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PS/2 Model 25 + XTIDE Headaches.

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zombienerd

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I've been working with Glitch over PM's for a few days trying to get the XT-IDE Rev 3 board working in my PS/2 Model 25-004.

I built the board, installed a Transcend 256mb DOM, loaded Bios 1.15, in compatibility mode (no chuck mod), but the damn thing refuses to boot on the PS/2.

It works flawlessly in my Packard Bell 300sx 386 machine, no matter what IO and ROM addresses I use, it has booted every time.

So far on the PS/2, I've tried 280h, 300h, and 320h for the first IDE parameter, as well as C8000, D0000, and D8000 ROM addresses. I've tried 308h, 380h, 400h, and 420h for the second IDE parameter.

On the PS/2, when I select the drive from the XT-IDE menu, it shows that it finds the boot sector, but then just sits on a blinking cursor. I've let it wait 5 minutes on each config test. CTRL+ALT+DEL does not respond, I have to use the power switch to restart.

I have no other expansion cards in the PS/2. Single floppy installed. No other HDD.

If anyone has a working config in their Model 25 or Model 30, I'd appreciate if you could pass along what settings worked for you. If you suspect there may be a hardware issue with my PS/2, please let me know where you think I should look...

I should note that my current floppy drive doesn't work properly, but I have a new one arriving in a few days. I haven't been able to see if I can access the disk by booting from floppy for this reason.
 
zombienerd said:
I've been working with Glitch over PM's for a few days trying to get the XT-IDE Rev 3 board working in my PS/2 Model 25-004.

I built the board, installed a Transcend 256mb DOM, loaded Bios 1.15, in compatibility mode (no chuck mod), but the damn thing refuses to boot on the PS/2.

It works flawlessly in my Packard Bell 300sx 386 machine, no matter what IO and ROM addresses I use, it has booted every time.

So far on the PS/2, I've tried 280h, 300h, and 320h for the first IDE parameter, as well as C8000, D0000, and D8000 ROM addresses. I've tried 308h, 380h, 400h, and 420h for the second IDE parameter.

On the PS/2, when I select the drive from the XT-IDE menu, it shows that it finds the boot sector, but then just sits on a blinking cursor. I've let it wait 5 minutes on each config test. CTRL+ALT+DEL does not respond, I have to use the power switch to restart.

I have no other expansion cards in the PS/2. Single floppy installed. No other HDD.

If anyone has a working config in their Model 25 or Model 30, I'd appreciate if you could pass along what settings worked for you. If you suspect there may be a hardware issue with my PS/2, please let me know where you think I should look...

I should note that my current floppy drive doesn't work properly, but I have a new one arriving in a few days. I haven't been able to see if I can access the disk by booting from floppy for this reason.
Click to expand...

I have a rev2 (prototype), will that help?
 
zombienerd said:
What XT-IDE bios version do you run, what settings (I/O, Bios Addr) do you use? Did you use Block mode? Chuck Mod?
Click to expand...

I used chuck mod.. I'll get a screenshot in a bit when I can get in my office.

This is from a video I had on YouTube but it shows my jumper settings on the rev 2 prototype, perhaps you guys can deduce the hardware settings.

http://i.imgur.com/YUm7Uoo.jpg

BIOS is the latest XT-universal BIOS. R591 is it? I keep forgetting the numbers, but it is the latest.
 
zombienerd said:
Ok, so default address of 300h and 308h. I'll give that version a shot here in a bit.
Click to expand...

Just make sure you get the right .bin file for your CPU. There's I think two versions, XT and XTP. XT for the stock 8086, and XTP for the V30 if you have it installed. I have a V30 and I use XTP with that. With the 8086 I have to use XT, but they both work just as well with the same settings.
 
evildragon said:
Just make sure you get the right .bin file for your CPU.
Click to expand...

If he was using the NEC V30/80186/80286 etc. version on the 8086, he likely wouldn't get to the boot screen. It feels like its working but then hanging on boot. My guess is chuck mod or 16-bit transfers.

Go for the lowest common denominator (8086 instructions only, no chuck mod, 8-bit transfers) and see if that works.
 
Hmm, I wasn't sure if the boot menu was specifically compiled also for 186 stuff, or if it was just the actually data transfers itself.
 
Last night, I tried updating to the latest XT-IDE Bios. From that point on, the card wouldn't detect my DOM, even when I regressed to 1.15. I'm still playing with it. I think I might have fudged one of the DIP switches.
 
Yea please double check all dip switches.

I'm honestly just a little concerned about the fact that you've had so many floppy drive problems with this machine, and now also XT-IDE..

This might be the old school me kicking in, but have you checked voltages on your power supply? Just to ensure everything is on the up and up? I'm tempted to have you start with the basics right now.
 
evildragon said:
This might be the old school me kicking in, but have you checked voltages on your power supply? Just to ensure everything is on the up and up? I'm tempted to have you start with the basics right now.
Click to expand...

Solid advice. Many people are using XT-IDEs in their PS/2 Model 25 and Model 30 machines, and have been since the rev 1 days. The fact that it works fine in the Packard Bell made me think it could be an issue with the PS/2 itself.
 
So, now that I have a functioning floppy drive to boot from, I reset all default addresses, re-flashed the original 1.15, and re-installed the card.

Booted from Dos 5.0 on floppy, I can access the DOM as C: and can read, write, copy, and everything checks out as far as functionality goes.

The thing just doesn't want to boot from it, even though it sees the boot sector. It boots fine as-is on two other machines, so I know the MBR is good.

Things I plan to try later tonight / tomorrow:

Boot from 6.22 and run scandisk to look for any 'glitches'
Install a different DOM, just to rule that out.
 
I actually have a CF card that would not boot in a machine with the XUB on it. Not for love or money could I get it to do so. But another CF card I had worked perfectly. So there is a good chance it's your CF card IMO.

I'd also try a spindle drive with DOS on it and see if that boots.
 
lutiana said:
I actually have a CF card that would not boot in a machine with the XUB on it. Not for love or money could I get it to do so. But another CF card I had worked perfectly. So there is a good chance it's your CF card IMO.

I'd also try a spindle drive with DOS on it and see if that boots.
Click to expand...

Using IDE DOM's not Compact Flash. One is a 256mb Transcend (The drive I've been using so far) the other is a generic industrial 2gb DOM.

Can't use a spindle drive without hooking up an external power supply (which I'd have to 'borrow' from another machine, lol), or splicing into the wires to the motherboard to add a molex to the PS/2
 
Trixter said:
Did you perform an fdisk /mbr and complete repartition while it was connected to the system it won't boot from?
Click to expand...

No, I haven't. But being that it's the XT-IDE bios doing the magic, could that help?

I suppose it doesn't hurt to try, right? I'll give that a shot.
 
zombienerd said:
No, I haven't. But being that it's the XT-IDE bios doing the magic, could that help?

I suppose it doesn't hurt to try, right? I'll give that a shot.
Click to expand...

That will absolutely make a difference -- especially on old machines, there's no guarantee that the translation will be the same from one IDE controller to the next. If you plugged the XT-IDE into another machine and did the FDISK and FORMAT with the DOM in the XT-IDE, then it should be fine, but if you plugged the DOM into something else, then your symptoms are fairly normal.

Even between different versions of the XUB, you'll find that the translation will be slightly different and cards that boot under one version, won't on another, until you FDISK and FORMAT under the version you're trying to use it with.

Just to be double sure, you might run WIPEDISK, then FDISK, then FORMAT.
 
glitch said:
That will absolutely make a difference -- especially on old machines, there's no guarantee that the translation will be the same from one IDE controller to the next. If you plugged the XT-IDE into another machine and did the FDISK and FORMAT with the DOM in the XT-IDE, then it should be fine, but if you plugged the DOM into something else, then your symptoms are fairly normal.

Even between different versions of the XUB, you'll find that the translation will be slightly different and cards that boot under one version, won't on another, until you FDISK and FORMAT under the version you're trying to use it with.

Just to be double sure, you might run WIPEDISK, then FDISK, then FORMAT.
Click to expand...

The DOM was fdisk'd, formatted, and run all from the XT-IDE, I've never plugged it into anything else.

However, I'm going to do the full reload from the PS/2 now that I can, and we'll see what happens.
 
Well, fdisk + format from the PS/2 did it. Booting just fine now ;)

Guess all I needed from the beginning was a working Floppy drive lol.
 
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