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XTIDE Universal BIOS

Hello,
I have problem with XTIDE (both versions 1.1.5, 2.0.0.b3) and network packet driver (used by Brutman's mTCP). I burned XTIDE as bootrom on my Intel EtherExpress Pro/10 ISA. Drives/CF cards works well, but when I try loading packet driver (epropkt.com), system halts. It looks like a collision of addresses. Network card uses 0x290, IDE controller uses 0x1F0. This system, without XTIDE, works well with this packet driver and vintage HDD.

What could be wrong? Could you give me some advice, where to look for the cause?

Are you using this driver? If so, you could try providing all options (IRQ, I/O address, packet driver interrupt number and even the MAC address) on the command line as parameters to the driver. In other words, don't let the driver autodetect anything.
 
The XTIDE configurator for the BIOS supports (among others) ROM types "2864" and "2864 mod" for using High Speed modification. It also supports "28256" but not "28256 mod". So, is not possible to use High Speed mode with 28C256 EEPROM?

EDIT: Or is the "28256 mod" option needed only with the XT-IDE v1 card? (the configurator allows to use this option even with the XT-IDE v2 card)
 
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I have a problem with CHS translation with the current BIOS R567. I'm using an SD card and an SD to IDE adapter.
On every PC with autodetect feature in BIOS it is detected as CHS 973/16/32 and/or LBA 247/32/63 (I say "and/or" because some BIOS let me choose between both options).
I was using the XT IDE BIOS version 2.0.0.0 beta 3 in Google code page (from March 2013) which detected it as 973/16/32 and worked fine with it.
Today I upgraded to latest version (from May 2014) because I had translation problems with the other hard disk I have, and last month somebody recommended me to upgrade. Well, now the other hard disk is detected OK... but not the SD card which now is detected as 493/16/63 (different from both geometries detected by other PCs BIOS). So I have had to re-FDISK and re-format the card. Fortunately, it can still be read in card readers, but when plugged in the SD to IDE adapter, it is not autodetected on any other PC BIOS (for example, on AMIBIOS (C) 1996 American Megatrends Inc., Release 08/31/1998 S)
 
The XTIDE configurator for the BIOS supports (among others) ROM types "2864" and "2864 mod" for using High Speed modification. It also supports "28256" but not "28256 mod". So, is not possible to use High Speed mode with 28C256 EEPROM?

EDIT: Or is the "28256 mod" option needed only with the XT-IDE v1 card? (the configurator allows to use this option even with the XT-IDE v2 card)

The XT-IDE R1 card supports 2864 chips and requires a hardware mod for "High Speed Mode" aka "Chuck Mod" and also the bios needed to be modified, hence Rom type " 2864 " for the UN-modified R1 cards and " 2864 mod " for the Modified R1 cards.

The XT-IDE R2 card supports more features and bigger Rom Chips, The High speed mod is built in and configured via jumpers on the card, More info on the R2 card is here.
 
I need help with a special problem related to XTIDE AT Large version (12 kB) properly burnt into a 32 kB EPROM and seated in a 3C509B ISA card.
First of all, my configuration works - I have a 10 GB HDD formatted to 8.4 GB and split to 5 FAT16 partitions for DOS 6.22. Boots and works OK.
BUT I cannot change the BIOS address of the boot ROM by the card's own config utility - whatever address I try to set, 3c5x9cfg.exe just freezes as if there were a conflict. The default start address is D000, and as I said it works - however, this setting leaves memory segmented and there is no 64 kB left in one chunk for an EMS page frame. (This is a Headland 286 system, memory manager is ht12mm.sys)

What should I do? Try removing the EPROM from the NIC, saving the changes and insert the ROM afterwards ?... Or maybe try a 16 kB EPROM instead ?
 
Does the new xt-ide bios have real time clock features?
If so how can i use it and make an old nec v40 olivetti save the clock time,since as i know,never had a real time clock like dallas chip.


Regards

JOSÉ
 
A real time clock (RTC) solution consists of both hardware and software.
The last time I looked, none of the various XT-IDE cards contain RTC hardware.

As far as i explored RTC was adressed to Irq 8 so,it shouldn´t be difficult to add function on bios and make a little universal schematic..


Well it should be explored,it´s one of those things...

:)

Thank you for the Reply


JOSÉ GONÇALVES
 
I need some help buring the IDE_AT.BIN file to an eprom. I have some erased 27512 chips and an Exeltec Unipro programmer. The file is like 8k so how would I program it on the 27512 chip (offset or something)?
 
I need some help buring the IDE_AT.BIN file to an eprom. I have some erased 27512 chips and an Exeltec Unipro programmer. The file is like 8k so how would I program it on the 27512 chip (offset or something)?
Assuming that a ROM is suitable for the situation, the 'normal' thing to do is duplicate the block of code as many times as required to fill up the ROM.
 
I see that the XT/XT+ BIOSes have the "ELIMINATE_CGA_SNOW" module built in. I have a real IBM CGA and I am still getting the snow , what is this modules supposed to do? Does it only work in specific situations?

Also is it possible to make the BIOS clear the screen before the XTIDE messages get shown? On my Hyundai clone on boot I get a mix of the machine's BIOS messages and XTIDE ones - nothing that affects functionality but it looks messy as the 1st line of the Hyundai BIOS message gets replaced by the XTIDE's message first line...
 
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I see that the XT/XT+ BIOSes have the "ELIMINATE_CGA_SNOW" module built in. I have a real IBM CGA and I am still getting the snow , what is this modules supposed to do? Does it only work in specific situations?
It's supposed to prevent "snowing" whenever XUB writes to the screen on machines with CGA graphics. If you're still getting snow when browsing the menu then I guess the code is broken somewhere. Unfortunately I can't test this myself since I don't have the hardware.

Also is it possible to make the BIOS clear the screen before the XTIDE messages get shown? On my Hyundai clone on boot I get a mix of the machine's BIOS messages and XTIDE ones - nothing that affects functionality but it looks messy as the 1st line of the Hyundai BIOS message gets replaced by the XTIDE's message first line...

I think this depends on where the system BIOS (or any other option ROM BIOS initialized before XUB) leaves the cursor. If it prints its messages and then moves the cursor to the upper left corner then it's going lo look messy since XUB (IIRC) will start its output on the next line (with the exception of the Hotkey bar and the menu, they are supposed to be overlaid on the existing text).

Clearing the screen is certainly possible but I think it would be a bad idea since it could (at least on faster systems) prevent people from being able to read output from the system BIOS/other option ROMs.
 
It's supposed to prevent "snowing" whenever XUB writes to the screen on machines with CGA graphics. If you're still getting snow when browsing the menu then I guess the code is broken somewhere. Unfortunately I can't test this myself since I don't have the hardware.

I just hooked up an IBM 5153 and IBM CGA card to my 5160 and it seem's to be working fine (R588 XUB) No snow in the menu's but typically plenty in other programs. Personally i prefer to use VGA now as my vintage eyes are a lot older than my CGA monitors :-(
 
yeah I thought this "snow prevention" was universal, I am not getting any snow in XUB stuff - plenty of it in other programs as stated above :D
 
Hi all,

Does anyone know whether the XTIDE BIOS has support for removable disks? I am using an IDE to SD card adapter on my 286, and it works well until I remove the SD card. After this the system locks on the next disk access (with the HDD LED stuck on), even if I reinserted the same SD card before the next disk access. The system keeps locking up on disk access even after a cold reset. A power cycle is required to get the SD card accessible again.

I'm wondering whether this is a problem with the IDE controller, or whether the XTIDE BIOS is not correctly resetting the IDE controller, or acknowledging a disk change? Has anyone else tried the XTIDE BIOS with removable IDE disks? I guess technically this isn't a removable IDE disk as the SD card is removed but the adapter is still talking to the IDE bus, so I suppose it could also be the adapter as well at fault.
 
Does anyone know whether the XTIDE BIOS has support for removable disks?

No, there's no support for removable harddisks. IDE/PATA devices are never* hotpluggable. "Removable" in this context just means you can replace the drive (with the power off) in an easy and convenient way.

*Yeah, I know words like "never" and "always" should be used with caution. I'm sure there's an exception to what I just said.
 
Hello there.
I have the tandy 1400fd 1.04 ROM BIOS image, and i want to ask how to emulate this rom with emulator!
I tried on bochs x86, PCemu!
 
Hello there.
I have the tandy 1400fd 1.04 ROM BIOS image, and i want to ask how to emulate this rom with emulator!
I tried on bochs x86, PCemu!

What are you working on? I found it was possible to use the Tandy ROM using Mike Chambers' excellent Fake86, but I was never able to debug quite why it wouldn't initialise the BIOS of my card. Luckily Tomi came up with 'very late initialisation' which fixed it to an extent; the Tandy hot-keys don't work with the XTIDEUB installed though (like BIOS setup, CPU speed etc).
 
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