Al Hartman
Veteran Member
I had a clone PC/XT case with 4 floppy drives in it, that we used to use at Zebra Systems, Inc. as our Coco disk duplication station.
I decided to turn it into a working PC, so I could run emulators and make 5.25" floppies using Imagedisk.
I bought a 5150 logic board on eBay, and mounted it up.
Earlier episodes covered converting the motherboard from a 256k board to 640k board, getting the software for an Everex Multi I/O to enable the clock/calendar, attaching an external 3.5" drive when I had no cable, no power supply, and no drivers.
Next, I built a Lo-Tech 8-Bit IDE adapter board that works great with an old Miniscribe hard drive.
The most recent hurdle was putting an Oak 8-Bit EGA/VGA card in it so I could use a more modern display rather than using the composite output of a CGA card to drive a monochrome composite monitor, or a TV.
The next thing I wanted to do with this system was to replace the floppy disk controller. The one it had was a long card controller, but someone had mangled the metal bracket on it, so it couldn't be fastened down to the case. Also, the controller failed all the TESTFDC tests, and wouldn't write a single density floppy disk.
I bought a Magitronic half-card floppy controller on eBay for $24.00, but when I got it... it didn't work. I'd get a 601 error on boot. Examining the card, it looked fine. No burnt caps or damaged chips. No chips seemed hot to the touch either.
Just for kicks, I cleaned the connector contacts which seemed tarnished to me. Got them nice and bright, and shiny.
I reinserted the card, restarted the system, and it now works great!
But, the system still fails all the TESTFDC tests.
*sigh*
I wonder if the XT-FDC board works with Single Density? Before I undertake building one, I'd like to know if it will work. Otherwise, I'll go locate a 3.5 to 5.25 bracket adapter, fasten down the hard drive and button up the case, so I can try out some of my older systems to see if one of those would write single density disks.
I decided to turn it into a working PC, so I could run emulators and make 5.25" floppies using Imagedisk.
I bought a 5150 logic board on eBay, and mounted it up.
Earlier episodes covered converting the motherboard from a 256k board to 640k board, getting the software for an Everex Multi I/O to enable the clock/calendar, attaching an external 3.5" drive when I had no cable, no power supply, and no drivers.
Next, I built a Lo-Tech 8-Bit IDE adapter board that works great with an old Miniscribe hard drive.
The most recent hurdle was putting an Oak 8-Bit EGA/VGA card in it so I could use a more modern display rather than using the composite output of a CGA card to drive a monochrome composite monitor, or a TV.
The next thing I wanted to do with this system was to replace the floppy disk controller. The one it had was a long card controller, but someone had mangled the metal bracket on it, so it couldn't be fastened down to the case. Also, the controller failed all the TESTFDC tests, and wouldn't write a single density floppy disk.
I bought a Magitronic half-card floppy controller on eBay for $24.00, but when I got it... it didn't work. I'd get a 601 error on boot. Examining the card, it looked fine. No burnt caps or damaged chips. No chips seemed hot to the touch either.
Just for kicks, I cleaned the connector contacts which seemed tarnished to me. Got them nice and bright, and shiny.
I reinserted the card, restarted the system, and it now works great!
But, the system still fails all the TESTFDC tests.
*sigh*
I wonder if the XT-FDC board works with Single Density? Before I undertake building one, I'd like to know if it will work. Otherwise, I'll go locate a 3.5 to 5.25 bracket adapter, fasten down the hard drive and button up the case, so I can try out some of my older systems to see if one of those would write single density disks.