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IBM AT 5170 with battery corrosion (advice needed!)

maxtherabbit said:
you're getting 8-bit performance on a 16-bit machine, basically halving your throughput

you'd be better served with any standard generic 16-bit IDE card connected to one of the myriad chinese 40-pin IDC to CF adapters and the XUB burned to a ROM socketed on the mainboard if needed
Click to expand...

OK, fair enough. I do actually have these parts, on hand.

- I'm able to boot to the 3.5 A: but still no signs of life from the floppy. I've configured the bios to read drive 1 / 2 as 3.5/5.25 but when I switch to B: it goes straight to Abort/Fail/Retry, no lights, no movement, no nothing.

- Not sure how to get this to boot from or recognize the C: / CF card ... do I have to configure a CF card in the bios with cylinders and heads and all that info? This card booted on the XT-IDE but I'm assuming because that has it's own bios.

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Again, thank you all for your time, help and advice!
 
You need to burn the XTIDE option ROM to a chip and stick it in either the spare rom slot on the motherboard or a network card or something. Make sure to use the XUB configuration utility to set the ROM to use a standard 16bit controller before you burn it.
 
phonophan said:
Are you saying take the rom chip out of this and put it in my 5170 motherboard?
Click to expand...
No, That won't work, You need to use both U17 and U37 Rom sockets in your 5170 Motherboard, See http://minuszerodegrees.net/5170/motherboard/5170_motherboard_sockets_u17_U37.htm for info.

Basically you configure the XUB binary using XTIDECFG.COM first, Then you pad out the binary to 64k, Then use the OddEven utility to split the XUB binary into 2 x 32k binaries, Odd bytes in one and Even bytes in the other, Burn the odd bytes into a compatible 27256 or 27C256 Eprom and fit the Eprom into U37 and do the same for the Even bytes and fit in U17. If done properly it should work.
 
Malc said:
No, That won't work, You need to use both U17 and U37 Rom sockets in your 5170 Motherboard, See http://minuszerodegrees.net/5170/motherboard/5170_motherboard_sockets_u17_U37.htm for info.

Basically you configure the XUB binary using XTIDECFG.COM first, Then you pad out the binary to 64k, Then use the OddEven utility to split the XUB binary into 2 x 32k binaries, Odd bytes in one and Even bytes in the other, Burn the odd bytes into a compatible 27256 or 27C256 Eprom and fit the Eprom into U37 and do the same for the Even bytes and fit in U17. If done properly it should work.
Click to expand...

This is pretty cool. I think 8-bit ROMs in two sockets probably works faster then one 8-bit ROM in network card socket.

I have a question: if you replace IBM ROMs with AMI/AWARD/Phoenix/Quadtel, will you be able to put multiple ROMs consecutively without messing with return point jumping? I.e. will AMI etc. detect multiple ROMs in E000-EFFF?
 
dhau said:
This is pretty cool. I think 8-bit ROMs in two sockets probably works faster then one 8-bit ROM in network card socket.

I have a question: if you replace IBM ROMs with AMI/AWARD/Phoenix/Quadtel, will you be able to put multiple ROMs consecutively without messing with return point jumping? I.e. will AMI etc. detect multiple ROMs in E000-EFFF?
Click to expand...

Dunno never tried it, I use the AMI bios in my 5170 and never needed to put more than the XUB in Rom sockets U17 and U37
 
Malc said:
Basically you configure the XUB binary using XTIDECFG.COM first, Then you pad out the binary to 64k, Then use the OddEven utility to split the XUB binary into 2 x 32k binaries, Odd bytes in one and Even bytes in the other, Burn the odd bytes into a compatible 27256 or 27C256 Eprom and fit the Eprom into U37 and do the same for the Even bytes and fit in U17. If done properly it should work.
Click to expand...

:confused7: that's wayyy over my head. I may have to just go with the 8bit controller if I can't get a 16bit controller to work without having to burn ROM chips.
 
phonophan said:
:confused7: that's wayyy over my head. I may have to just go with the 8bit controller if I can't get a 16bit controller to work without having to burn ROM chips.
Click to expand...

It's not too difficult but you do need to burn new Eproms if you want to use the U17 / U37 sockets on the 5170 mobo, Or get someone to burn the Eproms for you if you don't have a programmer. I personally would not use an 8-bit XT-IDE card in a 16-bit AT because it's going to be slower than using a 16-bit IDE / Floppy controller.
 
Malc said:
Basically you configure the XUB binary using XTIDECFG.COM first, Then you pad out the binary to 64k, Then use the OddEven utility to split the XUB binary into 2 x 32k binaries, Odd bytes in one and Even bytes in the other, Burn the odd bytes into a compatible 27256 or 27C256 Eprom and fit the Eprom into U37 and do the same for the Even bytes and fit in U17. If done properly it should work.
Click to expand...

I appreciate all the help... do you do this? ...or could anyone refer me to anyone who would possibly be able to do this?
 
Giving it a go with another 16-bit controller card.

Can anyone advice on the jumper settings for the 5170? If not I guess i'm still SOL on the bios issue.

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phonophan said:
Giving it a go with another 16-bit controller card.
Can anyone advice on the jumper settings ...
Click to expand...
I think that 'jumper to the left' is perhaps the default setting for all six jumpers.

JP1: Maybe this relates to pin 34 on the floppy interface: 'disk change' or 'ready'.
JP2: ???
JP3: ???
JP4: The '3F0-3F7' setting is what is required (floppy controller portion at 'primary' range of I/O addresses). See note 1 below.
JP5: The 'NORMAL' setting.
JP6: The '1F0-1F7' setting is what is required (HDD controller portion at 'primary' range of I/O addresses).

NOTE 1: For the IBM motherboard BIOS, be aware of the 'Known problem - POST error of 601' section at the bottom of [here].
 
phonophan said:
Giving it a go with another 16-bit controller card.

Can anyone advice on the jumper settings for the 5170? If not I guess i'm still SOL on the bios issue
Click to expand...
I have similar cards, JP 2 enable / disable the IDE circuit, JP 3 enable / disable the FDD circuit.

A while ago i was messing around with my Type 1 5170 mobo with 256k memory on the bench, I replaced the IBM Bios with the AMI Bios, I had my 8-Bit XT-IDE R4 card fitted with CF and XUB R602, I ran a speed test and the results were pretty dismal which was not unexpected, I then removed the XT-IDE card and dug out a 16-Bit IDE / Floppy controller and 3 old IDE hard drives, A 42Mb Seagate, A 85Mb Conner and a 170Mb Conner, With the 16-Bit IDE / Floppy controller fitted i setup and tested each of the 3 IDE drives which worked fine and i ran the same speed test on each drive, The results were so much better a bit more than double compared to the 8-Bit XT-IDE, I also tried to get a 128Mb CF card with adapter connected to the 16-Bit controller working ( No XUB ) but failed miserably, No matter how i set it up in the AMI BIOS i could not get it to work at all. IIRC i got an error "Controller failure" every time. I did not try any larger spinning hard drives.

If you can lay your hands on any smallish IDE hard drives give them a try, If not it'll probably be cheaper to get a couple of Eproms programmed with the XUB and use larger drives.
 
RAM question regarding the 5170.

Booting it empty, RAM test will read 512K.

Pop this card in:



...and the RAM test reads 640K.



Does that mean this Tophat card only has 128K bringing 512 + 128 = 640? Or is this a 640K card? If it's a 640K card, what happened to the original 512k?

What is the max RAM for a 5170?

Sorry if these are rookie questions, appreciate the time and help!
 
phonophan said:
If I'm just browsing memory expansion cards... how do I differentiate between conventional vs extended memory?
Click to expand...

I'm not sure I understand the question. Most more sophisticated RAM boards can offer both (and often also expanded) in a configurable fashion.
 
maxtherabbit said:
I'm not sure I understand the question. Most more sophisticated RAM boards can offer both (and often also expanded) in a configurable fashion.
Click to expand...

I guess I am curious as to why the Tophat 128k is displayed as conventional and not extended. Is 640k the base for XT/AT and anything beyond 640k will appear as extended?

Would this card work as just a 16-bit card? I don't know what that third/rear slot is.

 
phonophan said:
I guess I am curious as to why the Tophat 128k is displayed as conventional and not extended. Is 640k the base for XT/AT and anything beyond 640k will appear as extended?

Would this card work as just a 16-bit card? I don't know what that third/rear slot is.

Click to expand...

Yup, sorry for asking questions that have been explained. Thank you for your patience. Would the card in the picture above (the AST fast ram) be viable for use in my 5170? What is the rear/third slot?
 
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