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8088 turbo button problem

S

skouris33

Experienced Member
Joined
Feb 21, 2014
Messages
66
Location
Larisa, Greece
Hi! I have an 8088 PC XT which runs in 4.77 MHZ and has a turbo button for running faster. Unfortunatelly at start up I get an error message regarding turbo mode and the button doesn't do anything. Do you have any ideas how I can fix this?
 
Is it the case that your computer was working and then failed, or did you acquire the computer in its faulty state?
The answer can rule out various possibilities.

skouris33 said:
GIS turbo board x turbo system error # 04
Click to expand...
Is that the actual error message, or are you trying to tell us that your motherboard is a "GIS turbo board" and the error message is "turbo system error # 04" ?

Do you know the model number of the motherboard?
 
I acquired the computer in its faulty state and the GIS turbo board x turbo system error # 04 is the actual error message. I don't know the model number of the motherboard but my system is GIS (Greek Integrated systems)
 
This is a stretch, but is there any way for you to go into DEBUG, dump the BIOS, and post the contents here? It will either exist from 0xfe000 to 0xfffff or 0xf0000 to 0xfffff. I could analyze the code when I have a free moment and determine what causes the error itself, since most of these old BIOSes do initialize hardware similarly.

I had an Excel Turbo Board clone that had similar unhelpful messages- derived from the ERSO BIOS... I wonder if yours is similar to mine...
 
I think that during start-up, the Power On Self Test (POST) within the BIOS chip might be:
* activating the turbo state (obviously via software) and then verifing that the motherboard is running faster; then
* producing the "...turbo system error # 04" error message when the motherboard is found not to be running faster.

If that is the case, then I can only think of three possible causes of the error message:
1. The 'turbo' part of the motherbard has failed.
2. There might be a 'turbo enable/disable' jumper (or switch) on the motherboard, and it is in the 'disable' position.
3. Someone has swapped the original BIOS chip for one that does not fully work with the motherboard.
 
skouris33 said:
I'm very sorry but I don't know how to debug and dumb the bios, thank you all for your replies
Click to expand...

This link teaches you how to do it... it writes a file to your hard drive or floppy drive containing the BIOS, which you can then transfer in some manner to a modern computer. All you need is disk 2 of DOS 2.x or 3.x to run the DEBUG.COM/DEBUG.EXE command.
 
Hi and thanks for the link!I downloaded the files and I'm trying to debug the bios. By the way do you have any ideas why I cannot access my hard disk drive? The loading light of the disk is periodically on at start up but when I boot with dos and type c: it says invalid drive specification (I tried all other letters and get same message)
 
skouris33 said:
By the way do you have any ideas why I cannot access my hard disk drive? The loading light of the disk is periodically on at start up but when I boot with dos and type c: it says invalid drive specification (I tried all other letters and get same message)
Click to expand...
Is the drive formatted and partitioned? If it isn't you will get that message.​
 
How to format it? I type format c: in dos 3.3 but it says invalid drive specification again. Should I type a different command?
 
You need to Low Level Format it.

What type and Model # drive is it?

What controller is it connected to?

Preparing a drive like this is *nothing* like an IDE drive that you are used to.

BTW, a LLF will destroy anything that might currently be on the drive.

Try running FDISK to see if the drive might already be formatted and just need to be partitioned.
 
I don't know the type and Model, the controller is same as 5.25 360kb drive I think so. I don't mind if the data will be erased. Can you help me with instructions to LLF it? I use dos 3.3 but if there is a program that fits in 360 kb floppy should be fine to. Thank you!
 
You can try with DEBUG. Start DEBUG and then type g=c800:5 and press enter. If a set of instructions come up -- follow them.
 
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