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Ideal network card / sound card combo for XT-IDE in XTs?

lameboyadvance

lameboyadvance

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Since the PC1640 only has 4 (and the PC1512 only 3) ISA slots, I would have to choose my cards wisely. My goal is to get the PC1640 working, giving me 4 slots. As I would like to include a RAM card, a network card, a sound card, a VGA card and an XTIDE card I would have a bit of an issue.

It wasn't until I learned that people have used blank ROM slots on their network cards to hold the XTIDE BIOS, and that some older sound cards have an IDE slot which may be usable for IDE/CF that I realised I may have a chance to fit everything in.
I came across a couple of threads that said the IDE 'CD-ROM' slot on these sound cards only works on 16-bit ISA slots, but there was some mention that compact flash cards may work in EDIT:'8-bit mode'(not 4-bit) on 8-bit ISA, but didn't see anyone actually attempting it.
Firstly, is this actually doable?

If so, I would need to find a good combination of a (RJ45) network card and a sound card with IDE connector that:
A) work in 8-bit ISA/XTs,
B) can be configured using 8-bit ISA/XTs (AFAIK some network cards can't enable the (XTIDE) ROM using an 8-bit ISA slot),
C) (unnecessary/just for bonus points) is a network card without a BNC/coax connector, as this would probably stop me from sliding the expansion slot cover back over the cards and running the cables out the single gap below the end expansion slot.


Does anyone know of some cards that meet these (well mostly the first 2) requirements?
 
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lameboyadvance said:
Since the PC1640 only has 4 (and the PC1512 only 3) ISA slots, I would have to choose my cards wisely. My goal is to get the PC1640 working, giving me 4 slots. As I would like to include a RAM card, a network card, a sound card, a VGA card and an XTIDE card I would have a bit of an issue.

It wasn't until I learned that people have used blank ROM slots on their network cards to hold the XTIDE BIOS, and that some older sound cards have an IDE slot which may be usable for IDE/CF that I realised I may have a chance to fit everything in.
I came across a couple of threads that said the IDE 'CD-ROM' slot on these sound cards only works on 16-bit ISA slots, but there was some mention that compact flash cards may work in '4-bit mode' on 8-bit ISA, but didn't see anyone actually attempting it.
Firstly, is this actually doable?

If so, I would need to find a good combination of a (RJ45) network card and a sound card with IDE connector that:
A) work in 8-bit ISA/XTs,
B) can be configured using 8-bit ISA/XTs (AFAIK some network cards can't enable the (XTIDE) ROM using an 8-bit ISA slot),
C) (unnecessary/just for bonus points) is a network card without a BNC/coax connector, as this would probably stop me from sliding the expansion slot cover back over the cards and running the cables out the single gap below the end expansion slot.


Does anyone know of some cards that meet these (well mostly the first 2) requirements?
Click to expand...

You can find a parallel port network adapter as well. Xircom Pocket Ethernet, for example.
 
I have seen those PE3 things, they are "Plan B" if I can't find a good card combo/sound card CF doesn't actually work. As long as I don't have to transfer everything via 720K floppies. Serial port transfer is "Plan C", which those adapters are barely better than.
 
lameboyadvance said:
I have seen those PE3 things, they are "Plan B" if I can't find a good card combo/sound card CF doesn't actually work. As long as I don't have to transfer everything via 720K floppies. Serial port transfer is "Plan C", which those adapters are barely better than.
Click to expand...

It'd be my plan A. There are very few soundcards that support booting from any sort of hard drive; most success has been with multi-io cards. At least, that's in my experience.

Of course if you really want to, go for it. Build your system however you'd like. I'd personally rather be able to have my pick of a variety of soundcards rather than be limited to this specific one, in case I want to do some testing and whatnot.
 
If you mean the XTIDE Universal Bios, Only if the sound card has a real IDE interface, A lot of them are proprietary CD-ROM interfaces and won't work. If you search the forum there should be a few threads on this subject, I'm sure a few people have had success with certain Sound cards IIRC.

Edit: One such thread is [ here ]
 
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I knew some Sound Blasters had IDE ports, just didn't realise some of them might not use actual 'IDE' ports.
I also came across some ESS1868 based sound cards that have an IDE port, but no clue if its usable on an XT ISA bus.
 
The key is to use a CompactFlash card on them, since these support 8-bit transfer mode. Provided the registers are mapped to the usual places, they should work.
 
I used a Sound Blaster Vibra 16 (CT2800) and a NE2000 to boot from CF in an XT clone. Couldn't boot from certain (otherwise bootable) CF cards though: 48MB (I think) didn't work, but 2GB did.
 
OK, taking a quick look for NE2000 cards the Danpex EN-2200T seems ideal for what I want. It comes with only AUI/DB15 and RJ45 connections (no coax/BNC), and everything is configured by jumpers, including enabling the ROM/address.

...According to the thread Malc linked some of the later SB cards used DIAGNOSE.EXE to configure the card (which seems to be 80186+ only), however someone used DEBUG.EXE to push the values manually. Will this work for all the later cards, or just the CT2290?

...Also, I originally found a thread where someone had trouble configuring a non-jumper network card (IIRC because it needed 16-bit ISA), but can't find the link again. Anyone know what card it was?
 
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I also use the 3x2 combo (ethernet, audio and CF IDE with only two cards). My best combination is the 3Com 509B and a Sound Blaster 16 Vibra CT2800. Both are 16 bit cards but they work perfect in 8 bit slots.
 
Thanks for that, you just helped me find the thread I was talking about. According to that thread you need a 16-bit ISA socket to enable/configure the ROM socket on the 3C509B.

...Also, searching for VIBRAs turns up a lot of CT41xx models. Are these any useful on XTs, or do I need something earlier like a CT22xx?
EDIT: Scratch that, the later cards don't have an IDE connector. Also seeing later cards like the CT25xx, wondering if all these later ones are XT compatible.
 
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Avoid any PnP Sound Blaster (as the CT4xxx models), the software to enable it doesn't work on XTs.
 
I may have a chance to pick up a CT-2501 (EDIT: not sure if its an actual model number, seems to be more the part number for the VIBRA IC) locally, but from what I can see of pictures it doesn't have a straight IDE connector. (As the picture of it is somewhat blurry and I can't find any others, going off a CT-2260) it has 3 connectors: a 'Sony', a 'Mitsumi', and a 'Creative / Panasonic'.
Can thse sorts of cards be used for IDE/CF, and if so which connector do you use?
 
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No, 'Sony', a 'Mitsumi', and a 'Creative / Panasonic' are different protocols used in first CD-ROM units and they are not IDE compatible.
 
I took a look at the listing again and it actually stated Sony/Mitsumi/Panasonic/IDE, and after searching it appears to be this card, which actually has 4 connectors (plus wavetable):
sbct2501.jpg
Are cards with multiple CDROM connector types likely to work, or would it have to be a card with IDE only?

EDIT: This page calls it a "Sound Blaster 16 Value PNP". I suppose that means it can't be configured on an XT (even using DEBUG.EXE)?
 
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