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AST RESEARCH, INC.          TECHNICAL BULLETIN # 1171                5-3-95

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ASCENTIA 910N AND SOLARIS

PROBLEM

The Ascentia 910N system will not install either a Solaris Core Beta or a 
Solaris 2.4 with DU5 or earlier.  The Solaris installation fails while making 
the root partitions.


CAUSE

The Toshiba 500 MB IDE drive gives a wrong value for current capacity and 
the number of LBA blocks.


SYSTEMS AFFECTED
AST PART NUMBER AND DESCRIPTION

501590-301     ASCENTIA 910N 4/75 CS10
501589-301     ASCENTIA 910N 4/75 CT10
501589-401     ASCENTIA 910N 4/75 CT10
501592-201     ASCENTIA 910N 4/50 CS10


SOLUTION

The firmware of the Toshiba 500 MB drive needs to be updated.

Ascentia 910N systems that have a Toshiba 500 MB hard drive (only), with 
firmware lower than P 1.14, should have the drive replaced with a Quantum 
500 MB hard drive or a Toshiba 500 MB hard drive with firmware P 1.14 or 
greater.  To do this, take the system to your local AST Authorized Service 
Center. 


CAUTION

This modification should be performed ONLY by a qualified service 
technician.  It is strongly recommended that this change be completed by an 
AST Authorized Service Center.  In no case will AST Research, Inc. be liable 
for damage to the system and its components, or loss of data caused by 
improper modification.

PREREQUISITES

A full backup of all data on the hard drive in the computer is strongly 
suggested.