MMaximus wrote:

Cool story. I think it's amazing that your parents managed to keep this computer for so long instead of getting rid of it like so many of us did. Hope you have fun restoring it and please post pics!

Maybe they didnt knowing about it anymore after such a long time.. But sometimes its really good if your parents arent cleaning up to much.
Iam also curious on which case he is going to use.

some games/programs that made using Microsoft Basica but not gw-basic,
may experience text input error when the game/programs ask for text input within CGA graphics mode (4/5 or 6) if you're
using some VGA card that have different font 8x8 definitions (0x00 - 0x7F) than what was defined in ROM area (F0000-FFFFF).

Sorry guys for not getting back to you about this project but it's kinda stuck in a rut. Actually, all of my retro project are now way behind schedule. I did mess with Dallas RTC chips the other day but only managed to fix one 386 motherboard and (probably) trashed a neat Soyo 486 board while adding a socket for RTC chip.

I still haven't made up my mind whether or not to use the original hard drive. It works but getting the original controller to recognise it will be a PITA. I really like the sound of this hard drive! On the other hand, I did buy a CF-IDE card from Carlostex so it would be a shame not to use it 😀

I'll keep you posted!

Looking forward to see what you'll do with this system!

Finally some good news. I was able to get all the important bits to four 1.44MB floppies while the old hard drive was connected to a 386 mobo 😉

On XT side:
- managed to low-level format the hard drive
- FDISK create new partition
- format in DOS
- install IBM PC DOS 3.30

It's alive!

Here's a picture of the beast. More to follow. Turbo switch is on the back 😀

This weekend I visited my parents and brought back with me the old Hercules amber monitor NEC JB-1285DE. Works like a charm! Stand by for pictures! 😀

Hercules 😀 Yeah!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-T_Ay3ZWYKQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhcW2MNL7Zo

Damn, I spoke to soon. Wanted to test something after not using the PC for a few days only to be greeted by the familiar 1701 UNFORMATTED HARD DISK error.

These old PCs love to tease us!
I'll often be in the mood to tinker and all my PC's will be working fine.
Then when I just want to play something THEN something will decide not to work properly.

Hopefully it's just be a case of pushing cables, cards in tight, checking settings and the stupid thing will behave again.

Nah, something is definitely wrong.. it's either the controller or the hard drive itself although I can use it fine on a 386 motherboard.

I've ordered a couple of SST39SF010A chips to try and fix my CF XT-IDE adapter so that I can at least use a CF card for a hard drive.

I fixed my XT-IDE adapter just in time for the exhibition. Looks like everything is working now but I still have some ideas about what to do. Most of all I'd like to add a network card.

Just got back to playing with my XT. Testing some hardware and games. I know I had Police Quest 2 on the XT but I don't really recall playing it. I probably played it later on a 486DX-40. On the XT with Hercules graphics it's definitely too slow to be enjoyable. It runs a lot faster, if a VGA card is installed but loading times are quite long despite the fact that I'm using a CF card instead of a HDD.