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getting a 3.5" 1.44mb floppy drive working on an IBM 5170 AT

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First post, by DaveJustDave

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Hi all.

I have a later vintage 5170, (rev 3 bios i believe) that SHOULD support 1.44mb drives.

However when i boot off the setup disk, it only has options for 360k/1.2mb/720k drives, no option for 1.44.

I chose 720k, and sure enough it won't read 1.44mb disks.

Do I need a newer version of the setup software? Or should i just replace the bios with some newer AMI/phoenix BIOS that actually has support and an integrated BIOS UI?

I have no clue what I'm doing! If you want to watch me fumble through all my retro projects, you can watch here: https://www.youtube.com/user/MrDavejustdave

Reply 1 of 5, by Zup

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In this page says that only the latest BIOS (11/15/85) supports 1.44 Mb floppy drive. If your BIOS is earlier, you should replace it.

Keep the old BIOS at hand, it seems that newer BIOS were for newer boards... I don't know if you really can retrofit newer BIOS to older boards.

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Reply 2 of 5, by DaveJustDave

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I ended up putting a set of Quadtel BIOS in the 5170... built in setup with a UI, full 1.44mb support, and no more having to deal with that dreadful IBM setup disk.

I have no clue what I'm doing! If you want to watch me fumble through all my retro projects, you can watch here: https://www.youtube.com/user/MrDavejustdave

Reply 3 of 5, by Jo22

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LGR had a similar issue with his 5170. I believe, he fixed it by using a third party config tool..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyL_a9QE8ag

Also, there were a few DOS drivers to circumvent the issue..

2M-XBIOS is among one of them. Recently, we got it working in our 8088 clones, so maybe it will work in 5170 models also ?
http://www.minuszerodegrees.net/transfer/35_i … ch/2m-xbios.htm

DaveJustDave wrote:

I ended up putting a set of Quadtel BIOS in the 5170... built in setup with a UI, full 1.44mb support, and no more having to deal with that dreadful IBM setup disk.

Yup, Quadtel BIOS is cool. But it's not an IBM AT firmware, so your machine looses a bit of its original personality. 😉
Not that's this is a bad thing, though. I use Quadtel BIOS in PCem/86Box to run a copy of OS/2 1.x and it works like a charm.
Edit: Typos fixed. Edit: More typos fixed.

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Reply 4 of 5, by rkrenicki

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You need to use something like GSETUP to properly configure the CMOS. The IBM Diagnostics disk does not seem to have the option, even though the Revision 3 IBM 5170 BIOS itself supports 1.44MB floppies..

Reply 5 of 5, by terminamorte

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Just wanted to say thanks for mentioning 2M-XBIOS. This issue has been bugging me for months on my XT Clone (8088).

I ended up using a KW-559AG card I picked up cheap on ebay, works like a champ.

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