western Digital, same results.

D.. I ruled out the following..
	1.. Bios.. Since the AWARD, worked fine for 2 years, and the
		PHOENIX produce the same results.
	2.. Install disks, since I tried 2 different releases, with new
		copies.
	3.. Memory (unless I am missing somethin), since the same happens
		with 1 or 3 meg, and with 1 meg (ram drives etc) evrybody else
		is happy.
	4.. Controllers, since both (2:1, 1:1 interleaves produce similiar
		results).
	5.. Drive, had been diagnosed and used with all other sofware, on
		different partitions with absolutely no problems. 
	6.. Acid flashes from 1969..

Any thoughts would be greatly welcome. Thanks in advance.
Toby A. David


-- 
Toby A David
Big Electric Cat Public UNIX
..!cmcl2!{ccnysci,cucard,hombre}!dasys1!hadji