Installing Plextor DM3028 CD-ROM Drivers (w/ Trantor T130)

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Last update: 6th November, 1995

Symptoms

When I did the WARP install and selective install, I selected Plextor DM-3028. WARP ran the install, but the CD-ROM never shows up on my list of drives. I have finally gotten my Plextor DM3028 CD-ROM drive going. I will go over the steps I took so that others may use this approach.

Hardware

My drive was the Plextor DM 3028, an internal model, which has a Trantor T130 SCSI adaptor. Plextor DM 5028, an external model, probably works the same. The drivers come in a package which includes drivers for Trantor SCSI adaptors 128, 130, 338, and 348. SO this process may work for these adaptors.

I have an IBM PS Value Point 6384 - 486/66, 128KB cache, 8MB RAM, ISA bus running OS/2 Version 3 (WARP) with FAT file system. I have a Sound Blaster 16/ASP (IRQ 5), IDE Seagate hard disk, Internal modem on Com 3 (IRQ 4), Com1 and 2 on the system board (not connected to anything and disabled), a Lexmark printer connected to LPT1 (IRQ 7).

Problem

Warp does not include the drivers for the Trantor SCSI adaptor and the instructions for installing the adaptor drivers are not clear and complete.

Procedure

I found the package TSLDRV.ZIP on CompuServe on the OS/2 forum (it may also be on the Adaptec forum). I found the same driver package (different name) on the Trantor bulletin board (1-408-945-7727). The ReadMe in this file and the TxxxSCSI.DDP files are written for OS/2.1, ignore them. I had to manually installed these drivers. Hear is what I did.

I copied the file T13BSCSI.ADD from the unzipped driver package to both D:\ and D:\OS2\BOOT (D: is my OS/2 boot disk). I had OS2SCSI.DMD in both those directories. I had OS2CDROM.DMD and CDFS.SYS in D:\OS2\BOOT. These last three files were left over from the earlier failed installs. You might have to find them on the distribution disks. The last two are documented to be on Diskette 1.

I configured the T130 board to have all switches off, no jumper on the wait state, and no interrupt (all defaults). I had to chang the drive to device ID 0 (the default is 2). I could not get the CD-ROM support to work with the device at 2 and without the /U parameter on the T13BSCSI.ADD statement in config.sys.

I read in the CDROM Forum that the CD-ROM config.sys statements do not like to be near the end of the file and should be ahead of the multimedia statements. So I moved them up to near the middle. I had a VCDROM.SYS statement left from one of the failed installs and on the advice of Adaptec (owners of Trantor now) help, I REMed it. My Config.sys looks like this:

..
..
DEVICE=D:\OS2\MDOS\VW32S.SYS 
DEVICE=D:\OS2\BOOT\OS2CDROM.DMD
IFS=D:\OS2\BOOT\CDFS.IFS 
REM DEVICE=D:\OS2\MDOS\VCDROM.SYS 
BASEDEV=OS2SCSI.DMD
BASEDEV=T13BSCSI.ADD /U 
DEVICE=D:\OS2\MDOS\VMOUSE.SYS
..
..
SET VIO_SVGA=DEVICE(BVHVGA,BVHSVGA) 
DEVICE=D:\OS2\APPS\SYSIOS2.SYS

Notes

All these statements in config.sys except the "BASEDEV=T13BSCSI.ADD /U were placed in the config.sys by the failed install. I added the T13BSCSI.ADD statement and modified others. Be careful not do duplicate any of these driver statements. WARP only reports that the driver is not installed if you have a duplicate. This symptom can be interpreted as hardware problems.

I was able to run with the T130 board set for interrupt 3 and the /I3 parameter on the T13BSCSI.ADD statement. I saw no difference in performance so I chose to reclaim that interrupt and run the T130 without an interrupt.

The WARP command documentation (on-line) says that OS2CDROM.DMD accepts a /Q and /V (quiet and verbose) parameter. I saw no difference with either parameter or with neither. The statement was always quiet unless it did not load.

The README in the Trantor Driver package has some misleading (for Warp) information. It showed the config.sys needing "BASEDEV=OS2CDROM.DMD". This did not work for me. I used "Device=" which is shown in the IBM version of CONFIG.SYS in some documents. I do see OS2CDROM.DMD listed in the On-line help under BASEDEV and Device, so it is very confusing. The readme says to copy all files to C:\OS2 and the T13BSCSI.DDP shows these files copied to that same directory. BASEDEV statements do not allow paths and the driver has to be in either the root or \OS2\Boot.

I don't get the CD-ROM recognized (T13BSCSI not installed message) on a warm boot after I have had CD-ROM problems. I have to do a cold start. So if you are experimenting with your settings, always do a cold start. This was a pitfall which probably caused me to discard some valid alternatives early on.

My thanks to Adaptec for the support and for keeping drivers up to date with OS/2. I really like WARP and hope to work thru the problems I am having with The Seventh Guest and try other of my CDs.

Arthur W. Adkins, Jr.