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Invalid EEPROM record found when running setupsl2 software

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waltermixxx

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followed by press any key to continue....

not sure what is up, but i can also not access the B: drive ( a 5 1/4" drive on the system. )
when i run the setupsl2 it does indicate that it sees the 3 1/2 drive on the top and the 5 1/4 on the bottom,
but then when i press any key, i get the Warning: invalid eeprom record found....

any ideas?

any help appreciated. :)
 
I'm able to boot from the A drive ( 3 1/2" ) and run ms dos, so in that regard it's working...so it's not hanging per say... I just cannot save my settings in the setupsl2 program, which allows it to use Drive B ( 5 1/4" ). I will have to google for the technical manual for this puppy so i can remove the drive cage, and the power supply to see if I can locate the eeprom and then hope I can get a replacement :)

thanks for you guidence so far... hoping others may chime in with similar stories and or fixes. :) or links to the technical manual :)

Cheers. :)

Chuck(G) said:
Take a look at this tip for the 1000RL variation--use of the 150 ohm resistor to get the thing to boot.

http://www.oldskool.org/guides/tvdog/RLRLX.html

Is the EEPROM just a plain old Xicor X2444 8-pin EEPROM? If so, they're not hard to find.
Click to expand...
 
Found the eeprom chip ( mmc9346)

Found the eeprom chip ( mmc9346)

the date code on it looks like either P8924 or 94507 (with NMC9346 in the middle)
going to look it up and see about a replacement.... or hopefully it's the same as one of the 24lc series i have. :)

i will update when I can :)
 
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IMG_2505.jpg

here is the eeprom ( assuming it's the eeprom ) the computer booted without it, it also gave me the same error about invalid eeprom record when the chip was out of the machine... oddly enough i googled MMC9346n thinking i would get a lot of hits... but there was nothing.... so I'm kinda stumped?

additional info:

I removed the 3.5" drive and changed the 5 1/4" drive to D0 via jumpers, the computer tries and boot from it. Unfortunately i dont have a 5 1/4" bootable dos disk, but I can boot from ROM but cannot sys the 5 1/4" disk, but i can format it. When i added the 3 1/3" drive into the mix ( jumpered as drive 1) i have the same problem i had before, i cannot access both the 5 1/4 and the 3 1/3 drives at the same time without being able to change and save settings on the eeprom.

So it looks like i had better find one, or an equivalent. :)
 
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Take a close look at the EEPOM -- it's an NMC9346:

NMC9346.jpg


Should be pretty easy to locate--they were used on a lot of NICs to hold configuration data.
 
ok it looks like i was googling the incorrect number... ( my eyes are going...) the part number is actually NMC9346n.
so I will check digi-key and see what they have. :)

ok Digi-key no luck so going to try on ebay. :)

I'm going to check a few other boards i have to see if there is one around. :)

Cheers and thanks again for your assistance :)
 
Pin 6 on this chip is not connected to gnd or vcc, so I think when floating the memory is organized as 16bit word, so I may be able to substitute for one of the other 9346 devices that are either hard wired to 16bit word, or also conforms to the same selection method. :)

i did find a 93c64 on a nic card i had handy, but it's not socketed... and I dont want to ruin the chip or the card...
i could cut the chip out and then solder it onto a machined 8 pin ic socket, and then put a socket on the nic card,
but i may try my luck at ebay or something else in my basement :)
 
NMC is just a particular manufacturer's brand prefix--in this case, National. However, if you do your search, dropping the NMC (i.e. just search for 93C46), you'll find a bevy (is that the first time on VFC that I've used that word? :) ) of manufacturers making that part--it's in a lot of stuff. Thus far, I've counted Rohm, Atmel, Microchip, STMicro...there are probably at least a half-dozen more. So, for example, the Atmel AT93C46 is the same part.

Really, it's easy to find lots of them.
 
waltermixxx said:
Warning: invalid eeprom record found....
Click to expand...
I once managed to bork the EEPROM data in a Tandy 1000 system I'd been working with, which resulted in the same message that you're seeing. Assuming your situation is similar, and that chip is still good, you might see if (re)applying the factory defaults resolves the issue - either by hitting F10 in the SETUPSL2 menu proper, or by initiating it with the "/F" command-line switch instead.
 
Factory settings reset does not seem to work...
same settings:

video display - Colour
Automatic Prompt for Time and Date - No
Memory diagnostics - No
Primarty startup device - Disk
Initial startup program - deskmate
computer speed - fast
number of disk buffers - 2
max. number of open files - 8
check for config sys on drive - no
check for autoexec.bat on drive - no
diskette drive A desgignation - TOp

i cannot seem to save the changes i make to those settings.
so I think my eeprom is infact borked...

i will have to purchase a new one...

i did manage to carefull desolder the 93C46 from the nic card, but it also did not work properly... not sure if it's beause it's cmos, or if its setup for 8 bit workds and it's ORG pin behaves differently? i can only hope ...

by the way the setupsl2 /f did indicate it was doing a factory default on it, but the default seems to be the settings above...

at least i have access to my c: drive....
I'm doing all this so i can create a Kaypro Plus Rom boot disk from a bootdisk .imd file already pre-configured for kayplus rom upgrade, because I could not follow the instructions because movcpm does not seem to work on the kaypro.... aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh :)

i hope i sort this out soon :)

thanks folks for the help thus far... very responsive and very helpful. :)
 
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That is a very good reference site. :)
i copied all the docs locally for the 1000 sl/2 and the 1000 ex :)
thank you...

Cheers. :)

I managed to purchase 2 NMC9346n NOS chips from an ebay seller in the U.S. so I am hoping when i get them that will put an end to the issues trying to access both the A drive (3 1/2") and the B drive (5 1/4"), so i can create a KAYPLUS boot up disk from an image i downloaded. (next trick will be trying to figure out how to get IMD how to work :)

I will follow up once I have installed the new chip.... I'm hoping it will fix the issue. :)
 
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did some reading in the technical reference manual for the Tandy 1000 series...

when using the setupsl2.exe program, if you use the /a (setupsl2 /a)you get to advanced menu...
here you can set the number of floppies.... I'm stuck on one, unless i can change that setting and save it...

:)

setupsl2-a.jpg
 
kb2syd said:
Try adding a second one and see what the bios then shows. Couldn't hurt
Click to expand...

I did try adding one. i changed the number of devices to 2, and changed drive 0 to a 3 1/2 drive, and drive 1 to a 5 1/4 drive, did an F1 which is supposed to save it,but it did not save it... after rebooting, the settings back back to what you see in the screen above... :( i hope the new chip when it arrives will fix it :)
 
If you've got a knack for prototyping, you can use a simple PC parallel port and a bit of BASIC to program and read one of these things--it's pretty simple.
 
Found this on a programmer:

http://m.eet.com/media/1136442/15813-51304di.pdf (scroll down to the article in the pdf)

it seems promising, however why woudn't the computer be able to save the settings to the eeprom in the first place?

i would need a proper dump of the eeprom then edit it and re burn it... :) I like your train of thought...

I have the 93c64 i tried to use that came out of the nic, i could wire something up quick and see whats inside... :)

but my fear is it will take me down another rabbit hole... this all started because i wanted to create a disk image for my Kaypro... :) ( LOL?)

:) thanks again for your suggestions. :)
 
and down the rabbit hole i go....

i have a Willem Programmer, shown here with the HT93LC46 i tried in the tandy 1000 sl/2 eeprom socket,
i could sort of get it to work in the programmer. I can read the chip, but that is about it,
i am unable to write to it, or erase it using the programming software i use successfully with regular eproms...
so not sure what is up... this did come out of a working NIC... chip is the small one at the top right beside the Ziff socket. :)

programmer.jpg
 
waltermixxx said:
and down the rabbit hole i go....

i have a Willem Programmer, shown here with the HT93LC46 i tried in the tandy 1000 sl/2 eeprom socket,
i could sort of get it to work in the programmer. I can read the chip, but that is about it,
i am unable to write to it, or erase it using the programming software i use successfully with regular eproms...
so not sure what is up... this did come out of a working NIC... chip is the small one at the top right beside the Ziff socket. :)
Click to expand...

Yeah, your programmer needs to be able to handle serially programmable/electrically erasable varieties, and it probably doesn't (or needs update software)...

One of their websites mentions the newest software upgrade handling EEPROM - SPI -Serial varieties

gwk
 
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