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XTIDE Universal BIOS

Not that i know of, Never looked into it, China takes in a lot of electrical waste and we get it back so probably not. What i meant was bridges in the trace, Not solder bridges, Looking thru a magnifying glass i have often found burn spots in the solder mask where the trace has burned underneath.
 
Can IDECFG.COM be used ONLY with the XTIDE card, or can it somehow be also used with a network card hosting the EEPROM?
 
IDECFG.COM is for the very old v1x XUB, XTIDECFG.COM is for the v2x > XUB but neither can be used to flash an EEPROM in situ on a network card, However You can flash an EEPROM using an XTIDE card for use in a network card.
 
I'm using XUB r602 to configure my XTIDE rev 2 board (built from scratch) in an IBM PC portable (early XT motherboard w/ CGA graphics). On this system, the boot time menu bar is completely unreadable. By trial and error I discovered that 'A' would start from floppy and 'C' from hard drive. It looks like there's supposed to be legend text to the right of 'A>' and 'C>', but it's not legible with any setting of brightness and contrast. I can also see what I think is 'F6' and 'F8' but text cannot be read. There are otherwise no issues with the display on this machine.
 
Hi, you could try using the "xtl" version of XUB..that includes the boot menu option I believe.
I compiled and use a version that does not include the hotkey bar on the top.
 
Twospruces said:
Hi, you could try using the "xtl" version of XUB..that includes the boot menu option I believe.
I compiled and use a version that does not include the hotkey bar on the top.
Click to expand...

Thanks, but the xtl version is too large to fit in a 28C64 EEPROM. I finally discovered the boot display option settings and 80x25 monochrome seems to correct the problem.
 
Malc said:
IDECFG.COM is for the very old v1x XUB, XTIDECFG.COM is for the v2x > XUB but neither can be used to flash an EEPROM in situ on a network card, However You can flash an EEPROM using an XTIDE card for use in a network card.
Click to expand...
Thank you very much! That does make sense.

Is there a chance/way to select an appropriate version of XUB that I could put in a 16 bit ISA network card and which would work with an 8 bit ISA slot - not as a network card but just to boot the XUB?
 
You just need to configure the XUB for the PC you are going to use it in and configure the network card appropriately, I only have 3 Com 3C509B network cards and have used them just for that purpose in my IBM XT's not for networking, With the 3C509B cards you have to configure the card using an AT PC ( 16-Bit slot ) for use in an 8-bit slot, EEprom size, Address etc, Try the latest r602 XUB and configure it for the PC you intend to use it in.
 
I have a 486 Dell Laptop with a pcmcia slot but no ISA expansion. I could find an obvious solution with a search. Is there a way to get XTIDE on it? I'm not opposed to buying a pre-made solution.

Thanks
 
vol.2 said:
I have a 486 Dell Laptop with a pcmcia slot but no ISA expansion. I could find an obvious solution with a search. Is there a way to get XTIDE on it? I'm not opposed to buying a pre-made solution.

Thanks
Click to expand...

PCMCIA was a 8/16-bit expansion bus, but not directly compatible with ISA. It's got the data and address lines, but the control lines are different. See pinout here. It's possible to design a PCMCIA card, but at best it would all be fine-pitch surface mount, and there's no way to make this easily. Dig-Key does have the Female PCMCIA headers

The question is though, what do you need it for? If the laptop has a dead hard drive, it'd be far easier to just yank out the dead harddrive and stick in a 44-pin to CompactFlash adapter, like this guy on the right
44-pin CF adapter.jpg

Apparently, there were PCMCIA to micro-harddrive adapters around at one point, which I think used the CF card interface anyways, so you MIGHT get lucky and find one of them if you absolutely need the PCMCIA slot for an extra hard drive. If I'm reading this right, it almost looks like the PCMCIA to micro-harddrive adapter is just a straight-through adapter with no logic, because the PCMCIA pin designations look almost identical to a CF card (pinout here), with a few pins moved around.

Somebody else might be able to confirm that.
 
I would second that it makes more sense to just replace the internal HDD of a 486 laptop with flash storage; you can use a 44-pin PATA to CF adapter (which is essentially a passive wire adapter), or you could go with laptop PATA to SD (the widget for that costs about $10), or possibly a PATA to M.2/mSATA adapter, although I've heard the last option there tends to be trouble with machines that have less than UDMA/33 controllers. If the issue is BIOS support for a larger drive then, and I know this is an unpopular thing to mention in some circles, drive overlay software like EZdrive can save your bacon without needing any hardware upgrades.

A few PC laptops can boot ATA PCMCIA flash/drive cards. If the Dell does then you could track down a PCMCIA hard drive, ATA flash drive, or a PCMCIA-CF adapter and go that route, but I think it's pretty unlikely you'll have the BIOS support for that.
 
blackepyon said:
The question is though, what do you need it for?
Click to expand...

It's an old laptop with I think DOS 5.2 or so. I thought I would need XTIDE bios to use a compact flash card because it's too big for both the bios to see or dos to partition. If I misunderstood that, it would be easier to just get what you are saying. I maybe have to find a small size CF card? It's getting very hard to buy non-fake small cards I think.

Apparently, there were PCMCIA to micro-harddrive adapters around at one point, which I think used the CF card interface anyways
Click to expand...
Yes, there are many CF PCMCIA cards commercially available always. They were to read data, but I'm not sure if you can boot from them? https://www.ebay.com/itm/Lexar-Medi...352043?hash=item469e962a2b:g:zrkAAOSwu6ldln83 for example. should I just get that?
 
Eudimorphodon said:
I would second that it makes more sense to just replace the internal HDD of a 486 laptop with flash storage; you can use a 44-pin PATA to CF adapter (which is essentially a passive wire adapter), or you could go with laptop PATA to SD (the widget for that costs about $10), or possibly a PATA to M.2/mSATA adapter, although I've heard the last option there tends to be trouble with machines that have less than UDMA/33 controllers. If the issue is BIOS support for a larger drive then, and I know this is an unpopular thing to mention in some circles, drive overlay software like EZdrive can save your bacon without needing any hardware upgrades.

A few PC laptops can boot ATA PCMCIA flash/drive cards. If the Dell does then you could track down a PCMCIA hard drive, ATA flash drive, or a PCMCIA-CF adapter and go that route, but I think it's pretty unlikely you'll have the BIOS support for that.
Click to expand...

Ok. Thanks. It sounds like my best bet is to find a small size CF card (prob less than 2 GB?) and do a replacement then? The current HDD is kinda working, but seems to be a bit flaky, I'm trying to preempt the collapse.
 
A CF should work fine. I'm pretty enamored with a common 44-pin to SD adapter that I've found works more reliably than most CF cards with my 8-bit XT-CF adapter, but you shouldn't have the same sort of compatibility funs with a full 16 bit IDE port. It shouldn't be a *problem* per se to have one bigger than the laptop's BIOS can support; you can probably just go ahead and set the BIOS for the biggest type it supports (Or, ideally, if it has a "User" type just max out all the numbers) and use what it sees. (Or, like I mentioned, you could use something like EZ-Drive to patch the BIOS at boot so it can see the whole thing.) Sometimes BIOSes that have an autodetect option can mess up/hang/whatever if they detect a too-large drive, but I've only seen that on Pentium-era machines myself.
 
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I'm trying to get XTIDE Working but so far I haven't had any success. That means : the ROM is readable but doesn't initialize after booting.

I used the latest binaries from "Pre-built Binaries Download Centre.", version R603. I tested with ide_atl.bin and ide_386l.bin.
EPROM is Am27c256. The used card is some Taiwanese UM9008 card. After configuring the card, I can confirm that the ROM is present and readable in memory (I tested this with DEBUG).

"Receivers" were 80286 and 80386 computers, both with different I/O-cards. Of course, I only tested the 386 version in my 386 computer.

Some more specs:

286 computer: Am80286-20, 5MiB RAM, Tseng ET-4000 video card, No-Name I/O card, HDD=Seagate ST3144a.
(on this computer, I can actually use the harddisk without XTIDE).

386 computer: Am80386-40+Cyrix FasMath 83D87-40, 20MiB RAM, Cirrus Logic 5422, No-Name I/O card, HDD=WD 102AA.
 
Hello,
I'm trying to use XUB @ NIC in Schneider VGA AT System 40 (286@12MHz, CPU made by Siemens) but there is an issue: it hangs just after POST beep.
In another my 286 it hangs little bit later: just after message "Released under GNU GPL"

I have:
NIC "A": 3Com EtherLink III 3C509B-C
NIC "B": non-PnP noname with UM9003F
EEPROM "C" - M27C256B chip with ide_atl v2.0.0beta3 2013-03-02
EEPROM "D" - AM27C512 chip with ide_atl r604 2020/12/15

I tried these at different PCs to be shure NICs and ICs with XUB is OK:
1) Any combination of mentioned above NIC/XUB boots fine in my intel P1 MMX@166 MHz PC.
2) In another 286 based on 12MHz AMD CPU:
- NIC "B" with both EEPROMs boots well.
- NIC "A" with both EEPROMS hangs @12MHz but can boots if TURBO button unpressed.

3) Schneider VGA AT System 40: any combination NICs/ROMs works fine in Schneider PC if CPU clock and ISA clock set to 6,25MHz but hangs if CPU set to 12MHz (neither with ISA clock 6,25 nor 12 MHz).
There are only two options in BIOS SETUP - 6,25 or 12 MHz for ISA/CPU. As I mentioned before the CPU made by Siemens.

Is any advice whatI havr to do to boot XUB in my Schneider @ 12 MHz?
 
Lyawon said:
- NIC "A" with both EEPROMS hangs @12MHz but can boots if TURBO button unpressed.
Click to expand...
This is confusing. "TURBO button unpressed" - To me that means the machine is running at full speed since that button is actually used to slow down the machine. But I'm guessing you meant that the machine hangs when running at full speed?

3) Schneider VGA AT System 40: any combination NICs/ROMs works fine in Schneider PC if CPU clock and ISA clock set to 6,25MHz but hangs if CPU set to 12MHz (neither with ISA clock 6,25 nor 12 MHz).
There are only two options in BIOS SETUP - 6,25 or 12 MHz for ISA/CPU.
Click to expand...
If the ISA bus runs at 12 MHz that could certainly explain why the machine hangs. The ISA bus speed is usually around 8 MHz for compatibility reasons. The 3Com NIC you're using (NIC "A") is rated for a maximum speed of 10 MHz IIRC.

However, with the ISA bus set to 6.25 MHz it should work. Can you use the NICs without the ROMs with the machine set to 12 MHz?
 
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