hargle
Veteran Member
I have a hunch that we're going to have some problems come up that multiple people may stumble over, so we should try and collect up all the problems here in this thread so we can learn from each other.
Please keep this thread clean, with only technical support issues and solutions. We don't need another runaway 100+ page thread.
There really isn't any good documentation yet, so this thread may help with some of that too, until real docs can be added to the wiki.
Build instructions are here:
http://wiki.vintage-computer.com/index.php/XTIDE_build_instructions
Main wiki page, with links to BIOS and other info:
http://www.wiki.vintage-computer.com/index.php/XTIDE_project
Jumpers:
http://i870.photobucket.com/albums/ab264/hargle/jumpers.jpg
You need 3 jumpers for the card to operate correctly. Place them on JP1, JP2 and on the L position of K1. At this time, there is no IRQ support, so you don't need to select any jumpers on the headers labeled "3,4,5,7,2".
JP1 is the ROM enable jumper. If you ever get to a point where you have re-flashed your card and gotten it stuck into a state where the machine will not boot anymore, remove that jumper and it will effectively disable the card. You should then be able to boot to a floppy disk and re-run the flash program. All you need to do is replace that jumper after you have booted (with the machine running)
JP2 is the write enable jumper. Since your card(s) should all have ATMEL BIOS chips on them, they have a software controlled write protect enabled already. You shouldn't have to ever un-write enable (I guess that would be write-protect) your card by removing this jumper. However, if you are totally happy with the BIOS you've got flashed in and don't ever feel the need to upgrade it, pull this jumper off and your ROM image will be protected forever.
K1 (L or H) is a pullup or pulldown for the CS (cable select) signal on the IDE interface. Spec says pull it low, andrew the board design guy had good luck with some drives with it pulled high. Change it only if you are having weird drive issues with master/slave settings.
Cables:
Use an 80-pin IDE cable. You should have no problem finding one, unless you are truly a vintage-only computer geek.
If your 80-pin cable is keyed by having a hole filled in, you may need to snip the corresponding pin off your IDE header, or just bend it out of the way, or perhaps unplug that hole with a pin.
Looking at the back end of the card, the pin to snip is the 11th one in from the left side, bottom row.
http://i870.photobucket.com/albums/ab264/hargle/header.jpg
80-pin cables are actually keyed for master/slave/controller connectors. Since we're not doing super high speed traffic, it is not critical that the controller end of the cable (typically blue in color) is connected to the XTIDE card. We only really want the extra grounding and noise dampening that the additional ground wires are providing.
Dip Switches:
The default settings are: 0111-1011.
http://i870.photobucket.com/albums/ab264/hargle/dips.jpg
Switches 1-4 are the IO address of the card, 5-8 are the memory address. I suggest changing the values from their defaults only if you are having problems with conflicts with other devices in your machine and the other cards cannot be changed. You may change switches 5-8 at any time, to re-locate the card's memory address in case you have a conflict with another option rom, likely another hard drive controller card.
The IO address (switches 1-4) require you to re-flash the BIOS chip on the card if you change the settings. It is very unlikely that you will have a conflict in IO range with other devices in your machine, unless you have an ethernet card in there too. Typically you would be using a different IO range only if you are installing 2 or more XTIDE cards in your machine.
Master/Slave settings.
Check your drive's jumpers and make sure you have the jumpers configured properly for master and slave. You can try using cable select settings, but don't be surprised if it doesn't work.
Try using a fairly modern hard drive. Drives manufactured after 2000 or so tend to be a lot cooler and run quieter than drives from the early-mid 90s. There were also many specification issues that were ironed out with later hard drive models that can cause all kinds of headaches. I have had excellent success with 8-10GB hard drives. DOS 6.2 can see up to 8.4G on this card without the need for any drivers or BIOS overlays. You will be using multiple 2GB partitions to get the entire 8.4GB of storage available.
The XTIDE card is compatible with modern computers. You should be able to take a drive, attach it to a modern computer with an IDE interface on it, and be able to access it exactly the same way as the XTIDE will. I find it very convenient to do all my bulk file copying on a modern machine and then move the drive over to the XT to save time.
Common pitfalls
1) the default IO address for the card may conflict with any ethernet/networking cards your machine may have installed. Remove the ethernet card first, just to make sure the XTIDE is working. In fact, remove all cards that are not required for booting (sound, game, network) just to be safe and add them back in once the XTIDE is known to work.
2) on a 5150 machine, you *must* have a floppy controller installed. You can work around this with a configuration option in the BIOS, but your card's default settings will require a floppy to exist in the machine. Download the BIOS and idecfg.exe utility off the wiki page.
3) If using a CF/SD to IDE adapter, and it fails to boot, the Master Boot Record must be recreated for many CF cards before they can be booted. Most likely the same thing is true for SD cards. Boot to a floppy and type: "FDISK /MBR" and that will likely fix it.
Please keep this thread clean, with only technical support issues and solutions. We don't need another runaway 100+ page thread.
There really isn't any good documentation yet, so this thread may help with some of that too, until real docs can be added to the wiki.
Build instructions are here:
http://wiki.vintage-computer.com/index.php/XTIDE_build_instructions
Main wiki page, with links to BIOS and other info:
http://www.wiki.vintage-computer.com/index.php/XTIDE_project
Jumpers:
http://i870.photobucket.com/albums/ab264/hargle/jumpers.jpg
You need 3 jumpers for the card to operate correctly. Place them on JP1, JP2 and on the L position of K1. At this time, there is no IRQ support, so you don't need to select any jumpers on the headers labeled "3,4,5,7,2".
JP1 is the ROM enable jumper. If you ever get to a point where you have re-flashed your card and gotten it stuck into a state where the machine will not boot anymore, remove that jumper and it will effectively disable the card. You should then be able to boot to a floppy disk and re-run the flash program. All you need to do is replace that jumper after you have booted (with the machine running)
JP2 is the write enable jumper. Since your card(s) should all have ATMEL BIOS chips on them, they have a software controlled write protect enabled already. You shouldn't have to ever un-write enable (I guess that would be write-protect) your card by removing this jumper. However, if you are totally happy with the BIOS you've got flashed in and don't ever feel the need to upgrade it, pull this jumper off and your ROM image will be protected forever.
K1 (L or H) is a pullup or pulldown for the CS (cable select) signal on the IDE interface. Spec says pull it low, andrew the board design guy had good luck with some drives with it pulled high. Change it only if you are having weird drive issues with master/slave settings.
Cables:
Use an 80-pin IDE cable. You should have no problem finding one, unless you are truly a vintage-only computer geek.
If your 80-pin cable is keyed by having a hole filled in, you may need to snip the corresponding pin off your IDE header, or just bend it out of the way, or perhaps unplug that hole with a pin.
Looking at the back end of the card, the pin to snip is the 11th one in from the left side, bottom row.
http://i870.photobucket.com/albums/ab264/hargle/header.jpg
80-pin cables are actually keyed for master/slave/controller connectors. Since we're not doing super high speed traffic, it is not critical that the controller end of the cable (typically blue in color) is connected to the XTIDE card. We only really want the extra grounding and noise dampening that the additional ground wires are providing.
Dip Switches:
The default settings are: 0111-1011.
http://i870.photobucket.com/albums/ab264/hargle/dips.jpg
Switches 1-4 are the IO address of the card, 5-8 are the memory address. I suggest changing the values from their defaults only if you are having problems with conflicts with other devices in your machine and the other cards cannot be changed. You may change switches 5-8 at any time, to re-locate the card's memory address in case you have a conflict with another option rom, likely another hard drive controller card.
The IO address (switches 1-4) require you to re-flash the BIOS chip on the card if you change the settings. It is very unlikely that you will have a conflict in IO range with other devices in your machine, unless you have an ethernet card in there too. Typically you would be using a different IO range only if you are installing 2 or more XTIDE cards in your machine.
Master/Slave settings.
Check your drive's jumpers and make sure you have the jumpers configured properly for master and slave. You can try using cable select settings, but don't be surprised if it doesn't work.
Try using a fairly modern hard drive. Drives manufactured after 2000 or so tend to be a lot cooler and run quieter than drives from the early-mid 90s. There were also many specification issues that were ironed out with later hard drive models that can cause all kinds of headaches. I have had excellent success with 8-10GB hard drives. DOS 6.2 can see up to 8.4G on this card without the need for any drivers or BIOS overlays. You will be using multiple 2GB partitions to get the entire 8.4GB of storage available.
The XTIDE card is compatible with modern computers. You should be able to take a drive, attach it to a modern computer with an IDE interface on it, and be able to access it exactly the same way as the XTIDE will. I find it very convenient to do all my bulk file copying on a modern machine and then move the drive over to the XT to save time.
Common pitfalls
1) the default IO address for the card may conflict with any ethernet/networking cards your machine may have installed. Remove the ethernet card first, just to make sure the XTIDE is working. In fact, remove all cards that are not required for booting (sound, game, network) just to be safe and add them back in once the XTIDE is known to work.
2) on a 5150 machine, you *must* have a floppy controller installed. You can work around this with a configuration option in the BIOS, but your card's default settings will require a floppy to exist in the machine. Download the BIOS and idecfg.exe utility off the wiki page.
3) If using a CF/SD to IDE adapter, and it fails to boot, the Master Boot Record must be recreated for many CF cards before they can be booted. Most likely the same thing is true for SD cards. Boot to a floppy and type: "FDISK /MBR" and that will likely fix it.
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