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Gateway 2000 386DX system BIOS Help

eXTended8088

Experienced Member
Joined
Apr 5, 2008
Messages
86
Location
Central PA/Upstate NY
Hello All,

I recently aquired a Mint Gateway 2000 386 DX 33 system. NO Math Coprocessor, 4 megs of ram. The original Caviar 2120 seems to have perished, and I need a much later BIOS to use one of the many larger Hard Drives I have. According to a what I have researched, I need this particular BIOS to allow me to use a larger Hard Drive.

"Phoenix 4.03.6.11 "M3GS20"

Seems like this BIOS was produced by Micro Firmware Inc. I'm not sure if this was a "Drop In" replacement or if my BIOS is flashable.
If this wont work do you think ANYDRIVE for DOSwould work?

Thanks in advance for any help! ;)
 
You can use any one of a variety of DDOs to get a larger drive to work, but at a price. :) It doesn't have to be Anydrive but it could be.

Or, you can use a drive of 528MB or less without a DDO. I have a few if you're interested.
 
There's a few other options as well. XTIDE bios extension in a nic, ISA multi i/o controller with it's own bios which can take up to 8 gig drives and SCSI.

I use Ontrack DDO on my 386DX25 with a 2.4 gig hdd and it does the job ok.
 
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I downloaded Maxtor's MaxBlast plus from years back. It see's the Quantum Fireball 10 GB HDD I installed, but when I go to install EZ Bios it gives me a division error and crashes out. Any idea what I Should set the 386's bios to? I don't have an option to do an autosize only hard drive "types".
 
I downloaded Maxtor's MaxBlast plus from years back. It see's the Quantum Fireball 10 GB HDD I installed, but when I go to install EZ Bios it gives me a division error and crashes out. Any idea what I Should set the 386's bios to? I don't have an option to do an autosize only hard drive "types".

This is the overlay that I used on my latest 386 project: On Track version 2.64 disk manager. The HD is a 8.4 GB Maxtor which is partitioned to about 2 GB apiece.
 
I downloaded Maxtor's MaxBlast plus from years back. It see's the Quantum Fireball 10 GB HDD I installed, but when I go to install EZ Bios it gives me a division error and crashes out. Any idea what I Should set the 386's bios to? I don't have an option to do an autosize only hard drive "types".
I use drive type 2 on my 386 iirc and save. The DDO software does the rest. No need to set C-H-S settings at all. It aslo should set the drive up into 2 gig partitions for Dos if it's clever enough.

Just fired it up to confirm. Using ONTRACK 9.52.
 
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Thanks for all the help :) I've tried using different versions of the Maxtor MaxBlast and the Western Digital E-Z Drive software. Both see the Quantum Fireball 10 Gig HDD whether I have the BIOS on the 386 set to no hard drive or just any random hard drive size. I do not have auto config or a way to allow me to type in a size manually. What happens is when it goes to install the overlay it just crashes with a A: prompt. I will try the Ontrack software next.
 
Ok. I tried it with the Ontrack software. Same thing, crashes out. I've tried a few different hard drives, all tested working in other machines, all from 2 gigabytes up to the 10.2 in there now. Same thing. At this point I'm thinking the controller card is flaky/shot. It is a combo Floppy/Hard drive controller.

http://stason.org/TULARC/pc/hard-di...-AT-Interface-drives-MIO-21.html#.VDkf6BbE6Kx

It had green corrosion on it when it bought the system, So did the motherboard. It wouldn't even detect the floppy drives and the hard drive until I cleaned it up. The keyboard was not detected until I took some corro-clean and toothbrush to the keyboard connector (DIN) Now the KB works beautifully. The Floppy drive controller portion now seems to be working OK. I did notice some of the "Gold" on the portion of the card where it makes contact with the ISA slot is missing near the top edge of the connector. When I went to investigate that, even more came off. I think this one is done. I could try some pencil lead to see if I could get it going, but I think the best option is to find another combo Floppy/IDE controller card and try that. Most likely any one of those Overlays will work on the first try with a new controller card.

Thanks guys. I will update this post as soon as I find another card.
 
It shouldn't be to hard to track one down. There may even be a member in your local who has a few spares. Good luck.

I betcha Stone's got a few he can off load ;)
 
If I don't I'm sure MikeS does.

FWIW, I wouldn't be so quick in replacing the IDE interface card. My money's on the drive being hosed. I would certainly test both the drive and the interface card on other systems before buying anything.
 
I have that same card MIO-400KF REV. F Hard Disk/Floppy Controller in my 486 box, It's the only card i have that passed *All* tests using Dave Dunfields TestFDC utility, Like Stone said test the card in another system if you can, It's a handy card to have if it works of course.
 
Just a quick update.

I decided to take a magnifying glass and a bit of solder to patch up the small areas where the metal had come off the contacts. It was a pain as I had to spread it thin. I wish I would of had a trace repair pen lying around. Anyhow, after another cleanup job of the contacts and some solder, I'm happy to report the MIO-400KF is working great :) First time I threw a hard drive in there and set it to a bios "type" that would allow it to boot properly, I loaded a Bios overlay and successfully loaded MS DOS 6.22 on the hard drive. I did this a couple of times, testing with different drives and after installing the overlay the correct drive size came up and I was able to install an OS.

I didn't give up on that card.. :)

Thanks for all the help everyone!
 
Good stuff and indeed you confirmed it was the card that was at fault ;) It is good to have a spare or two laying about though.

Keep us posted on progress and of don't forget to slap up a few pics of the system up and running.
 
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