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HeadStart Explorer and XT-IDE v1.0

Denniske1976

Experienced Member
Joined
Jan 17, 2011
Messages
480
Location
The Netherlands
Hey everyone,

I was hoping you guys could help me out on this one (please forgive if this is posted in the wrong section):

This weekend I went to pick up a few HeadStart Explorer computers... both of them had the harddrive (MiniScribe 8450XT unfortunately) broken. One harddrive won't be detected, the other one will but when I try to FDISK it all that happens is it started rattling (the typical MiniScribe sound for reading the disk) for about 20 minutes and then a message "No space available to create partition" :-(

Anyhoo, that set aside I'm actually trying to get something else. One of the Explorers had an XT-IDE card installed (version 1), however I can't get this working (neither could the previous owner, he posted here a couple of years ago and I've seen the thread). What happens is I boot the computer off a floppy with DOS (debug,fdisk,format etc). That little HeadStart Explorer logo comes up and it boots to the floppy. So far so good, but I think I should be getting a menu too from that XT-IDE card? (I'm not too familiar with it, I've been reading up here in the forums and in the Tech Support thread too). I've tried some other DIP settings as well and nothing comes up... I can however read the BIOS info of the card at the address it's set for with debug (d d000:0??), I see the description that should come up (XT-IDE BIOS v1.5 and some more text).

It seems there is no way to disable the on-board controller, since there's no DIP switches to be found anywhere. Could it be that the on-board controller is somehow preventing the XT-IDE controller to work? I'd like to get this working, not for me personally (except the "personal victory") but I've promised the previous owner that if I got it working he'd be getting his Explorers back (since it was his first computer).

So, anyone have an idea where I should start? Like I said, I can read the ROM address and see the BIOS. I've tried enabling and disabling the ROM jumper (JP1) and that makes no difference either. Or is there another way I can go (using the on-board controller?).

Thanx for reading and hope I can get some help from you guys ;-)

Dennis
 
Did you try to low level format the disks? I use HDAT very often for old disks...

The disk which is not detected, is it the system or fdisk which does not detect it?
If it's only fdisk, you should try the HDAT tool too.

Regards, Roland
 
This may be a dumb question, but if it says there's no room to create a partition, did you check to see if there's already any kind of partition(s) defined ?
patscc
 
If the HeadStart has a built-in IDE-XT interface (not to be confused with the misnamed "XT-IDE" card, which is actually an XT-ATA interface), then the easiest solution would be to replace the ailing factory-spec MiniScribe IDE-XT drive with a Seagate ST-351A/X:

http://cgi.ebay.com/170899233210
 
One of the Explorers had an XT-IDE card installed (version 1), however I can't get this working (neither could the previous owner, he posted here a couple of years ago and I've seen the thread). What happens is I boot the computer off a floppy with DOS (debug,fdisk,format etc). That little HeadStart Explorer logo comes up and it boots to the floppy. So far so good, but I think I should be getting a menu too from that XT-IDE card? (I'm not too familiar with it, I've been reading up here in the forums and in the Tech Support thread too). I've tried some other DIP settings as well and nothing comes up... I can however read the BIOS info of the card at the address it's set for with debug (d d000:0??), I see the description that should come up (XT-IDE BIOS v1.5 and some more text).

It seems there is no way to disable the on-board controller, since there's no DIP switches to be found anywhere. Could it be that the on-board controller is somehow preventing the XT-IDE controller to work? I'd like to get this working, not for me personally (except the "personal victory") but I've promised the previous owner that if I got it working he'd be getting his Explorers back (since it was his first computer).

So, anyone have an idea where I should start? Like I said, I can read the ROM address and see the BIOS. I've tried enabling and disabling the ROM jumper (JP1) and that makes no difference either. Or is there another way I can go (using the on-board controller?).

Thanx for reading and hope I can get some help from you guys ;-)

Dennis

Do you have a link to the previous owners thread on here? It could be useful to know what he tried already...

A few things to try:

1) Make sure it's not conflicting with the on-board controller.

2) If the card has an SEEQ EEPROM you could try replacing it as they are notorius for failing. This would also explain why the boot menu won't show up - the main BIOS won't execute an option ROM BIOS if the checksum doesn't match the contents of the ROM. So even if you can read parts of the ROM with debug and it looks OK, a single bit error will still cause it to not execute. You could (and should) reflash the card with the latest version of the XT-IDE Universal BIOS (v2.0.0 beta 2) available from here. Make sure to configure it with non-conflicting settings with XTIDECFG before flashing.

3) Make sure the soldering is OK. Probably easier said than done.

Hope this helps!
 
If the HeadStart has a built-in IDE-XT interface (not to be confused with the misnamed "XT-IDE" card, which is actually an XT-ATA interface), then the easiest solution would be to replace the ailing factory-spec MiniScribe IDE-XT drive with a Seagate ST-351A/X:

http://cgi.ebay.com/170899233210

Thanx for pointing that out... bought both of the reamaining disks. Can't use them in the Explorer, but they will come in handy for my own LX-40 ;-)

The MiniScribe disks in the Explorers use some kind of DBA connector, like the IBM PS/2 Model 30/50/70 does. So, would it be possible to just replace the DBA connector with a normal female XT-IDE connector? It looks like it's just a 40-pin connector, just the "5.25" disk drive" kind in stead of the normal 3.5" floppy one (know what I mean?). And it also provides power to the drive, so maybe the pinout it some weird proprietary connection?
 
This may be a dumb question, but if it says there's no room to create a partition, did you check to see if there's already any kind of partition(s) defined ?
patscc

Yep, dumb question ;-) But seriously, I've tried that too but it says there's no partitions present. Weird eh? And it doesn't sound broken at all, it just sounds like a normal MiniScribe sound when it's reading the disk (it sounds like my own MiniScribe does that still works while copying files).
 
just a suggestion:
How about we discuss the original miniscribe problems and possible solutions in the original thread:
http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcf...XT)-not-working-from-HeadStart-Explorer-XT-PC

and discuss only the additional XTIDE controller here in this thread. It's only 8 posts now, and we've already jumped topics a few times.

Good idea, I'm not going the MiniScribe way... main reason for this topic is indeed to get the Explorer working with the XT-IDE card.
 
So I may have some history on this already. I believe you obtained this machine+card from someone whom I've already tried debugging the XTIDE on that machine, and we ran into some dead ends.

here's what I know:
1) the card was built by me, tested by me, and shipped from my house in working order.
2) putting the XTIDE into this headstart machine, and it will not display the XTIDE sign-on message. No boot menu, not a peep that the oprom was ever called during POST.
3) if you manually go into debug and dump out data at d000:0, the ROM is visible
4) if you try and write the ROM out to a file using a debug script (posted here:http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcf...2359-8-Bit-IDE-Controller&p=243701#post243701) the file comes out all FF's, so it is difficult to determine if the ROM is corrupt. We have not heard back if Gurby was able to move the ROM into another area of memory before writing it as suggested in the above thread.

My current line of thought is that the ROM is ok, but the headstart machine is obviously an oddball, and it may not even be calling external option ROMs, or if it will, not at address D000.
Without the ability to dump+compare the ROM, we can't know if it is corrupt or not, and without additional cards to test with (like a SCSI adapter perhaps) will may not know if the machine is capable of launching option ROMs.
 
So I may have some history on this already. I believe you obtained this machine+card from someone whom I've already tried debugging the XTIDE on that machine, and we ran into some dead ends.

here's what I know:
1) the card was built by me, tested by me, and shipped from my house in working order.
2) putting the XTIDE into this headstart machine, and it will not display the XTIDE sign-on message. No boot menu, not a peep that the oprom was ever called during POST.
3) if you manually go into debug and dump out data at d000:0, the ROM is visible
4) if you try and write the ROM out to a file using a debug script (posted here:http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcf...2359-8-Bit-IDE-Controller&p=243701#post243701) the file comes out all FF's, so it is difficult to determine if the ROM is corrupt. We have not heard back if Gurby was able to move the ROM into another area of memory before writing it as suggested in the above thread.

My current line of thought is that the ROM is ok, but the headstart machine is obviously an oddball, and it may not even be calling external option ROMs, or if it will, not at address D000.
Without the ability to dump+compare the ROM, we can't know if it is corrupt or not, and without additional cards to test with (like a SCSI adapter perhaps) will may not know if the machine is capable of launching option ROMs.

Hmmmm.... the only card I have available is some kind of WD MFM controller card (8-bit) that connects the Seagate ST-225 in the HeadStart II. I have two of those, would this be a card to try? Insert the controller and connecting the MFM drive would only require me to get power from the PSU with a 4-pin Molex connector (since the 8450XT had a card edge connector with power).

So if I could get it to boot from that ST-225 drive this would mean external ROMs are called? Or did I not get this? :confused:
 
Uh.... why don't we start with a relatively safe assumption? Hargle built and tested the card, therefore it's good. Pop it into another machine and see if it works? Then you'll at least know that the XT-IDE card is functioning properly and can move on to troubleshooting the Headstart's built-in IDE.
 
I'm a bit fuzzy on this.
3) if you manually go into debug and dump out data at d000:0, the ROM is visible
4) if you try and write the ROM out to a file using a debug script (posted here:http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcfo...701#post243701) the file comes out all FF's,
Leaving the script aside for a moment, when you do a debug -d d000:0 , and you say the ROM is visible, are you actually seeing FF's ? at that location ?
If you are seeing FF's at that location, what do you see there with the card removed ?
patscc
 
that's what's so crazy.
-d d000:0 clearly shows a properly decoding XTIDE ROM at that location. (I have photos of the screen, and it looks fine- 55AA signature and XTIDE text) The ROM is there and is working fine.
the script that tries to write the same data out to a file results in a file of all FF FF FF FF's!
 
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