960/980 Server Appears to Stop Responding When Loading NetWare 5.x RAID .HAM Drivers

Affected Products: Servers
Affected Operating Systems: Novell® NetWare®

ISSUE: The 960 and 980 series servers may appear to stop responding when loading the ADAC .HAM drivers. The screen indicates the MEGA4_XX.HAM driver in the upper-right corner with a "Please Wait" message blinking in the center of the screen. Pressing CTRL+ESC and selecting the Console option reveals that the last module loaded was the MEGA4_XX.HAM driver. This symptom is only evident when the card is installed in PCI Slot 2 on this motherboard. Typically, this issue is seen during the installation of the NOS.

RESOLUTION: Do not install the card in PCI Slot 2 on these systems when loading NetWare 5.x. Physically, this is the second slot from the CPUs.

Note: It is also suggested that PCI slot 3 be avoided.