VOGONS


A couple of retros I'm working on.

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Reply 340 of 452, by Vipersan

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..and I'm back to odd numbers again ...
but now on the plus side ..
Found 2 more Princetons ...making a total of 7 ..
plus 4x 81440-80 strips ..each having 3 10 pin chips
2 more strips of similar type to those I photographed earlier in the thread..
A nice haul.
But best of all I can fully populate the 3200SX.
Oh happy day.
rgds
VS

Reply 341 of 452, by jaZz_KCS

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Welcome to the family off ppl that fully populated their 3200SX with modded SIMMs. Since they are modded they are identified as 1MB each which will get you to a whopping 7MB. Not bad for a 386SX16 😉

Reply 342 of 452, by Vipersan

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..thats all she wrote ..
😁

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Reply 343 of 452, by Hamby

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Saw this on ebay... $140 is a bit high imo, even though it's rare, but $100 shipping is just unacceptable.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Chicony-LT-3400-Rare … N4AAOSwZqZaSLPL

But I wonder how similar it is to the Toshiba gas plasma machines?

Reply 344 of 452, by Vipersan

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Hamby wrote:

Saw this on ebay... $140 is a bit high imo, even though it's rare, but $100 shipping is just unacceptable.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Chicony-LT-3400-Rare … N4AAOSwZqZaSLPL

But I wonder how similar it is to the Toshiba gas plasma machines?

That's pretty ..
sort of glad I dont live in the US ...or the temptation might be too great.
🤣
My box searches today for SIMMs has convinced me I need to be more organised.
Started with PCMCIA ..
now all in one place..
It occurs to me I have spent a lot ..and aquired much over the years ...
Some would say TOO MUCH ..
I say 'TREASURE'...

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Reply 345 of 452, by Vipersan

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My latest pcmcia aquisition is the scsi card ..
which I have yet to try ..
Pity it uses the centronics plug..

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Reply 346 of 452, by Vipersan

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So ..I have arrived at the point where I want to try the XT-IDE card..
Not least because I need 2 IDE ports in order to get the data off the Conor 40mb HD .
I'm not sure that the 3200sx even with a modded bios can support 2 IDE channels ?
Maybe it can ..but I still need to test the XT-IDE card I built over a week ago.
I pulled the AT28C64B expecting it to be blank ..but having read it with the TL866 ..I was pleasantly surprised to find the bios already flashed in..
I expected I would have to do this myself since it came in kit form.
XTIDE 110 universal bios v 1.1.5 ..
so I guess I'm good to go in this respect..
The jumpers/dip switches on the other hand are not pre-set ...so really I need some help here.
Is there an idiot guide I could look at ? ..or perhaps JZ would kindly take a photo of his to share ?
My PCB is version 4
rgds
VS

Reply 347 of 452, by tegrady

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Vipersan wrote:
So ..I have arrived at the point where I want to try the XT-IDE card.. Not least because I need 2 IDE ports in order to get the […]
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So ..I have arrived at the point where I want to try the XT-IDE card..
Not least because I need 2 IDE ports in order to get the data off the Conor 40mb HD .
I'm not sure that the 3200sx even with a modded bios can support 2 IDE channels ?
Maybe it can ..but I still need to test the XT-IDE card I built over a week ago.
I pulled the AT28C64B expecting it to be blank ..but having read it with the TL866 ..I was pleasantly surprised to find the bios already flashed in..
I expected I would have to do this myself since it came in kit form.
XTIDE 110 universal bios v 1.1.5 ..
so I guess I'm good to go in this respect..
The jumpers/dip switches on the other hand are not pre-set ...so really I need some help here.
Is there an idiot guide I could look at ? ..or perhaps JZ would kindly take a photo of his to share ?
My PCB is version 4
rgds
VS

Isn't the Connor 40mb hard drive an MFM hard drive, not an IDE hard drive? I could be completely wrong though...

Reply 348 of 452, by jaZz_KCS

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It's an IDE drive. But what hinders you from taking out the drive and attaching it to a modern machine in order to get the data out if you want to preserve it? You dont need to do that in the Toshiba itself. It hsould be Fat16. I've taken out the Connor 40MB CP-3044 and attached it to my ThinkCentre and copied over the data before it bit the dust.

Reply 349 of 452, by Vipersan

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I dont think I've ever seen or used an MFM drive ?
Didn't these use edge connectors ..and 2 cables ..one for control and a seperate one for data ?

From what I have observed so far ...modern bios wont recognise the geometry of the Conner drives so in order to read the data it appears to need the original bios ..
and a second drive mounted to be the recipient of the data..
Ian suspects the drive can be re formatted using a more modern bios and thus re-used ..but since the data is the goal here it needs removing first.
To add some justification to this theory..
I have mounted the conner on my main PC using an external usb caddy ...and as expected the Conner is 'seen' insofar as it is 'detected' ..
Windows wants to reformat before use ...no data is seen ...
and HDclone also sees the Drive but is mystified as to content and size ..and it shows up as a partition of size 0 bytes

As to the XT-IDE card ...
even if I dont use it for this purpose ...I still need to test it and make sure I built it correctly..
rgds
VS

Reply 350 of 452, by Vipersan

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So ..Set the dip switches as seen in this youtube video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FPcpKaa2bs
I have seen the bios run ..and so I allowed it to try and boot the Conner C:
Dos 5 found ..but there the boot halted ..
Much like early attempts on the 5200 ..modern bios does not appear compatible with the Conner Geometry.
Next I'm going to try the rom disable dip switch ..to see if ..
A) The original bios takes over ..
B) Can the XT-IDE be used -without- enabled bios as an ISA IDE contoller ?
This I doubt ..but worth a try

Reply 351 of 452, by Vipersan

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This is going to tax my memory some ..on account it has been many years since I used it ..
Not even sure I still have the neccessary cable ..
..time to dig in those boxes again.
I'm hoping to use Laplink 5 ..which will run under DOS If memory serves.
As I said ..a proper trip down memory lane ..
wish me luck..
🤣

Reply 352 of 452, by Vipersan

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I'd forgotten just how useful Laplink was ....and how Slloooowwwww
Nonetheless I got to export most of the Conner40mb content..
Another thing I forgot..
You can't move a copy certain DOS files ..
presumably because they are in use ??
Still ..it is a very useful addition to the toolbox.
rgds
VS

Tomorrow I hope to tinker with using some 8gb Transcend 133x CF cards that arrived today..as hard drives ..
But I seem to remember reading these have to be reconfigured as 'fixed' disks for DOS so that fdisk can recognise partition them ?
I believe an app was needed to make these changes..
can anyone help me out here ?

Reply 353 of 452, by IanB

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Vipersan wrote:

You can't move a copy certain DOS files ..
presumably because they are in use ??

Probably just the main DOS files IO.SYS and MSDOS.SYS
The best way to get those off is to format a floppy with the /S option or use SYS to transfer them and make a boot disk also copying FDISK & FORMAT.
You could then install the modded BIOS with XTIDE, boot from the floppy, run FDISK, delete the old geomentry partition, create a new partition which will have the new geometry and format /s to put a bootable system back on the drive and finally transfer all the files back.

Vipersan wrote:
Tomorrow I hope to tinker with using some 8gb Transcend 133x CF cards that arrived today..as hard drives .. But I seem to rememb […]
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Tomorrow I hope to tinker with using some 8gb Transcend 133x CF cards that arrived today..as hard drives ..
But I seem to remember reading these have to be reconfigured as 'fixed' disks for DOS so that fdisk can recognise partition them ?
I believe an app was needed to make these changes..
can anyone help me out here ?

There is no need to do anything for DOS or any other operating system prior to Windows 2000, it will work just fine even as a removable as that status is ignored.
This was only a problem for later OS such as Win2K, XP etc.

Reply 354 of 452, by Vipersan

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Great info as usual Ian ..
Plans to tinker with 44 pin to CF are on hold ..as I cannot find my adapter ..
As I keep saying ..I must get organised
😉
Got a couple of new dual CF adapters plus a couple of singles on order from AliEx now ..
the singles are real cheap at about a £1 each ..but the duals are a little fore expensive ..but still cheap at 20$ for 2
rgds
VS

Reply 355 of 452, by jaZz_KCS

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Vipersan wrote:
Great info as usual Ian .. Plans to tinker with 44 pin to CF are on hold ..as I cannot find my adapter .. As I keep saying ..I m […]
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Great info as usual Ian ..
Plans to tinker with 44 pin to CF are on hold ..as I cannot find my adapter ..
As I keep saying ..I must get organised
😉
Got a couple of new dual CF adapters plus a couple of singles on order from AliEx now ..
the singles are real cheap at about a £1 each ..but the duals are a little fore expensive ..but still cheap at 20$ for 2
rgds
VS

Normally you would need to use overlay software to make use of the whole 8GB storage on that machine, but with the XT-BIOS you don't even need that.

Reply 356 of 452, by Vipersan

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I have been trying again to get this damned 8gb ssd to work with the Toshiba T4900CT ..
I figure ..if I cant do this then I have little chance with a CF
I have cloned an image of the original Win95 OS from the 800mb hard drive onto it with HD clone
It is FAT16 ..but it is seen by my main PC using a usb adapter.
The partition is active ...but no way can the T4900CT boot it .
As I now have a working floppy dive in the laptop I can at least boot into the laptop with the SSD connected.
Sadly Fdisk cannot even see the SSD ??..and returns 'no partition defined'.
I'm at a loss here ..as I know there is a partition of 772mb as defined during the cloning process ..
can anyone suggest why ?
Perhaps this is again a bios/geometry issue..
I just dont get it.......

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Reply 357 of 452, by Vipersan

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So ..tried again ..
deleted the partition ..
connected the SSD ..popped in the floppy boot disk and ran fdisk ..
created a partition of 20% ..rebooted ..and ran the boot floppy again ..
Checked for a partition and once again ..'no partitions defined'
This SSD is basically useless to me in this situation.
This has to be a bios issue ..
The Toshiba laptop simply wont accept the SSD.
I cant be the only person in the world wanting to fit and SSD in a very old laptop.

Took the SSD out and once again mounted on my main PC with a USB adapter ...and sure enough the partition I created with Fdisk was there ..but definately NOT 20% ..
Only 115mb in size.
This really is confusing.

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Reply 358 of 452, by Vipersan

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I guess my only option is to use Overlay software ..but I have no idea how to install it on the SSD or how to use it ..
All new to me..
Can someone kindly point me to a good step by step ..or how to TUT for complete numpties like me ?

Reply 359 of 452, by Vipersan

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Still struggling here ..
I downloaded ezdrive9.exe
..I assume this is what I need ?
copied in onto a 1.44mb formatted floppy..and inserted a win98 boot floppy ..
once in I substituted for the floppy with ezdrive9.exe and ran it ..
This then overwrote the original .exe with a list of files ..
I assumed I could then boot the win98 floppy again ..giving me access to these files on A:
and tried to run setup ?
I was then prompted with 'this program needs a windows operating system to run' ?
rather chicken and egg at this point as I dont have one ..
I dont even have a partition on the SSD.
I guess I'm not doing this right..
HELP!!