• Please review our updated Terms and Rules here

Headstart LX CD floppy boot disk image

Taffer

Member
Joined
Jun 24, 2019
Messages
35
Location
Buffalo
I picked up the first computer to retail with a CDrom. It's a 10mhz XT class machine. It came with the Headstart labeled monitor/keyboard/mouse and the 4 setup CDs. It was $15 at an estate sale. It uses a caddy CDROM drive and has a 3.5" floppy drive. Has a ATI VGA wonder 16 card with a bus mouse port.

Aside from the CDrom and it's ISA controller card, it has a built in controller on the motherboard for the miniscribe 8450XT 40mb hard drive. I believe this is a "8 bit IDE" system. The system is in like new condition with plastic wrap still on the logos and keyboard cord.

The hard drive seems to be working properly; it spins up, the head seeks etc. I added a little lubricant to the stepper bearings. Sounds smooth and clean and seeks properly when booted. However, I think it's lost it's data/formatting over the years.
The manual shows that I'm missing a floppy disk that seems like it kicks off the hard drive and CDROM installation setup, then copies everything from the recovery CD to the hard drive.

1679929450842.png

Manual link here: https://archive.org/details/bitsavers_philipsheaUsersGuide1989_34277909/page/n23/mode/2up

I would really like to restore this!
I tried to install a known-working lotech XT IDE with the latest universal BIOS flashed to the EEPROM, but it never throws up the flash screen when set to either C800 or D800. It is detected with the XTIDE utilities and I can even detect/flash to the EEPROM.
Spinrite 4.0 will not detect the 8450XT hard drive or the XTIDE, nor will DOS setup. No difference if the mobo dip switch is told there is or isn't a hard drive.

Does anyone have this floppy they could image for me?
Any other suggestions for testing the 8450XT HDD?
Any idea why the XTIDE is not working? The VGA card works, so presumably the mobo supports BIOS extensions.
Thanks in advance. I'll have to post some pics of the machine for your viewing pleasure.
 
Long thread with lots of info, including getting the xtide to work:

Thanks; I have read through that thread.
Frankly I'm more interested in finding the recovery floppy and running this stock with the 8450XT. The XTIDE was just a rabbit hole/alternate solution as I was troubleshooting. I'm pretty sure the 8450XT is functional but can't think of a way to confirm without the Headstart setup floppy.


Regarding that thread, unfortunately the way he got his XTIDE to work was by messing with switches; I don't have 8k switches on mine. Mine is the Rev3.




23-0327pmCapture.JPG
 
I picked up the first computer to retail with a CDrom. It's a 10mhz XT class machine. It came with the Headstart labeled monitor/keyboard/mouse and the 4 setup CDs. It was $15 at an estate sale. It uses a caddy CDROM drive and has a 3.5" floppy drive. Has a ATI VGA wonder 16 card with a bus mouse port.

Aside from the CDrom and it's ISA controller card, it has a built in controller on the motherboard for the miniscribe 8450XT 40mb hard drive. I believe this is a "8 bit IDE" system. The system is in like new condition with plastic wrap still on the logos and keyboard cord.

The hard drive seems to be working properly; it spins up, the head seeks etc. I added a little lubricant to the stepper bearings. Sounds smooth and clean and seeks properly when booted. However, I think it's lost it's data/formatting over the years.
The manual shows that I'm missing a floppy disk that seems like it kicks off the hard drive and CDROM installation setup, then copies everything from the recovery CD to the hard drive.

Do you have the recovery CD?
I have neither the first CD of the set, nor the floppy.
I sort of gave up on the project a few years ago since I've never been able to find either.
 
Looks like disk 4 from the set on vetusware has the drivers--

bash-5.1$ ls
3D ATI CDGUIDE.BAT COMMAND.COM DOS HOT LOGITECH MSDOS.SYS PUBLISH SETMODE.BAT TEMPO VGAUTILS
ABCFILES AUTOEXEC.BAT CDPLAY COMPEASE FONTWID.BAT HOT.BAT MOUSE.COM PCGLOBE PUBLISH.BAT SONY_CDU.SYS TS VTOC.SYS
AND BKSHLF CHESS CONFIG.SYS FW IO.SYS MSCDEX.EXE PHASE1.COM SBC SPLASH TSRINT.EXE XTREE

bash-5.1$ cat CONFIG.SYS
FILES = 40
BUFFERS = 20
BREAK = ON
LASTDRIVE = W
device=sony_cdu.sys /d:MSCD0001 /u:1 /b:340 /m:p /q:* /t:*
shell=command.com /p /e:1024
 
Do you have the recovery CD?
I have neither the first CD of the set, nor the floppy.
I sort of gave up on the project a few years ago since I've never been able to find either.
Yes I do! I'll image it as soon as I can.
 
stupid autoemoji. /m[colon]p
Yes I see the drivers. I'm not sure what to do without the boot floppy. I think it has some secret sauce to low level the hard drive and detect the floppy. Not sure. Maybe Al can see some way to make a floppy when I upload the recovery CD. I didn't see anything labeled in an obvious way.
 
Do you have the recovery CD?
I have neither the first CD of the set, nor the floppy.
I sort of gave up on the project a few years ago since I've never been able to find either.
Here's all 4 CDs.


I wonder if the missing installation floppy can be recreated from some of the data on here. I'm looking specifically in this folder, K:\LX\DOS, where there is a "recover.com". I looked at it under Notepad++ but I don't see the messages from my 1st post which is a snip from the manual of the installation floppy. Maybe you'll have better luck.
 
Took a look at the miniscribe 8450XT and noticed 2 leaking 56uF 35v caps on the board. I'm going to replace those in a few days when they arrive and see what happens. Still no luck with the XTIDE rabbit hole.
 
Still no luck with the XTIDE rabbit hole.
I tried to install a known-working lotech XT IDE with the latest universal BIOS flashed to the EEPROM, but it never throws up the flash screen when set to either C800 or D800. It is detected with the XTIDE utilities and I can even detect/flash to the EEPROM.
Regarding that thread, unfortunately the way he got his XTIDE to work was by messing with switches; I don't have 8k switches on mine. Mine is the Rev3.
But I also read in that thread that there was an issue getting the XUB to display its flash screen. Okay for the Headstart III, but not for the LX CD. The OP of that thread appeared to resolve that problem by swapping out the XUB for the Hargle BIOS.

From what I remember, the Hargle BIOS is the original BIOS for the XT-IDE card (revision 1). The OP of that thread would have had that as an option because their XT-IDE card has Hi-Speed/Compatibility mode jumpers, i.e. their card in Compatibility mode (compatible with revision 1 of XT-IDE card).

But you could try the Hargle BIOS as an experiment. Expected is that it will display its banner text, but then fail to detect the attached IDE device. And it would confirm that the XUB is incompatible with the LX CD.

( Thinking that this may be connected with 'late initialisation', I looked for such a configuration option in XUB release R625, but could not find one. )
 
But I also read in that thread that there was an issue getting the XUB to display its flash screen. Okay for the Headstart III, but not for the LX CD. The OP of that thread appeared to resolve that problem by swapping out the XUB for the Hargle BIOS.

From what I remember, the Hargle BIOS is the original BIOS for the XT-IDE card (revision 1). The OP of that thread would have had that as an option because their XT-IDE card has Hi-Speed/Compatibility mode jumpers, i.e. their card in Compatibility mode (compatible with revision 1 of XT-IDE card).

But you could try the Hargle BIOS as an experiment. Expected is that it will display its banner text, but then fail to detect the attached IDE device. And it would confirm that the XUB is incompatible with the LX CD.

( Thinking that this may be connected with 'late initialisation', I looked for such a configuration option in XUB release R625, but could not find one. )
I'll give the Hargle BIOS a try. I spent some time looking for it without success. I'll poke around again this evening.
 
I'll give the Hargle BIOS a try. I spent some time looking for it without success. I'll poke around again this evening.
The third FTP link below:

ftp://nostalgy.net.ru/pub/lib/XT-IDE%2520Prototipe/XTIDE%2520project.doc
ftp://nostalgy.net.ru/pub/lib/XT-IDE%2520Prototipe/XtIdeUtl.zip
ftp://nostalgy.net.ru/pub/lib/XT-IDE%2520Prototipe/xtide_011.zip
 
( Thinking that this may be connected with 'late initialisation', I looked for such a configuration option in XUB release R625, but could not find one. )
I found a switch in the early versions - see below.

Note that because XUB version V1.1.5 is very early (like the Hargle BIOS), there is no support for 'hi-speed' mode, something that your card will require in order to communicate with the IDE device. But you could use the switch to see if the 'no banner text displayed' problem is due to late initialization.
1680058497791.png
 
I found a switch in the early versions - see below.

Note that because XUB version V1.1.5 is very early (like the Hargle BIOS), there is no support for 'hi-speed' mode, something that your card will require in order to communicate with the IDE device. But you could use the switch to see if the 'no banner text displayed' problem is due to late initialization.
View attachment 1254810
Well, looks like your hunch was correct. I flashed it with late initialization set to No and now I see the menu after the VGA card's BIOS loads. Also as you predicted, that is where it stops.
I have the new caps coming for the 8450XT tomorrow, but if it's dead...

Do I need to buy a Rev4 XTide card or can this late initialization switch be pulled into the universal BIOS?

1680135730186.png
 
Do I need to buy a Rev4 XTide card or can this late initialization switch be pulled into the universal BIOS?
Late initialization is described in XUB version v1.1.5 at [here].
Late initialization is described by Krille in post #15 at [here].

I notice that in the LX CD thread that was referred to in post #5, that the OP tried various ROM addresses, such as D0000 and CA000.

So, for the Headstart LX CD, maybe the answer is the "very late initialization" that Krille mentioned?
Maybe that is something that can be turned on in a custom build of the latest version of XUB.
I have never done a custom build of the XUB, and so we need someone else to answer.
 
So, for the Headstart LX CD, maybe the answer is the "very late initialization" that Krille mentioned?
Maybe that is something that can be turned on in a custom build of the latest version of XUB.
I have never done a custom build of the XUB, and so we need someone else to answer.
'MODULE_VERY_LATE_INIT' is not included in the 'Official' builds of the XUB, So Yes a custom build will be required.

See https://xtideuniversalbios.org/

Different builds​


XTIDE Universal BIOS is modular and has many optional features. It is not possible to include all features in the Small (8 kiB) builds. Officially released builds include the modules that benefits most people. You can quite easily make your own custom build from source to include only the features you need if you are not satisfied with the official builds.


See the build instructions for module descriptions and how to create custom builds.
 
Back
Top