SD hard drive on A2386SX

[spirantho]

If you make sure your EIDE card has its own BIOS it's no problem. Finding a decent ISA EIDE card can be a challenge though, most ISA cards are just IDE.

[orcish75]

Hi Curtis,

I went down exactly the same road as you a couple of years ago, only with an A2286 bridgeboard. In the end, I used a Soundblaster 16 with an IDE port and XTIDE v1.5 in an ISA network card bootrom socket. I also struggled for a while to get it working properly, but in the end managed to get it to work. Check out this thread for more information: http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=60625

The crucial thing to getting the XTIDE bios to work properly is getting the checksum byte correct. I've found the most compatible method is to use a 27C128 EPROM as most network cards support a minimum boot rom size of 16KB. Place the checksum byte at the end of the 8KB image (at address 0x1FFF) and then pad the rest up to 16KB (0x3FFF) with zeros.

I can setup the XTIDE bios, with checksums etc and post it here if you want. Just let me know how you want it set up, V1.5 or V2.03 beta, and must it have the primary and secondary IDE controllers enabled or just the primary or just the secondary? If you're gonna use a soundcard like I did, only setting up the secondary is necessary. Having the primary and secondary setup is fine, just that it's gonna take longer to boot while the primary times out as it doesn't exist.

[curtis]

I actually have an XTIDE card and have had ZERO luck getting it to be recognized!

The version board I have is a rev 01.  The BIOS is on a X28C64

 i know the board works as I've used it in another machine!

[orcish75]

Bugger! If you have the original XTIDE card, it makes it somewhat more difficult! Are you using a VGA card or the Amiga display? If you're using a VGA card, try change it for another one, perhaps the VGA bios and XTIDE bios conflict with each other.

[curtis]

Right now, the only extra card on the PC side is the XTIDE card!

I've tried switching the BIOS address and it doesn't make a difference.  Danged thing just isn't recognized.

Bugger! If you have the original XTIDE card, it makes it somewhat more difficult! Are you using a VGA card or the Amiga display? If you're using a VGA card, try change it for another one, perhaps the VGA bios and XTIDE bios conflict with each other.

[curtis]

Finally was able to have the XTIDE BIOS recognized...  As bad checksum!

Okay, download the BIOS and fire up XTIDECFG and re do everything.  Go to flash the BIOS and get the message BIOS Successfully Flashed and then everything hangs!

Can't move the mouse, can't move around on the XTIDECFG menu.  Nothing.  Can't even reboot the PC side.  Have to actually reboot the whole shooting match!

Go back to the PC side and same thing!

Going to try re-flashing in a real PC and see what happens.

[orcish75]

Excellent, at least you're making progress! Yup, the checksum is a b#%ch, just about all of my XTIDE issues were because of it. Try the different versions of the XTIDE bios as well, generally I've had better success with V1.5, but have V2.03Beta in a couple of my old PCs.

[curtis]

Progress!!!

Set up a 386DX with 8MB RAM (pretty close to the bridgeboard).

Finally got the BIOS flashed.

Currently installing IBM-DOS 5.02 on the flash card.

After I get that done will transplant the whole XTIDE-Flash card system into the A2000.

I already know I'm going to be arguing some more as the XTIDE is set at D000H.

Hopefully it will gracefully accept being moved to a different memory address!

Boy am I dragging up some old memories.

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Wow, where did you find a 386DX system?  :lol:  Congrats on the progress!!!  

[curtis]

I keep a spare 386 mobo for occasions like this!

Actually, I have a program that doesn't like newer, faster computers.

It's the TI PCIF program for the TI-74, 95 and CC-40.  Uses a PC for program storage and video output.

This is a 386-40 and I even have to throttle it down to 25MHz or the program crashes.

AND, on a further note.  I transferred the IDE system over and fired it up and suddenly the system says there isn't an OS installed!

Re-installed DOS and tried again.  Ditto.

Suddenly realized I had hooked up a 2.1GB hard drive for testing and then switched back to the 2.0GB memory card.

I do believe I have a bit of a wraparound issue!

DOH!!!

Now to get the XTIDE BIOS back to the 2GB drive parameters.

Two steps forward, one step back...

Wow, where did you find a 386DX system?  :lol:  Congrats on the progress!!!  

[curtis]

Well, the CF card configuration wasn't the problem.

I set the parameters correctly and started over.  Fdisk, install DOS, etc.

Tried to boot the CF and still get a non-system disk error.

I can go to the C: drive and even switch to the DOS directory, but when I try to run fdisk or any commands, I get a "Packed File is Corrupt" error.

So, on a whim, re-installed OS 3.1 and the Janus software.  Re-installed Dos for the umpteenth time.

Same thing!

Curious thing, first time I boot the bridgeboard I get an error message saying the checksum on the extended BIOS is incorrect.  Reboot it and it's fine for the duration!

So, bridgeboard gurus, HELP!!!!!!

I'm stumped at this point.