AHA-3940/3940W/3940U/3940UW
Common Questions and Answers
Document #39155

Q: Why wouldn't the Host Adapter be recognized and no BIOS 
banner be displayed when installing                                                  
the AHA-3940? 

A: The computer must be PCI REV. 2.0 Compliant and 
motherboard BIOS must support PCI-to-PCI Bridges (PPB). 
Document #21130 on the Interactive Fax or BRDGCOMP.TXT on 
the BBS has a listing of systems which have been tested to 
work with AHA-3940/3940W. We recommend, however, confirming 
with the manufacturer of the Motherboard that it has PPB 
support. For more information on PCI bridge chipset issues, 
consult Document #21140 on the Interactive Fax.

Q: My system is listed as being PCI 2.0 Compliant, yet the 
Host Adapter is still not recognized or it hangs at the BIOS 
banner. 

A: Even though the hardware support for PCI-to-PCI Bridge is 
present, the BIOS version may not be supported. Contact the 
motherboard manufacturer for a BIOS upgrade.

Q: The BIOS has been updated, yet the Host Adapter is still 
not recognized. 

A: Either the board is not in a bus mastering slot or the 
PCI slot is not enabled for bus mastering. Check your 
motherboard manual to find out if the slot is bus mastering, 
or how to enable bus mastering for that slot. It may be a 
jumper setting on the motherboard or an option in the CMOS 
setup.

Q: On boot-up I get the error message "Host Adapter 
Configuration Error."

A: In CMOS setup, enable an IRQ for the PCI slot.  
Alternatively, you can mark one of the IRQs as free or 
available.  Be aware that there may be an IRQ conflict with 
a built-in controller on the motherboard.  For CMOS 
settings, refer to your PC user's manual.

Q: My PCI video card installed with my AHA-3940 shows no 
video or causes intermittent hangs during boot.

A: Multiple PCI cards in a system may cause a resource 
conflict. There are no known compatibility issues with any 
PCI video card. Check the PCI slot configuration in the CMOS 
setup for possible conflicts.

Q: EZ-SCSI installation hangs on installing the AIC-7870.DLL 
driver.

A: Update to EZ-SCSI version 3.11 or later.

Q: EZ-SCSI 3.x  fails to recognize the Host Adapter when 
running the install program.

A: To install drivers, insert disk 2 into your floppy drive 
and type DOSINST /PCI from that drive. This should allow EZ-
SCSI to find the PCI Host Adapter. Then if necessary, run 
the EZ-SCSI installation from Windows 3.x by running SETUP 
NOSCAN from the program manager. Once this is done, EZ-SCSI 
drivers should be completely installed to your hard drive.  
Manually edit the config.sys and autoexec.bat to load the 
appropriate drivers if necessary.

Q: When loading ASPI8DOS.SYS the system hangs, and then 
displays the error message: "Read BIOS Parameter Failed."

A: Update ASPI8DOS.SYS manager to version 1.10  (EZ-SCSI 
3.03) or later.

Q: Can I use a SCSI 2 drive with the AHA-3940W although it 
does not have any SCSI 2 connector?

A: Adaptec has 68 pin to 50 pin internal and external 
adapters available through sales which may be used to 
install SCSI 2 devices.  The external adapter changes the 
entire external bus to 8-bit SCSI and must only be connected 
to the external port of the host adapter. No external wide 
devices should be daisy chained if this adapter is used. The 
internal adapter, however, does not convert the entire 
internal bus to 8 bit SCSI. This is used to convert one 
connector on a 68pin internal ribbon cable to 50 pin. The 
internal connector must only be used for the middle 
connectors. No SCSI 2 device may be placed at the end of the 
daisy chain and a wide terminator or wide device is required 
at the end of the chain to properly terminate the bus. 

Q: Can I use the external connector as channel A?

A: The external connector is hardwired for channel A only.

Q: How can  I boot from channel B?

A: The AHA-3940 will boot from channel B as long as no hard 
drive is connected to channel A. If a hard drive is 
connected to channel A and the BIOS version is 1.12, then 
the host adapter can be configured to boot from channel B. 
To configure the host adapter, go to the Device 
Configuration Table in SCSISelect setup and change "Include 
in BIOS scan" option to "no." This option was eliminated 
from BIOS version 1.13 which would not allow booting from 
channel B if a hard drive is connected to channel A. This 
problem has been addressed and the solution is to upgrade 
the BIOS version to v1.14.

Q: I am able to access channel A, but unable to access 
channel B.

A: This is a system resource allocation problem.  A possible 
work around solution is as follows, but it is recommend that 
the customer contact the system manufacturer for an BIOS 
upgrade. The solution is to leave the slot next to the AHA-
3940W adapter vacant and also assign an IRQ to that 
particular slot. For example, If an AHA-3940W is installed 
in slot 1, assign an IRQ to slot 1 and also assign an IRQ to 
slot 2. There are some systems that have PCI IRQ sharing 
which slots 1 and 2 had to be assigned the same IRQ. 
Note: The adjacent slot must remain vacant for this solution 
to work.

Windows 95

Q: What are the steps to install an Adaptec host adapter 
into my PC?

A: Step  1   Open the control panel.
   Step  2   Select "Add New Hardware".
   Step  3   Select "No" when the program asks if you want
             to automatically search for new hardware.
   Step  4   Select SCSI controllers
   Step  5   Select the Adaptec host adapter you want to
             install.
   Step  6   The install program will ask for the driver
             source if it not already on your PC system.
   Step  7   Accept the default system resource settings.
   Step  8   With the control panel still open select the
             System Icon.
   Step  9   From the System properties dialog box select 
             the Device Manager tab.
   Step 10   Select SCSI controllers.
   Step 11   Select the controller you just installed.
   Step 12   Verify that the resource settings are the same 
             as the card settings.
   Step 13   Shutdown the System.
   Step 14   Install the new host adapter, making sure the 
             end devices are terminated, cable lengths are 
             as short as possible and you are using high
             quality SCSI II compliant cables.

Q: How do I install the driver for the AHA-3940 card?

A: After the card has been installed, reboot the system back 
to the Windows 95 desktop screen. Windows 95 will detect the 
card automatically and ask for the Windows 95 CD disk from 
which to install the driver. If the Windows 95 could not 
detect the card, move the card to different PCI slot.

Q: How do I upgrade to the new driver under Windows 95?

A: 1. Highlight My Computer Icon and hold down ALT key and 
      hit Enter.
   2. Select Device Manager Tab and branch out SCSI 
      Controller.
   3. Double click on the Adaptec host adapter and select
      driver tab.
   4. Then Click on Change driver Button and insert new 
      driver diskette or 7800 manager set to install new driver.

Q: Windows 95 found the card and installed the drive but the 
driver has yellow ! mark at the device list.

A: Move the card to different PCI slots. If doesn't help, 
check the IRQs availability and PCI-to-PCI Bridge support on 
the system board.

Windows NT

Q: I'm running Windows NT and recently upgraded from a 
previous SCSI Host Adapter to an AHA-3940 PCI adapter and 
the 78xx.SYS driver.  When I removed the old adapter from 
the system, I connected the hard drive to the AHA-3940 and 
re-booted.  Now the system will not boot.  What's wrong?

A: It is possible that when the new driver was added to the 
NTBOOTDD.SYS, the old driver was also there, and was 
configured to be activated at BOOTUP time.  The new driver 
must be set to start at BOOTUP.  This can be done in the 
Device section of the Control Panel. The an old driver needs 
to be deleted from the NTBOOTDD.SYS if the card is no longer 
in the system.  If the old card is still in the system but 
is not controlling the boot device, choose the Service 
section in the Control Panel and select the original driver 
to be started at SYSTEM time not BOOTUP.

Q: I'm getting corrupted files mirroring drives using 
Windows NT Workstation or Server.

A: The hard drives being used may have Write Cache enabled 
by default. File Corruption can occur when mirroring drives 
with this feature. CHKDSK can sometimes fix the problem 
temporarily, however upon reboot, file corruption usually 
starts again. Contact the hard drive manufacturer for 
instructions to disable Write Cache.

Q: I cannot detect the Channel B of the AHA-3940/W card 
under Windows NT v4.0 Workstation or Server.

A: Move the AHA-3940/W card to the very first PCI slots of 
the System board.


Novell

Q: If I have two cards installed, how do I determine which 
AHA-3940 is the primary card if I am duplexing under Novell?

A: During boot-up, check the LED on the AHA-3940 cards to 
see which one illuminates first.

Q: Where can I get the latest NetWare drivers for AHA-3940 
and which driver should I load?

A: The latest NetWare drivers can be downloaded from 
Adaptec's BBS and Internet sites (ftp.adaptec.com, 
www.adaptec.com). Drivers for NetWare 3.1x are in a file 
called NW31X.EXE and drivers for NetWare 4.X are in 
NW4X.EXE. These are self extracting files which contain the 
NetWare drivers for all of Adaptec's host adapters. The 
driver for the AHA-3940 is AIC7870.DSK. 

Q: NetWare only sees one channel after loading the driver 
and there is no problem in DOS.

A: The drivers must be loaded for each channel individually. 
If both channels A and B are used, load the driver twice.

Q: NetWare does not recognize the CD-ROM. What driver do I 
need to load?

A:  To be able to access a CD-ROM, load the following 
drivers:
	:Load AIC7870.DSK	(ASPITRAN.DSK will autoload)
	:Load ASPICD.DSK 
	:Load NPA312.NLM	(for NetWare 3.12 only)
	:Load NWPA.NLM		(for NetWare 4.xx only)
	:Load CDROM.NLM

Adaptec BBS: (408) 945-7727

Adaptec Sales: (800) 442-7274

Adaptec Interactive Fax: (408) 957-7150

Adaptec Technical Support: (408) 934-7274.

Last revised 03/06/97

