- VCF South West - June 14 - 16, Davidson-Gundy Alumni Center at University of Texas at Dallas
- VCF West - Aug 2 - 3, Computer History Museum, Mountain View, CA
- VCF Midwest - Sept 7 - 8 2024, Schaumburg, IL
- VCF SoCal - Mid February 2025, Location TBD, Southern CA
- VCF East - April 2025, Infoage Museum, Wall NJ
-
Please review our updated Terms and Rules here
XTIDE Universal BIOS v2.0.0 beta testing thread
- Thread starter aitotat
- Start date
Holmes
Experienced Member
Cool, thank you very much! I'll give this a try once I get my newly flashed 2.0.0b3 xtide to recognize my cf again.
I wouldn't bother farting about with 2.0.0b3, The XUB has come a long way since then, Lots of fixes etc. As i said before you will not be able to boot from the drive which was previously configured with 1.1.5 and then updated to a newer Revision of the XUB, The consequences are 'Missing Operating System'.
I'd re-flash the EEPROM with R591 - Reboot - FDISK / Partition and format the drive and install your OS, Fit your old drive as a slave and hopefully you will be able to copy data over to the new drive.
I'd re-flash the EEPROM with R591 - Reboot - FDISK / Partition and format the drive and install your OS, Fit your old drive as a slave and hopefully you will be able to copy data over to the new drive.
Holmes
Experienced Member
Ok. I was thinking the R591 was still fundamentally based on v2.0.0b3. If it's got lots of new stuff in it, I'll try to update it before I proceed.
Thanks!
Holmes
Experienced Member
OK, so here's an update.
I re-flashed my XTIDE Rev 1 board with the R591 BIOS that Malc kindly provided. That seemed to work without errors.
I rebooted, and it detected my CF card as MASTER - so far so good.
I did "FDISK /MBR", and then FDISK to create the primary DOS partition (2GB on a 4GB CF card). Rebooted to DOS in A:, and formatted the C: drive with "FORMAT C: /S" to transfer the system to it.
I rebooted, and tried to boot C:, and it froze at the "Booting C>>C" message.
I restarted, and when the XTIDE menu comes up, it detects the drive on the CF card, but says its capacity is "32.2GiB". Freezes again at the "Booting C>>C" message.
Restarted again, and at the XTIDE menu, it says the CF card is now "3915.3 MiB", and freezes at the "Booting C>>C" message again.
Restarted again, and at the XTIDE menu, it says the CF card name is now "R ATA FLASH" (previously it said it was "LEXAR ATA FLASH"), and its size is now "95.9 MiB". This time, when it tries to boot, is says:
Booting C>>C
Boot sector not found
Booting A>>A
and it boots to A: which seems to work fine. When I try to look at the partitions with FDISK, it says "No partitions defined".
Wow, looks like some kind of corruption going on.
----
Now remember, this exact setup (I have not unplugged anything, nor moved anything) was working perfectly with BIOS 1.1.5, running just the CF card as MASTER. The only thing I have done is remove the CF card a few times.
To recap, I'm running a XTIDE Rev 1 card (no Chuck speed mod) on an IBM 5150, using a CF adapter on a card slot bracket, at the end (MASTER) position on an 80-wire IDE cable, and jumpered as "MASTER" on the CF adapter. The CF card I'm using is an Ativa labeled 4GB, and it was actually working as a slave way at one point back with BIOS 1.1.5, which seems pretty rare.
I re-flashed my XTIDE Rev 1 board with the R591 BIOS that Malc kindly provided. That seemed to work without errors.
I rebooted, and it detected my CF card as MASTER - so far so good.
I did "FDISK /MBR", and then FDISK to create the primary DOS partition (2GB on a 4GB CF card). Rebooted to DOS in A:, and formatted the C: drive with "FORMAT C: /S" to transfer the system to it.
I rebooted, and tried to boot C:, and it froze at the "Booting C>>C" message.
I restarted, and when the XTIDE menu comes up, it detects the drive on the CF card, but says its capacity is "32.2GiB". Freezes again at the "Booting C>>C" message.
Restarted again, and at the XTIDE menu, it says the CF card is now "3915.3 MiB", and freezes at the "Booting C>>C" message again.
Restarted again, and at the XTIDE menu, it says the CF card name is now "R ATA FLASH" (previously it said it was "LEXAR ATA FLASH"), and its size is now "95.9 MiB". This time, when it tries to boot, is says:
Booting C>>C
Boot sector not found
Booting A>>A
and it boots to A: which seems to work fine. When I try to look at the partitions with FDISK, it says "No partitions defined".
Wow, looks like some kind of corruption going on.
----
Now remember, this exact setup (I have not unplugged anything, nor moved anything) was working perfectly with BIOS 1.1.5, running just the CF card as MASTER. The only thing I have done is remove the CF card a few times.
To recap, I'm running a XTIDE Rev 1 card (no Chuck speed mod) on an IBM 5150, using a CF adapter on a card slot bracket, at the end (MASTER) position on an 80-wire IDE cable, and jumpered as "MASTER" on the CF adapter. The CF card I'm using is an Ativa labeled 4GB, and it was actually working as a slave way at one point back with BIOS 1.1.5, which seems pretty rare.
Last edited:
Stone
10k Member
Another reason why I prefer DOMs over CFs.
I don't own any DOM's, Never had one, I've always used CF with no real problems.
Holmes
Experienced Member
I wasn't sure if the physical disk layout changes with the new BIOS would cause a problem with the MBR, so I just recreated it, as it was a critical component of making the CF work in the first place. I presumed it wouldn't do any harm.
OK, thanks for the link. I'll give it a try. So you think something got corrupted with the partition table?
I actually want the CF on this machine, because it's a convenient way for me to transfer files back and forth.
--------------------------------------------
Is there anything on the actual configuration of the BIOS that could be messed up? I left it as default, and checked things over from a high level, and things looked okay, but I really don't know what I'm looking at with all the detailed settings.
Stone
10k Member
Everything was working fine before you tried this BIOS upgrade, wasn't it?
Holmes
Experienced Member
Yes. If this whole upgrade thing doesn't work out, I'm thinking I'll have to go back to 1.1.5. One of the reasons I wanted to upgrade the BIOS is I wanted to do the Chuck speed update to my Rev1 card. Also, I wanted to make sure the CF drive layout was the most "compatible" with modern equipment, as I'll be using the CF as a transfer card to get stuff over to this PC.
That's what i've been doing for some time, Transferring from my XP box to my XT via CF, Though more recently it's been via USB
Stone
10k Member
Your XT has USB? Can you be more specific as to how? I use USB via DOS but even that requires a PCI card.That's what i've been doing for some time, Transferring from my XP box to my XT via CF, Though more recently it's been via USB
I built one of the Lo-Tech experimental ISA - USB cards that uses the CH375B chip and WCH drivers, Works but a tad slow in the XT, Better in a 286 / 486.
paperinik77pk
Member
Hi all, I'd like to tell you about a strange problem on my XT-CF rev2...it seems it does not write to CF master boot record.
It starts, it detects drives and compactflash. I boot from floppy, then I try to fdisk the cf.
Everything seems ok, but the led light stays on.
I reboot as requested. When the floppy ends to boot, I try to format the drive. No disk present. Then I enter fdisk again and...no partition.
This happens with an empty cf card. With an already formatted one the xt-cf boots and then i can do everything on it but writing.
I create a folder,the led light is very bright, the folder is there but I cannot access it.
I reboot the machine and the directory is not there anymore.
FDISK /MBR gives the same result - led light and nothing happens.
I have XTIDE BIOS R591 with boot menu, while previously the car had R567. Going back to 567 does not solve the problem.
What do you think?
Thank you in advance!
Davide
It starts, it detects drives and compactflash. I boot from floppy, then I try to fdisk the cf.
Everything seems ok, but the led light stays on.
I reboot as requested. When the floppy ends to boot, I try to format the drive. No disk present. Then I enter fdisk again and...no partition.
This happens with an empty cf card. With an already formatted one the xt-cf boots and then i can do everything on it but writing.
I create a folder,the led light is very bright, the folder is there but I cannot access it.
I reboot the machine and the directory is not there anymore.
FDISK /MBR gives the same result - led light and nothing happens.
I have XTIDE BIOS R591 with boot menu, while previously the car had R567. Going back to 567 does not solve the problem.
What do you think?
Thank you in advance!
Davide
Holmes
Experienced Member
Ok, I gave this a try. I ran wipedisk, then ran fdisk, partitioned for max which was 2gb, rebooted and checked partition and it was okay. Then I formatted and transferred system. Rebooted. Each time I rebooted, it detected cf okay and drive size was correct in the xtide menu.
When I tried rebooting off c:, it froze after the "Booting C>>C" message. I rebooted off floppy and ran fdisk, and the partition is gone!
Maybe I'll just go back to 1.1.5 and deal with it not being the fastest possible.
Stone
10k Member
I wouldn't think of that as your bottleneck when you're working with a 5150!
BTW, why would you want 2 GB on a 5150? Don't you think that in 50 years it will still be 75% EMPTY?
You might even have success with a smaller CF e.g., 1 GB or even much less.Holmes
Experienced Member
I wouldn't think of that as your bottleneck when you're working with a 5150!
BTW, why would you want 2 GB on a 5150? Don't you think that in 50 years it will still be 75% EMPTY?
That's true, I probably won't notice the speed difference, except for that horrendously long time DOS takes to measure the free space on the hard drive. But I guess reducing the size of the HD would help that, too!
I didn't think reducing the size of the HD would make a difference with the problems I'm having. Are you saying get a smaller CF, or just make the partition smaller? Would that potentially fix my problem? I really don't want to buy another CF card.
Sounds more like a hardware problem to me, Have you got another CF adapter you can try, Like Stone said try another CF card a smaller one, You could also try another cable.
Stone
10k Member
Yes, it would help proportionately with the size of the drive.
I was thinking a smaller CF... but it wouldn't hurt to try a smaller partition as that might be the root of all evil, here. Try something like 500 MB -- you'll never fill that up on a 5150 anyway. Or even smaller might be worthwhile. You know multiple partitions is not fatal!
BTW, what DOS version are you using?