FAQ's FOR 4.xx BIOS AND DRIVERS

    For Host Bus Adapters That Use An SYM53C8xx SCSI Processor


1. I have a SCSI Host Bus Adapter (HBA) that has an NCR 53C810 
   chip on it, Can I use the Symbios Logic bios flash utility
   to upgrade the SDMS bios on the motherboard?

NO! Do not attempt to flash the system bios with our utility.
The only authorized bios upgrades are through the system 
manufacturer. The Symbios Logic flash utility is designed to
work on HBA's that have an onboard flash rom for bios support.

2. I have an 810 controller and the manufacturer of the 
   motherboard does not have an upgrade to support the 4.x bios,
   can I use the new drivers.

Yes, the 4.x drivers are designed to be backward compatable to 
SDMS version 3.04.00. You cannot use the 3.x drivers (doscam, 
minicam, etc) with the versions 4.x SDMS bios. We cannot 
guarantee that the 4.x drivers will work with every version of
3.x bios.

3. Will the 4.x bios provide any performance enhancements for 
   my HBA.

Yes, It does improve bootup time for removeable media devices,
and provide synchronous and wide disk drive access without the
need for device drivers. It will not provide fast20 support 
unless the scsi processor and hard drive support this feature.
Even if the Operating system says this is turned on.

4. Is There any configuration utility for the new bios?

Yes, but none of the older HBA's will support the utility feature.


5.  Is there an upgraded Doscam driver?

No, Doscam (and Minicam) have been replaced with the Aspi8xx.sys
driver.

6.  When do I need to install the Aspi8xx.sys driver?

Although the system will boot without drivers, (the SDMS bios 
will work with a scsi hard drive only in the system) Aspi8xx.sys 
provides an interface to popular aspi applications. All of the 
other 4.x device drivers work through aspi8xx.sys. This is true 
for winaspi support, and 32 bit file and disk access as well.

7.  When do I need Symdisk and Symcd?

Symdisk is needed for support for any removeable-media drives and 
for data transfers in non-512 byte sectors.(this includes cdrom
burners.) Symcd is needed for all scsi cdroms attached to the 
scsi cable. For cdrom drive letter assignment you need the MSCDEX 
driver in the autoexec.bat file. 

8.  What is the reason for winaspi.dll and winaspi.386.
Although aspi8xx.sys supports the aspi interface it does not
support aspi calls from an Windows application. The winaspi 
drivers handle and improve Windows performance. 

9.  I would like to run Windows95, Windows NT xx on my system, 
    what device drivers do I need?

The device driver for Win95, Windows NT3.51, and 4.0 is bundled 
in each individual operating system. Both will work with the 
4.xx bios.

10.  I would like to run OS2/Warp Networked in an Novell network.
    Will this work with the 4.xx bios?

Yes, There are 4.xx drivers that support both OS2 and Novell 3.12
and 4.0. These drivers can be downloaded from our web site or BBS.

11. Can I operate my tape backup application from Windows 3.11?

Yes using the 4.xx drivers provides you with an winaspi interface 
which will allow you to operate from Window 3.11. It is part of
the install.exe

12. Does the 4.xx bios provide 32 bit file and disk access in 
    Windows 3.11?

No. This is related to the device drivers, If your system allows 
the use of the 4.xx drivers than you can get 32-bit file and disk
access provided there are no IDE hard drives and the first 2 scsi 
hard drives support this feature. Please read the file newdos.txt 
that is part of the dos40.zip package before installing the new 
device drivers.