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Mid Atlantic IBM Expanded Memory Card Driver

Covers: New York, Pensylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Virginia, Maryland and Washington DC.

lyonadmiral

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Jun 3, 2009
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Peru, New York
I picked up the IBM 2 meg expanded memory card; has a parallel port with it, but no driver came with the box or documentation, and I'm wondering did the card come without a driver, and if it didn't, what software might have used the card natively, and if it did have a driver or a compatible 3rd party driver, what driver could I use or where could I find it?

Thanks,
Daniel
 
I don't know of that card.

If I do an internet search using 'IBM 2MB expanded memory card', there are no hits.

How do you know that it is an IBM made/provided card?
How do you know that it provides expanded memory (noting that 'expanded' and 'expansion' are different things)?
 
I don't know of that card.

If I do an internet search using 'IBM 2MB expanded memory card', there are no hits.

How do you know that it is an IBM made/provided card?
How do you know that it provides expanded memory (noting that 'expanded' and 'expansion' are different things)?
Because the box it came in and manual that came with it say so. The manual only provides information on how to install it into a 5160, 5170, 8530, and 3270 PC and setting backfill for base memory in each system. There was an updated version of standard IBM diagnostics but no driver disk also included with the box.

1661392538420.jpeg
 
Because the box it came in and manual that came with it say so
Excellent. So technically, the 'IBM 2MB Expanded Memory Adapter'.

Is it possible for you to scan the manual? Because I would like to add the document and photo to the relevant 'Some IBM Expansion Cards and Options' sections of minuszerodegrees.net
 
"IBM also had their own expanded memory specification, which they called the Expanded Memory Adapter (XMA). They used expansion boards that could be addressed by either an expanded memory model or extended memory. These boards did not work with EMS out of the box and the IBM DOS driver used for it was the XMAEM.SYS, but a later driver called XMA2EMS.SYS gave the XMA boards EMS emulation."

XMA2EMS.SYS and XMAEM.SYS were bundled with IBM PC DOS 4.0 and subsequent. Perhaps this might set you on your way...
 
Excellent. So technically, the 'IBM 2MB Expanded Memory Adapter'.

Is it possible for you to scan the manual? Because I would like to add the document and photo to the relevant 'Some IBM Expansion Cards and Options' sections of minuszerodegrees.net
I will attempt to scan and get it to you, please PM me if there is an e-mail address or other method I can use.
 
"IBM also had their own expanded memory specification, which they called the Expanded Memory Adapter (XMA). They used expansion boards that could be addressed by either an expanded memory model or extended memory. These boards did not work with EMS out of the box and the IBM DOS driver used for it was the XMAEM.SYS, but a later driver called XMA2EMS.SYS gave the XMA boards EMS emulation."

XMA2EMS.SYS and XMAEM.SYS were bundled with IBM PC DOS 4.0 and subsequent. Perhaps this might set you on your way...
Chuck, thank you. I have some useful/less trivia for you. I was able to snag some IBM DOS 4 & 5 from Texas. DOS 4 appears to be IBM for IBM release where the DOS 5 appeared to be IBM for other OEM releases. The documentation in both versions mentions XMA2EMS.SYS and XMAEM.ASYS. DOS 4 disks actually include the files, the DOS 5 disks do not.

I've also discovered today during a YouTube livestream (
) is loading the driver with the string it provides in the documentation causes it to report a failure with the adapter; however if I run Advanced Diagnostics for the AT; 2.07 (which is my understanding is the latest/best version) the card shows up in the option list as option 85 2 MB Expanded Memory Adapter, and have it had it on a test loop for quite a while testing memory, it doesn't report any failure whatsoever.

The syntax I'm using to load the driver is DEVICE=\DOS\XMA2EMS.SYS FRAME=D000 P254=C000 P255=C400 /X:64 (manual says X:64 gives me 1 meg of EMS, I tried it with X:64 and X:128 to get full 2 megs) but I get the same adapter failure on boot, so I wonder, is the driver bad or am I using switches for the driver that are not compatible with my machines configuration. I'll keep playing around with it and see what happens.
 
"IBM also had their own expanded memory specification, which they called the Expanded Memory Adapter (XMA). They used expansion boards that could be addressed by either an expanded memory model or extended memory. These boards did not work with EMS out of the box and the IBM DOS driver used for it was the XMAEM.SYS, but a later driver called XMA2EMS.SYS gave the XMA boards EMS emulation."

Oh, that's a shame. That means they're not real EMS boards, and don't support full LIM 4.0 (can't remap 512K instantly, etc.).
 
Chuck, thank you. I have some useful/less trivia for you. I was able to snag some IBM DOS 4 & 5 from Texas. DOS 4 appears to be IBM for IBM release where the DOS 5 appeared to be IBM for other OEM releases. The documentation in both versions mentions XMA2EMS.SYS and XMAEM.ASYS. DOS 4 disks actually include the files, the DOS 5 disks do not.

I've also discovered today during a YouTube livestream (
) is loading the driver with the string it provides in the documentation causes it to report a failure with the adapter; however if I run Advanced Diagnostics for the AT; 2.07 (which is my understanding is the latest/best version) the card shows up in the option list as option 85 2 MB Expanded Memory Adapter, and have it had it on a test loop for quite a while testing memory, it doesn't report any failure whatsoever.

The syntax I'm using to load the driver is DEVICE=\DOS\XMA2EMS.SYS FRAME=D000 P254=C000 P255=C400 /X:64 (manual says X:64 gives me 1 meg of EMS, I tried it with X:64 and X:128 to get full 2 megs) but I get the same adapter failure on boot, so I wonder, is the driver bad or am I using switches for the driver that are not compatible with my machines configuration. I'll keep playing around with it and see what happens.
Try just DEVICE=\DOS\XMA2EMS.SYS FRAME=D000 /X:64. The VGA BIOS is at C000 so you can't have pages there.
 
Try just DEVICE=\DOS\XMA2EMS.SYS FRAME=D000 /X:64. The VGA BIOS is at C000 so you can't have pages there.
I tried that as the only line in config.sys; I even tried just "device=c:\dos\xma2ems.sys (which was supposed to poll the system and it would tell you which frames were available and I would get this:

IMG_3264.JPEG

Boot up Advanced Diagnostics 2.07 for PC AT and here would be the results; passed... so I am at a loss.

 
Yes I did but I went back this afternoon with a clear head and tried those config.sys lines again and did make some progress with this line...

"device=c:\dos\xma2ems.sys p0=d000 p1=d400 p2=d800 p3=dc00"

...and this is the new result, so there is movement, but as you see in the screenshot, it requires user intervention, so now just need to figure out how to fine tune it...

IMG_3267.JPEG
 
Yes I did but I went back this afternoon with a clear head and tried those config.sys lines again and did make some progress with this line...

"device=c:\dos\xma2ems.sys p0=d000 p1=d400 p2=d800 p3=dc00"

...and this is the new result, so there is movement, but as you see in the screenshot, it requires user intervention, so now just need to figure out how to fine tune it...

View attachment 1245436
Well that makes it much more apparent. You have an option ROM installed at D000. It must be moved - a contigous 64kB page frame is required. Can you move whatever ROM that is (XT-IDE? SCSI?) to C800?
 
Well that makes it much more apparent. You have an option ROM installed at D000. It must be moved - a contigous 64kB page frame is required. Can you move whatever ROM that is (XT-IDE? SCSI?) to C800?
I have installed in this PC/AT, a Phoenix VGA card, Intel 8/16 LAN card, 2 AST memory expansion cards, and this expanded memory card. I'm not sure I can move it or how I would.
 
2 AST memory expansion cards

Wait, what? I understand that ATs typically need an expansion to get to 640K or more, as they only have 512K on the motherboard, but what's the second memory expansion? And if you have a second one, why are you trying to add a third?

As for moving the ROM, it's possible you have a ROM on your Intel 8/16 LAN card that can be moved (if it's there and enabled) by running the SOFTSET2 program that comes with it. The VGA ROM should be at either C000 or C800; it would be odd to have it at Dxxx.

I have a ROM dumper here: http://ftp.oldskool.org/pub/misc/Software/Utils/ROM_Dumper/
Try running it and then examining the dumped ROM binary it finds at D000 to see what adapter it belongs to (there's usually a copyright string, like "Phoenix", or "WDC/Western Digital", etc. That can help you identify what card is providing the ROM.
 
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