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ISA memory cards

J

jh1523

Experienced Member
Joined
Jan 15, 2009
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298
Location
coastal New England
My latest acquisitions in the area of ISA memory cards have brought a few cool items. I think I have one mostly figured out, but the other 2 are a mystery. Please share any information that you may have about them!

1. 8-bit ISA flash card marked "Promdisk V disk emulator" copyright 1995 MCSI ASSY 71100901 Made in USA P/N 71100301 Rev.A
Has 32 pieces on an early Intel flash chip, F28E008SA (1Mx8bit), 16 on one side and 16 on the back for a total of 32MB. One of the flash chips has a sticker "ROM-DOS & Cardtrick Datalight 1995" and what looks like a BIOS chip says "PROMDISK copyright 1995" It has a block of 5 jumpers marked "E1" of which the second from the left is closed; it also has another lone jumper marked "E2" which is open, and next to it pads for another jumper "E3" with no posts installed, though it looks like it may have had posts soldered there in the past but were removed. There is no information about the jumpers printed on the card.

When inserted in my test 386 machine, the card gives a BIOS message:
Code: 
CardTrick v3.00.61
Copyright 1993-1996 Datalight Inc.
Datalight Patent Pending
Resident Flash (RFA) OEM layer

Here are pics:
2014_07_10_16_28_50_862.jpg


2014_07_10_16_29_26_634.jpg


The card is actually bootable. It shows as disk C: and has some version of DOS installed, as well as a few programs. Unfortunately it runs a program "et9" as part of the startup, and that hangs the computer. Looks like it's something designed to initialize some other piece of hardware, which I don't have so it hangs. Pressing F5 does not bypass the startup files. If I boot from a floppy disk I can browse the contents of the disk - it has 23MB used and 6MB free. based on the size of the DOS files it's probably a version of DOS 6.2x. I have not tried to modify any of the files yet.


2. Similar card with the above, 8-bit ISA and came from the same place as the first one. It is marked "M-System Flash Disk Pioneers PC-FD"n the front; the back has a sticker "PC-FD-4 F-3.02", another sticker that says "Realtime ETS kernel copyright 1996 Phar Lap Software, Inc." as well as a comprehensive table with jumper settings. It has 4 of the same flash chip as the first board, and pads for 12 more chips. There's also a big chip reading "M-Systems LFDC-1018" . There are jumpers for enabling/disabling the card (set to: enabled), power source (DC vs ISA bus, set to ISA bus), interleave level (1, 2 or 4, set to 2) and memory address (C800, D400, DC00 or E000; set to D400)

When plugged in my test system, the card does not give any BIOS splash; it is not bootable, if there's no other disk attached the system asks for a bootable disk; if booting from a floppy, the card isn't found as any drive letter. I don't know how to use this card. Perhaps it needs a driver, which I don't have.

Pics:

2014_07_10_16_29_45_972.jpg


2014_07_10_16_29_55_343.jpg



3. I believe this should be an expanded memory card, but the manufacturer and model don't come up in any google search, not on TH99 etc. The manufacturer is Kouwei (NOT Kouwell; it is etched in the PCB) and model KW-518. Has a sticker saying "KW001961". No other information printed on board. Of course it came as a bare board, no driver, manual etc. Here are pics:

2014_07_10_16_46_22_23.jpg


2014_07_10_16_46_27_593.jpg


2014_07_10_16_46_33_984.jpg


2014_07_10_16_46_38_187.jpg


2014_07_10_16_46_47_218.jpg


2014_07_10_16_46_53_421.jpg


2014_07_10_16_47_03_984.jpg


2014_07_10_16_47_13_156.jpg


It has 18x4164 chips installed, for a total of 128k.

Any information, drivers, jumper/switch settings etc. for any of these much appreciated!
 
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jh1523 said:
The card is actually bootable. It shows as disk C: and has some version of DOS installed, as well as a few programs. Unfortunately it runs a program "et9" as part of the startup, and that hangs the computer. Looks like it's something designed to initialize some other piece of hardware, which I don't have so it hangs. Pressing F5 does not bypass the startup files. If I boot from a floppy disk I can browse the contents of the disk - it has 23MB used and 6MB free. based on the size of the DOS files it's probably a version of DOS 6.2x. I have not tried to modify any of the files yet.
Click to expand...

http://www.mcsi1.com/support/pdisk5m.pdf

This seems to be a manual for this card. It apparently acts as a regular hard drive, so you should be able to edit/delete files from it (to remove the entry that causes the hang).

There is also a distribution disk with a VBFORMAT.EXE to reformat the card. Looks like I found it for you here: http://www.mcsi1.com/support.htm - under the software section labeled pdisk4.exe. Do not under any circumstances try to use FORMAT or FDISK on this.

Neat find!
 
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Thanks, that's very useful. Looks like I will have fun with this card. Now if I could only find equivalent info for the other 2 cards...
 
Your PC-FD card may be dead, as they appear to act the same as the first. Assigned last drive letter in the chain. It's a flash disk.

A post mentions that this card can be formatted from dos, so you may be able to fdisk and then format it. Can't claim whether this will work or destroy the card, but its a place to start.
 
Looks like I found some info on the second card, however no true manual or drivers. Says it should be immediately available as a fixed disk when plugged in, but it isn't...

https://web.archive.org/web/19970123215707/http://www.m-sys.com/flash.htm

And a newer version of the page has a manual and installation guide:
https://web.archive.org/web/19971013035818/http://www.m-sys.com/flash.htm

...and the software is at https://web.archive.org/web/19971013035047/http://www.m-sys.com/techdocs.htm

When I get home I will try a few things.
 
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I delayed posting here for a few days as I've been quite busy.

The second card turns out to be pretty cool. It came alive once I've started playing with the jumpers and changed the base address (I assume that's the onboard BIOS address, and it was probably conflicting with something else). It is indeed a 4MB card, and it's bootable. But it doesn't boot DOS, there are no DOS files on it even though it's formatted FAT. It seems to boot some custom embedded OS; it expects to find a network card installed (either a NE2000 or a PCI-based DEC card) and is probably used to bootstrap a system off a network. I may post some details later after this craziness at work passes.

Been playing with the Kouwei card a bit, trying various switch settings, pretty much at random. Not getting anywhere so far.

(edit) I'm beginning to wonder if "Kouwei" is not in fact Kouwell, either spelled like that for a different market or a knockoff/lookalike. If you notice the box of the Kouwei card:

%24_57.JPG


And the boxes of other Kouwell cards:

ggg.JPG


You will notice a certain similarity - which cannot be accidental IMHO.
 
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I had noticed that one also, but I don't think it would work. I'll try when I get back from vacation though. First, my card #3 has 10 columns of 9 dram sockets, the one in the picture has 9. Then it mentions it can go up to 4M which is not possible with 9x9 sockets if you can use 256k chips only (1M chips are not pin-compatible). It also mentions a piggyback board which would explain how it can get to 4M, but mine has no connector for a piggyback board.
 
I know this is an old thread but I have the exact same card, and the manual. If you still need this info I can scan it for you.
 
...and now, several years later it is I, the OP who thank you for this. I just found this card again in a pile of unused stuff and was planning on using it in a 286 build, started looking around for info, and found my old thread with a manual in it. :)

Thank you.
 
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