Scoredsome hardware. Need some help with research

I've only got a few minutes at a time online since I'm at work for the rest of the day and can only get on a computer on short breaks....


Anyway, I was given a Dell Precision 610 last night. Its a dual P3 xeon 550 although only one processor is installed. I found some info on Dell's site, but am looking for some specific things.

1- The SCSI isn't working right or maybe the HDD is dead. I've gotta remove the HDD and make sure its jumpered correctly. The HDD is found during POST, but the SCSI controller's utilies don't see it. And its partition table is unreadable when I try to install an OS. Linux finds the SCSI controller and handles it fine but can't see the HDD. WinXP's installer just dies because I don't have the SCSI drivers. I have been able to boot from the SCSI cdrom thankfully.

Can anyone find some windows drivers for this thing for me?

2- Can it run non-ECC ram?

3- Can I run 2x slot 1 P3 500's, non-xeons?

4- If I can run the 500's, can I just set the jumper and make them 550's? Are regular slot 1 P3's unlocked, are P3 xeons?

In general can you run a xeon in a board that's built for a regular P3 and vice-versa?

Any links to good info or manuals, especially a motherboard manual. I don't know the manufacturer or model of the motherboard and Dell's manual is a bit weak when it comes to the nitty-gritty.

1. May take some diagnostic work. Is the adapter onboard or a PCI card? And is there any chipset information?

2. Probably not, but with 550s it's most likely PC-100 SDRAM ECC and should be easier to find than EDO. Crucial's upgrade site says ECC.

3-4. It'll be a Xeon only board. It uses a slot-2 rather than the normal slot-1 for PIII. All of the PIII and slot-2 Xeons are locked unless they are Q-spec engineering samples.

I'll see what I can find on a hardware manual in a bit.

The SCSI is onboard and there are two types of connectors. The 8.7GB Altas HDD is ID 0, the controller is ID 7and the CDrom is ID 5. There is a terminator at the end of the cable the HDD is sitting on and the HDD is plugged into the second spot from the end. It appears in the POST, but the SCSI bios and utilites don't see the HDD. So it may be bad or just hooked up wrong.

I'm good on ram. 128mb already in the thing. But I have a 512mb stick and 128mb stick I'm not using. Too bad they aren't ECC.

Good to know about the slot1/slot2.... I have 2 slot 1 P3 500's but I guess I'll just let this be a singly system for now. I wonder how much P3 550 Xeons go for? Pricewatch is inaccessible from the public computer I'm on now.

Go ahead and give that non-ECC a shot. The worst that can happen is the system will beep at you and/or not boot.

The material I saw indicated that the onboard controller was U2W, so it'll probably be an Adaptec or LSI chipset on the board. You should have both 50 and 68 pin cables available on the board. ID 0 should be correct for it to be bootable and the physical layout of the cable looks good. Try altering the jumpers, but it sounds like the drive may be toast.

The processor is 47.00 on pricewatch.

That's great news!!

Yeah, its an Adaptec.

If it is an Adaptec or LSI controller chip, it seems like XP should have a driver for it...

It's an AIC-7890 Adaptec. Got a better site on the manuals:

http://support.jp.dell.com/docs/systems/dvol/docs.htm

The US support site is usually worthless and seems to be intended to promote their service department only.

Both my drives are dead. Oh well, they were salvaged from a defunct company anyway.

Hasta la vista Seagate and Quantum 9 Giggers. And hello 2.5GB ata33 last resort spare hard drive.