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Tandy 1000 SX with ISA CompactFlash Adapter - problems flashing

C

cnoyes72

Member
Joined
May 26, 2011
Messages
33
Location
Manchester, CT
Hello,

I have a Tandy 1000 SX (640K, V20 CPU, 8087 installed, dual floppies) and am trying to flash the ISA CompactFlash Adapter. I downloaded the latest BIOS files, XTIDECFG (dated 10-22-2013) as well as the FLASH.EXE flashing program. After booting a floppy with these files on it (PC-DOS 3.3), I type in the command "flash.exe ide_xt.bin c800" and see the following:

Calibrating delay loops... calibration factor is 17.
Opening ROM image... OK
Unable to determine flash chip type. Attempting JDEC programming.
Reading... 8192 bytes read OK.
Erasing ..................** Timeout **
Expected FFh, but found 000Mh.Erase operation FAILED.


It then prompts me to either hit ctrl-alt-del to restart or any other key to exit to DOS.

I'm not quite sure why this isn't working and not sure of what the next step would be in troubleshooting this. If anyone has any insight or pointers, I'd be highly appreciative.

-Chris Noyes
 
Just to add, this is the card from www.lo-tech.co.uk . Made a few more attempts this evening but to no avail; I'm still seeing the timeout (I'm starting to suspect the flash.exe program isn't finding the eeprom).
 
I noted that I could not flash my compact flash XT IDE units in certain Tandy's as well. My Tandy TL/2 does not recognize them, and my Tandy TX recognizes it, but won't boot from a compact flash.

The ones I tested that it does work on are the Tandy TL, Tandy SL, and Tandy EX (with plus to ISA adapter and ram expansion).

The Tandy TL/2 worked once I used a older full size XT IDE card using address D800

Hope this is a bit helpful. Perhaps going back to the 8088 chip might be worth a try.
 
There must be an address conflict somewhere between C800h and CFFFh (the entire 32KB is required for erase operation). Does the machine have a built-in (or add-in) HDD controller? Or DOS in ROM?

mojorific - thanks for posting the list of know compatible machines!
 
I just had a looked at the 1000SX tech ref - but I can't see a memory map in it? But I did notice that it appears to use ISA B8 as an analogue audio line, hence the SMT IC U1 on the ISA CompactFlash Controller should be omitted in these machines (though I can't see how that would cause any issue flashing the chip).
 
Hello,

Thanks for the replies. The 1000SX is pretty plain-jane (no built-in HD controller, just floppy controller, uni-directional printer port and CGA/tandy graphics). I popped the card into a PS/1 486 I had in storage today and it did the same thing for the first two attempts, then seemed to work on the third. I partitioned and formatted a flash card and upon reboot the XT IDE BIOS screen would come up then keep rebooting the system. I think there is something flaky with this board (it's one I bought off of ebay). I just received a kit from lo-tech today. I'll solder that up and try it in the Tandy (hopefully with a better result).
 
OK, so I plugged the new board in and it worked perfectly. The CF card didn't boot (just hung at booting c> in the bios), but I think that may just be an issue with the version of DOS (I only used 3.3 because it was handy. I'll try 5.01 tomorrow). BTW, I thought the 486 was able to flash that card but my memory must be getting scrambled; it still can't. I looked more closely at the card and noticed it had an SST28SF040 chip in it; I'm fairly certain this is why the FLASH.EXE utility can't find it or write to it. I'm guessing the guy I bought this off of on ebay flashed the eeprom using his own software/burner.
 
Yeah, your unit seems to be possibly flaky.

Although the fact that you got it working (however briefly) may point to a problem caused by a bad flashing. Have you tried to reflash it?
 
cnoyes72 said:
I think there is something flaky with this board (it's one I bought off of ebay)
Click to expand...

So you didn't actually get this board from James, lo-tech.co.uk ?, It's one of the inferior crappy rip offs that are popping up on ebay.
 
The board was one of James' from,lo-tech; someone with userID glassburn soldered it and put it up for auction. And apparently used the wrong eeprom (he must have flashed it some other way, not using the flash.exe utility). I bought it before I knew where the board came from (I've since purchased two kits from lo-tech and assembled them with zero issues).
 
cnoyes72 said:
OK, so I plugged the new board in and it worked perfectly. The CF card didn't boot (just hung at booting c> in the bios), but I think that may just be an issue with the version of DOS (I only used 3.3 because it was handy. I'll try 5.01 tomorrow). BTW, I thought the 486 was able to flash that card but my memory must be getting scrambled; it still can't. I looked more closely at the card and noticed it had an SST28SF040 chip in it; I'm fairly certain this is why the FLASH.EXE utility can't find it or write to it.
Click to expand...

Sorry, I missed that this was actually sorted! The reason that it doesn't boot is the boot sector on the CompactFlash card. Either use my WIPEDISK utility and then re-partition and re-format, or run FDISK /MBR from a DOS 6.22 boot disk. Re the 28xxxx chip, I do actually have one of these and have been trying to get my FLASH utility to work with it, so far without any success. I'll try and re-visit that. Currently only 29 and 39 series chips are supported.

Great to hear that my kits are working for you! I'm not supplying any of the eBay sellers - they must be using the designs to get their own boards fabricated.
 
Hi, I have Version2 of the XTIDE Adapter and a T1000RL/HD. I deactivated the Harddrive und unplugged the Power and the Data-Cord from the Harddrive.
I downloaded the latest 2.x Version of the Bios and configured the the Bios to "Full mode" and "40" KB steal from Ram. The flashing works but I see
nothing. No Bootscreen and Fdisk reports "No Fixed Disk" The build in Dos in Rom uses the C: and thats all.

What am I doing wrong. Thx.

I have either a 16MB Cf-Card and a 340MB Microdrive.
 
Last edited:
We could try very late initialisation, which is needed on the Tandy1400 series. It needs to be built from source with the late initialisation module included, I can put up a binary later if you need help with that.
 
Thx, but does not work and causes another serious Problem.

I flashed the XTIDE and now after Reboot I get "Disk Boot Failure". I get this message with any CF-Card or
Microdrive connected to the XTIDE, without any medium the error massage is the same.

The Problem is that the Floppydrive does not react anymore, so I can't boot from floppy and the dos in Rom does not work either.
If I remove the XTIDE then the machine works again, the Floppy works and the machine boots the Dos in Rom, or from a bootable Disk if it is inserted.

So what next. Flashing is impossible because no booting... And I did not want to put the card while the machine is working and after it has booted up.
 
Pardon for butting in, but--

I wonder if it might be possible to disable the BIOS on the XTIDE and use a loaded-from-floppy device driver to verify the basic operation in the 1000.
 
I put it in a 486 and it works. It recognizes the CF-Card and shows the bootmenu.
So there must be something special with my Tandy 1000...

Do I need to activate the "full-mode" and use some KB under 640K, I used the Rom
like it was delivered, so the "full-mode" is not active.

I can activate it an the 486 and the put the Card in the tandy...

There must be someone who got an XTIDE working in a Tandy1000.

Thx
Doc
 
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