New Toys!

[tezza]

Try investigating EMS vs XMS to make use of the that missing 384kB. Unfortunately the terms are not interchangeable, we're just so used to it all being useable RAM these days that the technicalities behind the old 16 bitters is just ignored.

Yes, EMS and/or XMS. The hoops we had to jump through back then thanks to the limitation of early MS-DOS...

[SpidersWeb]

lol I just replaced a 386 board with another. If I could find an IPC XT board that worked, I would attempt to rebuild it as original, but it's hard because the case is in such shocking condition. You can't see in the photos but there is a LOT of rust and a lot of paint falling off. That front panel was originally white, and it looks as bad in person as it does in the photo! Thankfully it only cost me $20 and that bonnet hood is epic for a test machine. So it's literally a workhorse rather than a 'piece'

With the IPC AT, the annoying thing is it supports Extended memory (I'm allowed 512K XMS if I don't mind losing 128 of conventional). But I'll have to see if an EMS/UMB application can make use the reserved 384KB - might try a nice Quaterdeck product. I do have a 3MB AT board, but I was reserving that for my 5170 project. Being a 286 RAM isn't too important, but being able to load DOS HIGH or UMB would be quite nice.

With the disk drive settings I tried that, and it works, except I get 'hard drive controller failure' every time (been through multiple drives and controllers, it's the BIOS detecting my shinannigans). This is the second Pheonix based x86 I've had that was too smart for it's own good. What IS working at the moment is the AT version of the XTIDE BIOS on a 2764 EPROM inserted in a network card and two drives - 170MB + 210MB. Have tried multiple controllers/drives and I use XTIDE in another PC (tried using it's NIC+EPROM too and it had the same fault on this motherboard only).

Also have been getting good at getting old EPROM's to burn correctly. Seems the older chips like more voltage than their original specification - none of my 2764's will burn at 12.5V (even an Intel chip which has PGM 12.5V on it) - they all need 13.5 - 14.5V (and the timings set to painfully slow) - but that voltage causes a more modern 27256 or 27C256 to 'overshoot' so EE could become 05 for example. So I have to change back to 12.5 for those. Kind of painful, would be nice if I could set it in software! It's a tiny tiny flathead screw you adjust :/ and it takes a few turns to change so much as 1V.

I'd LOVE SCSI gear. Even when I was growing up I was envious of the Mac's SCSI system. Trouble is I never see any ISA SCSI (with ROM) on trademe, and on ebay with shipping it gets really pricey :/ Only SCSI hard drive I have is in the A2000HD I have a few SCSI cards, but none with ROM, scanner specials I imagine.

[SpidersWeb]

AT power up with XTIDE + 2 HDD:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnvD82hvhbA

Not terribly exciting but thought I'd make a video for once.

Also forgot to mention it had no CMOS battery when it arrived. It has a coin battery holder, so I grabbed a pair of CR2016's and put them in. It's also Y2K compliant which suprised me.

Edit: oh and I found a cheap SCSI controller and HD on ebay - no guarantees it'll work but for the price I decided to chance it.

Edit 2: and I think the IPC is limited to 640Kb because in this mode I beleive it is shadowing the ROM images - my 8KB option ROM seems to be duplicated.
Unless there is another option ROM image hiding somewhere, I might have to go poking with debug.

[recycled]

Regarding the Phoenix BIOS and turbo mode; http://www.elhvb.com/mboards/intel/file ... 00sx20.hlp an old Windows help file. Search for 'turbo'. The hotkeys might be of help to you.

[SpidersWeb]

Yeah CTRL+ALT+MINUS
Just annoying doing that every boot up lol

[SpidersWeb]

No work today so got bored. I had a 486 board, spare case, a VLB EIDE/VGA card, and the time. So I've built a 486DX2/66 with VLB Video and EIDE and 8Mb of RAM. Quite nice when those 'untested' parts off trademe power up first time!!

BIOS supports large hard disks but doens't do translation. So even though it knows it's a 2.1Gb EIDE, DOS only sees 504Mb. I can install SeaTools to get around that, but 504Mb is more than enough to be honest. Going to add a sound card, network card, 3.5" floppy, and the oldest CDROM I can find. Will make a good 486-era gaming platform. What would be nice is a 486 era AT case, at the moment it's in my old Concord 286 case :/ and it only fit by a few millimetres literally.

One thing I did want, is a machine with each bus type - 8bit ISA, 16bit ISA, EISA, VESA, and PCI - and now I finally do (Compaq Portable is EISA btw).

Also spent some time trying to see if I could write a program in assembly to flick the turbo on on the IPC AT (which I could then make in to an option ROM), but no luck. Was hoping the turbo switch would be at Port 61H (along with a few other things) like it is with a Turbo XT, but sadly no :/ I remember getting programs that could enable or disable the turbo on computers newer than XT's, but haven't been able to find one to look at. Words like 'turbo' appear everywhere and navigating google is near impossible. I guess it's probably not worth the effort, 6Mhz is quick enough if I forget to hit the hotkey.

Two other items arrived recently, SCSI Syquest drives - 1 internal 1 external. I have at least one card to use, but no cartridges or cables damn it!
Coming from the US right now is a SCSI controller with ROM + 200Mb IBM SCSI drive (thanks recycled for the push ) and organising an ST238R + two controllers with a VCF member to get sent over.

Powered up the XT again today, no bad smells

In other news, I have a Mac Classic motherboard if anyone wants it :/ came bundled with my x86 gear.

Edit: congrats to vic20 who got the Commodore PC20-III btw, and caluser from VCF who stole my 286 hope the machines go well!
Edit2: speaking of the PC20, I found another Commodore PC keyboard this morning, so I have three of them if needed :S

[Carcenomy]

PC20-III... XT-class with a stock 20MB XT-IDE drive. Which WILL be the point of failure!

[recycled]

(thanks recycled for the push)

OK, fair enough. My fault. I'll keep my fingers crossed your purchase is good gear, I'd hate to be responsible for a recommendation that wasted your money. There were many very nice items for you to select from, so your chances should be up there.

On the turbo problem, the help file I cited earlier makes a comment on how the non-turbo can be controlled with a bit of software usefully called 'PC_Util', not being an expert with the various search engines, i keep getting nothing. Hopefully somebody has it in thier Archive.

Hmm, if any seller ever finds a small AT dekstop/mini-tower to put up on Trade Me, I could have a bit of competition then...

[SpidersWeb]

With the AT cases I've found great ones brand new in the US for cheap, but postage burns, it burns so bad. $120-180 would get one landed though, so if one turns up on trademe I wont be bidding too hard as it's a nice to have for me not essential - hopefully someone finds ten of them or something haha.

Although other than parts I've decided not to buy any more machines unless they are IBM originals, no more clones, unless really cheap. I need a 5170AT case + PSU, a few hard drive bits, and a 5150 board (all except the case are being organised now) and that will be me. I'm running out of room and I find it rather sad I don't have the time to enjoy each one. The only one I regularly use is my 386/33.

Don't worry about the SCSI gear, when I order bits like that I know the risks I take. Spent $150 on a faulty 5150 board - that was awesome :/
Also have some SCSI Syquest drives I'm looking forward to trying out but need to aquire some cables.

Cheers for the help file btw, I didn't get a good chance to read it because my machines (with internet) are all Windows 7 and it wouldn't let me open it properly - just told me to go to online help - but when you mentioned hotkey I though it might've been a reference to the common hotkeys. I have had some luck on that topic but haven't had time to actually try anything - I've been given speed.com and a link: http://bochs.sourceforge.net/techspec/PORTS.LST which has told me to also look at ports 60-64 and 68 to changes.

By port 068h it mentions C&T chipsets turbo function - which is what I have - so fingers crossed I see a 0 turn 1 when I switch the turbo. To view I'm using debug and "i 68" etc. The idea is to put it in an option ROM and load it before XTIDE - because if I find the port the program in ASM is only like 3 lines long ehehe. Interesting that the turbo function almost always seems to be a hack in the keyboard interface.

Speaking of option ROM's, the guy who makes the XTIDE gear is building new boards at the moment and I've ordered 3 - they're 8 bit ISA with a flash module (basically a cut down XTIDE card) - so you can upload any boot ROMs you want - cost is around ten pounds each for PCB + parts. If anyone else is interested I can pass on the details. I love the idea because I can test an option ROM ideas I have as well as being able to configure XTIDE without burning EPROM's and wasting network cards. He's also doing a CompactFlash version of XTIDE so you can slide cards in and out on the back of the PC (although I didn't follow that one).

New machine arrived yesterday after apparently spending a week at post haste. 386 Atima SX laptop with no power charger - since the battery was 12V I took a guess that it probably wants 12V DC - and I was right, but the only charger I had was 0.5A and I got flickering lights, so I ended up testing it in my car last night lol Will not run with engine on (voltage too high I suspect), but flick it off and the lights come up - it powers on and hard drive spins up - but the HDD light stays on and it doesn't beep or initialise the screen - a few times I got the screen to flicker but that was all I got out of it. I wondered if it was a current limitation also (car adaptor 800mA), so am going to change the plug on a spare 12V 1.5A power pack I have later tonight. Failing that I'll need to open it and poke around.

[tezza]

Although other than parts I've decided not to buy any more machines unless they are IBM originals, no more clones, unless really cheap. I need a 5170AT case + PSU, a few hard drive bits, and a 5150 board (all except the case are being organised now) and that will be me. I'm running out of room and I find it rather sad I don't have the time to enjoy each one. The only one I regularly use is my 386/33.

I think that's a good idea. One thing I decided early on was to limit myself regarding the vintage machines I want. It's easy for collecting to get out of hand. You then get pressed for room and the hobby becomes more of a stress than a something to enjoy. If you have a limited number of machines which carry a theme, you can spend time on really getting them up to presentable, workable units which you'd be proud to show off.

I have 48 models and that is enough. I wouldn't get any more without dropping a few less notable ones or duplicates off the list (although this doesn't preclude acquiring beat up units at next to nothing for spare parts).

Of course it all depends what you collect things for. People have all sort of reasons, all equally valid if you get enjoyment out it.

[SpidersWeb]

Yep, going to stick to it.

In other news, found a Pentium computer in a rubbish bin (I asked permission) - AT case + AT PSU - yey. Also has a hard drive in it, given age I'm guessing around 1-2Gb.
72 pin memory has been removed, as has CDROM and floppy, but has PCI VGA, ISA network, ISA sound, PCI IO card, and lots of other useful bits inside.

Going to be nervous plugging in that old PSU :/

There is also several 13 inch Compaq VGA displays, but I already have quite a few VGA displays so decided to leave them.

Coming from US soon:
WD MFM controller
WD RLL controller
Seagate ST238R
Seagate ST251
IBM 5150 256KB board
2 x 360KB floppy drives in black, half height.
1 x 8087 coprocessor

All that for way cheaper than eBay and actually tested items. Bless the internet.

[SpidersWeb]

Pentium 200 MMX with a 32Mb DIMM installed (I didn't see it earlier)
Powered up first go, nothing wrong with it at all.

I'm going to strip it for my 486, so I have a Pentium board up for grabs if anyone is keen - I already have two Pentium systems.
Needs an AT PSU though.

Edit: cancel that, I've grown quite attached of it now, even though it booted Windows Me (pirated, with install files for pirated 98, and preinstalled pirated MS Office registered to Bill Gates).

Going to make it a 3 floppy drive system for backups and dual boot DOS + Win98 - use it for disk archiving. Oddly it also has a low level format tool in the BIOS (rather weird next to IDE auto detect). Also used it as a way to test my PS/2 VGA monitor - which is working mint.

Speaking of Bill Gates - http://archive.org/details/compbowl1

[SpidersWeb]

bah
Stoned virus on my floppies.

[SpidersWeb]

Good score from a bulk lot, my jaw dropped when I found these:



IBM DOS 3.3 startup + operating (GWBasic is on a cloned disk) - look emaculate but yet to test.
NEC MS-DOS 3.2 for the NEC APC IV
MS Windows 3.0 - missing disk 3 unfortunately
Procomm Plus

Also in the bulk lot I have copied discs, around ten of these seem to be specific to the Sanyo MBC machines - I imagine these are the prebundled software and utilities - mentioned are WordStar Calcstar etc. Also about 40 are games, and startup disks including DOS 2.11 and DOS 5.0 (non originals though).

Edit: after looking closer at the disks, previous owner has added writing to the labels with the contents BUT they appear to be store made duplicates of the original Sanyo MBC disks - yet to test but if someone needs these I can make an effort to attempt to image and upload. There are two sets of disks, one set appears to be applications - DBase II, WordStar, CalcStar, Mail Merge etc and the other Utilities.

[tezza]

If those Sanyo disk images aren't already on the web they would certainly be worth imaging.