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IBM PS2 Model 30 - 8086 - XT-CF-lite boot issues.

J

jdredd

Member
Joined
Aug 3, 2023
Messages
36
Greetings.

I have A two IBM Model 30 systems.

Both have NEC V30 CPU upgrade,8900D video card, CH375 ISA>USB Card and the GoTek Flash Floppy setup.

I have the PS2XT2SD in one system for weeks which has worked great.

I have another one coming but for now was going to try the preassembled XT-CF-lite from Lo-Tech to get this 2nd system going. Purchased via texelec.com

XT-CF-lite rev.2 - Lo-tech Wiki

www.lo-tech.co.uk www.lo-tech.co.uk

I put in A "new old stock" 8gb CF card which seems to detect.

Model # shows up TS8GCF133

I can boot off the GoTek and FDISK and Format /S the drive. This is MS-DOS 6.22 that is booted up.

I created for now A 117mb partition to begin with. ( I have tried others since )

Using the WIPEDISK utility first @ https://www.lo-tech.co.uk/wiki/WipeDisk

FDISK goes fine. Set active parition.

Format C: /S goes fine.

As long as I boot from Floppy , I can view files on C: drive... Add/remove/edit/ect

When it goes to boot tho, it gets stuck on

Starting MS-DOS....

Sometimes it is

FStarting MS-DOS....

Tried a few other cards, but all the same make/model... been sitting on them for A decade. New in box kinda stuff I got for free.

Tried this in BOTH systems, and same issues.

I assume probably something silly but looking for ideas.
 

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jdredd said:
I assume probably something silly but looking for ideas.
Click to expand...

Experiment: Revert to an 8086 CPU.

Experiment: Remove as many ISA cards as possible, in case of some form of interference.

Experiment: Does the XT-CF-lite boot in a different computer ? (I.e. Not one of your model 30's.)

jdredd said:
As long as I boot from Floppy , I can view files on C: drive... Add/remove/edit/ect
Click to expand...
So we would expect that use of the mediatest option of James Pearce's DiskTest utility (see [here]) would not show a problem.
 
modem7 said:
Experiment: Revert to an 8086 CPU.

Experiment: Remove as many ISA cards as possible, in case of some form of interference.

Experiment: Does the XT-CF-lite boot in a different computer ? (I.e. Not one of your model 30's.)


So we would expect that use of the mediatest option of James Pearce's DiskTest utility (see [here]) would not show a problem.
Click to expand...

Original 8086 CPU back in.

No other ISA cards installed

Changed around the jumpers on the XT-CF-Lite acrd...

Same issue. Sticks after the Starting MS-DOS message.

I will see about running DiskTest and see if anything happens.
 
Disktest freezes up system. Don't see any output from it at all.
Hard drive test in CheckIt .. freezes also. On both systems.

I guess just don't work in Model 30 systems? or something odd going on...
 
Sounds like an issue with your dos install.
Have you tried an fdisk /mbr
I would try a complete format on a modern pc and then reinstall.
 
Conventional Memories said:
Sounds like an issue with your dos install.
Have you tried an fdisk /mbr
I would try a complete format on a modern pc and then reinstall.
Click to expand...
Yes, done FDISK /MBR

Just odd that it gets to point it tries to boot.. it knows its MS-DOS.. and its "Trying" ...
 
Try a smaller CF card 2Gb or less if you have one, Wipe the whole cf card clean first and set it up in your model 30, eg: FDISK / Format and install DOS, It could be the CF card you are using is too large and or there is garbage on the CF card.
 
Malc said:
Try a smaller CF card 2Gb or less if you have one, Wipe the whole cf card clean first and set it up in your model 30, eg: FDISK / Format and install DOS, It could be the CF card you are using is too large and or there is garbage on the CF card.
Click to expand...
I was hoping to do just that tonight.... I have A 1GB CF flash card from like 20yrs ago.... from my first digital camera. But finding it is being problematic.
 
Kinda works.... used Oracle Virtual Box to stage it up.. which made it 2gb in size.... ugh

Boots now... but when i try to create a folder or copy a file to it... freezes :(
Going through process and make it much much smaller drive size.
 

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Smaller 115mb partition did not do much difference.

Still freezes eventually. Can sometimes add/delete files.. run chkdsk.... but sometimes not.. and freezes.

On either system.

Only other thing I can think of is getting another CF as mentioned... sadly only have a few of these 8gb cards taking up space...
 
Ok maybe things better now.

I looked for the 100th time and finally... found the 512mb and A 1GB CF card from 20 years ago... found in basement in a box of crud thats been sitting for 5 years since I moved here...

Using the 512mb CF card now.

It has been running off the booted C drive for 20 minutes doing stuff and no freezing!

Scandisk been running and no freezing.

So not sure why the 8gb card wasn't happy... it saw it ... detected model... i could fdisk it, format it, sometimes boot it? bt in the end would freeze.

So will continue to run tests!

Disktest runs too!

If only found those old cards earlier... would have saved me a lot of time :)
 

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Last edited:
jdredd said:
So not sure why the 8gb card wasn't happy... it saw it ... detected model... i could fdisk it, format it, sometimes boot it? bt in the end would freeze.
Click to expand...
Too big, Creating small partitions on the 8Gb CF often makes no difference, It's still an 8Gb CF card, We have seen this before with some computers, Using a smaller CF card 2Gb or even a 4Gb can often fix the problem.
Completely wiping ( Zero out ) the whole of the CF card should erase any garbage that maybe left on the card. Does your 8Gb CF cards work in anything else.
Or just maybe incompatible CF cards.

Also run MediaTest on the booting cf card.
 
Malc said:
Too big, Creating small partitions on the 8Gb CF often makes no difference, It's still an 8Gb CF card, We have seen this before with some computers, Using a smaller CF card 2Gb or even a 4Gb can often fix the problem.
Completely wiping ( Zero out ) the whole of the CF card should erase any garbage that maybe left on the card. Does your 8Gb CF cards work in anything else.
Or just maybe incompatible CF cards.

Also run MediaTest on the booting cf card.
Click to expand...

Thats about the only thing I can think of too I guess... Stinks cause I got so many of these 8gb cards never opened/used sitting in a box for the past decade.

They work in modern computers... The two Model 30's are my only retro systems.

I'll run MediaTest tonight.... I did make a batch file to run DiskTest in a never ending loop... last I checked was still running.

So that is good news.
 
So far so good!

Some test values... All 3 are in the system.

ISA>USB - CH375 / FreddyV Drivers ( 1gb USB thumb drive )
Write Speed : 240.98 KB/s
Read Speed : 282.49 KB/s
8k Random, 70% read : 12.7 IOPS
Sector Random read : 21.2 IOPS

---------------------------------

PS2XT2SD ( 32gb microSD card )
Write Speed : 138.33 KB/s
Read Speed : 248.69 KB/s
8k Random, 70% read : 7.2 IOPS
Sector Random read : 9.7 IOPS

---------------------------------

Lo-tech XT-CF-lite rev.2 ( 512mb CF card )
Write Speed : 166.44 KB/s
Read Speed : 181.08 KB/s
8k Random, 70% read : 13.8 IOPS
Sector Random read : 32.4 IOPS
 
I think this is related to DOS 6.22 and DRVSPACE.BIN. I don't know why that is being installed by default but it can't be there from what I can tell.
 
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