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XT-IDE No Longer Working!

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fsmith2003

Experienced Member
Joined
Nov 2, 2016
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72
Location
Illinois
I may have destroyed my XT-IDE Rev 3! I was just messing around with it and put it in a newer Socket 4 motherboard to see what would happen. Well nothing booted up. Now that I have placed it back in my Tandy 1000 it no longer truns on or does anything at all. Did I fry the board? Is there anything I can do to get it going again?
 
fsmith2003 said:
I may have destroyed my XT-IDE Rev 3! I was just messing around with it and put it in a newer Socket 4 motherboard to see what would happen. Well nothing booted up. Now that I have placed it back in my Tandy 1000 it no longer truns on or does anything at all. Did I fry the board? Is there anything I can do to get it going again?
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Did it work OK in your Tandy just before you tried it in the Socket 4 board?

If it hasn't been successfully used recently you can't really say that the Socket 4 board was the culprit because it might have already been dead before you removed it from the Tandy.
 
Stone said:
Did it work OK in your Tandy just before you tried it in the Socket 4 board?

If it hasn't been successfully used recently you can't really say that the Socket 4 board was the culprit because it might have already been dead before you removed it from the Tandy.
Click to expand...

Yes I have been using it in the Tandy for about a year with no problems.
 
If this is the original XT-IDE board, re-socket the ICs and check the solder side for cold-solder joints. For some reason, this was a problem with the original run of boards. Remember that the board is not so much of a controller (with any intelligence), but simply an adapter between buses. If you've got a logic probe, see if the on-board BIOS actually gets selected.
 
Chuck(G) said:
If this is the original XT-IDE board, re-socket the ICs and check the solder side for cold-solder joints. For some reason, this was a problem with the original run of boards. Remember that the board is not so much of a controller (with any intelligence), but simply an adapter between buses. If you've got a logic probe, see if the on-board BIOS actually gets selected.
Click to expand...

It’s a rev 3 board. I will look into the solder but at a glance it all looks good.
 
1. Did a jumper come loose or a switch get changed?
2. What kind of drive is plugged in.
3. Is it plugged in backwards?
4. Does it(the drive) have power?
 
ibmapc said:
1. Did a jumper come loose or a switch get changed?
2. What kind of drive is plugged in.
3. Is it plugged in backwards?
4. Does it(the drive) have power?
Click to expand...

I've been using one of those SD-IDE adapters. Ive tried with and without it connected. It is plugged in the correct way and yes it has power. It went from working as of a few days ago to not at all now. I've not made any changes to jumpers. Simply took out of Tandy and placed into the Pentium board then switched back after it did not work in the Pentium board. Now does not work in Tandy. I noticed if i do not supply power to the hard drive the white LED will blink repeatedly on the XT-IDE device. But the XT-IDE menu will still not pull up on the screen.
 
I'd recommend double checking any configuration switches or jumpers, quite possible you accidentally bumped/flipped one when moving between machines.
That just seems like the most likely reason for the Tandy not to see it anymore (to me anyway).
 
Stone said:
.
Sorry, but you can't have it both ways! :)
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You have apparently misunderstood me. When I say I hadn’t had anything to do with it I was referring to flashing the bios. I’ve not messed with anything other than just turning it on and it working for the entirety of using it since the beginning.
 
Well, regardless of whether or not an IDE drive is plugged into the XTIDE, you should still be able to spot the BIOS using DEBUG.

If you don't see it at the configured address, there aren't too many things that can go wrong, namely:

1. A bad BIOS ROM (you didn't happen to plug it in "upside down" did you? If so, it's toast).
2. Misconfiguration of the adapter address (bad DIP switch/jumper) or bad 74LS688
3. Bad bus transceiver 74LS245
4. Open connection on board

The thing isn't complicated or even fussy. I built the original using whatever I had in my hellbox, including some 74HC logic that shouldn't have worked, but did.
 
Chuck(G) said:
Well, regardless of whether or not an IDE drive is plugged into the XTIDE, you should still be able to spot the BIOS using DEBUG.

If you don't see it at the configured address, there aren't too many things that can go wrong, namely:

1. A bad BIOS ROM (you didn't happen to plug it in "upside down" did you? If so, it's toast).
2. Misconfiguration of the adapter address (bad DIP switch/jumper) or bad 74LS688
3. Bad bus transceiver 74LS245
4. Open connection on board

The thing isn't complicated or even fussy. I built the original using whatever I had in my hellbox, including some 74HC logic that shouldn't have worked, but did.
Click to expand...

Crap! I think your right. I didn’t even think about it at the time but I plugged it in to a motherboard on a test bench and without even thinking I probably plugged it in with the ide port facing the back of the motherboard. In fact I am sure of it. Well at least now I know. So is this fixable at all or is it time to buy a whole new one?
 
Depends on your soldering (and unsoldering skills). The ICs themselves are only a few bucks' worth--and I'd follow my usual bent and install sockets. The passive components are probably still okay.

I trust that you didn't bork the Tandy 1K...
 
Chuck(G) said:
Depends on your soldering (and unsoldering skills). The ICs themselves are only a few bucks' worth--and I'd follow my usual bent and install sockets. The passive components are probably still okay.

I trust that you didn't bork the Tandy 1K...
Click to expand...

It was plugged into the Tandy the right way. It boots up just to the built in bios of the Tandy. Is there a chance using this bad xt-ide would have damaged the Tandy now?

Also it appears as though my AT28c256 is socketed. So would I just be able to get that replaced?
 
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