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More IBM 5160 XT Questions

Smack2k

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Jan 8, 2013
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OK,

My latest 5160 XT Questions:

If I remove some cards and move others to other ports on the motherboard, are there any changes I need to make to the motherboard or anything else?

I had to move my floppy drive card / graphics card / game card to other ports as well as put the XT-CF ISA Card with CF Adapter into an open port.

Booting up is giving me the graphics card one beep, two beep errors, and curious if maybe the others may be an issue as well so before I start doing un-necessary stuff, I wanted to ask you guys / gals...
 
Keep cards out of slot 8. You may have to reset switch settings if changing memory or video type or number of floppy drives. As far as I know, any card could be placed in any of slots 1-7 with no problems unless specific cards are fighting for specific resources. Busted slot or just too much power draw for an aging power supply are my initial thoughts. Double check all the cards got placed correctly.
 
You can also put your Lo-tech ISA CF Adapter in slot 8 as long as the SMT components have been fitted on the rear of the card.
 
You can also put your Lo-tech ISA CF Adapter in slot 8 as long as the SMT components have been fitted on the rear of the card.

I've got my Lo-Tech XT-IDE card in slot 8; like you said, if there are a few components on the rear side of the card that's the tell-tale sign it is Slot 8 compatible. Given that most use a multi-I/O adapter for their Com port, there are few other cards that can go in Slot 8. I believe an IBM 3270 emulator adapter can also go into slot 8, but that was useful only for those of us that were connecting to a 308x/309x class mainframe and using a PC as a 3270 terminal replacement :)

Regards,
Mike
 
My shitty luck continues

I have created a bootable floppy, put the 360K PC DOS 3.3 files on it…

XT boots up now, sees RAM, checks floppy and then moves on….never boots from it..

Then tries to run XT IDE BIOS but won't as it needs flashed and installed first….

Any ideas?
 
It might be trying to boot from the CF card and hanging. Do you get the XT-IDE Bios screen up and does it see the CF card and can you see " Booting C>>C " on the screen ? and does it just hang at that point.

After memory count you should get floppy drive access and then one "Beep", Directly after the beep press the " A " key to boot from the floppy drive.
 
It might be trying to boot from the CF card and hanging. Do you get the XT-IDE Bios screen up and does it see the CF card and can you see " Booting C>>C " on the screen ? and does it just hang at that point.

After memory count you should get floppy drive access and then one "Beep", Directly after the beep press the " A " key to boot from the floppy drive.


That is exactly what's it doing…..gets to the XT-IDE BIOS Screen up……But I have the CF Card in the machine already to, should I pull it and then Try the A key?

I will try the A key on boot...
 
What did you have on the CF card before ?, Try the A key on boot (directly after the beep) but you may have to wipe the CF card. I assume you have the complete set of Dos 3.3 5 1/4 floppy disks ( 2 Disks ).
 
I do have both disks and going on a new CF so will set them up tonight

One other small thing

The CGA card gives the 2 beep video error when flipped to color mode but boots fine when flopr to Mono..any ideas?
 
I am not sure if this applies to the XTIDE cards but there is a jumper of the LoTech XT-CF card which disables the ROM and allows the system to boot normally to the A: drive. You can then replace the jumper (system running) and flash the bios.

What is your SW1 (dip switches) set to on the motherboard? The beeping for the video card is most likely because SW1 is set to MGA not CGA. See here for more info: http://www.minuszerodegrees.net/5160/misc/5160_motherboard_switch_settings.htm
 
For the Video Settings:

5 - OFF
6 - ON

Which points to CGA at 40 Columns…

There is the CGA at 80 Columns, but I don't think that would work here…right?
 
There is the CGA at 80 Columns, but I don't think that would work here…right?

Why not? The 40 column CGA mode was intended for use with an RF modulator and a TV set. There's not enough bandwidth the the typical North American NTSC TV of the time to give a good crisp 80 column display.

But I'm assuming that you're using a monitor, not going through the antenna of a TV set.
 
Next question....should be an easy one..

If I were to install a VGA card, should I just leave the switches on the 80 Column CGA or do something different?

I can install it in DOS, no issues, just wasnt sure about the MOBO Settings...
 
Next question....should be an easy one..
If I were to install a VGA card, should I just leave the switches on the 80 Column CGA or do something different?
I can install it in DOS, no issues, just wasnt sure about the MOBO Settings...
In post #14, 3pcedev pointed you to the information.
 
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