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XTIDE tech support thread

^ true, SdG sorted me out and I successfully built a working rev2 :D now I need to figure the BIOS stuff and I am set :D
It's a shame info is lost but with the files mentioned above all questions were answered!
thanks all for the help!!!
 
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Need some help over here :confused: as I can't get my XTIDE rev2 to work properly. Drives do get recognized, I make changes with FDISK, FDISK seems to work but when I reboot all changes vanish and the drives seem like a partition was never made...
I have tried all 8081/80186 versions of the BIOS since the machine I am working on has a V20. They all behave the same: nothing gets written on the disk. Using CF, microdrive or real HD makes no difference.
Here are some pics of the configuration program and the settings I use , just default stuff except screenmode. XTIDE is jumpered at the default settings, IDE@300 , ROM@D000h and I am using a 28C256 eeprom.
Also jumpering the card to "compatibility mode" it gets recognized as expected as a r1 card but it behaves the same.

HIPHo1m.jpg


ao2RGoV.jpg


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this is booting with a 4GB CF:

RWHMTHK.jpg


o9YOKWJ.jpg


it gets recognized OK and I can create a partition and mark it active with fdisk - but after the mandatory reboot nothing is saved!

1NqLDlo.jpg


and here is a 5GB Seagate microdrive:

VeG4YtD.jpg


vyN3eBb.jpg


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it behaves the same, after reboot changes are lost as if there is a write protection turned on... I did try with 2 different 1GB CF cards, a 256MB CF card and a couple of old IDE HDDs, all behave the same.
What am I doing wrong? Any ideas?

edit:
here are a couple of pics of the card I build:
http://i.imgur.com/rVAaLqf.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/BXZyIU9.jpg
 
Do these drives/cards work properly in another machine *without* the XTIDE card? If not then the problem is not with the XTIDE, itself. If they do then proceed to step two. Yeiasou. :)
 
^ Yeiasou back!

yes ofcourse , the 1GB and 4GB cards are all checked and they work fine on a 386DX build with a normal 16bit ide/floppy/i-o controller...
 
In picture 5 and 8 i can see it's not recognizing the drives correctly, Make sure you are using an 80 core ide cable and not 40.
 
^ I am using the small 40core cables that came with the cf->ide adapters , I will try with 80core ones and report back. I don't have pics handy atm but the 2 sandisk cfs I also tested do show a proper name with a couple of random chars in front of it... I really hope it's the cable that causes this...
 
You shouldn't be getting any random characters, The ide cable can be a cause, Also bad solder joint/'s or bad chip/'s, Easiest to rule out the ide cable first, You could also try the XT-IDE R2 card in a different machine.
 
I'll test with 80pin IDE cable tomorrow , I can also test logic ICs with my programmer. That should rule out some stuff. I'll report back tomorrow, thanks for the help!
 
^ I too always thought that 80pin cables are to be used with ATA66 + suitable HDD , I remember reading somewhere that older stuff can actually have problems with 80pin cables. I guess I'll just try and see , it certainly won't damage anything.
 
Exactly, and it's certainly safe to try it out. :)

Other than the pin 34 alteration which only serves to detect the presence of the 80 pin cable construction the connection is exactly the same.

I'm still skeptical as to its overall value/usefulness in many situations.
 
Finally got it working!
I tried 80-core IDE cable - it changed nothing.
Then I removed the extra serial port ICs and tested all remaining logic ICs with my programmer, all checked out fine.
After that I decided to play arround with the XTIDE base address, it was not the problem. So I changed the IDE address to 3C0h and reflashed the bios on the card - that is what did the trick!

SX2UPqP.jpg


I am now able to partition/use the CF without problems. I have no idea why 300h did not work , I can't find with MSD what uses that region on the Acer system.

Thank you all for the support and ideas, really appreciated!
 
Klee said:
I don't have a eprom programmer and I also only use the version of XTIDECFG that comes with each bios I have tried. And I also tried both newer versions on Lo-Techs web site.

My MFM hard drive is working now so the pc is not down and I can still "play" with it.

I did pull a eprom off an old MFM controller board and plugged it in the XTIDE and it gave an error that it could not find a hard drive, well there was none attached so that was expected LOL, then the pc booted off the floppy drive A: so I think the card is ok but the eeprom is the problem.

Is there any programs I can run in dos that can erase the EEPROM in the XTIDE card?
Click to expand...


I found a DOS program that did erase my EEPROM , I used the lo-tech flash utility as it erases the eprom before it flashes it.

I ran the utility and it erased the eeprom but gave an error and said that it failed to write the file to the eeprom.


So with nothing to lose I used the XTIDECFG and l was surprised that I was able to flash my eeprom and now my XTIDE v1 works again.:p


I first thought it was a failure as it did not write the .bin file using the Lo-Tech flash utility since it errored out but it did erase the eeprom and allowed me to flash using the XTIDECFG program.
 
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Klee said:
I found a DOS program that did erase my EEPROM , I used the lo-tech flash utility as it erases the eprom before it flashes it.

I ran the utility and it erased the eeprom but gave an error and said that it failed to write the file to the eeprom.

So with nothing to lose I used the XTIDECFG and l surprised I was able to flash my eeprom and now my XTIDE v1 works again.:p

I first thought it was a failure to write the .bin file using the Lo-Tech flash utility but it did erase the eeprom and allowed me to flash using the XTIDECFG program.
Click to expand...

The Lo-tech flash utility doesn't support the eeproms used in the original XT-IDE cards, It's handy that it erased the eeprom though :)
 
Yep it sure was handy, but it was really one of those "Hold my beer and watch this" moments. LOL

I really did not think it would do anything at all but I had nothing to lose trying it.
 
bjt said:
OK, I tried a CF card, different IDE cable and different IDE->CF adaptor. With another CF adapter both CF and Microdrive worked fine with XTP. With the original CF adaptor but another IDE cable, the CF card works fine with XTP.

I think it's a general signal quality problem between the drive and interface card. I've decided to swap in the 1GB CF card anyway and use an 80 conductor cable, so everything should be fine from here.
Click to expand...


Spoke too soon! Was still getting occasional hangs on boot. Tried a WD "SiliconDrive" CF card, thinking it might be better than the Kingston 1GB, it was much worse... corrupted files all over.

I don't know if the 5160 PSU is noisy, if there is too much RFI inside the case, my cables are too long, or what. So I swapped the CF adaptor & card for a PQI "Disk On Module" that plugs directly into the XT-IDE with no cable. I haven't had any further problems since then. Very strange, but I thought it might help someone else to know about it.

I plan to use the CF adaptor & card in my Tandy 1000 so it'll be interesting to see if that same problems happen there too.
 
Are the Schematics, etc for the XTIDE project available anywhere? Seems all the links are dead now.
 
I doubt it, There used to be some on the n8vem site for the original XTIDE cards but i think they are long gone since the originals are no longer in production, I don't know if there are any R2 cards still available, You got to be a member of the n8vem site now. Why do you ask are you having problems with one ?.
 
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