• Please review our updated Terms and Rules here

IBM PC/AT Compact Flash Issues

R

RHopple

Experienced Member
Joined
Nov 30, 2017
Messages
55
Hello all, after seeing the wonders of replacing hard drives with compact flash cards, I decided to try it for myself.

Recently, My lovely PC/AT had a hard drive crash, so this is the perfect time to try it out! I installed a brand new 16-bit IDE adapter with floppy controller and (from what I've seen) a good quality IDE-CF card adapter with a 4GB CF card. I set the BIOS hard drive type to 4, which will allow a ~62 MB partition to be formed. However, the problem I am having is getting the computer to boot with the adapter set to master. It gives a "107 System Board Failure" message with the card jumped to master, but boots normally when the card is configured as slave. In the latter configuration, I am able to partition and format the CF card, and even copy files to it, but I cannot run applications directly from the card. I can even see files that I have transferred from my modern machine on the card inside of DOS. The trouble must be originating with the slave configuration, but there is no way the computer will boot with the card set to master. I have also tried two other CF card adapters and four different CF cards, with the exact same result with any combination of adapter and drive.

Any suggestions on how to make this thing work?
 
KenEG said:
Fdisk /mbr on the drive and then set it back to master. CF cards are notorious for needing this done before they will boot.
Click to expand...

I have read about this and can see how this would work to make the card bootable into DOS. However, the card completely freezes the system on startup which seems like more serious issue than an invalid MBR. I have a Gotek floppy emulator coming in the mail and will try the method when the drive arrives.
 
Is that a 5170 BIOS you're working with?

Are you using a controller with a BIOS on it?

If not, I don't think any standard controller can use a 4GB drive with a 5170 BIOS without some sort of outside help.

You could try a DDO like Disk Manager or EZ-Drive and if that is successful you'll have your answer.

FWIW, 4GB is way too big for a 5170. If you were to try a drive or card < 528 it just might work right outta' da' box, with no DDO.
 
Stone said:
Is that a 5170 BIOS you're working with?

Are you using a controller with a BIOS on it?

If not, I don't think any standard controller can use a 4GB drive with a 5170 BIOS without some sort of outside help.

You could try a DDO like Disk Manager or EZ-Drive and if that is successful you'll have your answer.

FWIW, 4GB is way too big for a 5170. If you were to try a drive or card < 528 it just might work right outta' da' box, with no DDO.
Click to expand...

It’s an original, 3rd revision BIOS I’m using.

Yeah, 4Gb is a little excessive, but the other drives were 32 and 64MB and some others like that. I’ll give EZ-Drive a shot
 
I have done this with somewhat newer systems. I did learn that the CF drive has to be physically less than or equal to the limits for the BIOS. I found that 512MB was the largest my oldest system could handle. With a larger card, even partitioned to be smaller, the system would lock up during boot with the CF set as master.
 
lafos said:
I have done this with somewhat newer systems. I did learn that the CF drive has to be physically less than or equal to the limits for the BIOS. I found that 512MB was the largest my oldest system could handle. With a larger card, even partitioned to be smaller, the system would lock up during boot with the CF set as master.
Click to expand...

I thought that would work also, but the computer has the same problem with any size card, with ones I've tested ranging from 32MB to 128MB to the 4GB–same problem.
 
I don't like CF cards as they tend to be a PITA way too often. They really don't mimic HDs all that well.

OTOH, DOMs seem to work nearly identically and reliably (software wise) to HDs which is why I use them exclusively with excellent results and virtually no issues.
 
For what it's worth I used an Adaptec 1542 and SCSI2SD in my 5170. The SCSI bios completely takes early IDE drive size limitations off the table.
 
Krille said:
Replace the system BIOS with one of the non-IBM alternatives from here. Then install the latest version of XTIDE Universal BIOS from here.
Click to expand...

I’ll give that a shot sometime.

KenEG said:
Fdisk /mbr on the drive and then set it back to master. CF cards are notorious for needing this done before they will boot.
Click to expand...

I just tried this with no new results. All compact flash cards of any size cause a “107 System Board Failure” error.
 
Krille said:
Replace the system BIOS with one of the non-IBM alternatives from here. Then install the latest version of XTIDE Universal BIOS from here.
Click to expand...

100% do this.

I held out for ages trying to get CF cards to work properly with a variety of systems (286's to late 486's). I then started using the XT-IDE bios and have had zero problems at all.
 
How do I add the XT-IDE BIOS? Is it programmed into another ROM in an empty chip on the mobo? I have a EEPROM programmer and some good chips, so I’ll give it a shot this weekend.
 
RHopple said:
How do I add the XT-IDE BIOS? Is it programmed into another ROM in an empty chip on the mobo? I have a EEPROM programmer and some good chips, so I’ll give it a shot this weekend.
Click to expand...

Yep, You can use U17 and U37 on the mobo if empty, See: http://minuszerodegrees.net/5170/motherboard/5170_motherboard_sockets_u17_U37.htm
Or a Boot rom socket on a NIC card or a ROM board or if your IDE/Floppy controller has it's own socketed bios, pull the bios rom and burn a new eprom with the XUB and use that in the IDE/Floppy controller. You'd likely have to replace the original IBM system bios with one of the non-IBM alternatives as Krille said and set Hard drives to NONE <Zero> in the system bios setup, This will give the XUB control of the hard drive.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top